A few years ago, it was the red couch and fishing at the creek.?? Then it was a day on the boat.?? This time??? Her wedding dress and the mud.?? Yes that was her REAL dress.?? And the mud??? A cattle tank.?? For. Real.

 

Only Aimee.?? My sister doesn’t do anything half way.?? How on earth will she outdo herself on the next family shoot though??? I am sure it will be outrageously fun.?? I always get excited when Aimee dreams up her shoot plans.?? When she said she wanted her dress, her bow, an ATV, and mud, I was ALL IN.

 

We scheduled this shoot way back in January.?? When the July date rolled around, we awoke to a monsoon storm down in Phoenix.?? David and Aimee were already up north camping so I was texting away asking if we were still a “go” since I was afraid we might get rained out.?? It wasn’t raining much up north so Heidi and I hit the road (and we had a lovely travel day too if I might add).?? As we got closer to our destination, we saw the most foreboding wall of water moving rapidly towards us and I was getting a little anxious about how we would pull this off.?? My gear is too expensive to shoot in a storm.

 

Sure enough, it was raining cats and dogs when we got to their camp site and Aimee was nearly in tears.?? So much effort invested!???? We decided to keep cool and just wait it out.?? As it happened, the rain continued for only about 40 minutes and then we had the rest of the afternoon to shoot.?? We had SO MUCH FUN!!!!

 

Some may wonder why Aimee chose to do a family “trash the dress” session (using her real wedding dress no less).?? I am speaking on her behalf here but I think there are two reasons why she was inspired by this session.

 

The first reason is simple.?? This is who they are.?? Aimee and Zandi are denim and diamonds girls.?? They love to be girly-girls when the opportunity arises (remember, Aimee was Miss Rodeo Arizona AND she placed 3rd in the Miss Rodeo America pageant before she and David were married).?? But they also love the great outdoors.?? Aimee LOVES to hunt (and she is a mighty fine huntress too).?? Zandi is following in mama’s footsteps.?? Zandi just got passed her hunter safety class and is preparing to go on her 10 year old big game hunt this year (like Tanner did the last two years).?? She got a rifle for her birthday that her uncles were drooling over.?? And yes, that is what she wanted.???? David and Zane were along for the ride.?? Of course they were.?? Mud, bows, frogs, crawdads (that cattle tank was full of them), ATVs???duh!???? I learned my lesson long ago that I needed to engage my brother when doing a photo shoot in order to get his “buy in”.

 

The second reason is a bit more profound.???? Aimee felt that this shoot was symbolic.?? I won’t write about their story because if you know them, you won’t need my explanation.?? I’ll summarize it with this.?? Life is messy.?? Life is dirty.?? Life is complicated and grey and hard.???? Life is also beautiful…and amazing, and redemptive.?????? While writing this, I was thinking of the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by Gungor???

 

“Beautiful Things”

 

All this pain

I wonder if I???ll ever find my way

I wonder if my life could really change at all

All this earth

Could all that is lost ever be found

Could a garden come up from this ground at all

 

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

 

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in You

 

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

 

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

 

You make me new, You are making me new

You make me new, You are making me new

 

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

 

 

 

I look at these pictures of four people so incredibly precious to me and I see a whole cattle tank full of Beautiful Things.

 

When I shoot for family, I tend to overshoot by a million and narrowing down is agonizing.???? So I didn’t.?? Much.?? Aimee has given permission to show you her large gallery so if you want to see over 100 pictures from this shoot, here it is: ??http://livelovedphotography.pass.us/dazmud/

 

Aimee – Thank you for trusting me to do this for you.?? I knew what you had on your heart Aimee and I endeavored to capture the true essence of what you wanted these images to say.???? Well said sister.?? Such beautiful things…out of the dust.?? I love you.