We drove out to a friend’s (amazingly beautiful) property outside Payette for Rod and Carma’s family portraits. Their goal was to take lots of shots of the whole family together. When I asked if they wanted to do any pictures with the individual families or other groupings, Carma said sincerely, even lovingly, “This is my family.” So that’s exactly what we did. In a way, photographing their family was a little bit like meeting someone who doesn’t like ice cream. Although it’s uncommon, you know that they didn’t arrive at that conclusion haphazardly (although, just to be certain, I asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to try…?” once or twice). I mean, we took a couple photos of just Rod and Carma together, or of the grandkids by themselves, but the focus was on the family as a whole. It was different from what I usually do, but I actually enjoyed it a lot, having everyone all together. It was an exciting kind of new. They were really interested in the process and had tons of suggestions and ideas, which makes it even more fun for them (and me!).

As you can see, they did an amazing job coordinating their clothing. Seth told me he decided to wear white so that not everyone would be turquoise/aqua or orange/coral. I think that was a smart choice: a little balance can prevent your outfits from stealing all the attention.

To top it off, it wasn’t cloudy or windy like it had been the previous days. What more could you ask for?!