International Peace Gardens Family Pictures | Smith | Whitney Beth Photography
 

Where to even start?! The Smiths were so awesome and fun to work with! After a few rescheduled dates thanks to spring time in Utah we were finally able to shoot this family session with mini baptism session thrown in. Originally when Telima contacted me it was just for a baptism session for their youngest. Whenever I have baptism inquiries I often throw out the idea of doing a family mini session at the same time. I don't charge any extra for this and think of it this way; you're already getting one kid dressed and ready for pictures, what's the harm in getting everyone ready? Telima liked this idea so much that she decided to swap them and do a full family session and then a mini baptism session. Their second oldest, Jason, has Autism, so we needed somewhere that was going to be a bit more contained for him since he's a runner. This session was right at the height of blossom season at the capital, so I took a gamble and figured that is where most of the photographers and clients would be in Salt Lake City on a Saturday night and suggested the International Peace Gardens. I was right and the entire time we were at the gardens I only saw two other photographers. The International Peace Gardens were full of green and signs of spring. We lucked out in that it was the first day in a while of nearly 80 degree temperature so we didn't have to worry about the cold. I was also super excited to find a few lilac bushes already in bloom. And thanks to budget cuts across the Parks department there were dandelions everywhere! For as much as I hate them in my yard, they are beautiful in pictures. We had fun playing games and taking pictures, and when I got what I needed for family pictures, I had Samantha change into her beautiful baptism dress and we started her mini session. She is so funny and I got her to smile the biggest when I had her yell out "XX farted!" We cycled through everyone's name in her family while doing her pictures. She thought it was the best when they'd overreact to her accusations from afar. At the end of the shoot when I said I was done, I noticed this giant ray of light cascading around the family. I had them hurry together and take one last family picture. We ended the shot with me telling everyone to say, "Sama farted!" Worked like a charm! I'm so excited for these guys to have updated family pictures on their wall as well as two heirloom albums to flip through. They decided to not only get an album of their family pictures, but also have me make an album full of all the kids' baptism pictures that they just had sitting around on their computer. Since Sama is the caboose this might very well be the first time in years the other kids' pictures will be viewed off a monitor! Furthermore cementing what I do and the service I provide for my clients in printing their pictures for them.