When you sit and fester in 100 degree Texas heat every day, you start to reminisce about the “good old days” of May when you were in Cape May, New Jersey and it rained buckets and buckets for the first two days of a photographer retreat and you freaked out about how in the heck you were supposed to take pictures in sideways rain, but then the Dark Sky app told you when the rain would stop long enough to run out for pictures and you end up having six amazing shoots in two days and it’s NOT 100 degrees.  In fact, it’s downright gorgeous and you have sweet little models (or at least super sweet when they don’t have to stand still and smile but instead play and jump and act silly with giant lollipops and cotton candy), and a couple of bonus models who came for the retreat and are the icing on a cake.  Watching a storm brew over a lighthouse at golden hour?  OHMIGOSH yes.  So much yes.

This retreat, The Blissful Retreat, happens every year with my dear friend and colleague Stephanie of Lemmonmade Photography, and every year we say it can’t get any better than this and then it does.  It’s kind of amazing when you gather a bunch of personalities together on a beach with girls in floofy dresses and pineapples, or let them jump around in the waves and race each other.  Magic always happens at these retreats and I sure hope you’ll come for the next one.

Special Thanks to Little Dreamers Tutus for supplying the purple and white dresses, Bentley & Lace for the exotic pineapple dress and purple glittery gown, and HoneyTree Style & Select for help with styling our family.  And to our wonderful models and fantastic assistants.  We love you!  Is it next year yet?

 

And just a little heads-up as you scroll through – if the images look very different from one another, that’s on purpose!  One of my personal favorite aspects of photography is how you can change the look of an image dramatically by changing location, light, lens, perspective and settings.  Or even adding twinkle lights or an art lens…or by having a little bit of fun in Photoshop.

Saturday Shoots:

 

 

Sunday Shoots: