Shauna and her baby girl Tatum first came into my life through Milk Time. They have come three times so far, to celebrate and document different stages of their hard-earned breastfeeding relationship. I love looking back at the sequence of images over the course of Tatum's first year.
Tatum and Shauna at Milk Time, June 2014, November 2014, and February 2015.
Then March came, and it was Tatum's first birthday, that bittersweet, nostalgic milestone that brings many parents to joyful tears (you know it's true!). Here is a family that values and prioritizes one another and really "gets" how rich their ordinary moments are with beauty and love. This little lady is so loved by her mama and papa (and doggy, too). So Shauna and Dustin invited me to come do a family photojournalism session with them the morning after Tatum's first birthday party. We started at their home, with Tatum's bath time routine, getting dressed, playing with new birthday toys, and practicing her tentative new walking skills. Then we put on coats and headed to downtown Grand Rapids for coffees, and to stroll around on the sun-splashed sidewalks.
I like what Shauna said about why it mattered to her to have their family photographed in this way:
“Our daughter isn’t a baby any more! She’s far more interactive and loving at this age than we could have ever imagined. Our little family is everything we’ve always wanted and we are just trying to enjoy each stage even though they pass so quickly. I like to fill our home with images that remind us in the hard times of all of the great times and why we keep pushing forward. ”
Please get in touch with me to do something similar! I'm certain you'll never regret it.