Golden Hours
Anyone who knows me will easily tell you I'm not a morning person. When given the option on when I'd like to knock out a photoshoot, 90% of the time I will choose the evening golden hour.
On this particular family photoshoot, the little ones taught me it might be best to wake up at the crack of dawn.
To be fair, I spent the morning knocking out photos for the father's law firm, getting great shots of his new office space. But as soon as we got "home" to change into family photo attire, I could tell the evening was going to be an uphill battle. Both daughters were on the verge of hangry-ville as we loaded up in the minivan and hit the road to fill everyone's bellies with pizza.
Out the gate, dad accidentally spilled his beer all over the table and soon thereafter the youngest daughter was licking the lid to the parmesan cheese like it was a delicious popsicle. Eventually our bellies were full and off we ventured into the crowded and compact streets of downtown Kansas City in an attempt to snag some family photos in front of fun graffiti. By the time we got to the third graffiti wall, I could see the exhaustion in both mom and dad's eyes....not to mention being able to hear the tiredness in the oldest daughter's howls when she didn't get her way.
At some point dad sat on his reading glasses and I thought...whelp...this shoot is about to be over! But everyone powered through and off we went to a second location to snag a city-scape family portrait. Caterwauls continued as the five of us hiked up a hill to knock out the final shot of the day. Somehow I managed to snag a single shot of everyone looking like they didn't hate life right then and there...but goodness were there a lot of fun shots where you can see the utter desperation and tiredness in mom and dad's faces.
Yup...next time I'll definitely ask "when are your kiddos the happiest and most easily manageable?" when given the opportunity of morning or evening family photos.