One small but still heartbreaking part of the COVID-19 crisis is that cherry blossom portrait sessions were almost entirely cancelled. I’m always in awe of how beautiful the Tidal Basin becomes when it’s filled with this light pink flowers and even had my husband and I photographed here last year to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I did luck out that at the very beginning of peak bloom, before official shelter-in-place protocols were announced, my friends Logan and Megan braved the chilly early morning air to wander around the Tidal Basin for their portrait session! The session had been a Valentine’s Day present from Logan to Megan which was just such a cute idea.

The Tidal Basin area was nearly empty at sunrise, and you don’t have to spend long to get gorgeous portraits here which was great because we were freezing after just half an hour or so. Logan and Megan are a super chill but also super sweet couple and they looked so comfortable in front of the camera and they were having fun laughing together the entire time despite being so cold! I was worried that directing my friends for photos would feel weird since I’ve only really ever photographed couples who were strangers (honestly the majority of my friends are still single 20-somethings haha) but it was a breeze. It’s hard to take great photos in such a great location anyway!

Fingers crossed that next year we’ll get to photograph way more cherry blossom portraits… I know we’ll be making every attempt to do so when the time comes! In the meantime, while we’re all stuck inside, we enjoy the cherry blossoms from our phone/computer screen and dream of the day we can enjoy them in person again!