We spent an early morning photographing this beautiful little girl and her wonderful parents at Folly Beach during sunrise.

We arrived first thing at Folly Beach before the sun was coming up over the horizon for our beach session. It was a gorgeous sight and the light was perfect.

I previously photographed this little girl for her nine month milestone session. Look how she has grown!

She is such a serious little soul. You can see it in her sweet face that she is thoughtful and pensive.

She would get brave enough to splash in the water, but then to run to mommy for a snuggle when the waves came in a little too fast.

As she got more comfortable, she loved to point out the birds.

She is right at the age where she is toeing the line of baby and independent toddler. It is such a lovely and bittersweet transition and capturing this stage is such a privilege.

I always have giddy energy before doing a session in downtown Charleston. You never know what you're going to get - most days there are dozens of tourists exploring our beautiful city, sometimes you'll see 10 different brides taking their bridal portraits, and you might even see the pirate lady walking around with a group of students giving tours. Lately the weather has kept me guessing as well. When the day finally rolled around for this family's maternity pictures, we got the most beautiful February day to document baby girl #2's sweet little bump.

Mom missed out on maternity pictures with her first as big sister decided she was going to come early. As we walked around chatting about preparing for her second baby, I could tell mom was relieved to have made it this far along.

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably saw the story about the horse. Big sister (who I had to call Elsa (from Frozen) the entire session) wanted a picture with a horse so bad. We kept trying, but between cars and a moving target, we kept missing the moment. At the very end of the session, we were finally on a quiet street when we heard a horse clicking down the street. The stars aligned and WE GOT THE PICTURE! The carriage driver even stopped so big sister could pet the horse. It was such a special moment to end the night. And with that, here are the pictures from the wonderful night in downtown Charleston...