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Avila Beach Family Photography

Melissa Jean
Jul 22, 2015
2 min read

Years ago when I was just starting to get into photography I reached out to a girl I'd known in high school (well, all of school to be honest) who'd just had a baby and asked about newborn photos.

We hadn't been close friends in school, but we were only a grade apart and our school was quite small so I'd say we were closer than most people at 'normal' high schools.

So along comes the scheduled day of the newborn session. I'm all packed to head up to Atascadero (from San Luis Obispo) to do their session. And then I get just past Monterey St exit. And traffic comes to a standstill.

An absolute standstill.

Over the next two hours (with many apologetic texts in the meantime) I finally crawl my way to the top of the grade where things pick up. But by the time I come to their home the light has all but left. It was SUCH a horrible situation, and many people would have been irritated, but the two of them were so sweet and understanding and apologizing TO ME about how I had to sit in two hours of traffic (when it normally would have taken 15 minutes). So we got down to business and made the most of the light we had left, and luckily their kid was sincerely adorable and made things easy!

It was the first time I had met her husband and as I took their first family portraits we seemed to all just click together so well.

Over the next year I did their photos at all the milestones, and also got to attend PJ's first birthday.

And then they moved across the country!

It was very hard to be so far from them as we'd become more than just client and photographer, but every time they come back to visit they make sure to make time to see me (and sometimes book photo shoots!).

Now they've added a new little one to the mix and this was the first time I got to meet Liam! Unfortunately Peter couldn't be here for the Avila family photo session, but it was still so much fun to see them again!

One of these days I'm going to have to get myself out to them to visit and see their new home!

Isn't this lovely mama so gorgeous?! I love seeing her surrounded by her loving boys!