The Severa Family – One More Sunset in Manteo - Outer Banks Family Photography

Some family sessions are about updating the pictures on the wall. Others are about remembering a place.

For the Severa family, this evening on the soundfront in Manteo was definitely the latter.

The parents are getting ready to sell their house in the neighborhood, and before that chapter closes, they wanted one more family photography session in a place that means a lot to them. This is where they were married, so coming back with their son for photographs made this session about much more than simply getting a new family portrait.

We spent the evening around the sound, using the boardwalk, shoreline and open water for a mixture of individual portraits, photographs of the three of them together, and plenty of images of Mom and Dad as a couple. I especially loved being able to photograph their son on the boardwalk with his parents together in the background. It quietly tells the whole story without needing any explanation.

And then Manteo gave us one heck of a sunset.

As the light dropped, the sky over the sound completely changed. We were able to finish with some beautiful silhouettes, reflections in the water and a few photographs of the family standing together in the sound beneath that huge Outer Banks sky.

One of my favorites from the evening is actually one of the simplest. The three of them sitting together, backs to the camera, looking out across the water. There are two empty beach chairs in the foreground and this incredible sunset beyond them. Knowing the story behind the session makes that photograph hit a little differently.

Homes get sold. Families move. Kids grow up. Places that were once part of everyday life eventually become places we remember.

That's one of the reasons I love family photography on the Outer Banks. Sometimes we're not just photographing people. We're preserving a little piece of a place and a time in their lives that they know they're going to miss.

For the Severa family, this was one last evening together on the Manteo soundfront, in the neighborhood where their family story began.

The Severa Family – One More Sunset in Manteo

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