Marini Family Pictures

This is the first time in 3 years that my side of the family have been together. Chas just got home from his mission and Tim, Rachel and Wyatt came up from Utah for the week. We came over for the weekend to welcome Chas home. Sunday was the only day we were going to all be together, and the only day to get a family picture. It has been 4 years since our last family picture. Anyways, it was showing rain all weekend, so we weren't expecting to find a really great location. Just looking for something with cover that would cover all of us and Matt's lights. But Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, so while lunch was being made, Matt and I went looking for a good location. We found a great spot that would have a beautiful blue sky backround. The clouds were nice and fluffy white and the sun was shining so Matt wasn't even going to have to set up lights. We did see, however, a black cloud to the left, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere so we just hoped it would slowly go away in another direction. So Matt and I went back to Mom's house and everyone ate lunch, then got ready to go to the location. When we got out of the car, we noticed the dark cloud moving in. It blocked out some sunlight so Matt was going to have to set up his lights. It was also super windy. This was great for Reagan, who just got a kite from Grandma for her birthday. They had a great time flying the kite! The wind kept pulling it higher and higher. This was not great for Matt. His big reflector was acting as a kite/parachute. I couldn't even hold the stand up without feeling like I was going to fly away. So, Matt put the reflector away and just used a hard light. By now the black cloud was directly over us and it was so windy! We quickly got into position, Matt set the camera, jumped in the shot and "click." that was picture # 1.

It started to sprinkle. Matt ran back, set the camera again, ran back to his spot and "click." The cloud instantly opened up and the rain came down like a bucket of water. You can even see the raindrops in the pictures. The moms and kids ran to the car while the guys helped Matt get his lights and gear into the car. Crazy! But we got 2 great pictures out of the deal. What luck!

Here's the cousin picture we took back at Mom's house later on. It's the typical picture when you have a bunch of kids and a baby. But they are all together and that's all that matters.