Best Buddies ...and why photographing children feels so rewarding to me

Cousins and best buddies - I think this describes well and would be a fair sum up their relationship.

When I say best buddies, think of all that comes with being really close to another toddler's heart - love, hugs, being excited to see each other and to play together, to kiss each other's bubus and than fight over toys :)

I've been wanting to take pictures of the two of them together for a while now. With the beautiful weather and gorgeous sunshine in Portland, the evening seemed perfect. So on a whim we got together on a beautiful field of daisies and lupus.

However, when you are a toddler who didn't get her nap, and it is already past your bed time (8 pm) you don't care how excited your parents are to have pictures of you taken, or how pretty the field and the light are, and the least of your worries is which direction you should be facing. The thing you want most is to be held. And go home :)

I was very disappointed that I didn't even get a chance to really get them in the field. They had their own agenda and I just had to play along. But as always, I came home to find some true gems in the batch of images. Moments of them being who they are, with the smiles, the laughter and the tears, glimpses of their care free childhood that flies by, oh so fast.

It is these moments that I capture that make my heart burst with contentment - the pure and naive moments and joy and sadness and everything in between in a child's life. Memories that last a life time and are worth the world when they grow up and fly out of the nest to find and make their own way in life.