A Nantucket Family Session: After the Storm | Photography by Kristen Swain

This Nantucket family session proved yet again that shooting right after a storm can be pure magic. On Nantucket, much more frequently than when I shoot in Boston, we have to make last-minute decisions about whether or not to move forward with a photo session at the scheduled time or push back. While overall I have a lot of confidence in my weather apps, when stormy conditions come through on Nantucket, things can move so quickly that it’s very hard to predict exactly when showers will begin or how long they’ll stick around, and often the sun peeks through unexpectedly and creates the most beautiful conditions for photography, at a time I would ordinarily cancel a session.

In the case of this Nantucket family photo session, we’d planned to meet at 10am on a Thursday, expecting that some showers predicted overnight Wednesday would pass by the late morning. When I woke early Thursday, though, I looked out the window and saw that it had not just rained — it had POURED, and the ground was still very wet and muddy in every direction I looked. Based on where we’d planned to shoot, I wasn’t sure my client would want to move forward in this messy situation. But upon reaching out to Vanessa to offer a change of time, I was pleasantly surprised to learn she and her family were still down — and I think this was the best decision they could have made. The post-storm atmosphere created the most beautiful lighting conditions, both on their farm-like property where we began the session (they have chickens — not pictured — and even an outdoor clawfoot tub!), as well as on the beach where we ended up for the last 20 minutes or so. And in part because of the iffy weather, we had the beach all to ourselves, which is of course a photographer’s dream.

I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking on this one — they’ll do a much better job of summarizing the uniqueness of Vanessa’s property and the loving sweetness of her family of four, who are building a gorgeous life together as year-round residents on this most special of islands.

A Nantucket Family Session: After the Storm | Photography by Kristen Swain

A Nantucket Family Session: After the Storm | Photography by Kristen Swain