Aadyha & Abby | Sedona Best Friend Session
Your best friend is someone who is by your side through thick and thin, whether it be falling in love, grief, career changes, tragedy, relocation, or anything in between. Your best friend is likely one of the first people you go to regardless of whether you need someone to celebrate with or a shoulder to cry on. Friendships can be soulmate connections, someone you feel that you were simply meant to be walking through life with, and a photo shoot with your best friend is a fun and lasting way to honor both your relationship and their presence in your life. It can also be an excuse to spend some quality time with that best friend, which becomes harder and harder to come by as an adult as the pace of life increases and your opportunities to just “hang out” with the people that are important to you grow harder to come by.
A photoshoot with your bestie is also a great way to help you become more comfortable in front of the camera. A best friend, obviously, is someone you feel completely safe with and who you know will encourage you to be yourself without judgment or hesitation. You should uplift each other and be one another’s greatest hype-person, and just like how they do this for you in life they’ll do it during the shoot! Without a doubt, your love for each other and the energy you two share will create a dynamic synchronicity that will reveal itself in the photos and really allow the unique bond that the two of you share to be immortalized. A photoshoot with your best friend not only honors your special relationship, but it honors the two (or more!) of you as individuals. No best friends are identical, in appearance nor personality, but rather two intricate parts that fit together like puzzle pieces to create a beautiful whole!
I definitely experienced all of these things and more during the course of my session with Aadhya & Abby. Though I largely played the role of fly on the wall during this shoot I also felt so included and welcome to observe the connection that they had, and we were able to capture the strong yet intimate bond that these friends had built up over years of knowing one another.
The girls had originally planned a roadtrip together to Sedona in the spring of 2021. Aadhya reached out to me about planning a shoot for the two of them while they were in town, with the focus being highlighting not only their years-long friendship but the two of them as individuals. It was obvious to me right away when I met them that these were two free-spirited girls who complimented eachother perfectly. Aadhya’s extroverted, out-going personality was matched by Abby’s more peaceful, introverted energy. Aadhya also brough some beautiful necklaces that were made by a friend of hers who handcrafts beautiful metal and gemstone Primitiva jewelry pieces. She also had plenty of poses in mind for both herself and her and Abby together, and she very much showed off her artistic, dancer background and Abby was totally up for all her ideas.
The girls were a blast to work with, and were very kindhearted and down to earth people which are the exact clients I love to work with most. We wrapped up our session by just dancing around on the red rocks and enjoying the beautiful Sedona scenery as well as our time together. We took some shots as they laughed and danced around, and got some dynamic shots of them playing with the movement of scarves as they twirled around. I felt very lucky to get this glimpse into their beautiful, adventurous friendship and be part of one of their many memories together.
