One of the families I get to photograph every year are the Aniszko’s! It’s been a joy to document their engagement, wedding, dog, birth of their son and now pregnancy with their daughter. After rescheduling three times we ended up doing this photo session at the end of June in their backyard. Despite the poor air quality and tight timeline Mary, Aaron, 3 year old Ian (and even the dog) were good sports and we managed to get some cute pictures! Here are some of my favorites :)
I got a request for a last minute extended photo session at the beach with the Bopp family a couple weeks ago and I’m so glad I could make it happen for them! The beach is a special place for their family to gather from close and far and despite all the stairs to get down to the water, the kids were full of energy and excited to show me the tipi they had made out of sticks earlier in the day. My favorite pictures are the candid ones of them jumping and running, but the group pictures also turned out well!
Back in 2019 I met this family at Keagan and Nicholas’ intimate wedding and it was fun to see how they have grown since then! After a week of cooler summer weather the day we chose for family photos was sunny and humid. No one complained though as we sought out what little shade we could find at Millennium Park. My favorite moment of this session was when the entire family started singing in order to get the babies to smile, not every kid’s attention can be gained that easily and I love that they all knew the trick :)
My niece turns 2 at the end of this month and when my sister in law asked if I’d take some family photos for them to display at her birthday party I was happy to! We ended up doing two photo sessions a week apart due to cold weather the first time and wanting to capture memories at our new family cottage the second time. Sophie didn’t like the idea of sitting still or being held so most of the pictures are her running around, like a 2 year old would :) Here are some of my favorites!
Foster the Family is a new organization in Grand Rapids which provides physical and emotional support within the fist 24 hours of foster care placement to both parents and children as they adapt (sometimes with little notice) to changes in living arrangements. A few weeks ago they had a 5K fundraiser and I got to photograph the day! It was fun seeing other community organizations such as the humane society and the zoo show up to entertain the kids along with inflatable slides and games. I can’t wait to follow along and see how Foster the Family continues to grow and impact more people in Grand Rapids the next few years :)
Part 2 of Kalala’s modeling portraits was rescheduled multiple times due to rain and cold weather, but we finally found a day that worked while the spring flowers were still in bloom! She did great despite the cold and crowds. We kept it simpler this time and did not do outfit changes or location changes and I’m glad she will have multiple options to use for her future modeling and acting portfolios :)
I know two girls on the Hudsonville varsity lacrosse team, but due to our cold rainy spring weather the last month I have not been motivated to attend any of their games. Last Wednesday I finally made it though and had a lot of fun learning about a sport I know very little about, plus they won the game! I could tell their team works hard and has fun together because the people on the sideline had a bubble gun that they would spray on teammates as they came off the field. Full disclosure, I am not a sports photographer and I had the wrong settings on my lens for half the game, but I did get a few good shots that I wanted to share!
The weather has been less than ideal for springtime photos in west Michigan that last few weeks, and after rescheduling 3 times I finally met up with Germaine. Though it’s not as common as high school graduation, I love the idea of taking pictures to commemorate college graduation. Germaine will be getting a degree in computer science from Calvin University this weekend and managed to find time between exams for a photo session. She braved the cold and walked around campus with heels on, but smiled through it all. This was both of our first attempts at getting champagne to spray for photos and luckily it worked out. Congratulations and good luck with whatever comes next Germaine!
My friend Rachael and her husband Alex have been through a lot of ups and downs on their journey to have a baby and Delaney was born via surrogate just 11 days before I met her and took these photos :) She was not very happy that we kept disrupting her nap to change positions for photos, but luckily her parents were able to comfort Delaney each time she started to cry. Plus, after a diaper change and bottle we even managed to take some pictures with the dog, Rosie, and outside on their front porch. I have learned so much about advocacy and surrogacy laws in Michigan from watching Rachael and Alex and am proud that they are using their voice and their story to create positive change for others!
Last week I got to catch up with Kalala who I used to babysit (yes I feel old seeing her as a teenager) because she needed pictures for her modeling and acting portfolio! Because we live in Michigan where it snows in March we came up with some creative indoor locations. I’m grateful that local hotels let us take pictures in their lobby and that Grand Rapids has a sky walk connecting many locations. We had fun exploring the JW Mariott and Amway Grand Hotel and trying out different outfits for different modeling looks. Here are some of my favorites from our Monday morning photo session!
