This awesome family traveled from different parts of Canada to be together for the holiday season. I was extremely honored to take their first family portrait. After the portrait session, one of the daughters gave me a card that read:
Michele,
“Thanks so much for giving us the best gift ever received. No words can express how grateful we are”.
There was also a $100 bill in it. At first I thought it was money to go towards portraits, but later found out it was my tip. Needless to say I was shocked and tried to put it towards their portraits without success!
Every year I have my favorite portraits I’ve taken for different reasons, this one is at the top of the list. Not because of the enormous tip, but because it’s a family that came together for their first and last portrait. You see someone in this portrait has terminal cancer. It pulls at your heart string even if you don’t know the person. I often wonder why families don’t have professional portraits taken more often, but I truly enjoy creating 
lasting memory for them….. and that is priceless.
Photography by Michele 