Tonight, I had the pleasure of being invited back to the National Guard Armory in Fredericksburg to do the Five 40 Roller girls group shot. It was hot out all day and as soon as we set out to do the group shot – thunderous, dark clouds rolled in behind us. It seems to be a running gag with mother nature that whenever I come out to shoot with the girls, it pours. It poured on both nights I did headshots. Rained all throughout the practice I shot. Dumped rain the night I shot their bout in Bealton. So finally, the one day where it’s bright, hot, blue skies, the weather turns just in time to make sure we don’t ruin our streak. Well, the girls were all amazing troopers and ignored it getting worse around them as we shot their group portraits.

Secretly as a photographer I had hoped this would happen. It happened on my wedding day where the weather went from bright and sunny to dark, snow and rain filled clouds. Instead of being mortified, I was overjoyed that the shots our photographer was able to get were dark and stormy like an HBO cover shoot. So in my mind I knew that the environment would now look as hard-core as these girls are. As if posing on Humvees and giant-not-tank-extended-vans wasn’t enough – these girls are fierce!