new :: mila marguerite

upon announcing i'd be coming to Portland, OR at the end of October, a sweet old friend from high school reached out to express the perfection of the timing. she explained that she was due to have her first baby in september and was about to write and ask me if I knew any like-minded and like-styled photographers in her area whom she could hire to photograph their family after the birth. now, instead of seeking a referral, we were able to actually schedule a session! :)

at the time i arrived, detta and mike were just beginning to come up for air, having spent the first several weeks of mila's life as most of us new parents do, that is to say totally in survival mode and a bit shell shocked. working through breastfeeding challenges, adjusting to the around-the-clock care of a tiny person, accommodating visiting family who came to help with the transition, and just...well, it's just so much a haze and blur, isn't it? i cried SO MUCH during those first weeks with my own firstborn. 

and what's hard about that adjustment period is that it can at times be so overwhelming that it gets hard to see the beauty, or to even slow down long enough to grab hold of and savor the sweetness. my job, as i see it, is to carry my camera into the thick of that hot mess and offer a new perspective: "this is beautiful and you are doing such a good job. someday -- believe it or not -- you will be sentimental about this." 

my own baby (age 7 months) came along with me to this session (that's not typical, but i didn't bring a nanny on my trip. haha). at one point i had to pause shooting to tend to his cries for food, and i left detta, mike, mila and their doggies on the bed where we'd been shooting. when i returned, they had settled more deeply into an affectionate cuddle, had exhaled, and exclaimed how unusual but wonderful it was to just BE together. if a photo session can gift a family with a little time to look one another in the eyes and sink into the comfort of one another's presence, then i'm a happy photographer. 

besides all this meta-analysis of the newborn phase/haze, i just have to also point out that this baby girl is GORGEOUS. and the moody light of a rainy morning in the Pacific Northwest is to die for. 

enjoy...

life with a newborn :: lily marie

it's a lucky dad who gets to raise TWO sweet daughters. it's obvious that jason agrees. this excited dad was the initiator of setting up this session celebrating his family's life with two daughters. and i have to say, that as the photographer who almost exclusively gets contacted by women/mamas, this was pretty awesome! i love to see men get excited about documenting their families!

jason and andrea are doing such a good job with the little family they've been entrusted with. they are incredibly present and patient as parents. 

so this is emma, a high energy, goofy 3 year old, and her baby sister lily, just weeks old... along with their awesome mom and dad.. during a typical little slice of time on a weekday evening.

life with a newborn :: easton

more and more i'm coming to love doing (a) newborn sessions with babies who are 3rd or 4th in their families and (b) sessions that take place on farms or rural areas. so this little session was pretty dreamy for me. 

kara and dave have made home for themselves and their four little people in lake odessa, surrounded by fields of plants and livestock for as far as you can see. it's dark enough out there at night to see the stars. kara has made a beautiful creative home space (not surprising since she's a photographer, too) while dave fills his days caring for livestock and hunting for deer. their kids are darned cute, and the newest member, baby Easton, is falling into stride with all the beautiful mess of family. 

for this session, they made an apple pie, fed easton his bottle, headed out to collect eggs from the chickens and feed apple peels to the horses, then came in for some bed-jumping and to pull that pie out of the oven. 

enjoy a little slice of their life with a newborn.

life with a newborn :: gavin

baby gavin is at home with is mama and daddy and two big brothers. this blended family thought they were complete, but God gifted them with gavin, which is likely one of the happier surprises they've ever received. and in the six weeks since he's made his arrival, he's already knitting their hearts closer together. 

you can tag along for a little snippet of their mid-day, in which gavin wakes from his nap for cuddles and nursing with mama, then all the attention from his adoring big brothers before they meet up with daddy -- whose business office is located in the workshop behind the house, which means he can swing by for lunch and whatnot -- for more family cuddle time on the sofa, some time outside with the horses and the rope swing, and a visit to the workshop. then amy takes the boys on a walk and bike ride down the trail in their front yard. 

there is so much beauty in the simplicity of simple life lived humbly and with great love. can you see that between the lines of these photos?

life with a newborn :: jonathan micah

LaRaye and Micah were brought together quickly and clearly as they both chased their primary love: God. They were engaged rather spontaneously one morning in the kitchen of the home they now share, after worshipping and dancing together there. They became pregnant pretty quickly after getting married, and this whirlwind romance of theirs now includes a son name jonathan, who is about 2 months old at the time of this photo session. 

With world sufficiently turned upside down by parenthood -- as it always is! -- they knew that even in the midst of all the adjustments and sleep deprivation they wanted to capture the essence of this tender time on film. So I joined them one afternoon for all their little ordinary moments with their sweet son. From a nursing session in the nursery, to a smiley diaper session, a walk to their favorite neighborhood park, and the making of bullet proof coffee that they then sat down to enjoy while jonathan napped peacefully in the wrap, there's so much peace and affection here. 

Enjoy... 

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.