The Collard family is from Florida! They actually know a few of my brother in laws and their families as well as my in laws! With their kids growing up and moving out - Alan lives in Texas, Vanessa is at school in Rexburg at BYU-Idaho and Anthony is prepping for an LDS mission, Carmen knew she wanted an updated family picture. With the passing of Brian's mom, a funeral and service was held in Utah. All of the family came out to honor her. It also provided an excellent opportunity to get together and have family photos taken. 

     Sometimes life happens and schedules are crazy and the only time you can take pictures is 2 o'clock in the afternoon. With the Collard's that was the case. Alan had a plane to catch first, with everyone else's departures later on. Normally I like to shoot an hour before sunset, but we did not have that luxury. Instead, I embraced the light I had to work with and picked a location I knew would be forgiving to the sun. We shot at Memory grove in Salt Lake City. If you haven't been there before, you really should! It's a beautiful little park in it's own little gully next to the Capital. With the way the sun was hitting, I knew we could hug one side of the park and enter into the trees for some nice, diffused light. 

    I was so impressed with their outfits, they were so cohesive with each other! But mostly I loved hanging out with these guys! When I'm photographing families that have boys about my brother's ages I sort of go "big sister" on them. I tease them about girls, get them talking and usually make fun of myself and my horrible jokes! But hey, it works! Carmen warned me beforehand that her boys don't like pictures and that sometimes their smiles are so stiff and fake! I'm happy to report that my "big sister bossiness" was able to crack them and we got so really great shots! I loved being able to meet the Collards and help document this time in there lives. I've decided my next step is to just fly myself out to Florida in two years when Anthony gets back so we can do this again, but at the beach!