Oh, 2017. You have brought me so many amazing families! I have been all over New Jersey’s coastline from Wildwood to Spring Lake this summer, and have met so many absolutely wonderful families along the way. It is always such an honor for me when a visiting family lets me document their time together at the shore! I feel like being a yearlong beach resident, sometimes I tend to overlook how beautiful the place that we live is. When I meet vacationing families, it is like experiencing how special it is for the first time!

Long Beach Island is such a beautiful stretch of beach for family sessions, and I have been extremely fortunate to be able to do so many sessions there this summer. The weather has been absolutely incredible, the sunsets have been fantastic, and the kids have been adorable! I’m pretty sure that the three sisters in this post might be mermaids – just saying.

One of my favorite parts of my sessions, that I always try to include in some capacity if we have time – is a few minutes where I just let the family be. I tell them to hang out, play, talk and basically pretend that I’m not there. I love watching them all interact and being able to capture them at their realest. Sure, it’s great when everyone is smiling, but I really love it when the kids are cartwheeling, Mom and Dad are getting their feet wet in the ocean, and everyone is being themselves. Very often, the spontaneous un-plannable moments end up being some of my absolute favorites (like when young clients make faces into my camera – because let’s face it – I totally deserve it)!

Thank you so much to all my 2017 families for making this summer season of beach sessions one for the books!

Location: Ship Bottom, Long Beach Island