When I made plans with mom Tori to photograph her three young daughters, I knew just the location to propose for the family photo session. Since her oldest daughter is my son’s classmate, I thought she might appreciate the idea of meeting at the beautiful Mount Pleasant Library around the corner from their school.

I’d been eying the lovely afternoon light at the library ever since I started making weekly after-school visits there with my son back in 2012. It was one of the city’s newly-renovated branches that had been closed during two years of construction. Now there is a light-filled, modern glass and metal addition on the back side of the building that is concealed by the historic original limestone structure. The building is north facing, providing wide expanses of shaded, natural light and handsome architectural details – just the right setting for my photographic purposes.

Our plans were almost thwarted by dark, cold, and drizzly weather. But with little time remaining to reschedule the session before the holidays, we agreed to go ahead as planned hoping that the rain would hold off for us. We lucked out with the rain. And you would never know from looking at the photos how cold it was. The girls were real troopers!