Some sessions stay with you. Joanna reached out while vacationing in Saratoga Springs looking for a photographer to capture her family — and what she didn't lead with, but what made this session so special, was that these were the very first photographs of their newly blended family together.

Joanna arrived at Congress Park on a warm summer afternoon with her two children, her partner Jay, and his two boys in tow — three boys and a girl in total, and an energy that was immediately warm, easy and full of love. Joanna held the matriarch role like she was born for it — gorgeous, long dark hair, crystal blue eyes, completely natural with all four kids around her. Jay watched her proudly, and you could see it in the way his boys gravitated toward her too.

Her daughter was an absolute natural in front of the camera. The boys were boys. And somewhere in between all of it was this beautiful, real, quietly momentous thing — a family finding its shape, photographed for the very first time. Joanna used them on their Christmas card.