Aubrey + John’s session might look a little different than a normal engagement session of mine and that’s because of the unbelievable circumstances we went through in a mater of a few days. I want to explain it in more detail starting with our first attempt because it is a story that we knew had to be told. When the day of their session arrived, I drove up to Prophetstown State Park to scope it out and prep for their arrival. During my entire drive up to Lafayette, it was sunny and appeared to be what was going to be a beautiful evening for their session only to change drastically five minutes before Aubrey and John arrived.
As I was waiting in my car, I began to see a rain cloud roll in and was in disbelief about the weather changing so quickly. Thankfully Aubrey and John were easy going from the start and were in agreement with me to wait it out. At that time, we were basically just hoping the cloud would pass quickly since it didn’t appear to be followed by much. Fast forward only three minutes later when we were running in an all-out sprint to the nearest covering which happened to be a tree. The cars were too far away and we didn’t want to get soaked in the down pour. Of course, drops were falling through the leaves but those didn’t compare to the branch that fell only a few feet from us moments later from the raging winds that decided to appear. At this point, we looked at each other with rain on our clothes and shock on our faces and decided it was time to reschedule. Mind you, we walked through the woods (and poison ivy) to get to our cars because it was still pouring out.
You’d think the story would end there and the rescheduled session would have been normal. However, it just so happens that exactly one week later, we rescheduled and a near identical situation happened again. My 45-minute drive seemed sunny and beautiful but by the time I got to the park, it was pouring down rain and lightning across the sky. Instead of giving up immediately, I called Aubrey and we decided to try to find a clear spot elsewhere to continue with the session because it wasn’t going to be easy to reschedule. We decided to meet downtown, it continued to pour down rain, the sky was really dark at this point and we couldn’t believe that the weather was going to intefere yet again. At one point, it was raining so bad that we decided to get into our cars and attempt to relocate yet again. Ironically enough, we didn’t have to drive too far to find a sunny patch.
The best we could come up with was an open spot in the clouds as the sun set and the rain sprinkled on. Because we had spent so much time getting away from the rain, it was a lot darker and later in the evening than I normally shoot. However, as crazy as the circumstances were, what is possibly the best part of it all is that we captured some really amazing photos that are unlike any of my other engagement sessions. Even though we felt like their session was determined to go poorly, Aubrey and John maintained positive attitudes and confidence in my skills which was more than I could have hoped for. They were so sweet and I had so much fun with them running away from rain and driving all around Lafayette in search of the sun.
