Vienna, Austria | von Feilitzsch Portrait Session

This post might border a little more on the personal side but I feel it is essential to know how much I valued Fabian and Mina and the time I spent with them during their photo session. When Mina (who is a talented photographer herself!) had emailed me wanting to book a session for her and her husband I was experiencing a season in my life which I had never experienced or encountered before and consequently, I had a lot of misgivings about finalizing a session for them. Life after loss affects every aspect of your life and I had just begun to discover that when a little more than a year ago my twin sons passed away.
Loss shattered my world and shredded away any meaning that it could have for a long stretch of time. It was hard to see the purpose, the beauty, the promise of anything in life when so much was taken away from me. Since the boys passed away, I noticed my levels of creativity (if I can claim to possess any) were nonexistent. I couldn't pick up my camera, nor did I want to. It seemed so very purposeless to attempt to try and even more so when the world was absent of color. I could only see things in sadness and in the darkening light of things I had lost. To attempt to see it otherwise or even pretend otherwise would have taken a superhuman strength that I did not possess. But life doesn’t stop even when you feel it has. And Mina and Fabian were one of the first clients to reach out to me and want to book with me shortly after all that had happened. Though I had my misgivings (and there were many) my husband urged me to just try, so I confirmed the date, the time, the place, and left the rest up to whoever is in charge heaven. 
The day of their session I had so much anxiety. I showed up 45 minutes early and discovered the place we had decided to meet at was closed (I'll take an extra helping of anxiety thank you very much). So I quickly mapped out another place we could go. On top of that (because contrary to all those quotes, life likes to give you more than you can handle), it had begun to rain (two helpings of anxiety to-go please). I was mentally kicking myself for thinking I was even up to the task of this. 
But then Mina and Fabian showed up, all calm, collected, soft, graceful, and the kindest and warmest people you could ever imagine. They made me feel like one of those warm fluffy pieces of bread that have just come out of the oven, the kind that makes you wish you could turn into a tiny person and crawl into the middle of the warm, soft, fluffy, airiness of the bread to sleep. They are those kind of people. They both are an instant mix of ease and kindness. They were what my heart and nerves needed. 
I don't know if they ever picked up on how frazzled and out of sorts I was, but if they did, they didn't bring attention to it and were gracious about it. We wandered about the Rathaus and down on to Cafe Landtmann, where we paused for coffee while it rained. During that time we chatted about politics, coffee, people, photography, and the number of dogs they’ve fostered. We talked about how they met (high school sweethearts!) and which film photographer’s work Mina and I love the most. They also, so very kindly, bought my cafe latte. Little things like that are a testament to the kind of people they are.
From there on we wandered into the Volksgarten where we captured some of my favorite shots, even despite the rain. I love how understandably smitten Fabian is with Mina in those shots. I very clearly remember taking those shots; it was then I remember thinking "maybe there are still some beautiful things in the world." Because as I stood there taking that shot, while the sound of the rain softly fell, and while they looked at each other, so clearly still in love, I realized it couldn't be anything else but a beautiful thing. 
Here are the photos from their session.