My evening with the Ritters was—as you'll see in the photos—very much maligned with August's signature wildfire smoke. What I think you'll also see is that West Glacier and Glacier National Park are still beautiful, and it did nothing to detract from the fun had. It's funny that parents of really young children often apologize if a toddler has a meltdown, won't focus, or is just hyper and crazy. But I'll be honest I think hyper toddlers are usually easier to deal with—and frankly more fun to photograph on the photographer's end even if the parents don't think so—than moody teenagers. All of that said, these older children were great sports and obviously found that there can be fun in family photos, and it was fantastic.

What do you do with pre-teen boys for family portraits? Promise them the opportunity to splash around and get dirty in their nice clothes at the end of the session! I enjoyed spending time with this family from Texas, discussing their large road trip that mirrored to some degree my own family's road trip that ended up with ultimately moving here to Montana. I can't say that the Zelisko family will do the same, but I do think they enjoyed their time spent here, and it was such a pleasure to document a tiny slice of that.