{Michigan Family Photographer | Michigan Child Photography}

I have lots and lots of photography sessions still to share with you from my annual trip up north to Michigan and Wisconsin, but I wanted to slip this session in here, the very last session I did (the 17th!), the one I did just for fun, with my friend Jamie of Gingersnapography. I’ll tell you, I debated whether I wanted to do this at all. After three grueling weeks of shooting, and plenty of homesickness, I was SO ready to get in my car and head home to my family and my doggie, but I couldn’t help but hear the advice I’ve given so many other photographers over the last 12 years – it’s absolutely crucial for your creative development that you take the time to shoot for YOU sometimes. To go out and take the pictures you want to take, where there are no expectations, no rules, no clocks to watch. You can try out one of your lesser-used lenses or play with the light, convert whatever you want to black and white, take as many goofy pictures as you want, or experiment with unusual compositions. You also get to take a zillion pictures of your own kid, which of course is going to be the most meaningful part of the exercise.

I was tired and didn’t really want to go, but I knew that once I got out there, I’d want to be there, and I was right. Especially since it was a garden and a sunflower field and it was a GORGEOUS evening! Our two subjects, reunited again after being a perfect photography pair since they were teeny toddlers, showed us that they haven’t lost any of their mojo as they are still quite the power team when it comes to modeling for us. See this post if you want to see how good they have always been at this. :).