I have several fond memories of Sara from our college years, but there’s one thing I’ll always remember about her: Sara is a writer. In college, we lived in the same off-campus housing across the street from Hukilau Beach – her and two other roommates lived in the upstairs apartment, while myself and three others lived in the downstairs apartment. Since we were at the same address, we shared a mailbox. Since we shared a mailbox….it quickly became quite apparent who got the most mail – and Sara would always win by a long shot. My roommates and I got to the point where we would joke, “Why bother checking? They’re all for Sara.” I knew Sara was an English major like myself, although we didn’t often have classes with each other or run into one another all that often. Clearly, in order for her to get that many letters written to her, she had to be writing these people back.
Fast forward a few years, and I stumbled upon Sara’s blog. I connected so well with her words and her writing, that I became completely enthralled with her entries. I read about her time spent volunteering in Africa, how she met a boy there – her leader over the group she was volunteering with. I also read about them getting married, and then later moving across the country, and about her internship in New York City at a publishing company. Once we moved to the east coast, I made sure I met up with Sara during a visit to the city. She was then pregnant with her first, and I later read about his birth story. Two years later, I read her incredible accidentally-at-home breech birth of her daughter. I’ve loved keeping up with Sara through her writing. She’s been an inspiration to me.
So really, it’s only natural that meeting up with Sara and her husband Joel in Central Park would become one of the most flawless, romantic sessions of my photography career. Not only has Central Park been a “Bucket List” location for me to do a session at, but also the chemistry and devotion between Joel and Sara was so obvious it seemed tangible to me. The day we met up marked Sara and Joel’s 6th wedding anniversary, and Sara told me, “Getting up early, dressing up and doing my hair and make up, taking romantic pictures together…It feels just like it did on our wedding day!”
Like I said, this session allowed me to create images that will forever mark some of my favorites and proudest moments. There is something so incredibly real and vulnerable and full of hope about anniversary sessions. This session reminded me of my “Why” – the reason behind what I do, the driving force of my creativity and inspiration: the sanctity and beauty of marriage. Of saying “I do” on not just day one, but also “I do” on the morning of your 6th wedding anniversary, and the day after that and the day after that. I can’t thank these two enough for such an incredible time!
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