life with a newborn :: hazel ruth

there are an absurd number of connections between myself and this family! we were set up by their friend, who purchased them a newborn photo session as a baby shower gift. little did she know that we'd have so much in common. like a home birth midwife team, the birth dates of our daughters (3 years and 1 day apart), the NAMES of our daughters, a keen interest in PBS's Call the Midwife, a shared faith, and a slew of mutual friends. hanging out with ray and jerika felt like a reunion with old friends. so easy. 

both of hazel's grandmothers were present for this session, too, as they'd been staying very near at hand in the days following her birth, ready to nurture jerika and lessen her workload as she spent over a week resting in bed on midwife's orders (our midwives did that to me, too :)). God bless the mamas of the mamas. you are needed!

and this baby!... hazel ruth's birth was remarkable: a home breech birth (seriously amazing)! you have to wonder what a beginning like that means for the story her life will tell. and she is so wanted, so adored, so delighted over. many gentle hands cradled and caressed her, as voices spoke truth over her about her belovedness. oh that we could all enter the world so swaddled in intentional love. 

as an aside, i just have to say that i'm loving photographing newborns more and more these days, as i find my stride and style within this category. i'd love to do this for you, or for someone you love (baby shower gift?!). 

happy day, friends. 

life with a newborn :: lillian

birth is untamed and unpredictable. it always is. and sometimes that unpredictability means that i miss a birth (not often). lillian's birth was one of those. but once the dust of the unexpected settled, and her mama was feeling up to it, i came over to photograph them in their home. 

arielle and mike played along with my rather un-posed approach to newborn photography, contented to just gaze googly-eyed at their sweet girl while i snapped away. i'm just a sucker for newborns photographed in their parents' arms, because that's where they normally spend their time, anyway, and it's where they belong. gets the oxytocin flowing! :)

the three cuddled, read books, nursed, and rested together. that's what life with a newborn is all about. and i hope these photos will help them remember this hazy, wonderful season of life. 

lillian is nearly two weeks old at the time these photos were taken. she is adored and adorable, as you will quickly be able to see. 

i have another life-with-a-newborn session to show you soon, so stay tuned!

family photojournalism :: bedtime for lou

this the promised follow-up post to the family photojournalism session i posted a couple of days ago. it's a story within a story. 

at the tail end of my evening with the gadziemski family, allie asked me to photograph her as she put her youngest to bed. louis is two years old, and their last baby. knowing it's your last makes you savor things like bedtime routines all the more. there's a magic around this time for them, and she wanted that documented. 

hold your babies close, mamas. stop to see and savor them. this is the good stuff. and it's fleeting. 

family photojournalism :: the gadziemskis

since resolving in my heart to photograph families almost exclusively in a raw, slice-of-life style, and changing my business to reflect that, i've had a bit of trouble finding people who "get" it. it's felt like, overall, photography-seeking people have expectations that include parks or studios, some posing, smiles at the camera, and coordinated clothing. the idea of someone coming into what seems like the unremarkable chaos of their home is not immediately attractive. 

but allie somehow "got" it immediately. her exuberance about the whole idea was actually super encouraging to me. it gave me hope that maybe people CAN begin to love this way of having their families photographed, and that maybe i wasn't crazy to build my business around it. i needed that.

so we set a date and got to work. which, practically speaking, means that allie and her family went about their sunday evening business while i followed them around with a camera. they did a fantastic job ignoring me and not acting too self-conscious. with a house full of 4 boys, this form of photography is probably a great fit, since the boys can just be boys!

there were nerf guns, and there was wrestling. there were tater tots and uno and blocks and running. and in the midst of all of this, deep shalom and joy, contradictory though that might at first appear to be. 

and at the end of the evening, i sat down at the table with allie and heard her story. it's a redemption story, a story of heart-level renewal, a story of surrender to Jesus. which gave context the thick layer of shalom. :)

here, once again, are more photos than you probably even need. :) at the end is a funny series documenting our attempt to get one sit-still-and-smile-at-the-camera shot. each one cracks me up, particularly when viewed one right after the other. 

stay tuned for a second blog post featuring this amazing family. we did a story-within-a-story, too. and i thought it deserved a second post. it's the kind of little story that will melt the heart of every mother. how's that for suspense? ;)

allie, would you leave a comment below about why you wanted to have your family photographed in this way? i know you'll say it well! Thanks!

family photojournalism :: the englishes

nathan is an accomplished photographer. i mean, seriously. and his wife jana is a creative culinary whiz. we have indirectly known one another through mutual friends for several years now, and i that time we have each had 2-3 kids and have grown tremendously as photographers. but more important than the photography fellowship and good cooking (hehe), and what draws me to this family, is their sincere love for one another, their integrity in all things, and how real they are with one another and those who know them. they radiate Jesus, even via social media and in passing interactions. 

so when i was searching my mind for a family who might be game for allowing me to do some portfolio-building in the form of a family photojournalism session, nathan and jana came to mind quite quickly. happily, they were game for allowing me to join them for a usual thursday evening in their home with their three tiny people, ben, norah, and olive. 

i was so warmed by this evening with them, just soaking up their goodness and chatting in the spaces between action moments. 

thanks, guys, for letting me in. you're beautiful. 

what follows is probably too many photos, but it was just too hard to narrow it down. should i apologize? nah! ;)

personal :: birthday adventuring

hazel has been looking forward to her birthday for fully six months. having no real grasp of time, every time anyone's birthday was happening, she would think it was also hers. we tried to explain that it would be her turn when there were leaves on the trees and the weather turned warm, which had limited success. 

at last, her very own birthday arrived. ever since this winter, she has been consistently asking for cake, balloons, and a kite... at the beach. so we determined that we would make those things the backbone of her birthday this year, in lieu of a party or gifts. and, since she is also interested in trains, and tim discovered that the Amtrak station in St. Joseph is right across the street from the beach, we decided we'd get there via train. to put the icing on the cake, we invited her cousins, aunt and uncle, gaba (grandma) and great aunt to meet us at the beach.

it was a gift of a day. hazel was ceaselessly overjoyed, which meant that we were, too, of course. and after returning home, she told anyone who would listen, "hey, know what? it's my birthday right now! i'm 3!"

i invite you to come along, virtually, on our adventure day... beginning from the moment she woke up... and ending with the moment she fell asleep again (en route back home). 

it's so fun to do these mini visual stories for my own family, though my one regret is that it usually means i'm absent from the images (ah, the plight of the photographer-mama!). but that's why YOU might want to consider having some like me come on over and tell one of your family's stories with my camera. so that, for once, you an also be in the photo-documentation of those stories. i'm serious! do it! :)