When Emily showed up, it was like, BOOM! A total natural in front of the camera, she could easily be confused for a pro. I’m not usually heavily directive when I work with people, as I like to let people simply be themselves in their own way. So let it be known—Emily was naturally so collaboratively playful. It simply ended up feeing like a rad editorial shoot.

Emily had told me that she’d really loved the look of the Julian shoot I’d done with Susan, and I went into this shoot expecting to go a little dark and moody, but she threw me for a loop when she told me that she fell in love with all the bright pink perky trees of spring in Balboa Park. So, delightfully, I found myself in this unexpectedly dreamy place. Sometimes frolics just simply morph into awesomely surprising forms. When we found these gardens of pink, it pretty much took my breath away. I feel like I didn’t breathe the whole time we were shooting there. Moments like these? They are my Disneyland!

The best part of this all was that we just had a ridiculously good time. She may be stunning, but she’s also a barrel of laughs and silliness, and that’s my favorite fodder for turning out an awesome shoot. I was also so jazzed that she decided to bring her bestie for the shoot—we were able to take a few minutes to do a few of them together. Emily brought a few of her favorite books (love me some Holden Caulfield!), and we hung out, chatted about Coachella (which she’d be attending weeks later), and even got silly in the grass. So much fun, so much magic. Thanks, Emily, for radiating adventure and exhuberance in the best of ways.