life with a newborn :: ezra jay

another one of my dear friends, alicia, with whom i also share a baby-having schedule, welcomed her first son at the front end of june, just a couple months after my own. he is welcomed by two very enthusiastic big sisters, a hard-working and nurturing mama, and a very proud daddy.

his birth came very soon after the completion of a major project for this family: they converted their two-unit home back into a single-family home, and moved all of their bedrooms upstairs. they are enjoying expanded space with room to grow, and room to hopefully welcome housemates, too. 

alicia also had a landmark birthday in april, turning 30, which i think is the most wonderful age.

we figured that the start of another decade of life, the "new" house, and ezra's birth were three excellent reasons to take an hour and freeze-frame their family in the midst of all these milestones. and i'm so glad we did. i love this family: the simplicity of their lifestyle, the kingdom work they have devoted their lives to, the hilarity of their girls, and the squishy handsomeness of baby ezra. 

enjoy this little snippet of a friday mid-day with them. 

If you're living in the middle of a unique season of life, going through transition, or about to make a big change, you have a good reason to do this type of session. it can preserve some pretty potent memories in a really authentic and lovely way. reach out. i'd love to help tell that story.

life with a newborn :: nathan troy

Nathan joined his family earthside just two weeks before this session. one thing i love about this style of newborn session - in which the baby needn't be sleeping so as to be posed in wraps and baskets - is that you can do it very early or a little later, and there's flexibility for either and beauty in both. For this session, Nathan's mama, Mandy, opted to capture and immortalize the squishy, floppy brand new stage of his babyhood. 

i do these sessions often for families with their first baby, and a bit less often for families that have just welcomed their 2nd, 3rd, or more babies. and there's such a different flavor to it when big siblings are part of the picture. having just welcomed my own third-born (Mandy and I are pretty much on the same baby-having schedule. hehe), i notice the same thing i noticed during this morning spent with nathan and his family: that whereas daily life with a firstborn centers and spins around that newborn's schedule and needs, creating a quietness and a sustained attentiveness to each daily care routine, a third baby sorta just gets pulled into the rhythms of the family. it's not that they aren't loved or cared for - far from it - just that diaper changes are speedier, baths less frequent, and there is always noise and activity swirling around him. the older siblings grasp for opportunities to hold him, the mama tends to a toddler with one arm while holding the infant in the other, and the parents switch off playing with the olders or cuddling the baby. 

i love this stuff: the family coffee time, the reading of books, the wiggly attempts at a family portrait on the big bed, the quick diaper change and swaddle, then a trip outside to enjoy wheeled vehicles, to swing, and to tromp through the woods behind the house. and in the middle of all this, nathan is serene and alert, patiently taking his place in the holy chaos of family. 

enjoy a sunday morning with this darling little family...  

sessions like these are just one of the many types i offer to document families as they grown and change across the years. i'm offering a special 5-year plan that affords some pretty significant discounts and benefits for families that want to invest in regularly telling the stories of their life as a family. click HERE to read more. 

savor the day!

personal :: a visit to two sparrows farm

it was such a happy day when i got a birth photography inquiry from whitney, because i could tell she was a like-minded mama with a beautiful spirit... AND she and her husband are dairy farmers. we ended up doing a partial barter of services/products, and that is how i got hooked on their high-quality and uber-delicious raw milk. 

i had my own baby just a few weeks after their beau was born. so both of us have been preoccupied with feeding and growing our tiny new sons. but with the arrival of the warmer weather, i knew i wanted to prioritize going out to see the farm from which all this amazing milk (and eggs and chickens!) was coming from. besides that, little cece and hazel had gotten along so well when we met at my house for her birth photography interview, and they'd been asking about one another since then. 

whitney and dan are SO open about their farming practices. it's very inspiring how thoughtful, honest, earth-kind, and animal-friendly it is. they welcome people often: "come see!," they say, and they mean it. there's nothing to hide. 

we had such a lovely morning with them, and we probably stayed too long, but it was just so hard to pull our city-dwelling selves away from that serene and fresh-aired place, and the company of this wonderful family. 

you'll notice my gus is pants-free in these photos. free range kids right here. and the part where gus is crying? the caption should say, "it so noisy!"

by the way, stay tuned for more of this place and this family, because they have a family photojournalism session on the books. i can't wait to get out there again to officially photograph them! 

one more note and heads up: my session prices will be increasing a bit on july 1st, so if you've been on the fence about booking a session or making me "your" photographer, now would be a good time to make something official. :) 

story :: the homecoming of owen kang (an adoption story)

this is a birth story of sorts, but it isn't birth in the way that most of the stories i post here are births. there was no physical labor, no crowning or breaking water, no placentas or cord-cuttings. but this is a birth of another son into a family by adoption. 

owen is 20 months old at the time of this birth. he was born and lived -- until this yesterday -- in china. his mama and daddy had a burning fire in their heart for the orphan, and that led them to seek to bring one into family. they chose owen, they fought for him, they labored for him, they endured a long and indefinite paper pregnancy, and then they went to get him and brought him home.

though it would have been AMAZING to be in China with them, for that first moment they laid eyes on their boy in real life, that wasn't practical. so the next best thing was to meet them at the airport. this isn't something they were expecting. in fact, they expected to arrive quietly under the midnight skies and slip home without much fanfare. but some of their people thought they deserved a welcoming committee, and so there we were. 

after being greeted and prayed over by friends and family, they returned home where their two other sons -- Jude and Isaac -- were going to be woken from their sleep to meet their new brother. i followed them there, too. 

pray for this family as they transition, and especially for owen as his heart grieves what he's left behind. pray his heart will be open to receiving his new family.

birth :: emmaus sol (an adoption story)

i was supposed to be on maternity leave. but when maleny contacted me about photographing her birth story, i couldn't say no. i just couldn't. because maleny is one of the generous and selfless women who chose life for her child, and then bravely chose to share that child's life with a family whose arms had long been empty, waiting and longing to be filled. in other words, this birth would be an adoption story. 

maleny wrote out her story for me, the story that begins with finding out she was pregnant with emmaus. though it's too long to share here in its entirety, i'll insert a few excerpts in what follows.

