Lindsey + Mitchell | Gender Reveal

Happy New Year, friends! 2017 was an exciting year of change for me and I'm so excited for what 2018 has in store! One of those things I'm looking forward to is the birth of my sweet friends' baby. A few weeks ago those friends, Lindsey + Mitchell, gave me the pleasure of facilitating and photographing their gender reveal. Anticipation coursed through my veins! But also a little worry because I'm TERRIBLE with exciting secrets. Now, I can do this all day every day with my awesome clients. You're planning a surprise proposal? Sure, I'm ready! You have a fun little wedding surprise you need me to photograph but I can't let anyone know? Awesome! But with my good friend who I love dearly and am so excited about this new stage of life for and have so many memories with....this one was going to be hard. But I was determined with this secret. I'd be the only one to know for two. whole. days. I wouldn't even tell my husband even though I was allowed to tell at least him.

On a Thursday evening, Lindsey dropped off a bag full of pink and blue smoke bombs and the envelope with the much anticipated ultrasound photo inside. Side note: I lasted about 35 seconds before telling Jordan what the ultrasound showed. I feel pretty good about holding out so long.

Lindsey + Mitchell were scheduled for a Saturday afternoon session and were both so excited! Little did we know that the expected "light snow with little to no accumulation" for Friday would start right on schedule in the morning but then would not stop for the entire day. By late afternoon, we were in a winter wonderland in GEORGIA. By Friday night, we had 9 inches at our house and it was STILL falling. It was unreal. As we inched toward bedtime, both our houses, along with most of the homes in our area, were without power and only the bravest people were driving around in a land that is not abundant in snow plows and salt trucks. Along with all my other sessions for that weekend, it was looking like we'd have to make the call and postpone the gender reveal. But oh, that snow was gorgeous. It made my midwestern heart soar.

We still didn't have power by Saturday afternoon, but travel conditions were improving. I knew we had to find a way to have this session. I mean...those smoke bombs in the snow? How could we not take this opportunity? When the ice on the roads was melted for a few hours, we packed up our kids and dogs to stay with my sister, who had power and happens to live just down the road from a wedding venue. While we packed about half our house (isn't that how it feels every time you take young kids on an overnighter?) I was formulating a plan and contacting the owner of The Barn at Sierra Springs while outwardly assuring my husband that of course safety, rather than making this session happen by any means necessary, was my number one concern. ;)

Shortly after arriving at my sister's house, I let Jordan in on the fact that the plan was set and that I'd be heading down the road to the venue in about half an hour. Thankfully, he still loves me, even when I live dangerously. After I gave explicit instructions to Lindsey + Mitchell (mostly Mitchell) to not speak of anything that would make me break the news too soon, we headed down the road to the venue. It was our first time using smoke bombs and I was really glad that they bought some extras so we'd have plenty to work with! We started with a practice one to get an idea of what we were in for and then the time had finally come to light the two that would tell Lindsey + Mitchell what they were having! Eek!!!

The anticipation was real with those first few bursts of regular smoke. But then.....that first bit of color shot out of Lindsey's first and then Mitchell's.

YAY for a GIRL!! At this point, I was in this weird mix of being the excited friend who wanted to cry and jump and clap and being the hired professional who had to get the shots. I haven't seen the video, but they told me that I did a lot of back and forth between cutting up and talking to them then going right into "professional mode" and back again. It was a very eventful few minutes and I couldn't be happier to have been the one to be there with them as they found out. Just look at the joy on their faces as they found out!!! After the initial excitement, we got to jump into some more poses with the extra smoke bombs.

Let me tell you, the pressure with these was REAL! The wind would pick up and die down or blow the smoke one way and then another. Each time I thought I had it figured out, the smoke would change. So if you plan to have a smoke bomb session...be prepared for smoke in EVERY direction and get your running shoes on! We ended up with a great set of smoke photos. Even some that had smoke all surrounded turned out to be some pretty fun drama shots. :)