I met the Kadlecs years ago (2017? 2018? I don’t know. Time is weird), shortly after they moved to Montana. For the first few years, they would come to my fall mini sessions or book a full session and these were wonderful, but they were more traditional - beautiful scenery, well curated wardrobes, and a happy little family. A few years back, Mallory told me she wanted photos on their raft: it was how they were spending time together as a family and something they all enjoyed. But she said she wasn’t sure how that could work. I told her I didn’t really know either, but I wanted to try it. This was about the time I was really feeling pulled toward photos that would really only reveal their value years - or decades - down the road. Photos that bottled up a season in the lives of that family in them. Photos that will be revisited in print form at Thanksgiving or Christmas when the kids are grown and bring their partner home for the holidays for the first time. And from my own experience, photos that will be pulled out again in the aftermath of the loss of one of those family members. Photos that will help the people in them to hold onto memories of their childhoods. So I said yes to that family photo session on a raft. It was tight and there wasn’t much room to maneuver, so I photographed nearly all of the session on a 28mm lens that I had previously only used for wedding reception dance parties.

Those photos on the raft became something of a north star for me. There wasn’t much for curation: the goal was to simply document their family doing something they loved. Since then, we haven’t done a traditional family portrait session. Everything since that session has been built around documenting their real lives. And lucky me: they built a chicken coop last fall and have been raising their own little chicken flock. So it only made sense that their 2024 family photos incorporate their girls.

Something I really love about at-home family photos is that they can go a lot of directions. We intended this session to be about their foray into chicken-keeping, but eventually the boys decided it was time to hit the slide and swings. So off we went. And guess what? Their oldest son just got a bearded dragon, so it didn’t make sense not to spend a little time with Gary the Dragon. Their middle son is into skateboarding, so he padded up and showed me his skateboard skills (Mom and Dad also gave it a go!). We hooped a little, we chased the sunset. Next year, I’m sure that the boys will be into new stuff. Maybe they’ll add animals. Who knows what it’ll look like? But all of those things we packed into a couple hours on a warm October evening, wrapped up together in a beautiful physical photo album, will be a reminder of 2024 for them. And I have to think that these photos will spark genuine conversations and story-telling as the kids get older.

Film scans: The FIND Lab