One little known fact about me is that I collect dresses. I have at least one dress from every decade starting from the 1900's. When I was interning with one of my photo professors, Teressa Flowers, we became close. She was prepping to move to LA and as a parting gift, let me have her fantastic, 50's/60's era red polka dot prom dress. I have treasured it and dreamt up tons of shoot that I would want to create with it. Since I was nearing the end of my maternity leave and was itching to get out and shoot I decided to throw together a styled session. The poppies in Alpine were in bloom and they would be a perfect fit for the dress. Since I specialize in family photography, I didn't want to just have a couple model for me. Instead, I wanted a formal family shoot. I sent out a model call, anxious to get things planned before the poppies began to fade. I wanted a young family with 2-3 kids. With the model call public, I began sifting through until I found the right family that had the "look" I wanted. The Millard's fit the bill perfectly! Not to mention the dress fit Carissa like a glove! 

     The day of the shoot I met them at the trailhead and we began our half a mile walk to the poppy grove. The kids were such troopers and did great the whole way. Carissa made hiking in a ball gown look so easy! As I expected, there were a lot of other photoshoots going on at the same time, but we made it work! The light was perfect and golden and the pops of red poppies made the dress the center of attention. I am so happy with how these pictures turned out! The singles of the kids are so beautiful. Chance was such a ham when it came time for his individual pictures. With ever click of my shutter he would strike a new pose! It made culling so hard! I'm so happy Carissa answered my model call and that we were able to capture these wonderful images!