This spring I decided to try offering spring sessions at the Morris Arboretum for a limited time, to take advantage of the flowering trees and spring blooms. One of the families who took advantage of this was Alyssa and Tom, who wanted to capture their son Rocco's 6 month milestone with a portrait session.

We had scheduled their session for a Sunday, but the weather was expected to be stormy and incredibly humid, so we switched it to the Saturday before. The sun was shining, the clouds were white and fluffy in a bright blue sky, and the humidity was absolutely disgusting! haha (But it was still better than the next day)

I decided the best location for the session would be the rose garden. It was just a short walk from the parking lot, and had a variety of background choices without having to move around too much. This is especially great when it comes to small children as they have very short attention spans, so longer sessions can result in them getting cranky. 

I just had to include this one above because Rocco has the cutest pouty faces! 

I went early to check out what was blooming before they arrived, and I knew as soon as I saw these roses (below) with the stone wall and big terra cotta  pots that I wanted to have Alyssa with Rocco standing next to it for the mommy and me poses. Her dress color coordinating with the color of the roses behind her was a just a lucky accident. 

I knew I wanted something more masculine and less flowery for dad's poses with baby (below), so right next to the roses where I had mom standing, we used the iron gate to the garden. I like how the plain green of the background really makes them pop with their light colored shirts. 

One of my favorite poses was this one below. He may not be smiling, but he looks so content to just watch me from his little barrel. I decided to try out a new editing technique, and really love how it came out in the end. 

Of course he was also adorable just playing with his little Mickey Mouse rattle, no posing required. He wasn't quite able to sit up yet, so if it had been a regular session, and not a special outdoor location with weather restrictions, I probably would have suggested they wait a few more weeks to have the sitting up poses from him. Something we could still do is to take photos of him in the barrel in my studio once he can sit up, and add it into the garden background since I took a few shots of the barrel alone to be able to use later if needed. 

I guess I wore them out!

After our ordering appointment, I asked if there was any feedback on how I could do things better. I just want to share this tidbit, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy getting to meet with my clients instead of just posting a gallery after the session.

"Personally, I prefer to look at a gallery of images on my own time as opposed to an ordering appointment. However, the appointment was absolutely helpful in this case since Maura was able to explain how she can swap faces and touch up images, etc, which I wouldn't have known just from looking at a gallery :) "