Hickok Family at Home

The childhood home.

There is something so special about returning to the place you grew up with your own kids. Letting them get a glimpse into what your childhood was like. Picking raspberries from the same bushes you plucked berries from 15 years ago.

I am a deeply sentimental, nostalgic individual and feel so fortunate to have so many wonderful memories of summers spent with my maternal grandparents in Montana and my paternal grandmother in Oregon. So it comes as no surprise that some of my favorite family photos are the ones taken during younger families’ trips to their childhood home.

A few of my favorite snaps from one such trip home for the Hickok family.

Nettie + Waylon on a Stormy Saturday

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

~John Steinbeck

I’ve been a fan of John Steinbeck’s work since high school, but no line of his has stayed with me the way this one has. It struck me after my dad died as I was struggling to pinpoint exactly why I felt like his death left me alone in this world when I am surrounded by so many friends and family members whom I love, and who love me, dearly. As this line kept making its way around my head, I realized my dad was the one person with whom I truly did not feel the need to be perfect. Maybe it was because he was so unapologetically himself, good, bad, and everything in between. Or maybe it was the way he always encouraged me to try and celebrated the effort without paying any mind to the success or failure of the endeavor. Or maybe he just got me in a way that others really didn’t and recognized that I needed one place to let down my guard. Understanding this piece of my struggle with his death has inevitably bled over into my views on family photography over the last few years.

The most common concern I hear when it comes to preparing for family photos is something along these lines: “what if my kid is having a bad day/has a meltdown/isn’t cooperating?” I get it. You’re spending time and money on these photos, and not just the time it takes to take them. You’re planning everyone’s outfits, coordinating time and location - all of it. Of course you want everyone to be (or at least appear to be) happy in your photos!

Here’s the deal though: much like the meltdown, this season, too, shall pass. And then you’ll be on to another, full of its own joys and challenges. So I encourage you to to focus less on perfect and more on good. Less focus on ensuring you have nice, happy photos and more on how and what you want to remember - and what you want your children to remember - about this season in your lives. I’ll never say nice portraits don’t matter - they do, and I always try to grab a couple. But I think there is value in bottling up reality too because each season is so fleeting. By letting the kids lead and honoring whatever comes our way, you have an opportunity to give them tangible reminders of the way you comforted them when they skinned a knee, and how you entertained their overwhelming, all-encompassing desire to do nothing but throw rocks, and how they buried their heads and little hands in the warmth of your neck as their alligator tears fell freely and fiercely. You have the opportunity to show your kids all the good there is when we stop focusing on perfection. I know firsthand just how much comfort those reminders can bring as your children get older.

So let’s rethink family photography. When you book your session, I challenge you to really think about what’s so special about this season, even if that thing is simply that it is full of challenges that you’re navigating together. Let’s document it all. And maybe the photos don’t make it to a gallery wall (or maybe they do!), but I hope they’ll make it to a photo album that you pick up frequently and that your kids can take with them when they’re settled in their own homes. I hope that album is full of fingerprints on the pages and smudges from chocolate-covered fingers on the cover: evidence that your kids grew up revisiting pieces of their childhood and getting to know themselves, you, and your relationship better through years of storytelling.

The Branch Family at Home

Historically, I’ve taken winters off from photography: it’s cold, the weather is wildly unpredictable, and the roads can be treacherous. As I’ve thought hard about what photography means to me though, and what I want to provide, I’ve found so much meaning in photographing families in their homes. The heart of it all: where families spend most their time together and where so many milestones, big and small, take place. So that’s what I’ve been doing this winter (and occasionally sneaking outside for some snow angels or sledding, weather permitting).

In-home sessions are particularly great for newborn sessions. I love how comfortable this whole session felt. Everyone was in their comfort zone and this sweet family’s decor reflected their fun personalities so well. I really loved the Dr. Seuss print boldly featured in their dining room: it reminded me of a print that hung in my family’s dining room when I was a kid. I never really loved that print, but I think about it so often - maybe because the dining room table was always the center of activities at home when I was a kid. It was where we ate, did arts and crafts, where I wrote *incredible* short stories on a massive old PC. I never thought much of that print, but it frequently appears in my memories of my childhood.

And as I think about it, I realize that those kinds of things are important to me to document. Whether it’s your forever home or just a stepping stone, your kids will search their memories for pieces of their childhood, and sometimes the most seemingly insignificant details are the ones that complete the puzzle. So please remember: your home doesn’t need to be perfect. Your wardrobes don’t need to be brand new. Eventually, your kids will simply want to see what life looked like and I’d love to help you provide tangible reminders of it all.

Film scans by

Bradley Family: Late Fall Family Session in Big Sky

The Bradleys were one of my first family clients at a time I was only photographing weddings and couples. I was so sure I didn’t want to be a “family” photographer, but Katie’s initial email was so endearing I decided to say yes. I’ve gotten to see them every year since that first time in 2017 or 2018, and over the years as a wedding photographer, I realized that the thing I really loved about photographing weddings was that it was like photographing one big family.

I left the wedding world at the end of last year and have learned so much about why I’m drawn to family photography and what it means to me in the years since Katie first reached out. It means so much to me that they have let me in each year for so long and through my own evolution as a family photographer. If I’m honest, photographing their sweet family of five feels a little like cheating: she’s a pro at styling them and the girls have more personality than I can bottle up in these sessions. But it’s also made me realize the importance of creating a relationship - some level of comfort, trust, and familiarity with the people in front of my lens. If I can give you one piece of advice for stellar honest, genuine, and authentic family photos, it would be to let your guard down. Let your photographer see the real you - not the “photo” you.

Film scans by The FIND Lab

Allie, Lucy + Andy: Motherhood Session with Horses

2023 was a year of thinking hard about what I want to create and what I want to give each family who steps in front of my lens. I couldn’t narrow it down to a specific theme, aesthetic, location, or anything else, but the one thing that stayed in the back of my mind was the idea of artfully documenting REAL family moments. For years, the term “lifestyle” has been used to describe more candid photography, but what if it actually meant “photography that captures your real lives”? And that’s what I realized I wanted to do.

I want to focus on the minutiae of your daily lives. What do you and your kids love to do right now? Is one kiddo fascinated by dinosaurs? What if you just brought me along on a trip to the Museum of the Rockies, or even simpler - what if we just play with the dinos in your backyard sandbox? With this fresh blanket of snow we got today, we could bundle the kids up, head out to the backyard and make some snow angels, or head to the sledding hill for a bit, then head home for some hot cocoa. Let’s simplify the idea of family photos and focus on preserving the things you truly want to remember about your lives at this stage. Bonus: by keeping it simple and building a session around things your kids already know and love, they’re much more likely to be happy and open up so we can capture their true personalities!

For Allie and her family, horses are a huge part of their lives. They work cattle with them, they take in rescues and give them a loving home, and the girls get to grow up knowing what it means to care for and be responsible for these incredible animals. For this motherhood session, it only made sense to include their sweet mares.

So what do you want to remember about this time? Let’s create a session around those things! Extra bonus: film is inherently well-suited to this type of session. It’s nostalgic and perfectly imperfect, leaving you with images that truly bottle up the feeling and essence of this season.

Film scans by The FIND Lab