Full Circle at the Mountain | Mary + David's Maternity Session | Mount Rainier National Park

There is a particular kind of joy that comes with photographing a couple for the second time, years after the first. You know their laugh already. You know how they lean into each other. You know that what you are documenting is not just a moment but a chapter in a much longer story.

I photographed Mary and David's wedding in San Francisco, and when they reached out about a maternity session at Mount Rainier, I said yes before I finished reading the message.

We started at the Skyline Trail at Paradise, and the mountain did not disappoint. Snow still clung to the alpine meadows, the firs stood dark and dense against a pale sky, and the light had that cool, diffused quality that makes everything feel a little otherworldly. Mary in her soft pink sweater against all of that white and green, hands curled around her belly, smiling like someone who knows exactly how lucky she is. That opening frame set the tone for everything that followed.

Then came the ambulance.

Mary and David work in the medical field, and when we spotted one parked nearby, we did what any reasonable people would do: we asked if we could use it. The resulting photo, David hoisting a laughing Mary up onto his shoulders in front of that big bold emergency symbol, is one of my absolute favorites from the entire session. It is completely them. Joyful and a little ridiculous and utterly genuine.

We moved down to Reflection Lake for the second half of the session, and Mary changed into a cobalt blue lace gown with a flower crown tucked into her auburn hair. The lake was still and cool behind her, the treeline reflected in the water, and the whole scene felt like something out of a fairy tale. We also worked against the massive granite rock formations nearby, where the two of them sat together in the quiet, his lips at her temple, her eyes closed, the white chiffon of another gown pooling around her on the stone.

As the light dropped toward sunset, the sky opened up into something extraordinary: deep violet and coral bleeding across the horizon behind the snow-capped peaks. The last frames of the evening, the two of them facing each other in that fading glow, are the ones I keep coming back to.

Congratulations, Mary and David. You were wonderful the first time around, and you are even more wonderful now.