family photojournalism :: the saigeons (again)

june is birthday month for both siena and max. this year, siena turned 3, and max turned 1. growth is so obvious and noteworthy at these ages, so even though i had just been to their home last year to photograph them -- while max was a tiny baby -- michelle asked me to return. this year bassinets are replaced by floor beds (they practice montessori at home!), 3 word sentences are replaced by a fully conversational vocabulary, the toddler has become a kid, and the baby is well on his way to toddling. but what remains constant is the warmth, the color, the affection, the "crunchiness" of their lifestyle, and the beauty of the space that they call home. 

this photo series starts at 8 a.m. on a sunday morning, which also happened to be father's day. right as i walked through the front door, max started making sounds to alert his mama that he was awake, so we got to start this session with those precious just-woken moments, in which little ones are still blurry-eyed and cuddly. siena was excited to present her daddy with a father's day card and gift, then they enjoyed a family breakfast of bagels, kombucha (well, actually, siena wasn't too keen on sharing the buch), and watermelon on the front porch. the dressed and diapered and brushed their teeth. then they planted a watermelon seed, enjoyed their new sensory table, identified the bird perched on the roof next door, swung and slid, and drew with sidewalk chalk. 

a thousand ordinary moments thoughtfully lived build a beautiful life. come see. 

click here to learn more about family photojournalism sessions. 

life with a newborn :: beau xavier

beau was born on a wednesday in march, and when he arrived his family's farm stood still for maybe 24 hours -- or rather was put in the hands of a farm babysitter. then whitney and dan were right back to the milking, the feeding, the moving of livestock, the breeding of the pigs, and the delivering of milk and eggs to their CSA members (like me!). theirs is a real life working farm. 

when it was time for beau's Life With A Newborn session, dan and whitney knew that the true story of life with beau was also a farm story and a family story. beau is with them everywhere they go, accompanying them via arms, stroller, or baby carrier to all the many farm chores and errands. so i joined them on a friday for their evening chores. both beau and his big sister ceci (age 3.5) are fully integrated into the process, and ceci even carries a good size amount of responsibility, which she does with a serious sense of importance and deftness. and beau -- who is so good natured and easy -- just smiles and coos as he watches it all. no doubt he'll be chipping in with chubby toddler hands within the year. 

this is a really special farm, too! a small one happy, free-range animals that graze on pasture and eat non-GMO food and all other manner of wonderful wholesomeness. i don't have all the language to talk about the thoughtful way that dan and whitney are running their farm, but i can say that the raw milk and the eggs are incredibly delicious and i can also point you here to read more about what they are doing, in their own words. but here's your chance to see it up close and in action. 

i have some july openings still for family photojournalism and life with a newborn sessions. and i won't be shooting much in august, probably only 2-4 sessions total, so please get in touch if you're interested in having me tell a story with you. 

family photojournalism :: the butler family

in an old log cabin on a lush plot of land outside grand rapids, michigan there lives a family of four. a family who takes life slow, with a collectively laid-back personality. melding together linn's norwegian heritage with brian's native michigander background, these two have carved out an thoughtful life into which they've welcomed their daughter norah and their baby benjamin. 

when i visited them on a saturday afternoon- an hour and a half later than planned due to a sort of embarrassing and accidental detour my family took on the expressway -- they welcomed me in without any sign of frazzle, as my senses were filled by the smell of norwegian waffles cooking in the kitchen. after that delectable late-day snack, i followed them outside for chalk and tricycle play, running down slopes of grass, and strolling through wooded paths. i watched them take a letter to the mailbox and fill the bird feeder. back inside there was play time and story time and a nursing break for benjamin until we went out once more so norah could water the flowers. an afternoon full of quiet and rich activity with a loving family. 

come see...(warning; LOTS of photos -- grab a cup of joe and settle in)

family photojournalism :: the hughes family

There's a certain quietness to a day with a baby. It's never very eventful in the way you've thought of eventfulness (is that a word?) before having a baby, but it's better somehow, too. In these two hours, Callan and his parents played on the floor with the baby gym, read books, cuddled on soft beds, had a brief walk outside, changed a diaper, had a bath, and went down for a nap. These are not remarkable activities, but no two families do these common activities in quite the same way. That's one thing I love about in-home family photojournalism!

Baby Callan (7 months at the time of these photographs) has a gentle spirit, and he invites you into a sweet restfulness. His mama and daddy are so present to him in every moment. You get the feeling they are always deeply communing with one another. It may be that they don't take things for granted as some of us are often prone to doing, because they've been dealt a diagnosis that demands that. In this family a hard thing has become an invitation to live and love with attentive intention.

It was a gift to be invited in to capture a bit of that. I hope you can feel the love spilling out of the corners of these images. 

life with a newborn :: william glen

kristin and i are OLD friends. the since-10th-grade kind of friends. the kind of friends who started off on a bad foot but later found our way into something sweet and enduring. one of the most delightful parts about knowing her for so long is having known her from a time when she swore she'd never have kids, then through heart changes and then a slightly hesitant entrance into motherhood... and now, the present day, when i see her holding and kissing her little boys with an obvious glow of contented love. isn't this the best example of eating your own words? ;)

william isn't technically a newborn in these photos. he's three months old. but i actually really like that, because by then babies are wide-eyed and engaged, and the family has settled into their new status as a family of 4, and it's just a really sweet stage. it's just a different sort of special. (actually, i think Life With A Newborn sessions could be done a few times throughout the first year: at two weeks, 3 or 4 months, and 6 or 7 months... maybe I should have a package deal for that??)

i also really loved watching jeremy -- the daddy -- during this session because he's so engaged and so naturally playful. these boys are super lucky to have a dad like this. 

without further delay, i give you a little peek at a saturday morning with kristin, jeremy, jonathan and william!

I'll have one more session to show you next week after my FINAL family photojournalism session until June. unless i have a baby before then. but i'll try to hold out until after the session. ;)

family photojournalism :: the mciver family

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.