The M. family were ready for some updated family portraits, professionally done and at the location of their choice. I had the priviliege of shooting their daughter for her senior portraits for her senior year at Royal High School. The family wanted the beach and we of course thought, “Great, summertime in Malibu– beach portraits are perfect.” Sure in June there can be the “June Gloom”, where the marine layer comes in and usually burns off by 12 or 1 or 2 or…. And yes, a breeze can pick up after 3pm, but we were going to shoot just before sunset, and it’d be great.

Mama M. texted me on their shopping expedition for clothes. She was worried her *many* texts were too many, but they weren’t. I’d rather help make the clothing and accessories come together beforehand so that the results are great. And it worked, beautifully. Corals and blues are really pretty on the beach.  What works great in photographs sometimes isn’t the first outfit you’d choose, so I was happy to lend my expertise.  (After all, when hiring a professional photographer, you, the client, should have the professional experience through and through.)
And then the day of the shoot arrived.  A record day.  Not the record we were looking for.  The draught-stricken Southern CA all the sudden had rain pouring, thunder booming, and lightening striking.  At one point, I had been at Costco and people were applauding the thunder (and rightfully so.)  The beaches closed.  I went back and forth with the M. family and we decided to drive out and see what happened. I was praying and hoping the Lord would give me the same favor He’d given me when teaching Stroller Strides classes. (Back in the day, when I taught Stroller Strides, it could rain all day, except the one hour I’d teach class. My moms learned to show up, because the skies would part for class. 😉 However, California needs the rain so I couldn’t pray for it to not come, but I did pray for it to dump before and after. 🙂
OK, so we still go for the on location photoshoot, and my husband drives me and my crew out to the beach, and as we head over the canyon and into Malibu, and we are dodging large rocks, and slowing for the mini flooding throughout the canyon.  (The irony of Southern California is that it desperately needs rain but often can’t handle it either.)  I am constantly checking the weather radar and biting my lip.  So we are driving, and then, the last half mile, just before hitting Pacific Coast Highway, “IT” happens– a streak of light on the horizon!!!  Sure enough, the rain soon stops over “our” part of the beach, the thunder rolls elsewhere, and the beach quietly reopens–so a normally crowded beach is now empty. We were giddy. And then we did our portrait session, and had a truly wonderful time. We had one or two run for cover moments, but nothing too bad. And we got the shoot in.

The LA County lifeguards have a saying that I will now adopt for my photography business, “When in doubt, go.”