These are my people, my tribe, and my blessings. I adore every single one of them like crazy. We recently had our family photographed by Michael and Laura Photography, which was such a treat! Even though our kids are teenagers and a young adult we still value the importance of documenting this stage of our lives. We have noticed how our kids changed and grew more frequently when they were little. They change so much in a short period of time over months. When you have teenagers you don’t always notice those drastic changes, but changes do occur more within them as people in addition to height and hair color.
I recently found our photographs from our family portrait session (Angela Girardier Photography) in 2010 in Missouri, just a year after moving there. 2010!!! In some ways, it seems like forever ago, yet in other ways it seems like yesterday. As I perused through the gallery, I remembered how I felt that day. I remembered the cool early fall morning with leaves crunching under each step at the park. I remember the stages of our kids: Rachel- age 13, full of confidence and radiance. Brock- age 10, often made us laugh with his silly antics and loved our new boxer pup (a.k.a. our fourth child and Brock’s only brother). Annika- age 9, was laid back and tender hearted and loved her Littlest Pet Shop toys. Looking back at this snapshot in time brought tears to my eyes because of how much my kids have changed. Although I really am enjoying the stage we are in right now, I truly miss the time when they were little. Now the former chapters are precious memories, which is why having our family photographed professionally is so meaningful to me.
Fast forward to 2017 and we are back home in Virginia. We have two teenagers and a young adult. How meaningful it was to have our family photographed by Michael and Laura. They photographed our family on Main Street in Historic Yorktown which is one of our favorite places. I cherish these beautiful images. These are more than just family pictures, though. To me, they mark a day in time when we were all together as a family. They represent where we are right now in our lives. Additionally, they show us nearly four years after overcoming a very treacherous journey, one that the Lord allowed us to experience for five years; one that He also rescued us from at the perfect time. Our joy in the images is authentic because of our hope in the Lord and the knowledge that He is always with us.
Michael and Laura Photography
We loved the neutral colors and outfit coordination that we prepared prior to our session. The colors were not only reflective of the season, but also helped us to look coordinated without being too “matchy”. We wanted to highlight some red to make the images festive, but didn’t want the red to overpower everything else. Preparing for a family session can be complicated and stressful, but we avoided the stress by providing some choices in combination with a color palette. We have found over the years that when working with kids or teens, that it is much less stressful if they are given several options to choose from for their outfits. This allows them to feel like they have some say, yet the choices are within the limits of what will look good in the picture. The goal is for everyone to feel good about their appearance for the session. As a photographer I have several Pinterest boards dedicated to helping clients with outfit and color choices. The board we used for our session is here: https://www.pinterest.com/belleevephotog/anniversary-session-outfit-inspiration/
We love our family photographs!
Michael and Laura Photography