Home Sweet Home

My husband and I have always wanted to raise our kids on land and create a space for them to play and enjoy being kids outside! We recently bought our dream home... and dream land. It is such a joy to see the kids in the wood and by our pond on the dock. We have had a few odd days of warm weather here this December so true to the photographer in me...we headed out for some pictures!

Family

Love your kids for how they are.... so true. Ashlee loves her boys so much and is such a wonderful cool mom. I know if she asked them all to wear matching outfits they would because they love her so much..but she knows better. She knows that her boys are so much cooler and she lets them rock out just as they are!

Starting my winter vaction early!

Work computer is being packed up! I won't have the ability to put any orders in and won't be getting back up and running until the first of the year. I am officially on move mode and holiday mode! I will be posting a few things here and there but won't be able to get to work files and ordering programs. Even though I am moving my contact information (not including my mailing address) will be staying the same. Feel free to contact me after the first of the year if you have any questions. Any recent orders will be delivered after the Thanksgiving Holiday! So Happy Holidays everyone... see you in 2013!

Can you imagine

Can you imagine moving somewhere where this is nothing and nobody and it might be dangerous? The courage of the early American's is astounding. This is an old original homestead abandoned thirty years ago... what a treasure.

A country girl

Young Artist

There are chances to take images that get you really excited. For me this was a chance to think about not only how to take this beautiful girls portrait but also a chance to capture her likeness. It was an exciting challenge to show who she is, what she does, and what she loves.

What's important to you?

I am often struck by the stories I hear from people about their experiences when they have their picture taken or about their fears of having them taken. So many times they had a horrid experience. It didn't matter how the images turned out all they remembered was how bad their children were, how long it took, how stressed out they were, how they had to drag their hubby there...the list could go on and on.

 Then they take some of the images they got and blow them up big and put them on their walls and send to family. hum.... I guess since I have the advantage of taking lots of pictures I want my kids and family as real as they can be and having fun.

My daughter illustrates my point perfectly. I took and image of my three kids last summer at my parent's house. My youngest was just under a year and just hard to keep still or have look at the camera! We tried for three nights to get an image of the three of them. So by the third night this mama was pretty stressed. My 4 year old was not happy at all and while she was looking and had an ok "face" on you could still tell she wasn't herself. But I liked the picture and I had a picture frame that I wanted to use so I blew this image up to a 24x30. Every morning at breakfast she would look at that picture and tell me how sad she was in that picture. Yes it was a nice image.... but not of a nice time.

Don't we want pictures were our family is real, inviting, personal, intimate, and authentic? I do. I would take an image of my child any day covered in dirt and wearing jeans with holes over a perfectly matched outfit from J Crew (which by the way I really do love their stuff....) looking and smiling at the camera all the while sitting still with their hands perfectly on their waist.

I photograph my family being family. I think this is what I have been looking for in my images and work. I am drawn to soft feminine touches, I am drawn to authentic moments. I am drawn to home (no matter how imperfect), and I am drawn to simple. If I am going to take the time to do work... I want it to be meaningful. The image is just the memory. I want to look at beautiful memories that make me smile, make me pause, and make me turn to my child or husband and go "remember when this happened?"

My style isn't for everyone... but if you want to allow yourself to be you and to allow me to show you how perfect you, your kids, and family is just the way they are I would be delighted. This does mean you have do leave the stress behind, stop pinning all of these awesome family poses on pinterest, and realize that the image you love the most of your family is not one where everyone is looking at the camera. Can you do that? Because if you can and are willing to really just relax you will have a wonderful time and beautiful images to remember it by.

For Today

For today I will be soft. I will be soft with my words. I will be soft with my thoughts. I will remember that life can be simple. I will remember that everyday is a gift. I will embrace beauty. I will embrace uniqueness. For today I will do these things. And tomorrow I will do them again.

The kids we love

When I decided to start shooting mainly women it was because of an image I took of a mama and her two girls. She was hugging on one of her babies that was hurt. I realized in that embrace how important seeing yourself love on your babies is for you soul. Hug your kids and hug them often.