Deininger Family | Winter 2019

This was my second time photographing the Deininger family and both times it has been around the same time of year in early December. Originally we had planned on having this session in late November, but the weather was not looking particularly good for the date we initially planned. It ended up being a case where once again the beginning of December was the time that worked best for everyone. The last time I had a family session with them, I remember it being unseasonably warm for that time of year and I’m sure we were all hoping to be as lucky once again. While we weren’t quite that fortunate, we go weather that was good enough to be comfortable outside and get some great photos.

Pielmeier & Peterschmidt Families

If these families look familiar, it’s because it wasn’t all that long ago since the other time I photographed them. The previous time I saw these families was back in late July when I was photographing the wedding of Katie and Dylan. On this day in mid October, I made the trek up to Holy Hill to both some individual and combined family photos. Started off this session by getting some photos of Katie and Dylan with their son. Then the timing worked out well so that right about the time that was winding down, Katie’s sister, Andrea, and her husband, Adam, showed up along with their three boys. From there I mostly focused on Andrea’s family, but also got a few shots in between of the two families together.

Larsen Family | 2019

The annual family portrait session with the Larsens happened the last weekend of September. Just a few days before we were unsure if we would have to reschedule since there was rain in the forecast for that day. Luckily for us the weather held off and we managed to have their session as scheduled. It so cool getting to photograph the Larsen family year after year and seeing first hand how much the kids, Kitty and Rocky, have changed. Also, I was happy that we had this session at Roosevelt Park since I wanted to have one there for quite awhile.

Miller Family

Back in the day, I would go to Maria semi regularly to get my haircut. These days I go elsewhere, but I keep up to date on what she’s up to thanks to the fact she cuts my mum hair still and also through Facebook. Prior to this portrait session, I had only heard stories about Maria’s family from her and had never met them. She was inspired to get schedule a portrait session since her daughter and granddaughter, who live in Hawaii, were in town.

This portrait session took place at the beginning of July at the home of Maria and her family in Winthrop Harbor. A couple aspects of this session did not quite go as planned. First there was my plan was mainly to have this session outdoors. However, after being outside for a few minutes, we realized the mosquitoes were worse than expected. So after getting a few different groupings in the yard, we decided it would probably be better to scurry inside for a reprieve from the mosquitoes and take most the remaining photos indoors. Also for this session, we were short one member of the Miller family as their son was unable to make it home from work in time. All in all, I’m happy with how the photos turned out from this session and thankful that Maria wanted me to photograph her family.

Jannisha & Kyrie | Christmas Pajama Session

I’m never sure why sometimes posting photos in a timely manner is troublesome for me. I always deliver clients’ galleries on time, yet the posts like this one comes quite a bit after the fact. I think my main problems are a combination of failing to set aside time to tasks related to making posts, such as sorting through pictures and writing about them, and trying post at just the right time. After I get caught up with the 3 or 4 different shoots from the last couple months, I’m going to try to make a better effort to have my posts be more timely.

As you can probably guess based on the Christmas decorations and pajamas that this session happened nearly two months ago at this point. This was the second time that I rented my friend Laura’s studio space for a portrait session. Initially, Kyrie wasn’t all that into the session, but after awhile he would warm up and got some great shots. I think Jannisha and Kyrie’s favorite part of this session was playing around on the bed and you can really see how much fun they’re having in those photos.



Cruz Family

This portrait session with the Cruz family closed out my very busy month of September. Lacy told me that she was inspired to schedule this photo shoot after she found their outfits during a trip to Gap. The day of this session I was a little worried there would be rain and luckily the weather held up making for a pretty good session. I tried my darndest during this shoot to get the little girl to smile for these photos, but she just was not having it. I’m pretty sure in the ones where she’s smiling a bit, I’m receiving assistance behind the scenes from her parents.

Larsen Family

Last Sunday, I did what's starting to become a yearly tradition of the Larsen family portrait session. Before it, they had a couple locations in mind and they asked me if I had any preference of the locations they were interested in for the photo session. I said that I was most interested in Warren Township Park since it's been a very long time since I had been there and that I had never had a photo session there. Since it was a warm, humid day on Sunday, I was little worried that the park was going to be a little busy. Luckily, the weather helped out a little in that regard by giving us overcast skies that probably deterred people form going to the park. That helped make the photography a little easier and gave the Larsen kids, Kitty and Rocky, plenty of a chance to have fun time at the park. When it was all said and done, I felt like this was the most tired I've ever been from a photo session due to a combination of the weather and chasing the kids around during this session.

Nahf Family

This family portrait session occurred on the last Friday evening in July. Originally we had planned on having this photo session a week earlier, but it ultimately got pushed back because the weather forecast looked iffy for most that afternoon.  Seeing as the weather was much better the day of this portrait session, it turned out to be a great decision to re-schedule. Everything went well with the only real trouble was getting the dog, Percy, to not be distracted and look at the camera.