A Hot Mess {San Antonio Family Photography}

It's not everyday that you come across a family where you think to yourself, “I would like to be a part of this family.” This is what I thought after meeting Ann Marie and Sandy. Our girls attend Girl Scouts together so we were not strangers (luckily) because things did not work out the way they were planned. Their family was vacationing in a condo oceanside on South Padre Island (btw, gorgeous). I had planned on driving out there, getting a hotel room, and spending my anniversary with my hubby but alas, his work had different plans for him. Instead of making a weekend of their session, I now had to make it a marathon with 5 hours of driving time before and after the session.

As I got closer and closer to the island it started to rain. Hard. So hard that I thought about pulling over (but I'm not that cautious, it was a nice thought though). I called Anne Marie, it wasn't raining there. Just as I pulled into the parking lot the rain I had ran from caught up to me. I was optimistic though.

"Oh sure Ann Marie, straighten your gorgeous naturally curly hair, put on that makeup."

"Oh and Sandy, a white shirt is very becoming in the rain."

"I think we can get some gorgeous photos."

"Naw, my equipment will be fine."

"It doesn't hurt to try."

These were phrases I used to convince the family that it was worth going into the rain to try and take photos. As you all know, I am a professional.

Okay, truth be told? I wasn't prepared to have a slumber party (I mean nobody told me to bring my nail polish, scary movies, and robe). The weatherman predicted that it would rain well into the night but clear by the next day. This family was up for anything and I thought I could make it work.

Again, I know what I'm doing. Right?

After hiking out there tripod and all (because you know I was going to try and capture some amazing photos of the ocean scenery) the wind and rain started to pick up. Me being a professional had not even a trash bag to weather proof any piece of my $20,000 of equipment so again, being a professional, I used the highly technical t-shirt on my back to shield my camera in between photos. I must have looked like a total idiot standing out there.

No surprise to anyone it just didn't work. Within minutes everyone was soaked with Ann Marie looking more like chinchilla than a "hot mess" as she called it and Sandy challenging any decent wet t-shirt contestant. There was sand in every crevice of me and more importantly, my equipment. It became obvious that I was in for a slumber party.

The next morning (still in the same clothing from the day before) we again journeyed out the shore, this time I brought significantly less equipment.

As you can see below the session was quite successful and worth every grain of sand I had to remove from the threads of my lenses.

To all of my amazing clients, thank you for trusting the "professional" behind the lens. If only one could see all the action behind the camera, often times it would tell an entirely different story.

Oh and as a little game, see if you can locate the three of the photos taken were taken during the storm.