I’ve been looking forward to this shoot for MONTHS!! My friend Katie has been such a huge encouragement and support to me since I met her when she joined the OU Admissions team. This girl is a natural cheerleader and heart friend and it was a treat to have her & Jonathan in front of my camera last night!

I was so excited for this because we originally started talking about a mini-session around the holidays, and figured it would be best to wait until closer to the summer for a few reasons – 1. Their golden, Oliver, would be a bit older. 2. The weather and landscape is so much prettier this time of year (that’s a given!) and 3. The Rogers’ have their second wedding anniversary this July so it was the perfect reason to celebrate with a photoshoot!

I think I could have written a whole blog post on Oliver. This dog is a literal angel. I always recommend that we have an extra set of hands with us when shooting with a pet (it’s helpful to have someone to wrangle them + help get their attention when they are in the shot!) but this was the first time where we would have been totally fine without a helper! Thankfully, we did have Cade (an OU tour guide) with us to hang on to him and help give treats, but Oliver was the perfect model and probably one of the easiest dogs I’ve photographed. It doesn’t hurt that Katie and Jonathan are the best dog parents!! We got some really funny outtakes of them pulling stickers off of Oliver’s butt and legs after he made a few laps around us in the field we were in!

Shooting in open fields like this spot in east Norman is one of my favorite things. After a full spring on campus shooting seniors, it’s nice to have the freedom and flexibility of “the country”. I am a sucker for the open plains of central Oklahoma – it’s home to me, and I dream about living on a big piece of land someday where I can schedule all of my shoots right on my property! I will also note, there are two things I can’t leave my house without when shooting outside of the city – bugspray + cowboy boots to protect my legs and ankles when walking through tall grass! I had both last night and was so grateful I did! Especially because the bugs LOVE ME – it’s been a huge problem this year already!

I’m kicking off the Fourth of July celebrations starting tomorrow and CANNOT WAIT!!! Have a wonderful weekend & I will see y’all on Tuesday for the Lunch Break Blog!