Blog | Wildflowers Photography

a pumpkin carving party in north carolina!

i can’t begin to express my adoration for the mountains of north carolina. being a southern california native, i had never seen the seasons change and had always dreamed of the trees exploding with color and the brisk air of fall… so i did my best to plan our last workshop for asheville, nc in october and my dream finally came to life. swoon! i am still trying to get used to being back to our dry, 90 degree heat here in california, i am craving the east! so this session was one of our themed sessions for my workshop and was photographed in the little town of weaverville, just north of asheville. beryl, kenny and little everett were our darling models and we built the session around their own new lifestyle of creating their own farmstead in the north carolina mountains. they just moved cross country from california in search of the simple life (love this!) so a little pumpkin carving party on a farmstead in celebration of their life change seemed the perfect fit.

the dixon family.

a few months ago i was suffering from serious burn out. it happens every few years when i start to yearn to be with my family more and work less. and i start to lose vision of why i fell in love with photography in the first place and discouragement really takes over as the dark cloud above me. it is hard to explain but i know you other mamas out there know what i mean… sometimes there is just no explanation as to why you feel unsettled, you just know that something about the balance of life is out of whack. i was in that place for a good while. and then i had this session with the dixon family. God sure knew what he is doing with this one. the dixons reminded me of all the good in making the choice to continue photography as my career. it filled a void for me. it didn’t feel like work. i watched this family play and laugh and be one hundred percent in the moment. they didn’t ask for posed photos. they just wanted me to be there with them and just document it unfold. it reminded me that sometimes all the work of building a big theme for a session starts to become more about the theme and less about the family… so much for the beauty of simplicity can be lost when you add in all the “stuff”, leaving less room and time for just the loving. the way the wind blows through a toddler’s curls. dancing in the sunshine. the good, simple stuff. this session filled me up again in the most beautiful way. and when i got home to work on the editing and i saw the laugh lines on the parents’ faces and the way the mama embraced her babies, i just cried and cried and felt overwhelmingly grateful that people give me the honor of witnessing the intimacy of the way their family loves.

the dixons drove down from northern california for the session and we shot at my favorite farm and then we came back to my house and they played in our backyard with the chickens and pretended it was a wonderland. it was all so effortless and fluid and we all hugged long and tight at the end. i can say it was nothing short of a shower of blessings for me and from what this mama has shared with me since, it was the same for her. isn’t that what photography is all about? filling the voids and creating something beautiful.