Beach date with Bella

One of the greatest things for me as a photographer is to see the families I work with evolve throughout the years. The same way you feel when one of your friends gets engaged and then later married. Before you know it she’s already sharing the baby bump news… And it just keeps on going. Because I strive to make a connection with my clients, I see them the same way a friend would. A friend that follows along capturing their story as it evolves.

Laura and Alfred happen to be my friends, even before they were ever my clients, so working with them is all about capturing their personalities. It’s a less of a challenge when you already know how the session is going to go down. Laura is going to laugh at absolutely everything and it will take a miracle to get Alfred to take anything I seriously long enough for us to stay in the same area for long. But ever since the arrival of their baby girl, Isabella, life has drastically changed for this young couple. I have seen Laura fall more and more in love with her daughter with each day that goes by. I see the excitement in Alfred’s eyes towards the future. The day that Isabella will be out there in the yard being his partner in crime. As a first time mom myself, we all share in that innocent joy that comes from even the slightest thing the kids do. My husband and I joke with them that they are “our couple”, the one that we share our experiences with, the good and the bad, that happens with the twins. Sure enough a year later Laura and Alfred will be telling us some kind of the same version that is currently happening with Bella. Motherhood has made our bond grow closer and it’s because of it that I can’t wait to see Bella running around the house already either.

The day of our family session we all woke up early enough to catch the sunrise at one of Laura’s favorite places to be, the beach. It happened to be quite the windy and chilly morning for us in always hot and sunny Miami. When I arrived at the beach I was shocked to see it completely trashed by all of the attendees of Floatopia Miami. It broke my heart. My beautiful city beach looked like a dump. The local news channel reporters were there filming the scene and there were big garbage bins every hundred steps. Tractors piling and making groups of the mess and about fifty city workers picking up trash. I seriously considered telling Laura and Alfred to drive to another spot on the beach but we made it work. We found a spot on the sand that was not affected. As if the sky was rewarding us for hanging out, the most beautiful sunrise shed the prettiest golden light. We later on did the next best thing for Bella. We took our session back home to the place her heart would be the happiest. Photographing children at home will always be one of my most favorite things to do. They just get to be themselves. No distractions. Nothing but the family and the wonderful things that happen on a daily when we are just busy living. These next pictures will be very dear to my friend’s heart and mine as well. I hope you all enjoy seeing little Bella flirt with the camera.

A short while later while at home…

I asked Laura to share with me a little insight on these first four months into motherhood and here is what she had to say:

Since I had a c-section, I had to stay home for at least the first 2 months. So yes, it wasn’t an easy task at first, I wanted to go out at least to take a walk around the block and at the same time I didn’t want to go out and leave her in the house. Another thing that was a bit of a challenge for me {since I love sleeping} was to wake up in the middle of the night, even though Bella would wake up every 3 hours {which is pretty good for a newborn} that was still tough for me. In between those hours when I could’ve slept, I would stay awake, afraid something would happen to her, asking myself: “Is she ok? Is she breathing? What if she cries and I don’t hear her?” But honestly I wouldn’t mind doing it all over again. I love her and for her I will do anything and everything. Nowadays, everything is a little smoother, seeing her grow and watching her learn things is pretty amazing. I get to be with her everyday, day and night, so because of that I get to witness her reactions to pretty much everything. New toys, new people she meets, new foods, etc… Honestly being a mom is a blessing. Being Isabella Rose’s mom is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

Thank you Laura for sharing with me and all of us reading. I can’t agree more that being a mom is the best thing ever. xoxo