Melissa emailed me a while ago about a family session and since shooting families is my new favorite thing to do, I was pretty pumped. Since all of the family was in Michigan for Christmas, we planned the shoot for the day after Christmas. I figured it would be snowy and, you know, look like family Christmas photos.

Well, not this year! I have lived in Michigan my whole life, much of it up north in Muskegon and I have never experienced a Christmas without any snow. For me, I was pretty happy because It’s not as much fun to shoot when it’s absolutely freezing out.

It was just such an amazing day. The sun was out, the sky was blue. For December 26th in Michigan, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. It was a bit chilly with the wind but they were all troopers when I made them shed their coats. :)

I just love working with families like this. It’s so rare to get everyone together sometimes and I think quality photos of everyone together is just one of the most important things to photograph.

haha Most awesome hat EVER. 

The last time you saw Dexter he was in the womb. If you missed that post, you can jump over here to catch up. PARSONS MATERNITY

Well he is now out in the world with the rest of us and we are happy he is here! Kim might be the most happy as she was really running out of space should he have decided to stay and grow for a few more weeks. :)

I think it’s official that I love black and white photos. It’s a tough balance for me because I also embrace color so much. I wanted to do this whole post in black and white but just couldn’t handle it. I’m still taking baby steps. :) Thus, I figure half and half is appropriate. It’s so interesting how different the vibe is from color to black and white.

haha oh this one is one of my favorites. I would love to know what he is thinking. However, he was under a week old at the time so really, what could he possibly be conspiring. Perhaps he had to poop. 

…and after a long dang of being handsome, Dexter made sure everyone knew he had enough! haha. I absolutely love his cry face. It’s sad that he is upset of course, but c’mon, it’s still adorable. Smiley memories are not the only precious ones. :)

I have really been trying to enjoy my camera more and I’m so excited for this “off” season. It won’t be so off for me as I am rebranding my dad’s business and starting a bunch of new personal photography projects but it will be a nice change of pace and some winter income.

Now that I’ll have a little more time. I’m going to get a bunch of medical problems fixed as well. Personal health insurance is not cheap so I would not be opposed to taking on a winter wedding. That would be AMAZING and quite possibly pay to get my hernia patched up. :) So if you’d like to be my hernia wedding, send me an email and I’d love to work something out. haha

Until then, I’m just going to enjoy each day the best I can. It’s so easy to get caught up in all the hype of Christmas and, not to mention, all the pressure. I’ve been working non-stop up until Christmas Eve…which is tomorrow so I better finish this last wedding album tonight. Because of that, I have missed a lot. It seems like it is only when we are so far gone or have our standard of living threatened that we realize the error of our ways.

I’m thankful to have a supportive family, electricity, the internet, clean water, good food, heat, most of my health and a lovely home to live in. All the other things are luxuries that so many people have become so used to that they assume they are entitled to them and just lose perspective.

Enjoy the small, subtle things this Christmas. :) I know that I will be enjoying HOURS of time playing with Duma. I have neglected her so much this month from all my work so I’m pretty pumped to give her more attention than she can even stand. Then, we shall nap.

I really love couples who are able to laugh together. I feel like laughter is such an important part of life and people who don’t laugh very much, well gosh, I don’t know how you continue to exist. It’s proven that the physical act of smiling will in fact make you slightly happier so I can only assume that laughing is way more effective. When I go a whole day without laughing, I just feel very bleh, like the life has been drained from me. I think if you can find someone to laugh with for the rest of your life, well, you’ve got it pretty good.

Being able to laugh off awkwardness of having your photo taken is great for me. Being able to laugh through big struggles and disappointments in your marriage and life is simply priceless and I’m so excited to be able to shoot their wedding this spring. It’s great to be part of an event that is for such nice people who are just simple, laid back, happy folks.

So about getting robbed. Well, first, a good idea is to not rob these people because Emily will take off after you and Matt will beat down bathroom doors. We were shooting in an alley in downtown Kalamazoo and had taken the coats off for some photos. I saw the row of yellow trees at the end of the alley and wanted to shoot by them since the rest of the fall colors had fallen off ALL the trees in town it seemed. We walk to the end of the alley and are taking photos for a few minutes, we were just around the corner so we couldn’t see down the alley anymore.

As we are walking back, a homeless man is walking out of the alley. By the time we  got to the coats, Emily quickly realized her phone and wallet were gone so she takes off running down the alley after this guy. You know, I don’t know that I would have done that because I’m a big wuss. So I was like…note to self, don’t steal from her. :)

I stayed close to Matt because he is a big guy and I don’t think anyone would mess with him. Since I was carrying a ton of gear on me, I certainly didn’t want to get mugged. We ended up in the library and as Emily was looking around the computers Matt decided to check the bathroom. He said he looked through the crack of the door, saw the guy counting out a bunch of cash so he kicked in the door and grabbed all the stuff from him. Then, the guy comes out and starts saying yadda yaddaing. Then the library security gets wind of it, then the cops get called. In the end, I believe she got everything back from him, he took off before the cops got there and we all went on our way.

Getting robbed is just the worst feeling. I’m so happy he got the stuff back for her as I think that would have really put a sour mood on photos. At this point, we were done with that location and had a nice drive to the second place to regroup. :) It was so cold out that day, they were both such troopers since I wouldn’t let them wear coats. :)

Half of these photos are post robbery so I think that says something about who they are. Some people would let something like that just ruin their whole day.

Matt turned around super fast and scared the daylights out of me! hahaSo we had hats, sunglasses, coats and I just to happen to always carry stick in my trunk now. As a result of all these great items, this is what happened. :) I’m not sure why, but I just really like these a lot, hahaa.

