Joanna and Kevin were one of my first JFP couples. They were married in the spring of 2010 at the very start of my wedding photography career. Brave souls for hiring me so early on, right? 🙂 After five years, we were reunited this past weekend for their maternity session. It’s so neat to reunite with my couples, especially when it involves pictures of their growing families! Joanna and Kevin live 3.5 hours away from me, but were willing to vacation at Deep Creek Lake for a weekend so they could have their maternity portraits done. What gems! I’m so thankful for their willingness to travel, and for their commitment to me as their photog. 🙂 This past Sunday’s weather forecast wasn’t the greatest. They were calling for rain off and on throughout the day, with the biggest chance during the evening hours when we originally planned to shoot. So I came up with a plan! I invited Joanna and Kevin over to my backyard during the afternoon when there was no chance of rain to talk half the pictures and then chance things later in the evening for the other half. We’d at least have a chunk of the pictures under our belt and the woods in my backyard would diffuse any harsh sunlight. The plan worked and we walked away with some AWESOME portraits! Here are my favorites from the day…

This has such a neat “film look” to it…I love it!

This next series include some big favorites for me!

How cute are they!?! 🙂

Another BIG favorite for me!

Ready for the challenge of harsh afternoon sunlight, we ventured outside the woods for a few portraits. And boy was I glad for my 70-200 2.8 lens! This thing handles harsh light SO WELL! At least I think so. 🙂

 

Fun fact about Joanna: When I photographed her wedding, her hair was SUPER long! Her latest cut involved chopping 14 inches off! Such a brave lady…and she totally pulls it off!

 

I love the tall field grass that grows in our yard. Always makes for nice pictures!

 

Time to get close to nature! In the tall grass we go!

I love this next series of three. 🙂

Later that day, we met at the Deep Creek State Park. When we arrived, the clouds were getting darker and closer, and we were nervous. But Joanna didn’t mind the risk of getting all wet, so we started shooting right away!

Love this spot on the rocks!

Another favorite. 🙂

There was a little bit of glow in the sky!

While Joanna changed into her third outfit, we waited out the rain drops that did come. But thankfully, they didn’t last long and never really did pour! And the rain clouds gave way to some beautiful evening light…

 

Sunshine + rain drops on my lens =

 

So thankful for the glowing touch on these next few!

So thankful Joanna and Kevin were up for a little adventure! That water was NOT warm!

Something a little different than the norm…

And one last beautiful smile to end the post. 🙂

 

Joanna and Kevin, I cannot thank you enough for coming all the way to Garrett County, MD for your maternity session! I LOVED seeing you guys again and am so glad I was able to take more pictures of you…especially since it had been five years! I hope you enjoyed your stay at the lake and I wish you the best of luck with the arrival of little Finn! 🙂