Nerves thrumming, hair smoothing, checking my makeup one last time.

It was time for our family photo session for Logan’s one-year birthday.

I was nervous about pretty much everything. How would my dress photograph? Did my hair look OK or was the humidity making it wave in a funky way? Would Travis have his “Chandler smile”? Would Logan smile at all??

I’ve been on the other side of the camera before but not with a child and not since our newborn session. And it was nerve-wracking.

Like most people, I tend to get nervous any time I’m going to have my photo taken professionally. Here are a few things I reminded myself of before, during and after the shoot:

Lower your expectations. Of course I wanted beautiful photographs where we’re all happy, joyful and smiling the whole time. But Logan was barely one and very unpredictable. Oh and it just happened to be cold and rainy that day. Not exactly the beautiful, light-filled session I was dreaming of but at the end of the day, the photos are meaningful because we documented Logan turning one.
Roll with it. This goes hand-in-hand with #1 but not only was it chilly and gray, Logan was quite fussy that day. Instead of stressing, we tried to have fun making him laugh and guess what — it worked.
Come prepared. Logan is a little young to understand the concept of bribery but I did make sure to pack snacks and his favorite toys to keep him amused and smiling. Although it did sort of backfire because there’s a bright orange plastic cell phone in some of the photos …
Trust the photographer. One of my photographer besties, Callie Manion, did our photos and I asked her to do them because I trust her completely. If you’re hiring someone you’ve never met before, it helps to do your research before doing a shoot. But knowing she’d get something beautiful no matter what helped me relax.

And now, without further adieu, here are some of my favorites from Logan’s one-year photo shoot!