This little dreamboat turned one, and his mama had the sweet idea to have me do a little mini shoot with him to celebrate and commemorate. It was a pretty chilly morning, but as you can see little man was not phased at all! He’s already getting pretty good at mini shoots with me, which is so sweet as this family are some of my most regulars…

If you’ve been around for a while, you know we do A LOT of fall minis every year. Fall minis are always a fun season of meeting new people and catching up on life with regulars. We shoot fall minis in quite a few different cities and in so many places within those cities. Well, I’ve found a new spot! All four of these fall family minis were shot at NC State University, and they all turned out so well!

It has been YEARS since Ashley did a themed mini shoot moment like this, so she wanted to try some things out for this one. She went with two different locations for the Christmas-themed shoot day because, honestly, she wasn’t sure what would work best. Ashley was feeling the pressure of picking holiday decorations that lots of different people would appreciate the style of. That is tough, y’all!… But she totally nailed it!

What a great time Becca had with this crew for their 2021 Fall Short Stories! This group was mostly annual regulars with the exception of one new family (hello, Millers!). Becca also got to photograph one of Ashley’s regulars for the first time and it was so fun! After worrying all week about the weather, the rain never came and the slightly cloudy day worked out just fine for these fall mini shoots! This was the first time Becca shot at this new, tiny park she discovered near North Hills in Raleigh. Needless to say, she’ll be heading back there more because it worked so well and the backdrops were perfect!

Y’all, we absolutely feel so blessed to see these same faces each year! What an honor to be trusted over and over again! ❤️

We love our friends the Gurleys and how kind they are to share their BEAUTIFUL land with us for these fall minis! Through some last minute sickness cancellations (please please please know we will reschedule you if you are sick!!), Ashley ended up photographing these three families that have all been regulars for different lengths of time. It was the perfect little group for these Fall Short Stories on the Gurley Dairy Farm. Ashley had lots of laughs with this crew. And, those horses?!... They had this great sense of always moving to be perfectly in the background of the photos. Along with a gorgeous sunset and tons of cute kiddos, what more could we ask for?!

The leaves were perfection, the weather was perfection, and the people were absolute perfection!! Ashley started off this day of fall mini shoots with one new client — which, oh my goodness, is always so meaningful for us — and then the rest of her day felt like a Story Photographers homecoming! We just love love love shoot days like this where we get to reconnect with you and your families. Ashley photographed a lot of kids in different age groups on this one day. One thing that photographing kiddos their entire lives has shown her is a study in what the different photography challenges are at different ages. Photographing people as long as we have, we’ve learned how to navigate those challenges…