Jackie and Ashley: A Cozy Boise Couples Session

Some sessions unfold exactly the way you plan them. Some sessions take their own shape while you are busy chatting on the couch, and the second kind is almost always my favorite.

I met up with Jackie and Ashley at their apartment in Boise for what was supposed to be a bright, cozy couples session. But we got to talking, and then we got to really talking, and by the time we picked up the camera, the afternoon light had all but slipped away. What we got instead was this. Moodier, grainier, shot in the soft blues and warm pockets of their living space as the city lights started to blink on outside the window. Not the session we planned, but the one that felt right for them.

Jackie and Ashley are the kind of couple you root for immediately. They curl into each other without thinking about it. They laugh with their whole faces. There was this one moment on the bed where Ashley leaned in and whispered something that cracked Jackie up completely, and I am so glad the camera was already up because it is one of my favorite frames from the whole afternoon. That is the stuff I am chasing when I do intimate sessions like this. The real, unguarded, in-between moments that only happen when people forget the camera is there.

They also happen to be the couple behind Rocky Mountain Balloons, one of the coolest event design and balloon businesses in the Treasure Valley. If you have seen a giant, gorgeous balloon installation at a Boise event in the last couple of years, there is a very good chance it was theirs. Running a creative business together is no small thing, and watching the two of them move through their space together made it obvious why they are so good at what they do. They are a true team.

This session ended up being one of those gentle reminders that the plan does not really matter. The people do. The light does what it wants, the vibe does what it wants, and your job as the photographer is to just roll with it and catch what is actually there. What was actually there with Jackie and Ashley was soft, quiet, and full of love, and I am so grateful they invited me in.