Sometimes you have to suffer to be beautiful.

We had booked this extended family session weeks ago to coordinate with travel and business schedules, knowing that we would probably already be in the hot, humid weather that Cincinnati summers are known for. And the Cincinnati weather rose to the occasion, delivering a sultry 90 degree afternoon with 93 percent humidity.

Still, this family braved the heat and met me at the local park for their pictures, and you wouldn’t guess from how they looked how uncomfortable they had to be. Even the tween and teens were cheerful and uncomplaining through the whole family session. In fact, they were quite helpful, holding diffusers, looking for spots with good lighting, and helping their grandparents get up and down the rocky terrain. In fact, there was only one time that I recall that any of them gave me any resistance, and that was, well, I’ll get to that in a minute.

Family by waterfall Couple by waterfall Couple by waterfall

After seating them in every possible configuration in every possible family combination on a handful of non ergonomic rocks, I moved on to single portraits of the kids.  Because they’re always changing and can outgrow a shoe size by the time you take out the trash.

That’s when I got my first balky response from one of the teens when I tried to get her to do a solo portrait. Why anyone with her looks wouldn’t want her picture taken was beyond me, so I was annoyingly persistent. She amended her position to being willing to do it, but she didn’t want to be first. So we did the dudes first.

Boy by lake Boy by lake

Boy by lake Girl by lake

So kudos to all of them for being such great sports on an oppressively hot summer day, for climbing around on variously slippery and non conforming rocks, and for humoring my efforts to get them to channel their inner supermodels. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the snake that popped out a couple of times right behind where I had them sit for their waterfall portraits. I’ll bet you can’t even tell which portraits were pre-snake-sighting and which were post-snake-sighting. That, my friends, is the hallmark of good breeding.