Can’t wait to see you two all dressed up fancy for your wedding! :)

Well, just as quickly as summer comes, it goes and winter is upon us again. All the memories of summer swiftly fade away and my world is consumed by frigid weather. I have already forgotten what the sun feels like. I’ve forgotten it all.

I thought all of the fresh snow was interesting since signs of fall were still lingering.

As much as I hate winter, I’m grateful I have heat in my house, electricity and the internet. I may not have a lot in my life, but I’ve got enough. I won’t be freezing this winter and I won’t go hungry so no complaints here. There are some great things about winter that cannot be forgotten. 5 months from now, the sun shall return and I will be extra super grateful for that. What I hate most about winter is all the crazy people driving when they shouldn’t be. There are WAY too many people dying each year because of bad road conditions. Please stay in your homes! Odds are you are not headed out to do anything that important and staying home is a better idea. This is actually one of the reasons I work so hard to stay self employed. I am not a good driver in any season. Women drivers, no survivors! That would be me.

I’m also dreaming up some really great winter shoots since my season is now ending. The off season is such an awesome time to do work that is creatively driven, not client driven. So keep an eye out for those. :) Many new things coming over the next 6 months.

Renn was laying on the most soft, heavenly rug so this cannot be a face of discomfort..but rather…absolute terror! Of what, I do not know but it feels like a hilariously priceless image to me. :)

Captions are welcome.

Oh, and just to be clear, I didn’t do anything to scare him. :) So don’t worry, I don’t come into your home to take newborn photos to scare the poo out of your baby.

Family newborn sessions are so much fun to do. There is a lot of controversy going around in the photography world about putting newborns in glass vases and other potentially unsafe and weird poses and places. As a creative person, I find my lack of creativity in family newborn sessions to be what I love about doing them the most oddly enough. I think there is a time and place for super creativity. A fragile newborn baby with insanely happy parents just doesn’t need it. There is enough cuteness, happiness and love to create wonderful images. My family newborn sessions are simple, relaxed and showing life just as it is. No shoving the baby in places and poses that make them angry or could hurt them. Just simple happiness is sometimes all you need.

To recap, here are all the awesome images of Hope and Evan —> WEDDING IMAGES —> MATERNITY IMAGES

Slouchy hats together! So so cute.
Possibly my favorite…It was a LONG shoot for everyone. Sleepy time. :) 

OH! And I can’t finish this off without showing off her cute little nursery. They actually just bought a house so the nursery is pretty simple, but gosh darnit, I really enjoy simple these days. That rug was AMAZINGLY soft and I adore the stick with the clothes. So so cute.

More blog posts to come – I’m so on top of everything right now it feels a bit unreal. I don’t sleep much and never leave my desk, but my goodness things are finally getting done!

As much as I’m working like a crazy woman to get everything done in time for Christmas, I am starting to realize how weird it’s going to be then. I might actually miss all of this so as hard as I’m trying to get it all done, I’m still trying to drink in all the fun work I’ve done. They are SUCH a happy little family and I just loved working with them.

Ok this picture just kills me. His little hands hanging on to hers is just the cutest thing. Warm fuzzies all around.
I feel like this just screams “Hey, look at my cool pants!” hahaSo super windy cold weather might be worth it for such cool looking storm clouds? But then again, I wasn’t wearing a summer dress. haha
Someday, he is going to look at these photos and be so embarrassed about them smushing his face with love. :) Standing like this didn’t last very long, but gosh darnit, the little guy tried! Does he like this? Hate this? I’m not completely sure.
Favorite!!! They brought along lots of cool things! These lanterns were amazing. Kristen has a really cool style so I was really excited for the end of the shoot with the twinkle lights. If we would have had more time, warmer weather and about triple the lights this could have been even more awesome but I’m still happy with how it turned out. You really can’t go wrong with twinkle lights in my opinion.
Oh…my word. Isn’t he just the cutest?! I love his little almost mohawk and those huge blue eyes! 

We were able to work in a few photos with just regular clothes as well but the best of the session was at the whimsical, magical, amazing nature. We had such a great time with them and really went overboard on this shoot. Sometimes I have a hard time holding back and need to learn to find balance in things since I overwork so much but gosh darnit, I think this one was worth it!

I also did more black and white than usual. I kind of always felt like black and white was just a way to wuss out of doing a beautiful color corrected image. However, since I think I’ve mastered beautiful colors, I guess this is just a new skill done by choice, not necessity. :)

Whoa! Favorite! She has such cool hair and HUGE eyes! I am so jealous. I feel like my eyes are getting smaller as I get older. Is that possible?!Ok so that was all cute and fun but here come the REAL great photos of the session! This just demands to be printed as a gigantic canvas. Seriously. Love. How whimsical is this? Oh my goodness. I want to be her so bad. Twirling in a wedding dress in a whimsical forest. DREAM COME TRUE. 

Time for magic light! (This shoot seriously lasted forever, oh my word, haha) I think I’ve developed an allergy to whatever these are. I was about to itch my face clean off. …and more twirling. I just can’t get enough of it! :)

It was great working with you guys and I really hope you love all the photos!! :) Let me know when you are with child, we need to do something spectacular for maternity photos. :)

We were blessed with one of the last really great nights of the year it seems. The next day it just seemed to get so much colder once it hit 5pm. We got some beautiful shots in the wheat as I like to call it. I guess the variety in my work has gone down in recent posts but thats just because this time is year is SO GREAT for wheat and nature so I wanted to take as much advantage of it as possible because really, lovely light is magical every time. :)