Last Saturday I had the enormous pleasure of meeting – and photographing – one of the most beautiful, friendly and warm families I’ve ever met! Melody arranged a huge family portrait session with her husband Pat and their son Caden, her parents Galen and Shelly, and her siblings Meagan and Joel, on the University of Washington campus. It was such a beautiful setting, and we even had some sunshine for the occasion.

It was a fun morning; I started with some warm-up shots of little Caden who just three weeks ago began walking (and he romped like crazy all day – it was super cute!) He wasn’t in a very smiley mood, but he does have a wonderfully expressive face, and is a delight to photograph. When we had the entire clan assembled, we found a lovely clearing for the ‘formal’ family portraits. They’re not exactly formal – it’s not really my style! – but we got some good group shots with a ton of variations.

Next stop was the huge fountain which was actually running (presumably because it was Veterans’ Day). Caden found some cute little girls to chase after, and I tried some fun shots with the fountain in the background. Last stop was upper campus where we found a huge tree stump with two tiers – perfect for some more group shots. For the last twenty minutes, I put on my telephoto lens and asked everyone to just mess about, chat, walk around … whatever they fancied. I think this is when I got the best images – I love just taking candids of friends and family enjoying spending time together.