When two best friends get married the same year and then get pregnant around the same time, you know their children are going to be best friends growing up. Holly and Tahnee were so excited to have their maternity sessions together, and not to mention it’s a great way to get everyone together and hang out in the snow!
I had the pleasure of working with Holly and Jeff capturing their wedding. So when I got the news that they are now expecting and wanting a maternity session, I was ecstatic!
We scheduled the shoot a month or so beforehand in hopes that Mount Hood would have gorgeous, fluffy, glistening snow.
Well, that wasn’t the case. We’ve had a pretty dry and cold winter so far and the ski resorts on the mountain we’re just barely running. We didn’t have an exact place in mind, but I knew that they wanted snow everywhere. If it were snowing at the time of the maternity session, that would be even better!
My trusty assistant (my daughter) and I started the drive up the mountain and stopped in at Government Camp to grab our snow passes. There was nothing but ice coated roads and piles of snow from the plow. So nothing super picturesque here. A few years ago I met a friend and her family up on the mountain, and they showed us the perfect trailhead.
We grabbed our passes and slowly made our way along the ice-coated roads along the highway.
When we got to the trailhead, there were only three other cars and TONS of snow along the trails. The conditions were perfect for the shoot. There were even ice crystals blowing around and catching the sunlight as we walked around.
Holly set up a blanket, and we started taking some maternity photos when the little birds came along. A trick I learned last time I was here, was that the birds would come and sit on your hand if you offered them goodies. We didn’t find anything at first, so Tahnee tricked them with chapstick as Jacob went back to the car to search for some Goldfish. With Tahnee and Holly being big Disney fans, this was the perfect setup for a Snow White style image. They both got the birds to play along!
They all took turns in front of the camera and worked with the fantastic background that nature always offers us.
After the snow, we stopped in and grabbed burgers at Calamity Jane’s in Sandy to warm up and relax. With a table full of geeks and two Sci-Fi / comic movies on the tv’s, it was a perfect end to the day…except that both of them were playing the heart-crushing scenes near the same time. Also, according to a 10-year-old, their S’more burger isn’t all that bad!
I am super happy for all of these amazing people and their growing families!