The Johnsons are Albuquerque newbies! They had just moved here from Colorado, and Elysa wanted some maternity pictures before her little guy was due in just a couple weeks. The location, their outfits, and that gorgeous golden sun created some of my favorite pictures ever.

I could tell right off the bat that Elysa was good in front of the camera. Which totally makes sense since she gets a lot of practice getting pictures taken while running her cute blog (www.elysajohnson.com). She ended up using the photos in a post writing a letter to her pregnant self (SUCH a cute idea) which you can read here.

This session was just so fun. While Jacob was getting the little guy changed, Elysa and I went out and took some pictures of just her and her cute belly. At one point, the only way I could describe to her what I was seeing in my head was to tell her to dance with her belly. Thankfully, she didn’t look at me weird and just went for it, ha! Those ones turned out super cute, which just goes to show that weird prompts can lead to good pictures. Then Jacob and little guy joined us, and it was so cute to see Elysa and her son interact. That little guy sure is a firecracker! And he definitely knows what he wants (which was a car and fruit snack the whole shoot). He really added an element of fun to the shoot with his cute personality.

I have to say, my favorite shots from the whole session were at the end. There was this gorgeous line of trees that led right to that glorious orange setting sun. I loved getting the pictures of them interacting, and little guy running to his mom and dad. Ah, that is what a photographer’s dreams are made of.