A Southern Girl's Love for Snow
Growing up in the bottom parts of Texas, you get the cold and the rain, but RARELY the snow! I can remember countless Christmas's I've spent hoping and waiting for a white Christmas, but it never came. I've always told myself that when I move out, I would move as far north as I could to have a successful white Christmas. Turns out, you don't have to go too far! I'm not saying I can promise you at white Christmas in Wichita, KS but I CAN promise snow a few days out of the year!
The first time I remember seeing snow was when my grandparents moved us from Conroe, TX to Cherokee, OK. It was honestly really unexpected coming from south Texas, that it would snow in Oklahoma. I was in 7th grade, it was on a Friday and they had to cancel school because of it. It was a pretty good amount and I was happy because back then we had to walk to school! I remember stepping outside for the first time that day and being blinded by the beauty of it all. Or so I thought, turns out bright white snow with the sun shining is actually quite blinding to someone who wasn't used to it! My favorite memory so far with snow was when Dustin and I moved to West Virginia! We moved in May, just 4 days after we were married, and I was over the moon with our first winter in WV coming up. Nobody warned us just how much it snowed there. We were living in our 1 bedroom farmhouse that had the old base board heaters and was just over a mile up a steep mountain 20 minutes outside of town. I woke up thinking about how I was going to get to work but when I looked out of our kitchen window, I knew there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to make it! It had snowed 11 INCHES OVERNIGHT in Princeton, West Virginia! I had never seen so much snow in my entire life. I called into work trying to explain just how much we had gotten on top of the mountain and to my surprise, they weren't even mad about it because they KNEW I was not going to get down that mountain. Dustin and I spent the whole day building snowman's, having snow ball fights, and plenty of cups of hot cocoa. It was amazing to be able to enjoy so much snow!
SNOW DAY IN KANSAS
It's quite funny how when adults see 3-4" of snow on the news, they drive to the nearest store and buy all the milk, all the bread, all the water, all the toilet paper.. to prepare for the biggest snow storm of the year. However, when a photographer sees 3-4" of snow on the news, they charge all of their batteries, find their snow boots, stock up on hand warmers and are CONSTANTLY posting to social media to prepare for the upcoming 2 day snow photo marathon!
I will admit, I was a LITTLE bit worried about the roads but when you've lived in West Virginia for 2 years, you kinda become an expert at driving in the snow. When people see 3-4" of snow, they get extremely worried about the road conditions, but the real problem though, is always the reckless drivers who don't seem to care. The only struggle when it comes to finding clients who want photo's in the snow is finding people who will actually get out in it but I think people need to give Kansas a little more credit when it comes to road preparation! They did a fantastic job of salting and clearing the roads for people to commute where they needed to.
Fun in the Sun!
Okay, it wasn't sunny yesterday but it was still a lot of fun! To start the day I made one final post to social media so I could fit as many slots as I could while I was out. I ended up having sessions between 12:30-3:15pm and then from 4-5pm, which seems like a lot but I would honestly rather be out all day then have the sessions scattered over the weekend! Knowing I would be out all day, I dressed for success! I layered down having think socks under thick socks, leggings under my jeans and a long sleeve under a bigger long sleeve! Do you ever prepare to go sledding or do any kind of outdoor activity in the snow and get all sweaty and hot when your inside your house before you leave? Yeah, that was me yesterday. Once I had everything packed and ready to go I headed out to what would be a long day of sessions. It was totally worth it however to see all of the beautiful images that came out from it! After being out in the cold I came home, started uploading the images for post processing, grabbed my favorite comfort food and binge watched "The Rookie", one of my all time favorite tv shows! A great ending to a great day!
