Dale + Cea | Portraits Among the Phlox

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you’ll know that my Grandpa Dale and Grandma Cea hold a very sacred place in my heart. In the late spring, my grandparents entertained my dream to photograph them more/in a less traditional way. This is a big year for them, with my grandpa having turned 91 in March and my grandma 90 in June. Even more wild, they’ll be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary on October 9th and our family is getting together this weekend to celebrate the occasion early.

When I think of my grandma specifically, I think about her strong faith in God and her love for gardening (among many other things, like her knack for cooking for the town and how she shows up for all of her grandchildren). My grandpa, too, is steadfast in his faith. I asked them to bring along their rosaries as one of my favorite stories my grandma tells me is that they used to park their car and pray the rosary together. Funny enough, my grandpa actually attended seminarian school to study to become a Catholic priest until the academy realized was writing love letters to my grandma and discretely sending them to his uncle as the middle man.

The bugs were thick, but we were able to snag these few portraits at golden hour against the phlox.