"I had lovely mother/son family portraits taken by Irene five years ago. I'm hoping to schedule another mother/son family portrait appointment in the fall..."
Kris wasn't sure if I would remember her and her son, Nathan, after five years, but of course I did! I loved one of the family portraits from their last family portrait session so much that it has been gracing the homepage of our photography website for the past five years, which is a long time!
It was a beautiful portrait of Kris lying on her back on the grass at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, with Nathan standing over her with a football. The lighting was just perfect, and the overall effect was a casual, personality-filled family portrait that perfectly captured the closeness of their relationship.
After receiving Kris's message and before picking up the phone to call her, I went back through my notes on our previous conversations to refresh my memory about her likes and dislikes, and I found this nice little message that I had completely forgotten about:
"Hey Irene -- Thank you for the lovely Christmas ornament with Nathan and me on it! And thanks for the card...it's so nice to hear from you. I 've had great fun following your work on Facebook, both the development work and your family/event photo sessions. It just reminds me what a great choice I made in a family photographer! (And BTW, nice session with Al P. and Evan! Reminds me of my session with Nathan. If it ever happens to comes up in some odd way, tell him he has an admirer...). Thanks again, and happy new year!"
When I did call Kris, she said she wanted to do these mother-son family portraits every five years, and guess what... it's been five years! "I just want a repeat of last time," she kept saying. And so, 1 1/2 months later, we met up at Glenview Mansion in Rockville, Maryland, and I got to see how much Nathan had grown. His hair had turned red, cute freckles had emerged in droves, and he was just as handsome and lovable as ever.
Five years ago, some of Kris's favorite family portraits were of her piggybacking Nathan (first portrait below). So of course, we did a repeat of that this time (set of 3 portraits).
Then, I would have thought that 10-year old Nathan would definitely be too big to ride on his mom's shoulders, but no, not yet (time comparison below)!
Nathan is still the avid athlete (first two portraits are from five years ago).
Kris loved giving Nathan hugs and kisses back then, and she still does now, I'm sure much to Nathan's chagrin. (He was a trooper for these Rockville, MD family portraits!)
And they both still love to horse around with each other.
It always just warms my heart to have the honor of documenting families as they grow through heirloom-quality family portraits. With the passage of each year, these portraits grow ever more important and become a lasting part of each family's legacy.
Have you been remiss in updating your family portraits?
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