Authentic Family Photography

Just bopping in here to remind you: I primarily shoot weddings, but my heart + eyes are trained to capture your family moments in ways that are as authentic + beautiful as they can be. I’d love to get you in front of my camera this fall.

This’ll be the first year I won’t shoot any “mini session” day - but I will make time to get your family on my schedule in a way that works for both of us!

a post of favorites - film favorites Part 1 of ?

I shared on my Insta how I had over 300 favorite of film photos, and like, who even would want to look at that many images PLUS most of them are my family (I’m biased, but those are my best work!) PLUS why would I make them into a reel. I’m nobody to just do something because the social media world says I have to! SO here’s part 1 of ??? to share my favorite, but not oversized heavy on images favorites of the year.

each roll (ish) I try to take a nice portrait of most kids, because they’ll still let me!

so that batch was within the January - August…what happened in august. Well. We have had the same photographer shoot our family photos since 2016 - because I’m a big enough believer in practicing what I preach: we go the extra mile + do whatever it takes to get Yan Palmer to our house when she travels. If you don’t know Yan, you should. She is a force. She’s part photographer part family therapist part magic! Once that session happened, I had a new found, re-woken NEED to shoot all the beauty and find all the light. Part 2 will come soon with the photos living on the coattails of Yan’s inspiration!

a summer wedding at North 4th Corridor Revery

One of my favorite spots in the city to shoot: Revery! I love it in all the weather…and honestly that’s the most important thing to me on a wedding day. When my couple can relax and not be stressed out about what it’s going to be doing from the sky, as in: when they’re not checking their weather app 200 times between each minute…that’s a luxury that’s WELL WORTH it when it comes to picking a venue!!

Hannah + Dan are the sweetest couple - and they spent one of the longest days of 2022 celebrating each other + their love - enjoy seeing what I saw on their wedding day!

now is a good time to pause and say what a fun this year was for couples who wanted almost totally ONLY candid photos throughout their wedding day. I don’t know if it’s my vibe, what I share, or just the shift in how people want to enjoy their wedding day: but this year I had so many couples who just wanted to make sure I was there to capture EVERYTHING in an authentic, photojournalistic way….and it RULED! Five years ago I would’ve doubted my ability to deliver a complete gallery without taking time to make art portraits together…but now. phew. Man YES! If this resonates to you, let’s talk - never have I been more sure of my ability to capture your wedding day the way YOU want to experience it. Your wedding day - YOUR rules! I am shooting only what you want - it’s been so freeing to leave my ego at home when I show up for a shoot. Wow, could keep going on this for DAYS!

a return to myself

You know how, in life, you never know what you’re missing until you find it? Being a mom felt like that, for me. Finding a film camera (obviously not to the same extent) felt like that to me. When I picked up a film camera and shot ALL THE THINGS in 2016, it felt like I had finally started living a true version of who I was supposed to be. As I type it, it’s weird to feel such a sense of self entangled in this job that I do…but here we are.

I feel most like myself when I can tell a story. My mode isn’t paper and pencil or computer..it’s my camera. Not my phone, man I hated when the pandemic hit, and I stopped shooting film. It’s the dark ages of our family’s history. And there’s nothing wrong with digitally recording life, it just isn’t my mode of doing it. As I’ve been feeling something shift in the past few months, it’s felt like home. Picking up a camera and working to get the light reading in my head, getting the shutter stop and aperture set before I look through the viewfinder..that is a meditation sort of exercise that keeps me present in moments, in ways I didn’t even begin to understand!

from a “work” point of view, what I love about film is that it lets me feel like I’m capturing the feel of my clients. It doesn’t have to always be clean and bright…because sometimes life, and love, are blurry and fuzzy and remind you of the way the warmth was in that moment…plus, now that I’m developing at Midwest Photo Exchange (vs. sending to a lab across the country, holla for supporting local!), I have my film scans back the next day. THE NEXT DAY! WILD!!

So while I know digital is still queen, I’m so glad to once again WANT to see your world through a film camera + hope you see the light in that, and bring me along!!

December Sun | in home film newborn session

It's one thing to be shooting film for families, in home, it's quite another to have to navigate through this GREY and bleak Ohio winter while shooting in new homes, with film. I'm managing to learn quite a lot, and still incredibly happy with the session results. I've gone from spending a session shooting a 32 g memory card almost full to slowing down, and filling just 5 rolls with a family. It's nice to put the camera down more, chat with my couples/family, and have an amazing quality over quantity.

I've recently been developing with The Darkroom Lab, and I am so so happy with them.

Here's some of my favorite from this newborn session on Fuji400H with my Canon eos 3: