The Mitchell Family
Sunset Session in Murfreesboro, TN
It’s wild how quickly seasons change — one day you’re in college, and the next you’re photographing someone else’s college student. I didn’t know this family before their session, but I’m so glad I do now. They showed up with the kind of warmth and ease that makes photographing people feel effortless — kind smiles, relaxed energy, and outfits that looked like they were made for the sunset we got that evening.
I love photographing families here in Murfreesboro — we have the prettiest parks and open spaces for family sessions. There’s something about the light here that makes every photo feel extra warm.
When Leslie reached out, she mentioned it had been years since their last family photos — so long that her oldest never even had senior portraits. She wanted to finally make it happen, not just for updated pictures, but to capture who they are right now.
Their oldest is now in college at MTSU studying to become a teacher, and their youngest is in high school — both with the kind of joy and warmth that make photographing families like this feel so easy. We kept things light and relaxed, moving through every combo that’s important to have but often forgotten: individuals, parents with each daughter, the sisters together, and those walking shots that always bring out the real smiles.
By the end, even Dad was laughing and said it wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it would be — which might be my favorite kind of review.
Sessions like this remind me how meaningful it is to have not just photos of the whole family together, but portraits of each relationship — parent with child, sister with sister — all the different connections that make a family what it is. Those one-on-one images capture relationships that are so often felt but rarely frozen in time — the kind of photos that mean more and more as the years go by.
If life has been moving fast and family photos keep slipping to the bottom of the list, maybe this is your reminder that it’s worth it — not just for the group photo, but for the moments with each child (and even between siblings) that you’ll want to hold onto later.
