Family Sunset Session at Bowman Bay | Whidbey Island Family Photographer

I feel so blessed to know this woman.

Not only is Anastasia a fellow photographer at June Bug Photography, but she's also a friend. Oh, and she works full-time in the Navy as well. I have NO idea how she holds down two full-time jobs and still manages to be such an awesome mama and wife, but it's just reason #896 why she's amazing.

We met over a year ago when Anastasia messaged me and asked if I wanted to grab coffee. She had recently moved from Hawaii to Whidbey Island, and was eager to get the ball rolling and relaunch her photography business. 

And man did she ever! I swear she was back to being fully-booked in a matter of a month or two. Which says as much about her determination as it does her incredible talent.

Since then our friendship has grown, and we meet up for coffee (or wine), and to scout locations (or just have fun), when our schedules allow. Although not as often as either of us would like. 

I was thrilled when we were able to sneak in her family session in the midst of both of our busy seasons. And bonus - the random date that worked for both of us happened to be a beautiful, warm evening. We went to one of her family's favorite spots at Bowman Bay, and while I watched Anastasia and Richard love on their beautiful kiddos, they watched me trip over a few rocks and hurt my booty (but hey - it made the kids laugh!). 

There is always a little more pressure when you're working with friends, and even more so when the friend is a photographer. You want to get everything just right, and capture images that would be good enough to display next to their own work. These sessions are so important to me, because photographers so rarely get on the other side of the camera. So I stressed out, and have probably delayed getting this gallery to her because I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible. 

I wanted to make my friend proud, and happy to see her family having so much fun together. Loving on each other in a true, authentic way that is unique to their story alone.

Because she's not only a friend, she's an inspiration as well.