There are some families who show up in front of my camera as clients and somehow, somewhere along the way, become friends. The Stringer family is one of those families.
I first photographed them back in May, and somewhere between that session and this one, our relationship shifted from photographer and client to something that feels much more like friendship. That’s one of my favorite parts of this job. You can meet another military family because you’re all navigating the same crazy life, and suddenly you find yourself talking about far more than photographs. You understand the deployments, the training, the constant goodbyes and hellos, and the strange rhythm of never quite knowing how long you’ll be in one place. You understand what it means to build friendships quickly because military life doesn’t always give you the luxury of taking your time.
And then, somehow, they even got to meet Kevin.
For anyone who knows us, you know that’s actually a pretty big deal. Kevin is rarely home, so the fact that this family got to meet him felt like one of those little military-life miracles. It made this friendship feel even more real to me—to have people who had become part of my world finally meet the person who is usually missing from it.
When Mom reached out about another session in September, there was a very specific reason behind it. Their daughter was preparing for hip surgery, and Mom wanted updated photographs of her before surgery and before the full casts would become part of her everyday life. The surgery is happening today, which makes these photographs feel even more significant now than they did when we were standing out in the dunes.
But this time, we weren’t just meeting up for another family session. We were meeting at one of my absolute favorite places to photograph: White Sands National Park.
White Sands is one of those places that never quite gets old to me. I can drive into the dunes and still have that moment of, How is this real? The endless white gypsum sand, the mountains in the distance, the way the evening light stretches across the dunes, it is such a unique landscape, and it makes almost every photograph feel a little bit magical.
The funny thing is that White Sands is a classic favorite for me, but I don’t get nearly as many families who are willing to make the drive. It’s almost two hours from El Paso, and I completely understand why that’s a commitment. So when a family says, “Yes, let’s go,” I am always a little extra excited. And this family had never been before.
Watching them experience it for the first time was one of my favorite parts of the evening. They were genuinely in awe of the landscape, and I think sometimes it is easy to forget how special these places are when you live close enough to treat them like they’re just another spot on the map. Seeing White Sands through the eyes of someone experiencing it for the first time reminded me why I love bringing families out here in the first place.
And it was the perfect backdrop for this particular season of their lives.
There is something about these images that I love because nothing about the session feels overly complicated. They are simply a family walking through the white sand together. Dad carrying his little boy. Mom holding their daughter close. Their son running ahead of them, completely unconcerned with the fact that we were supposed to be taking family pictures. There are wide, quiet photographs where the landscape seems to stretch forever, and then there are the little moments tucked inside them—the way Dad holds his son, the way everyone gathers together, and the way their daughter is simply herself before this next chapter begins.
Because sometimes we don’t realize we’re photographing a before until we’re already on the other side of it.
This family will have photographs from before surgery. Before casts. Before recovery. Before they know exactly what the next few months will look like. They will have photographs of their little girl exactly as she was in this season, running through the sand with her family in one of the most beautiful places in New Mexico.
And for me, there is something especially meaningful about being trusted with that.
May was supposed to be one session. Instead, it became the beginning of a friendship. September became another chance to photograph a family I now genuinely care about, in a place they had never seen before, during a season that mattered to them. Somewhere in between those two sessions, they became one of those military families I hope we are lucky enough to keep long after the next PCS, the next set of orders, or whatever comes next.
I don’t know what the next chapter will look like for them. I just know that today, as their daughter heads into surgery, I am incredibly grateful they made sure to stop and document the chapter before it. Before the casts, before recovery, before things changed.
Just them, together, standing in the middle of a place they had never seen before, exactly as they are right now.
Stringer family, thank you for this opportunity to spend time with you and photograph your sweet love and family. Happy healing to sweet Ellie.
xoxoxox- Brenda
