”So why did you decide to have portraits done again?” I asked as I climbed down from the ladder. Berk gave me an inquisitive look, shrugged his shoulders and replied “Well…um…just because?”.  I gave a little laugh and went about putting on the finishing details to the shoot. A little to the left here, a tad higher there. Your pocket needs something pretty. Those boots are aaamazing. There. Perfect. At the time I didn’t give it much thought, after all I had a job to do and the sun waits for no man. No, not even for me. Then thirty minutes later I had just released the shutter as the golden, buttery light of a perfect sunset flared from behind a tree in the distance when it hit me. So this is what “just because” looks like.  At that very moment I found myself wishing that every session was a “just because” session. Every client a “just because” client. Every beautiful sunset, god’s way of shrugging his shoulders and saying “just because”. And I smiled. So often I find myself documenting some of the most important moments in a person’s life. A marriage, a pregnancy, a birth. But to be there in a wide open field, the cool winter wind gently blowing through Leslie’s auburn hair, the perfect Anthropologie dress, and most importantly with two young people who simply love each other and want to be able to remember this day for a lifetime. No immediate plans to get married.  No babies on the way. No one going off to war, or returning home safely. They are here simply because they want to be.

After finishing up this edit, I locked up the house, turned out all the lights, fed the dog, and crawled into bed with my baby. We snuggled into the late night and spoke of how we first met and how drunk I got on our first date because I was so stinking nervous. We laughed. And we congratulated ourselves for making it this far despite all we have been through together. Then we snuggled some more. Oh how I wish someone was there to take a picture because like Berk and Leslie, it is the small moments in our lives that are really the most memorable…