Beatrice is spending her senior year as a foreign exchange student here in West Michigan. She was brave enough to trek through the snow at Hager Park to get to the locations I had in mind for pictures since the parking lot was not plowed all the way! We were lucky to have a sunny day, but it was still cold though you’d never guess looking at Beatrice since she has a natural smile and warmth. Here are some of my favorites from her session :)
Last week I went to a really fun event put on by Professionals of Grand Rapids to support an organization that is close to my heart, Arts in Motion which provides art, music, and dance classes for individuals with disabilities. This was such a fun night with live music by the Oxymorons Band , dancing, drumming, a silent auction, and even an Elvis impersonator showing off his skills all to raise money and awareness for Arts in Motion. I’ve always wanted to photograph an event at Meijer Gardens and I know some of the dancers, so when I was asked to document this “winter soiree” it was an easy yes! Here are some of my favorite pictures :)
The Klein family started off the new year with updated pictures of their kids! It’s crazy how much they have grown since I last saw them for photos in December 2021. They did such a great job dealing with the cold and we had fun walking around downtown Rockford looking for good locations (and looking at dogs walking by). This year also included pictures of the kids with a great aunt who was visiting from out of state, thanks so much for letting me capture memories of these ages/stages of your family :)
Grand Rapids is such a fun city and not just in the summer! They’ve started an annual event called World of Winter and last weekend for the opening several local performers set up in Calder Plaza and did performances in the cold. Just for fun I brought my camera and tried some new skills of capturing motion in low light. I had no expectations the images would turn out perfectly as I imagined, but I still wanted to share some of my favorites from the event :)
Just for fun on the last day of this year I thought I’d post my favorite 22 photos taken in 2022. The more I looked through old posts today the harder it became to choose so few pictures to share! Eventually I settled on this combination of professional and personal photo projects and tried to include something from each season :)
Winter can be a tricky time for family pictures, but I’m grateful for hotels with beautifully decorated lobbies and families who are up for anything :) I met the Hounakey’s for the first time last December and we had lots of fun, so this year I was excited to do holiday photos for them again! The JW Marriott downtown Grand Rapids has an iconic staircase that I’ve used as a backdrop for photos during the day before, but I didn’t realize they lit it up blue at night and this just added to the festive look. Plus the Christmas trees were so pretty. Here are some of my favorites from the Hounakey family last Saturday!
Another class of 2023 senior session to round out this year! Joseph’s mom contacted me in November asking about taking his photos by the blue bridge specifically, and since this time of year Michigan is not exactly pretty outside (or warm) we made the most of the indoor spots downtown Grand Rapids. I love the sky walk that connects the hotels because it provides so much natural light, the stairs in the lobby of the JW Mariott are another favorite indoor location. Joseph was so easy going that we got lots of great photos in a short period of time. I had fun meeting him and hearing about his plans to study interior design at college in the fall!
On a warm fall day in mid October I got to return to my alma mater for Matt and Mary’s wedding. A year before we had their engagement session also on the Grand Valley campus on a beautiful fall day, these two have great luck with weather! These two met in a college class and I loved that they wanted their school to be part of their marriage by having the ceremony there. For the reception we headed downtown GR and enjoyed a walk around the city before dinner and dancing. Matt and Mary have such supportive friends and family, they were all a joy to be around. Here are some of my favorite pictures form their wedding :)
Fall photo season wouldn’t be complete until I saw the Johnston family whose pictures I’ve been taking annually since they only had one kid :) Luckily, we had unseasonably warm weather at the start of November and even though the leaves were gone from the trees it was fun exploring more of their property and finding new spots to take pictures. Claire, Andy, their kids and parents are experts at this by now which makes the photos so quick and easy. This year we even did a few inside with their new cat, a very unique sphynx. Here are some of my favorites!
Layna, Ellory and Ceana had been talking since last spring about taking senior pictuers together in the fall. October got busy quickly, but I’m so glad we made time for a quick 30 minute photo shoot at Heritage Park in Grandville on a cloudy Sunday evening! I’ve been the leader of these girls’ small group for six years and I can’t believe they are seniors who are looking at colleges out of state. I love seeing their friendship and I can’t help but remember them as 6th graders when I look at these pictures of them now :) Here are some of my favorite pictures of my favorite members of the class of 2023!
