As much as I love young families with their adorable (and unpredictable) cherubs, I really enjoy sessions with older kids and teenagers. It’s not just that they can sit still and take direction, although I admit that is a perk. I like their maturing personalities, their ability to enter a real conversation, and their distinct styles.

When I first met Anna and Rachel, I thought at first that they were probably identical twins (and they are), but after I had been photographing them for a short while, I wasn’t so sure. Their features were similar, but their distinctly individual expressions and how they moved made them photograph very differently. Dom, their younger brother, obviously wouldn’t be mistaken for an identical sibling, but the resemblance is strong enough that passerby asked if the siblings were triplets.

We took a lot of solo portraits of each of them, and at first, I tried to vary the order in which I placed each one of them in a new setting, but I soon lost track. It turned out, though, that Dom likes to go first and get it over with. Because he soon got the knack of giving me a natural-looking smile while anticipating how I wanted him to pose, he got out of the hot seat pretty quickly each time. His sisters took their turns next, often depending on if one was warm enough to give up her jacket for a minute. Despite the chill, they were very cooperative and did their best not to show it in their body language. I was grateful that they were able to do so well, considering the sisters had already spent their afternoon volunteering at their school and were ready to go home for pizza. Hopefully, they were all finally able to warm up and relax afterwards after a job well done!