Joy Melody - Eastlake High School senior 2023 - and my kid :)
I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, quite hopeful and content, & a tad overwhelmed -
I've photographed so many so fun high school seniors over the years but - this girl is mine!!
My Joy will walk at graduation in 2 months! :) :) :)
Joy has assisted my photoshoots over many years, and it was just fun for me that she had been imagining ideas for her own senior portraits :)
We invited Kelli Strok, our makeup artist, and Gretchen Delusky for Joy's hair to our home the morning of our shoot,
and service at home was sooooo convenient & appreciated!
Joy envisioned her portraits in a field of tiny white flowers - and we were blessed with a verrrry looooong summer so we still had flowers in mid-October(!)
We were treated so well by Angela at Sweet Blissful Blooms in Fall City. Angela welcomed us to roam her fields and make our portraits. We bought bunches of flowers and had a BALL!
Cute video showing off this treasure of a flower farm is here: Sweet Blissful Blooms on YouTube.
Little white flowers! Asters :)
The jacket, the petite dress, so much fun...
Here's a secret ... there were only two rows of the tiny white asters left! They had been harvested, but the Lord provided - two rows was all we needed :)
And these lovely autumn standbys coming into bloom were just the colors for Joy's light carefree dress -
It was fun for our family that Joy used gifts or ideas from so many of us in her clothing choices -
It was a fun surprise for Grandma Janice & Grandpa Bill when they saw her photos and recognized her cross necklace.
Grandma Trish placed a few perfect stitches in Joy's dress to customize the fit so nicely :)
You'll see below the hat which was a souvenir from a special trip with Dad :)
And I enjoyed treasure hunting w/ my girl for pieces especially for this day!
The flower field was lovely - I felt like it could be the whole shoot and finished, but
on this day in Fall City it seemed that everywhere we looked was fun & picturesque -
and we wanted a couple more looks ;)
Over the river and through the woods -
Joy knew she wanted to use her cowboy hat -
She picked this up at a horseback ranch in Montana that she visited with her Dad, Tony, during a daddy-daughter vacation together when she was 16.
Serendipity is beautiful -
the summer had been smoky but all that mess in the sky made for a gorgeous orange sunset on this night!
The color in the sky went really nicely with the vibe of Joy's hat,
and then we noticed the dandelions in seed,
and these last portraits are some of my favorites :)
The album Joy chose is at home on its shelf in our living room:
(The framed photograph behind it was taken by my cousin, Amanda, when Joy was born!)
That's it except for a little video...
I'm just going to tear up now and swallow this lump in my throat -
I love this kid!!!
