Living so far away from ‘home,’ it’s a rare occasion when I get to photograph my own family, so when my Aunt asked me to photograph my cousin, Easton’s senior session, to say I was excited would be an understatement.

I group all of my Oklahoma sessions together once a year and make a week long trip out of it (so let me know if you want on that list.). This is also usually the only time of year I get to see my friends, and some family back home. With that comes a lot of eating out.

Enter food poisoning.

I woke up early, early the day of this session, sick. So sick. My mom works night shift, so that left my poor dad to make sure I didn’t die. He was supposed to be at work by 6:30 that morning, and ended up holding off until 7:30. Hilariously, every time I’d open my eyes there would be a new bottle of liquid sitting on a chair next to my bed — gatorade, sprite, water — you name it, it was there. I like to imagine he dropped off each as an offering to pacify the puke gods. In a very ‘I present this Glacier Freeze bottle of Gatorade in hopes you will ease the suffering of my first born daughter, Honorable Puke Gods’ kinda way.

But then again, I’ve always been known for having a very vivd imagination.

Here’s the deal with Oklahoma session week, one, I’m usually booked solid, so reschedules aren’t a thing, and two, I come from a very no nonsense family. I was raised to toughen up and power through, there is no other option.

With that, I pried myself out of bed, took the kind of shower one does when they have no energy left to give —you know, the lay on the floor of the shower and hope water just hitting your body is enough to count as clean—loaded up in my mom’s Toyota Camry and she drove me to Tulsa.

And from there we went…

We strolled around a few of my favorite spots in downtown Tulsa, while I, with hair piled on top of head, and translucent skin would take a big ole swig of Glacier Freeze Gatorade between shots.

Let’s talk about Easton, like most boys, photos aren’t his thing. Being the center of attention, not his thing either. Easton though, is very kind. He never once rolled his eyes, groaned or was annoyed by any of my requests, HOWEVER, bless his heart… Not only are we a no nonsense family, we’re also a family that tends to heavily roast each other.

And Easton had his mom, dad and brother EXCITEDLY and enthusiastically ROASTING him behind me.

Sick photographer/cousin and a family full of comedians, nether less, he persisted.

With that, can we all just give Easton a round of applause for surviving and thriving through his session?!

Next location we ventured to Woodward Park, listen, I know everyone in Tulsa takes photos here, but I love this place and I love the light. I make no apologies for this being an unoriginal location choice.

For a glimpse of what Easton was dealing with behind the scenes, here’s Dawson. His brother.

Third and final location choice, The Gathering Place, which is a massive, new park in Tulsa. New also equals crawling with people, but it worked so well for a boy’s senior session with the style of the park that I would work with crowds all over again for these shots.

Also cool, one of my other cousin’s, same side of the family, is a landscape architect for this park and manages a large section of it herself.

The Gathering Place is a SUPER interesting park with lot’s to do, the playgrounds are INSANELY AWESOME, so when I decided to call this session a wrap, we celebrated appropriately.

Also, I was treated to Chick-fil-a after, and Chick-fil-a on a regular day is more than alright by me, but Chick-fil-a chicken soup and a small fry and sprite when you’re finally reviving from food poisoning… LIFE GIVING.