Molly & Ken’s couples session under the streetlights
Friendsville Tennessee
I STILL cannot believe that I got to do this session. Not only was it way out of my element (photography at night with no flash..YIKES) but it was also probably the most dangerous session I’ve ever had. & I know what you’re thinking, how on earth was this cutie session dangerous? Don’t worry bestie, we’ll get there.
So here’s the deal, I live in a teeny town right outside of Knoxville, Tn. & when I say we’re lucky to see snow once a year I seriously mean it. & when we do get snow it’s around one to two inches max. So when the weather man said a blizzard was coming our way I wasn’t worried because we southerners like to exaggerate a little bit. So like every other photographer in the surrounding areas, I put out a model call. “Free pics in the snow”was the title. & when precious Molly said she was down I was ecstatic. (who wouldn’t be? she’s a STUNNER!!) We originally planned on taking pictures during the day, but we couldn’t make that work with their schedule. But me being the genius I am said “I’ve been dying to do pics at night under the street lights”
Molly was SO for it. So much so that this girl went on Facebook marketplace and bought this jacket from an old man just to match the outfit inspo perfectly. (have I mentioned how much I love this girl??) Well although I technically live in a small town, we have busy streets so I told Molly we would plan on meeting in an even tinier town called Friendsville. Everything was perfect, I had my location, I knew there was hopefully going to be at least some snow on the ground, the outfits were a dream. Everything was perfect.
Remember when I said southerners like to exaggerate? Well the weather man was in fact NOT exaggerating. My side of town got less than two inches that quickly washed away with the rain. But when we headed towards Friendsville, it was an actual nightmare. There was a good EIGHT inches of snow, the backroads we took weren’t salted or plowed, and we were in a rear wheel drive car. & Oh yeah did I mention that I had my three month old asleep in the backseat? Yeah not my proudest moment, but to be fair we had no idea the roads were going to be that bad!
It was too late, both of us were already on the way, the car was surprising doing a great job (thanks to my husband for driving) and I prayed the entire way there. Once we were off of the backroads and on the highway it was a little bit better. The road was plowed, but it was hard to see the lines, and there were multiple cars on the side of the road. By the grace of God we made it to Friendsville. But the roads were even worse. We planned to meet in a parking lot by a coffee shop I love, and when we got to it I could see Molly and Ken is his huge truck that I’m sure has 4wd lol. My husband looked at the lot covered in a heap of snow and said “yeah there’s no way I can park there” so around the block we went looking for a place to park. Until we got to a hill and realized we weren’t going anywhere. There was a little bank of snow that our right tires were just spinning in. So now my poor husband has to deal with me freaking out because there’s a car coming behind us, I’ve never been in snow like this before, and I’ve got precious cargo in the backseat!! Luckily we had some wonderful people pull over to help us and after a good amount of reversing and pushing we managed to make it up the hill. I eventually got out, told my husband to go park at the gas station down the road and I just grabbed my camera and went to meet my couple.
Once we started shooting I forgot about all the craziness we had to deal with on the drive up. It was all worth it. The session was perfect, it wasn’t too cold. They were such a blast to work with, and we seriously had the best time. These guys are from Wisconsin so they definitely had no issues with this tiny blizzard. We managed to make it back home safe and sound with very little sliding and I have to say this was my favorite session I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing.
I need more creative sessions like this one in 2024
