A few months ago, I decided I wanted to do a session with yellow flowers.
I knew that I was going to Kansas City to visit family in early March and, because of this, as soon as I had the flowers picked out, I contacted Hope and said “Model for me?!” and she said “Yes!” and the rest, as they say, went down in history. And this session? It resulted in the most gorgeous images but also was, hands down, one of the funniest sessions of my life.
The night before the season, I didn’t sleep a wink. I stayed up pretty late and, as soon as I climbed into bed, Henry woke up and wanted to party. He’s usually the most awesome sleeper (I mean, he’s nearly two and a half!) but, for some reason, he was the funniest, sleepiest, and most excited chatterbox that night and, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get him down. In fact, my little clock of a four year old – the one who always wakes up at the exact same time every day – woke up at four o’clock and, after that, all hope of sleep was gone. So! First off, I was exhausted.
Second off, my best friend of twenty years, Brittney, and I stuck all of the flowers into a bench in my mom’s backyard and, since I was borrowing my mom’s car for the week (she was out of town for a few days), I definitely wasn’t going to shove a bench full of flowers into her super neat, always clean backseat of her car and that left us with basically one option for a location. My parent’s backyard is adorable and, knowing exactly where the sun would set, Brittney and I carried the bench from the patio to the side of the yard and then we high fived and talked about how it was amazing and, as soon as our high five ended, the sun sank behind the clouds and never came back out. And then! Right after! I found out that the local greenhouse wouldn’t let me photograph anyone in their greenhouses (sad day, right?!) and I basically cursed the sky and wished every greenhouse was as nice as Westwood Gardens and, from there, Hope and I pretty much laughed the entire time because, I mean, what other twenty-eight year old photographs a high school senior in her parents’ backyard?
And! On top of that! When Hope came over, there were at least ten people zooming about: my kids and Brittney’s daughter and my two teenaged brothers and, let’s be honest, I totally introduced her to the total chaos that I grew up with and still carry brightly on in my own little home. Hopefully I didn’t scare her too bad! Hope is the best ever and I’m so excited that I was able to photograph her the other week – even though we both were ridiculously tired and I made her wear a (cute!!) seventies dress and a dog tried to chase us off a vacant lot that backs up to my parents’ house and all the grass and plants and trees around us was totally dead and depressing looking (except the flowers!).
Seriously. Funniest session ever. Here’s Hope, y’all! She is as adorable as ever! Love this girl and I am super excited for her to go to Ole Miss next year! She’s going to have so much fun!!
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* Lissa Chandler is a creative portrait and wedding photographer in Northwest Arkansas who specializes in lifestyle family, senior portrait and wedding photography. Lissa is known for creative and emotive photography in Northwest Arkansas and currently lives in Fayetteville with her family: a husband who makes himself killer coleslaw at least once a month, a four year old who told me “I’m making an art project!” today while covering a cardboard box with string, and a two year old who is sporting one cute little stitch and wants to watch Care Bears all of the time. Lissa is currently booking 2015 Spring Senior Sessions, 2015 & 2016 Weddings, and 2015 Lifestyle Newborn and Family Sessions in Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and all of NWA. She is available for wedding work nationwide. *