KC Travels Part Three: Isle of Skye Portraits

If you missed last week’s post, go back and check it out for a brief introduction of how I ended up in Scotland with so many great friends/models! My friend Mandy is very much a planner, and had every detail worked out on our itinerary. But in the immortal words of Scottish poet Robert Burns “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” So in true Scottish spirit, our trip up to the Highlands didn’t go quite as planned. Only Mandy’s family and I, and our friends Kristi and Ray made the drive up, and we planned to drive about 8 hours, stay the night in Inverness, then get up the next morning and drive to the Isle of Skye. But due to some navigational miscommunications, we drove over TWELVE hours and had just enough time to crash at our bed and breakfast in Inverness before waking up at sunrise to make the drive further into the highlands. Our plan for the day was to take advantage of the amazing scenery and get some portraits while we were there. I photographed Kristi and Ray at the Old Man of Storr and the Fairy Pools, both icons of the Scottish highlands. I have never seen landscapes like the ones that make up Scotland, and the highlands themselves are in a league of their own. I always tell people it’s funny– when some folks see a beautiful place, they want to photograph that beauty. When I see a beautiful place, I want to photograph people IN that place! I am so glad Kristi wanted portraits of her and Ray and that she allowed me to capture them. They trusted me in every pose and looked so natural, and they basically made my dreams come true by letting me shoot in Scotland. While my desire to do this shoot was simply born out of excitement to finally see my favorite place in person, it held a much deeper meaning for Kristi and Ray, who had just experienced the loss of a pregnancy after six years of infertility. In Kristi’s own words: “Looking back, we now realize just how much this trip, this land, and experiencing it all with our friend Kayla was a Godsend. The images she delivered to us restored the confidence I had lost in my broken body. Her knowledge of posing made the difference in me just liking the images and us having a renewed sense of love in our marriage and hope in the future. I felt like julie Andrews on the cover of The Sound of Music.” Kristi’s story serves as a reminder that I always need– that while this may be “just a job” to me, the experience I give my clients can mean so much more. I was aware of Kristi and Ray’s situation, but I wonder how many times my images have come to represent a pivotal point in someone’s life and I never even knew it. I feel so blessed to have a career where people allow me into their lives and let me capture their journey. I’m happy to say that today Kristi and Ray are amazing foster parents to FIVE kiddos and I will be forever thankful to them for letting me do this session, and this trip, with them.