I’ve photographed mini sessions every fall for 6 years for a local preschool as part of a fundraiser for their school. I first started when I decided to stop photographing weddings and wanted to start photographing children more since I realized that was what I loved. We had something like 12 families sign up that first year. I think that was pretty typical for the fundraiser in years before with another photographer. With each year after that the amount of sign ups would grow exponentially to the point that the last few years I’ve had to cap it at around 54 families. I can’t even tell you how I amazed I was each year when those spots would sell out in just hours and there would not only be a waiting list but people would be emailing me and others trying to find a way to get a spot. It has been a constant for so long and so many of those families are my very dear friends now. I even enrolled my son in that preschool because I fell in love with it’s attendees and they raved and raved about it. Side note: best choice ever! Sadly, this last year was probably my last doing these and it felt extremely bittersweet shooting those sessions this year.
This family was my last of one of the days. It’s rare that I look at the sign-up sheet and don’t know the family and I always look forward to meeting new friends. I think they said their daughter was shy when they arrived but like almost every kid I photograph she opened right up and was just bursting with cuteness and joy. They were just really so much fun to photograph. This is just a small fraction of what we captured in our 20 minutes together.