Heat, humidity, hello July in Kentucky! Bedtime for the Roby boys fell at the same time I would normally shoot this time of year, so we bumped their session up to 4 p.m. Glowy, magical light is still possible to find at this time of day, you just have to hunt for it a little more.

The Western Kentucky Botanical Gardens is one of my favorite local locations to use when I know I need to shoot earlier in the day than my typical golden hour time.

What I didn’t know when I picked this location is that Haley and Steve are members of the Botanical Gardens and frequently bring the boys here to play or just go for walks. So it made it fun to incorporate a location that was also special to them!

While family photos were an important part of this shoot, it was also Brooks’ first birthday session! Haley is from a farm in eastern Kentucky that grows a variety of fruits… and maple syrup, which is pretty darn cool. So I loved that she threw Brooks a “Very Hungry Caterpillar” birthday party to tie in the two!