“On October 27, 2014 i found out i was pregnant. i knew then that i would not be able to provide and adequate life for this human developing inside of me. my conviction to give birth was solid, but parenting was not. despite my episodes of fear, confusion, and rage, i knew that baby was and is worthy of experiencing life. life of beauty, wonder, amazement, hurt, surprises, questions, answers and most importantly: love.”

after a long journey filled with disappointments and false starts, maleny was connected with the couple who would end up being emmaus' family. megan and luis are the couple maleny chose to raise her baby. maleny describes them:

“As i got to know Megan and Luis, I adored them... Megan is the kind of person who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, but feels the mood to approach things in an appropriate manner. she’s unique, intelligent, creative, and encouraging... Luis is an introvert, quiet, gentle, thoughtful, and entirely stoic. He processes subjects critically and is very conscientious on how to frame his ideas.... They balance one another. I like them very much.”

In the months leaded up to maleny's estimated due date, the three of them worked hard to build a trusting, open relationship, and then to develop a birth plan. they chose a natural birth at a birth center with a team of midwives, as well as a doula. they also worked together to come up with a boy name and a girl name, but decided to leave the gender a surprise. 

i can't begin to express how in awe i was of maleny as she labored for this boy. she chose the absolute best start for him through a series of loving and informed decisions: like a birth that would not include drugs and interventions, and the careful selection of a birth team that would surround her and the baby in trusting support and love. my eyes filled with tears at this demonstration of love, which was so evident every step of the way, through all the pushing, then the moment he was laid on her chest, and into the moment she released him into megan's arms, then as she smilingly watched him be measured and weighed and fed his first "meal" of donated breastmilk. 

while Maleny labored and delivered, Megan and Luis were waiting just downstairs for the moment when someone would call down for them to come up and meet their baby. the moment they came into the room and laid eyes on their son is an incredible one to see (check out their facial expressions in the photos!) they were effervescent with joy as they held him, grateful disbelief spreading over their faces.

after emmaus arrived, was measured, weighed, diapered and fed, megan asked if we could take a few shots of him in a special blanket. this blanket (in which you'll see emmaus wrapped in the final photo in the slideshow below), was knit square by square through tears and prayers over the last four years, as megan and luis waited in hope and fought off despair, until at last there were enough squares to be put together into a baby blanket. a baby blanket that is finally full with a baby. a handsome, dark-haired, and perfectly formed 8 lb son.

and now i'll stop my effusive writing about this birth and let the photos do the talking. 

[note: just one more thing: several of these photos include nudity that couldn't be cropped out as i was actually shooting. though the family wants and treasures those images, in the slideshow below i have opted to use simple opaque shapes to preserve modesty because it was either that or omit some images that are pretty important to the storyline. i hope this choice won't too badly distract from the emotion and flow of the story.]

Here's a huge shout-out to the incredible team that made this birth as supported and empowering and loving as it could possibly have been.

Midwife: Sara Badger

Student Midwives: Becky Burkett and Kelsey Ingvartsen

Doula: Erica Guthaus

Birth Center: Cedar Tree Birth and Wellness

Make Me "YOUR" Photographer

Inspiration hit the other day, probably while I was in the middle of some random mundane task. And the idea came from the history I have with several of my clients, whom I have been allowed to photograph at multiple points through the years. I love watching individuals, couples, and families grow across the years. And I love that they value coming back to be photographed over and over again, because they believe it matters to have a record of their family life. When it's ME that they choose to do this for them, it's one of the greatest honors and joys. 

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Above you can see one family that I've photographed at least 4 times. This is Jordan and Lindsey.

• Top Left: 2012 - Jude is about a year old and another baby is on the way in this mini-session.
• Top Right: later in 2012 - Isaac has joined the family and we did an in-home Life With A Newborn session.
• Bottom Left: 2013 - another mini-session in the park for this family of 4, now that both boys are a bit bigger.
• Bottom Right: 2014 - we did an at-home family photojournalism session as they are anticipating the adoption of their third child fro China (they're bringing him home this weekend, in fact!)

Personally, I tend to be a curator of varied photography for my own family. Meaning that I haven't chosen and settled in on a single photographer for our family. It's because I follow and admire so many gifted photographers, and I therefore enjoy saving up to hire a different one every two years so that I can watch them work and see my little family through their lens/perspective. Therefore we have a diverse photographic family record, and each photographer is such an artist in his/her own way that I feel like I have a little art museum, except that my family is the subject of each artist's work. 

Which means that what I am about to launch feels a tiny bit ironic to me. Because it invites you to do the opposite of what I'm in fact doing. I'm going to invite you to loyalty and commitment that spans years. I'm going to invite you -- if you resonate with and really love the way that I see things and the art that I produce -- to make me officially "YOUR" photographer. 

This is a 5-year "plan" that locks you in at the current session and product prices, and gives you significant discounts off every session and digital file set you purchase over those 5 years.

If yours is a family that values fine art family photojournalism that's authentic and unscripted but also beautiful, this is for you. This saves you lots of money (!!!) AND holds you accountable to getting your family history told through family photojournalism (which is something I know you probably intend to do but it's so easy to let it slide).  Another perk: You get a consistent body of art to display throughout your home. 

Please visit THIS PAGE to see more details and to sign up.