Folly Beach vacation photos

The very first time I photographed this family was last year.  Kim and Patrick were taking a family trip in the Charleston area and had wanted beach portraits to remember the occasion.  The images from that first session are some of my favorite photos, which is why you can find them on various pages of my website.  Also, they totally grace the front page of my website now.

When they returned to the area this year for another summer vacation, we got together for a beach session redux.  It was a blue evening; storm clouds had sort of steamrolled the colors of the sunset – but that hardly mattered because the light was pretty, the temps weren’t killer, and their little guy was in a GREAT mood.

I really like to stress to my clients that I want our sessions together to be relaxed and fun.  I know you don’t want to look back at photos of yourself and think how stiff you appear, so I try my best to gently guide everyone into activities or games (or reactions with prompts) that get them laughing and relaxed.  And sometimes, I just shoot candid photos and let the kids be kids.  There is nothing wrong with that – that’s their personalities.

We fell into that easy shooting pretty quickly, and you can tell from the photos.  It’s just a lot of love, a little guy with THE BEST curls (aah, this lady with the straightest hair ever is envious), and a fistful of flowers.  These flowers, by the way, are apparently edible.  My eight-year-old recently had a camp where they were taught edible native plants, and the Sea Oxeye — the yellow beach flowers here –  is edible.  You can eat the leaves, although my son has warned me that they are not particularly tasty.  Admittedly, I have not eaten any leaves, though I did smell one — repeatedly and a little too deeply — to get some giggles.  Can you tell?