Mesa Photographer | Family Pictures at the Salt River

‘Tis the season for family pictures, and I am in love with these candid and fun family pictures taken at the Salt River in Mesa, AZ!  Katie, Cole and little B make the cutest family of three.  Katie and Cole actually lived in our neighborhood when we first moved to Arizona, but they moved before their little guy came along, so it was so much fun to see them again and meet their sweet boy who is just a couple months younger than my little girl.  (If you’re familiar with local small businesses in Arizona, you might recognize Katie as one of the owners of Wildflower Shirt Shop, a t-shirt company that sells the cutest Arizona themed t-shirts–check them out here). 

Katie loves the look of the desert and water scenery by the Salt River, so we met at the Phon D Sutton recreation area for their family pictures.  It was such a beautiful day, and the sunlight was so perfect during this shoot!  Made me so glad that we had rescheduled their shoot from a few weeks earlier when it was pouring rain.  I had been to Phon D Sutton once before for a shoot during the heat of summer, but it turns out that in the fall, this location is like a Mesa photographer hotspot!  We did the first part of the session in a secluded area I had scouted out in the trees, but then when we walked down the main trail to the water, we were all laughing at the sight of photographers and posed families literally everywhere we turned.  It’s such a beautiful location that it’s easy to understand why it’s such a popular place to take pictures!  Katie requested that we focus more on candid shots than posed pictures and I was more than happy to oblige!  I love the way that candid photos tell a story and document a family just being themselves and playing together.  I loved hanging out with Katie, Cole, and little B and I can’t get over how much I love their family pictures!

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy this cute Gilbert family photo session.
Check it out here.