06/26/2026
Day 6 of Finding Kaitie: The Friend Photography Gave Me
Some sessions mean more than pretty photos.
Some sessions feel like a reminder that photography has given me more than a career.
It has given me people.
It gave me Rachel.
I met Rachel through photography, and over the last six years, she has become one of the closest friends in my life. The kind of friend who doesn’t just show up for the cute moments, but the heavy ones too. The kind of friend who has watched me grow, fall apart, rebuild, laugh again, create again, and somehow still chooses to stand beside me through every version of myself.
And today, on her anniversary, I get to post photos that feel extra special.
Because I wasn’t just photographing a couple.
I was photographing my best friend being loved.
I was photographing the way they look at each other when they forget the camera is there.
The quiet smiles.
The forehead-to-forehead moments.
The laughter in the field.
The playful, messy, real kind of love.
The kind of love that feels soft, safe, and rooted.
The kind of love that doesn’t have to perform to be beautiful.
And maybe that’s why I love these photos so much.
Because they remind me that photography has never just been about images to me. It has been about connection. It has been about seeing people fully. It has been about freezing the seasons of life that matter most before they quietly become memories.
Somewhere along the way, this job gave me a best friend.
And then years later, it gave me the honor of capturing a piece of her love story.
Rachel, I am forever grateful for you. For your friendship, your heart, your loyalty, your laughter, and the way you’ve loved me through so many chapters of my life.
Happy anniversary, friend.
I love you more than I can probably fit into one caption.
And I hope when you look at these, you see what I saw:
A love worth celebrating.
A life worth documenting.
And a friendship I’ll never stop being grateful photography brought me.
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For anyone new here: I’m doing 30 Days of Finding Kaitie Again, after suffering from chronic depression. Somewhere in survival mode, I lost pieces of myself, including the part of me that loved photography. So for 30 days, I’m posting sessions from the last year that reminded me why I love photography, why this job matters to me, and why I’m choosing to find my way back to myself one post at a time.
