The Wilson Family | Downtown Pensacola Family Photographer
Melissa Wilson and I have been swapping family photos for like 8 years now. We’ve been there for each other for every big moment, marriage, pregnancy announcements, maternity, birth, newborn, and many a family session…and linking old posts to this post has made me realize that I never even blogged some of them. Facepalm. I guess I’ll be doing some throwback posts here soon.
We’re both crazy busy. Melissa usually has weddings on the weekends and Ace works evenings and we both have kids pulling us in all directions. Finding time to fit in family sessions hasn’t been easy. Melissa is better at making it a priority than I am, so when she texted to ask if I could fit them in soon, I texted right back and said I better get mine fit in with her too while it’s on my mind and before it gets too hot!
One of the best parts about our yearly(ish) sessions is that they are a chance to use locations and scenarios that our clients won’t typically go for. Abandoned Amtrak stations, under an overpass, car junk yards, anything involving food…Neither of us has EVER suggested the beach. Actually, my wedding/elopement celebration was AT Hemmingway’s on the beach and we didn’t even do any beach pictures then!
This year, the only time that worked for both of us for her session was about 8am on a Thursday…now if you know anything about photography, you know that 8am in April isn’t really ideal. The sun is already pretty bright, which really limits location options. I knew Ferdinand Plaza in Downtown Pensacola would work ok for Melissa…she loves pretty green locations. The morning was pretty windy, but we embraced the breeze and used the trees to filter the super bright sun.
And now I’ll show you 47 images of Melissa spinning Juliet, because these are 100% my favorites.
Where Melissa is all about green and pretty, my personal preference is for more urban/industrial locations and very lifestyle/documentary images. The following Saturday morning I picked an underpass, in a semi-sketchy location that my husband definitely gave me side-eye about, followed by brunch at our favorite place: Polanza Bistro. The brunch photos are some of my favorites to date…probably because they reminds me of Paris.