Knoxville, TN Photographer || Grayson in Charleston, SC || Personal

Grayson takes on Charleston

There is one thing REALLY great that happened recently on our Charleston trip. Grayson graduated back to an AWESOME traveler. When he was little, like 3-8 months little, he was an awesome traveler. He was too little to care about anything, and as long as I had him either strapped to me or in his car seat, he was good. I nursed him to sleep so he slept great. Somewhere around 8 months, he started pulling up in his crib. That meant when we traveled, he would wake up, pull up, see us, and scream until we got him out of his pack-n-play. We realized that if we could put him somewhere where he couldn’t see us, he was fine, but in a hotel room that’s nearly impossible. Then, he was mobile so he hated being in his car seat for any extended time, and his attention span was so short that I couldn’t give him anything that would entertain him for more than 2-3 minutes. So, now…he’s older, and he is entertained WAY longer. When he wakes up and sees us, he would prefer to not be held and lays back down and goes to sleep. WOOOOOHHHOOOOO. These parents over here are SO pumped. If you’re in the trenches right now with a traveling child…have hope because it does get better!

If you didn’t see the reason we were in Charleston, you need to visit this post! Thankfully, Dustin and Grayson got to come with me, and we drove all night long two nights before the wedding, which meant we had almost two entire days to explore the city. Our hotel was in downtown Charleston, which is an area where we haven’t spent a ton of time, so we tried to experience Charleston at it’s best! We got local food for all our meals, met up with my cousin and her boo for two fabulous dinners, shopped, walked, explored, and adventured all over the city. I realized at the end of our trip that I hadn’t gotten a ton of photos. It was great unplugging and not having my camera out 24/7, but I was also so sad because this city is BEAUTIFUL and has so much character. As we checked out of our hotel, I asked Dustin if we could do one last round and go to some places I can get some pictures of Grayson. A little back story here. I took pictures every single Wednesday for an ENTIRE YEAR during Grayson’s first year of life. It was a ton of work, but at the end of that year, I put them all in a book, and I look at them all the time. I LOVE them. During year two, I knew it wasn’t feasible to keep that up, so I just started thoroughly documenting our adventures. Whether it was traveling, playing outside, camping, or just some really pretty light throwing across our side yard. I decided I would make a 2018 book for this year and do one every year going forward. When I realized I didn’t have a ton of photos from Charleston, I also realized that I needed at least 6-10 good photos that I could use to fill up a spread in our 2018 book. Dustin is like babe, it’s okay…you don’t have to go get more pictures, just relax…But my stubborn self was like…no…I need pictures for our book…please, just right around the hotel for 10 minutes, and I’ll have enough. So, Dustin goes to check us out and load the car, and I take Grayson in the stroller to a wall that I just know will be the perfect backdrop. Well, you guys, I should have listened to Dustin. It was a catastrophe. The wind was wicked, and Grayson does NOT like the wind blowing in his face. He was just grumpy in general (probably because he had gone to bed late every evening and skimped on naps for the last three days), and I’m trying to force this whole picture thing.

I stop us on the sidewalk with all the Charleston palm trees in the background. Grayson wants to clip his stroller seat belt together, but I’m trying so hard to get him to stand in the middle of the sidewalk. He keeps running over to the stroller. Then, I just put the stroller out there and get him standing in front of it playing with the clips. He does NOT have a happy face at this point. I thought okay, this isn’t working…lets go around the corner, maybe it’ll be less windy. So we go around the corner. Not only is it not LESS windy, it’s MORE windy. Grayson has become obsessed with pushing the stroller himself lately. I get him out and set him up to push it right in front of this magical wall. I back away quickly so I can document him pushing this stroller. I’m not kidding you when I say the wind was SO strong that it literally picked the stroller up, blew it over top of Grayson’s head, and pulled him down backwards not only landing him flat on his back but scraping his poor little knuckles on the wall as he fell clinging onto the stroller handles. He starts bawling. I, obviously, am running to him at this point, pick him up, pick the stroller up, holding him tightly feeling absolutely awful that I’m so stubborn and forcing something he so evidently does not want to do. Then, I look around, and there are at least 10 people giving me the stare down. Judging. Hard core judging. Like a knight in shining armor, Dustin rounds the corner and sees us. He’s confused because, of course, he has NO idea about the craziness that just went down. So, he starts pushing the stroller. He then sees me crying so he takes Grayson, and I’m walking like a mad woman away from all the people staring while Dustin trails behind me so baffled. When we got far enough away, I tell him what just happened. I could see the smile on his face as he told me that I was SUCH a good momma, and I did not need to let any of those people tell me otherwise. We head back to the car at this point, and I’m drying my tears while Dustin dries Grayson’s. Dustin is insisting that we still have plenty of time to get some pretty pictures. We’ll just drive somewhere on the other side of town to give both Gray and me time to chill out. I’m insisting that we are done, and it’s not happening. He knows how important this is to me so he doesn’t listen to me, and instead, drives to one of the spots where I took the wedding party the day before. We pay a parking meter and get out. Grayson isn’t feeling it again, but we find some sticks and sand to distract him. Then, he falls and cries. We hide behind a tree to distract him. Then, he falls and cries. As we are giving up hope, Dustin starts playing with him on the front porch of this AMAZING church, the light is killer, and Grayson starts laughing and running all over the place. FINALLY, I’m getting my Charleston pictures.

And that’s where we are here. The first few were from my Charleston location scouting the day before the wedding, and the rest are everything I just explained. My purpose in telling you all this is not to spill my guts but to confess that I’m a picture fanatic. Sometimes I force these moments that just aren’t awesome. I post them, everyone thinks it was all perfect, and I got this moment just candidly as it unfolded. Sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not, and I need you to know that. It finally became natural and organic, which is fun and dandy, but the process of getting there was rough on this day. So, I hope you like my transparency, and it gives you some kind of grace for your own pictures.

I’m a Knoxville Wedding Photographer that loves to travel… I shoot anywhere! If you have any questions about pricing or booking with me, click here to contact me now! If you liked what you saw above, go ahead and follow me on Facebook or Instagram to see my daily updates of the latest sessions!

 

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