I just finished editing this session, and I couldn’t help but feel, when I saw this shot, that she is right where she is supposed to be. I am incredibly moved. It is such a lucky capture of such a raw, happy emotion.

Love.

Before you continue looking at the rest of the photos, let me tell you a little story. Izidora (Izi) contacted me at the beginning of the year. She was interested in signing up for a Seattle travel session. They live in Canada. So, I put her name on the list. A month or so later, it became clear that travel wasn’t in the cards for me this year, and I contacted everyone on the list to let them know I wouldn’t be able to make it to Seattle after all. She emailed me back and said, undeterred, “I am not letting you get away so easy. We are coming down to you!” And so, they traveled down to southern California in August for their session.

The day they arrived, (Thursday) I woke up with the worst case of Strep I have ever experienced. I was in the ER with a bleeding throat and a severe fever several times over the course of it, and ended up being so violently ill that I was in bed for 15 days. IN BED. I literally couldn’t function for 15 days. How insane is that? I still shake my head when I remember how long I was sick. Two weeks from my life, gone. Our session was planned for Sunday afternoon. Jeff had to call them, because I literally couldn’t speak, on Saturday morning to let them know what was going on. Jeff and I felt TERRIBLE because they had already been disappointed once, and I could hardly bare the thought of disappointing them again, after coming all this way. I was panicked, absolutely RIDDLED with guilt, and not sure what to do. I offered to refer them to a friend, but they sweetly declined, they wanted me.

If there was any way for me to get out of bed and do their session, I was going to do it. But Sunday came, with another ER trip, tears, guilt, and sadness for having to cancel. Once again, we had to make the call, and they were so understanding, and so empathetic, and so wonderfully NICE about the whole thing. Izi and I both cried together on the phone over our disappointment. They decided that they would lengthen their stay, in the hopes that after two more days of antibiotics, I would be able to manage. Tuesday was the absolute last chance to get it done, they HAD to be back home by Thursday. (And they were driving.)

Monday came and went with a lot of pain, fever, and guilt. I was sure it wasn’t going to work out. Jeff started looking up flights to their city. We decided I would fly to them as soon as I felt better.

Tuesday. I woke up in the morning feeling alive for the first time in five days. My fever had broken, the pain was tolerable, and so I called to let Izi know the shoot was on. We cried again, this time out of happiness and relief. They couldn’t have been more amazing through the whole crazy experience. The whole reason for their trip was canceled and up in the air through-out their stay. And yet, their attitudes and decisions were so positive and so caring and so sweet. They reacted in a way that made me gradually realize they were more worried about me, then about missing their session. It was almost comical on the phone, how we were both falling over each other trying to get across how sorry we were for each other. Amazing, amazing, amazing – this group of people is just amazing. Nothing was going to get them down. I will never forget how they made me feel, and I am so appreciative of all of them for being a very soft place to fall.

I felt okay all through-out that Tuesday, okay being that I wasn’t crying and clawing at my throat. As I drove to our location, I started getting the shivers again, meaning my fever was probably coming back. Without the pain, I was able to buckle down. I did their shoot on pure adrenaline, and by the end of it could feel that I was deteriorating again. I stayed with them as long as possible, until the light stopped us from shooting. We said our sappy, soppy, tearful goodbye’s and I drove home as fast as I could and crawled back into bed. Where I stayed for ten. more. days.

There was a reason the clouds parted on my illness so that I was able to meet them. They may have needed me that day, but it turns out that I needed them just as much.

I asked them if they could drop some mad rhymes. They could! And they did! I was busting a gut over this. Love people that can be silly. Especially love Dad’s who can be silly.

They are HUGE classic Chuck fans.

Beautiful, beautiful girl. Her lovely spirit just shines out at me in these.

Beautiful, beautiful boy. He loves his family so much.

Beautiful, beautiful baby of the family. He has massive amounts of spunk and character.

Heading down to the beach:

Beautiful, beautiful love.

On their trip down, they stopped at my favorite place in San Francisco, Timeless Treasures, to snag some lovely vintage letters to use for the session. (Hi, Joan!) xo

The kids are teaching themselves how to play guitar.

They laughed like this the whole time. Correction: WE laughed like this the whole time.

The Cirjaks own their own toy company out of their garage. (The Shrunks) Their toys are geared towards helping kids get over their common fears. The dark, the dentist, the closet, etc. They shared four of their Ududolls with me to give to the kids. They are very loved additions to the Whitney house, and remain close to all four pillows every night.

Wouldn’t you love to grow up in this family?

xo

Tara