Casen has the coolest birthdays.

I could just leave it at that and share a bunch of photos from his session and we’d all be satisfied because it’s so cute and fun….but his mom and dad deserve some fluff!

I’ve been photographing Casen since he was in the womb and they’ve always done something special for their shoots for and with him. For their maternity shoot we went to mosquito late an used things like baby shoes and scrabble pieces to celebrate his little life that was about to be. First birthday, we needed up back at the lake and his mom made a hot air balloon for him to play in. He was so happy. Second birthday, we got to go to an aviation museum and explore the airplane memorabilia and run around the property chasing a crazy toddler. Third birthday, they really pulled strings and we went to a local fire department and played on a firetruck with a super cool fireman friend. Which brings us to birthday number four…

It may seem like repeat theme, we did aviation for two and four… booooring. Nope. At the end of 2018 Casen’s dad, a lineman, got his pilot’s license for flying. There was a toss up for bucket truck or airplanes and for sake of the ease of scheduling and time of day, mom opted for planes. We got to go to the actual hanger and checkout the plane is his dad flies! So cool.

Casen pretends like he’s shy, when he gets around me. He’s not, and I can break him out of his shell pretty easily. This time was a little different. He was also in uncharted territory, as well as hanging out with me. He had the excitement of having a plane all to himself, warming up to me, following the rules to be safe and the overwhelming amount of buttons. He stayed pretty calm, quiet and careful for the first half of his shoot.

Eventually, Casen’s dad pulled the air plane out further so we could really run around and Case absolutely warmed up. He ran around like he was flying, grinning from ear to ear, climbing up in the cock pit and cheesing with his dad.

We finished up with a few traditional portraits of this character of a kid and a family shot. It’s definitely a shoot for the books, and something that I hope will forever be super special for Casen, his dad and their family.

ps. I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll see of aviation with this family, so stay tuned. ;)