I’ll be honest, I fully expected this family to cancel their photo shoot. They are multiple generations, coming together at a rental house in Pajaro Dunes to celebrate Mom/Grandma’s 70th, so it was a special occasion for everyone. However. Something happened with the weather that day in the early afternoon. A light breeze turned into steadily increasing winds. The marine layer came in and blotted out the sun, rendering the environment in flat, gray tones. And it was cold, more so as the wind picked up. Not the ingredients you want when you have a bunch of people to capture at their best. But I showed up, they showed up – and were like, “we’re dressed, we’re here, let’s do this!” I immediately perked up and saw that there was opportunity here. I stressed that if they were expecting perfect hair and a California sunset, that they would be disappointed – but if they wanted someone (me) to capture some fun, authentic moments in the face of 40mph winds, well I’M YOUR GUY!

So we did it, we did the shoot, it was great and we managed to get a few keepers along the way. It just goes to show that attitude beats the weather any day! Enjoy a few of my faves below: