Westerly Photography

Here’s the story of the most perfect engagement session— I am biased because it happens to be my best friend— but genuinely it also was the most perfect session ✨
Hannah + Casey traveled 4 hours to Wilmington to have their engagement photos taken on the beach. I planned out the best/most ideal spots— it was a weekend in the middle of summer so finding spots that would not feature the swarms of tourists was the goal. We were aiming for just before sunset, as I always suggest, to get the perfect golden lighting and magical silhouette shots that sunset time offers. All was well until…. We’re monitoring the weather as the weekend approaches and it’s supposed to storm (not just rain… STORM) all weekend—peaking on the day and time we initially chose. Thankfully H + C are the most go with the flow humans on earth and were down to make anything work. We adjust the plan so we can hit the beach before the big storm is set to start. We would miss sunset and golden hour… but with stormy clouds you don’t get that dreamy lighting anyways. We all rush to get ready and then hop in the car. As we drive to the beach (less than 10 mins away)… we realize we’re driving into a huge black storm cloud. Hovering just over the beach. Our luck.
All the tourists were leaving the beach in swarms and the best parking spots are now available (unheard of in peak summer time). I tell H + C we have minutes before it downpours and we dash out of the car. We rapid fire shoot and then BAM. Lightning and pouring rain strike. We’re all soaked racing back to the car to game plan.
Stay tuned for the next post where the story continues. It’s worth the wait!

✨Raina Mariam ✨ is 8 months old and I have no clue where the time has gone! Meet my littlest niece, my brother and sissyboo’s angel baby. These photos were taken when she was just a week old! She’s such a sweet, chill and joyful girl… also the tiniest mountain hiker + camping pro you’ll ever meet. 🏔💕

Golden hour detail shots are *chefs kiss* magic! I’m going to be real with what the behind the scenes of capturing this looked like though...

Picture a bush on a random sidewalk curb. Picture me in half crouch/half squat position, angling my camera upwards to capture dreamy sunlight bursting through the leaves. Picture me most likely looking like 🤩🥳😎😍😛 realizing how dreamy the shots are. Picture people walking past like 👀🧐🤨 (people walking past couldn’t see the ring so they thought I was oddly excited about this bush)

Yeah, typical day in the life.