Last year I decided to work on a personal project just for fun during the summer, I picked out National Days to use as photo assignments for myself, then would grab some models and make it happen in time to post for the National Day on the facebook page.

I had a family I had met from one of my schools willing to model for me for two of the topics, which were "Middle Child Day" on August 12th, and "Dog Day" on August 26th. 

Besides capturing these two images for my project, I also captured some fun family moments as they played together, and had fun loosening up.

Or how about little Sadie (below) who was so adorable, and giving me major attitude when we first started the session. We had a moment here where she wasn't really sure what she thought about me following her around. 

But after staring intently at me for a few minutes, decided her surroundings were more interesting and started ignoring me for the most part. 

Since I was no longer a threat, nor very interesting, she turned her attention to her brother instead. 

After knocking him over while climbing on top of him for a big hug, she settled into his lap and they sat quietly together for a while. 

Mom told me she had never tried to have a family portrait taken before because she didn't know if her kids would behave. Sure they ran around a bit as kids do, and took a while to warm up to me, but once they did, we captured some beautiful portraits. 

What I learned from this session is sometimes it's better to just let the kids run and play for a while to warm up to the location and the stranger chasing them around with a camera. I also liked to keep a distance to let the moments happen naturally, acting more as a fly on the wall as the family spent the time together at dusk. 

It's when they forget they are being watched when the best moments happen. 

And what was the final result of all this craziness? A beautiful family portrait to thank them for modeling for me.