A few months ago, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post that set me back a minute or two. A friend had posted about a local photographer that was holding an auction to raise funds for a military family. A Marine Corps Sargent had lost his three-year-old daughter and Nicole of Nicole Benitez Photography was raising funds to assist with the funeral costs. Gulp. I realize that the money was probably the last thing on this family’s mind, considering that their precious girl was no longer with them. But, since I didn’t personally know them, I thought that my contribution–though not large by any means–would be able to assist them and lift some of the financial burden.

Nicole was running an auction, so I immediately bid on a few items. One of the items I bid on was a one-on-one mentoring session with Nicole. Though I was outbid at the last moment, I asked Nicole if she would honor my final bid in exchange for her donating an additional mentoring session. You should have seen how excited I was when she said yes!

So, here we are, months and tons of emails and Pinterest pins later, and I was able to meet up with Nicole for our one-on-one day. We met at her house in Fallbrook, where she went over some business basics and we chatted about styling portrait sessions. She had contacted two high school seniors, with whom we met up at the Dinwiddie Preserve in Fallbrook. We set up a rustic Americana scene and shot until we lost sunlight!

Here are some of my favorite images of Camille, who was fabulous to work with!

Thank you, Camille, for spending your Sunday afternoon with us! It was awesome to get to know you. And many, many, many thanks to the generous Nicole Benitez! You rock!

Stay tuned for Megan’s post tomorrow!