Baby Sophie

This is the summer of babies and I love it! So many of my friends are having second (or third) kids and my sister in law gave birth to my first niece. Sophie was born at the end of June and after a week long stay in the NICU, I finally was able to meet her on the 4th of July when she was 10 days old. She was very tolerant of me sticking a camera in her face which is great because I anticipate this will be the first of many times I’m taking her pictures :) Here are some of my favorites from her photo shoot last week.

Koopman Family

I had been trying to schedule this family for a long time and am so glad we finally picked a day and got some photos taken for them! Alyssa is expecting baby #3 later this summer so it was a great time to capture the stage of life the “big” kids are in. She knew of an old school house near a field and I was more then happy to discover a new location for family photos. I know it can be challenging to get young kids to sit still for pictures so I always tell families to let them run and play while I capture them and because of that I think we got some great pictures. Here are my favorites :)

Ensink Family

I love taking pictures downtown Grand Rapids and I’m glad the Ensink family gave me this opportunity. We seized the opportunity of the last warm weekend this fall and walked along the river looking for spots in the shade (who knew it could be so sunny in November in Michigan). Though the kids were loosing interest after just a few pictures, they rallied and I think we ended up with some good ones. Here are some of my favorites!

DeJager Family 2020

I’ve gotten to photograph Jess and Jason multiple times, their engagement, wedding, and family pictures when their first daughter was younger so I was excited when they wanted pictures now that they are a family of four! We met at Hager Park on a beautiful fall evening and it was such a fun time catching up, meeting baby Julianna who was born just before the start of the pandemic, and exploring with three year old Josie, who wanted to hold my hand while walking the trails! The leaves were at their peak color and we found so many great spots to take pictures. Here are some of my favorites from their session.

Still/ Vandyke Family

Last Sunday we were obsessively checking the weather to see if the rain would stop in time for this family session and lucky for us it not only stopped raining but the sun even came out and warmed things up. I have taken photos of the Still family for many years and had a great time adding their extended family to the annual fall photo session. We met at Bysterveld Park which was a location none of us had been before and I’m so glad we discovered this great location. I will definitely suggest it to families in the future because they had awesome fall color and lots of trails to explore. Here are some of my favorite photos of the Still/ Vandyke family!

Herrema Family

Sometimes last minute scheduling works out great, Niki reached out to me last weekend and we scheduled her family photos for Tuesday! We ended up picking the only day this week that it has not rained and we had a great time exploring Provin Trails! I love this park and definitely need to make a point to photograph there more often, especially in the fall. Here are some of my favorites from the Niki, Nick and their two adorable boys :)

Baker Family

Even though I did a mini front porch session with this family back in May, now that it’s July they were ready for a longer session (away from their home, with the additional family members who don’t live together) and I was happy to oblige. Although the place we planned to do photos didn’t work out, we were lucky that right down the road was Crane’s Orchard which provided some great backgrounds. We even managed to get the two year old to hold still long enough to be in a few photos. Here are some of my favorites!

Sommerfeld Family

Last weekend I had the opportunity to do an extended family session with the Sommerfeld’s while they were enjoying a family vacation in Grand Haven. I had met them once before when I photographed their daughter and son in laws wedding a few years ago so it was great to reconnect. They chose a park away from the crowds and the bright sun of the beach which was the perfect choice for a holiday weekend in a beach town as it provided plenty of shade and we didn’t have to worry about other people in the background! I also loved seeing how the kids were having fun with their aunt, uncles, and grandparents, here are some of my favorite photos of them!

Baby Ian

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that there was snow on the ground and I was with Mary and Aaron taking maternity photos. In February we had no idea about the Coronavirus and that they would be giving birth at such a strange time in history. Baby Ian was born on Memorial day and I got to meet him at 9 days old. Since they weren’t allowed visitors in the hospital and have only had limited contact with family members since being home I was thrilled when they asked if I could do some outdoor photos :) I know this is not how they imagined bringing Ian home but they are just happy that he is healthy. He slept most of the time and never got upset with the outfit changes and position changes - here are some of my favorites of Mary, Aaron, baby Ian and dog Toby.