Emily Schmidt Photography: The Olsons

Light: The light is my enemy and the light is my friend. And although I can certainly nitpick images from this session where there is too much contrast between highlights and shadows and wishing I would have positioned them just a bit differently, I would check this family portrait session off as: the light is my FRIEND! I am swooning over the glowing warmth in so many of these shots.

Meet the Olsons. Had it not been for an unfortunate event that happened a little over three years ago, I may not have gotten the opportunity to photograph this adorable family of 3. When Lorna was pregnant with Allie, her sister-in-law Michelle (check out her family's session HERE) wanted to give the amazing gift of memories in the form of photographs. Love! So Michelle asked one of her friends who was pursuing photography at the time to do a maternity shoot with Lorna & Tyler. Imagine your anticipation for waiting to see your maternity keepsakes only to learn that the photographer was not only going to not give you the photos, but not even let you see them either. Talk about heartbreak! It completely blows my mind why someone who is supposed to be passionate about photography and heart all things photo could do something like that. The situation was never rectified and Michelle has felt beyond horrible ever since and wanting to find something to make up for what happened. When Michelle asked me to snap her family she also thought this might be a way to make up for what had happened 3 years ago. Of course I said I'd love to do a session for them, but I do admit the pressure was on. Lorna & family may not have been able to see what she missed out on but my heartache for the loss of photographs is devastating to me. A lover of photos all my life, if I ever lost any of my most precious keepsake memories - my photos - I'm pretty sure I'd bawl my eyes out for weeks. Because of this I felt the need to try to make up for what the family was never able to keep and hold dear.

To Tyler, Lorna, and sweet girl Allie: I hope I was able to capture some moments of your now family to keep and treasure for ALWAYS. It was so easy working with the three of you and I truly enjoyed it. And I promise, you WILL be getting your photos from me ;)

I must say that this family all have eyes of mystery and intrigue! I swear half the time I looked at them while editing they were all green and half the time I looked they were all blue. They must all have the eye-changing color gene! My guess is that they are blue in real life since that was the primary color I saw :)

One of my favorite shots of Tyler & Lorna! Engaging and sincere. Lovely. And add in some squeals of delight from the warmth of the sun that hugs them tenderly.

Allie is such a cutie-pa-tutie! Poor little girl wasn't feeling the best for part of the shoot, but she was such a trooper and allowed me to get a few shots of her with the glorious warmth from the end of day rays. On a random side note: my brother was almost an "Allison" if he was a girl. Allie has also been one of my favorite girl names for as long as I can remember.