Wangetti Beach has a stretch of paperbark trees that Haylee had loved for years before this session ever happened — pale, twisting trunks leaning out toward the sand, unlike anywhere else along this coastline. It was the obvious choice once she mentioned it, and it turned out to be exactly the kind of backdrop that needs very little else to make a photo feel special.

This one came ahead of Haylee and Hayden's wedding, which I was lucky enough to photograph as well — so there's a nice thread running between the two, the same two people a little earlier in their story, still in the lead-up to their day. Their son Reed came along for the session too, and as anyone who's photographed a family with young kids will tell you, some of the best moments happen in the gaps between the "proper" shots — the in-between glances, the distraction of a small person wanting attention, the laughing that follows.

It's one of my favourite things about sessions like this: they end up capturing a version of a couple that a wedding day, as beautiful as it is, doesn't always leave room for.