Katie and Will’s story is one of my all -time favorites. They/we were vacationing in Montego Bay, Jamaica this past January (separately). I knew I wanted to do a session while I was there but I didn’t know anyone or have plans let alone actually think I would do it..
Justin and I had just settled onto our beach chairs on the pier for the morning when I saw Katie and Will taking a selfie before they settled onto their own chairs. I saw them get up and position themselves for a selfie. My first thought was “I should offer to take the photo for them” but I thought about it too long and they had already sat down.
So then I thought, “well, maybe I can offer to do a photo shoot for them”. I ran through every scenario in my mind “what if this is creepy” “what if they don speak English and look at me puzzled” I thought about it for literally 10 minutes before I got the courage to walk up to them.
I am 100000% certain my words didn’t make sense and I recall my first words being “feel free to shoot me down” (I mean, what the heck was I thinking?!) I explained that I am a photographer and would love to do a couple’s session with them in the evening sometime. I gave them my IG handle and told them no pressure and to reach out if they wanted to.
I walked back to my chair and replayed the entire conversation in my head like a million times. Justin and I hung out a little more on our chairs until it was time to eat lunch. We went to the buffet because it was the easiest and had the most options and then went back to the room to get out of the sun for a bit. When my phone connected to wifi I had a message waiting for me from Katie. I was beyond thrilled!!
We decided to meet that same evening at 5:30. YAY! We were all so excited. At 5:20, the sky broke loose. The rain was so hard and the clouds were so intense I thought we’d have to cancel. But growing up on South Florida I knew it had the potential to pass.
We waited a few minutes and sure enough it passed! Long enough for us to walk down to the beach beyond the resort to find a secluded spot with palms on one side and the Caribbean ocean on the other.
The clouds did not disappoint. We didn’t get the sunlight we wanted but I think we got an even better scene with the dramatic Caribbean skies. It was amazing!
I hope to see Katie and Will one day again and we still keep in touch via social media (so cool right?! – the power of social media)
