Valentine's Day, Paris and rain.

Valentine's Day, Paris and rain. 

That's how I spent the morning of February 14th with Nancy and Steve. 

I've lived in Paris for 6 years now and I must admit that I may underestimate the weather more often than I should. As a tried and true New Yorker, I know bad weather, and Paris rarely has it. The few times is does rain, it never lasts very long or rains very hard. So when Steve sent and email about the V-day weather forecast of grey skies and rain, my assistant told him not to worry and to bring an umbrella. 

And 85% of the time, rain wouldn't be anything to worry about. Of course this time would be the exception to the rule. While getting ready for my Montmartre portrait session with Nancy and Steve, I glanced at the hour-by-hour forecast for the day. Rain was predicted to start at 10a.m., the same time our shoot was scheduled to start.

I arrived at the meeting point and was was soon joined by a lovey, smiling couple; holding an umbrella and, understandably, slightly apprehensive about how the shoot would unfold. I had done this enough times to know that photographically the rain would add to the session. Besides the way it felt, it wasn't actually raining hard enough to interfere with the shoot. This was not an easy thing to explain to a couple who was already a bit uncomfortable being photographed. So I decided to focus on the lightheartedness of the situation and try to keep those smiles for as long as I could.

The rain never let up and my lovely couple bravely endured the rain for as long as they could before calling it quits a bit early.

Luckily, I was able to get the shoots I wanted and knew that I'd have a few pleasant surprises to send them as their reward.

After all, Paris and love can sometimes be rainy, but sometimes all you need to get through a rainy day is someone beside you ... and maybe an umbrella.

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