Fun Family Photo Session at the Bellevue Botanical Garden

Several years ago I was the photographer at May and Joel’s wedding.  As with many of the couples I have worked with, we have stayed in touch.  In September of 2018 they got in touch to have me take some family photos including their new daughter Zoe, who was ~9 months old.  You can see that session by clicking on the link.  And now Zoe has a little brother, Zack, so it was time for more photos.  May and Joel wanted to try to get these photos taken while Zack was the same age as Zoe was during our earlier session, so we took a chance on the weather and set it up.

We decided to do the session at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, one of my favorite locations in the area for almost any kind of photo session.  Because it was still early spring I knew that the amount of flowers that would be in bloom anywhere in the area was going to be low, and I know that even without flowers the Botanical Gardens offers many wonderful photo opportunities.

We met at the park around 11AM on a Saturday, and as expected there were quite a few other visitors to the park.  But one nice thing about the Botanical Garden is the size, and that even with a lot of people there it does not feel crowded.  We lucked out on the weather, which had been wet most of the week but cooperated nicely for us with a dry if cloudy day.

Our Exploration of the Park

We spent almost two hours just working our way through the park, stopping for photos whenever we spotted a backdrop that we liked.  The kids did great, with big sister Zoe frequently stealing the show from baby Zack.  Zack is only 9 months old and not able to walk yet, so I wanted to be sure to find places where he could crawl safely.  As with all babies that age, Zack was very interested in trying to chew on pretty much anything he could put into his mouth whenever he got the chance!

My favorite spot for photos here is the suspension bridge, which is located in the woods about 1/4 mile from the entrance.  A very popular destination for anyone who has heard about it, it is a lot of fun for photos.  And the kids (as well as adults) are always impressed with the structure.

We finally called it quits and made our way back to our cars, but not before we got a lot of good photos.