"May you Always have a Shell in your Pocket and Sand in your Toes" | Carolina and Kure Beach Family Photographer
My little family has found a summer refuge at Carolina Beach, NC. The little condo we have rented for the last four summers sits right across the street from a beach access and is within walking distance of a lake, park, playground, dozens of restaurants, the boardwalk area with kiddie rides, plenty of ice cream, and the Majik Beans coffee shop where my husband and sons love to frequent (not just for coffee—there are old-school video games that they love to play)! And then there’s Britt’s Donuts…enough said. This summer we ate a donut almost every morning for breakfast! Just a short drive away is the Fort Fisher aquarium and a ferry ride over to Southport, where several movies were filmed. We love to eat at The Frying Pan—I could eat their sweet potato biscuits all day long! And over the last couple of years we have begun to explore nearby Wilmington. It’s the perfect, family-friendly place for our little family to vacation! I even happened to get into a photo with my family this summer thanks to a friendly passerby who offered to take a photo with my camera for me, and everyone was smiling! This is a rarity and already hanging on our wall as a canvas.
A couple of years ago I found out that one of my friend-clients has a vacation/work home in Kure Beach, just five minutes up the road, and this summer, the stars aligned and her whole family was there while we were, so she asked me to do some family portraits on the beach! Of course I said yes—even though photography is a second job for me, it doesn’t always feel like “work!” (Plus it was a nice little break from all the boy-wildness that is my family!) I met the Sharps at their house and we rode down to a spot right near Fort Fisher that has a beautiful green space as well as a gorgeous little beach. I taught their son Jacob when he was in the fifth grade, so it’s always extra special to see him and hear about all that he is doing! Tammi and John’s grandson, Caiden, is always a hoot—you never know what silly faces he will make or poses he will invent! Luckily he adores his Uncle Jacob, so I always manage to capture some sweet photos of the two of them together. It’s a good thing that we did their family portraits first, because once we got down to the beach, Caiden only had eyes for the surf! He ran right up to the edge and plopped down in the mud, which helped us create some fun and sweet images of him being all boy! I so enjoyed meeting up with them and taking their photos, especially in such a beautiful location where I don’t always get to photograph families!
