Some time ago my phone rang and a deep male voice was asking if I was available for a family session on the 20th of August. No other date was suitable for the customer, so despite the fact that it was the last evening before our trip to Italy, I agreed. Intuition, I guess. That Friday was crazy. Finishing business stuff before leaving to holidays is always a nightmare, everyone knows that. I also had to pick kids from the daycare, pack our stuff, arrange all the flower watering, feed a snake of our neighbours who were on holidays and in general not forget about gazillion of little things.
When dear hubby came from work, I was already waiting at the door, handed over kids, a quick kiss and out I was heading to the session. Well in time and luckily so, as there was a major car crash on Kehä I with 3 police cars and 2 fire trucks. I came in time and what a heavenly transformation I underwent from one stressed tired mama to a relaxed photographer as I was stepping into their house. I love the effect my job has on me. It makes me a better person. 
And there they were – a family of 5, full of smiles and good mood and absolutely, professionally ready for the shoot. Kids were almost adults, so I tried my luck:
“Everyone speaks English?”
“German,” the answer came. Now what you should know about me is that I am from a little town in the Czech republic, located mere 5 km from the border with Germany. We all speak German there. I have been working in Germany. My German is was fluent. Back then. Now I can understand pretty much everything, but if I try to speak it, my brain sadly switches to English after about the third word. Without me even knowing about it. Well, so that was not going to work. But they all also spoke English. Lucky Niki.
I really like the interaction among all of you. Rarely you can see so much understanding between parents and their teenage kids. You were great and there is a plenty of other beautiful pictures coming your way soon.
They can be summed up by words of Barbara Bush: “To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.”
This time the whole extended family was going to be in the spot light. Everyone, Janne and his sister with family and their parents. We photographed near Lohja at their parents’s house and it was a fantastic spot, right in the middle of nowhere. Despite many warnings I didn’t get lost. And I don’t use GPS! Just old fashioned map. I found Lohja. Then the smaller town. Then the road. The the mail box with number 79. The only problem appeared when I drove into the yard. There was a lady, smoking, clearly confused with having a photographer driving up to her front door.
Because now they can put nice clothes on and will see friends every day and some of them might, actually, enjoy learning new things.
