I get the pleasure of often photographing the Ohloff family and actually met Elisabeth’s family at her and Seth’s wedding a few years ago (you’ll see some familiar faces in the bridal party)! When I recently photographed the Ohloffs, they wondered it would be possible to set up this extended family session and I was so glad we could find a date that worked for everyone!
The Gingerich family lives on a beautiful piece of land in the Kalona area where I have been lucky enough to photograph before so I knew when Bailey reached out for family photos that we could use the space surrounding their home! It was the most perfect afternoon with glorious sunshine and I love how bright and happy all these photos are.
Last year when I photographed the Seward family, baby Cameron wasn’t even a blip on the radar yet. Now, just three months in, she’s the perfect final piece to this group, completing their “girl family” status solidly. I got to meet her when she was just a few weeks old, but this time, I got to focus much more on her little self. She’s smiling and loves to be cuddled close, preferably with something cozy like a blanket right up by her cheek. (There is no shortage of arms to hold her and her sisters were fighting over whose turn it was next.)
It is always so much fun to see this family and even more fun now to compare the changes from one year to the next. I love capturing the moments as they are, the stages of life as they are, knowing they go by too quickly and, before you know it, you’re comparing what is current now to the new current a year from now.
September and October are packed with family sessions and this beautiful family of 8 is just one of the many! This family is new to me, although we have several connections (as it usually happens), including that I have done family photos for Leah’s brother’s family!
With a family of this size and age range (3-17!), it took some coordination to make sure everyone was available and also dressed and ready. The forecast had called for rain and we were hoping we wouldn’t have to reschedule because it was going to have to be a ways out, but thankfully, the rain cleared up and we had overcast skies, which was perfect for this location at The Barn (originally The Celebration Barn)!
Thank you, Leah and Patrick, for allowing me to document this last hurrah of family photos before you enter a new stage of having a college kid!
If you ever need a little dose of sunshine, you just need a squishy little Boyd in your life. It was such a pleasure meeting the Stoner family! We had been eyeing the weather as it was super gloomy a few hours before their session and I was debating rescheduling (which is always tricky to do this time of year when coordinating several busy calendars both for clients and me!), but it suddenly brightened up outside and the sun even peeked out a few times during their shoot! Enjoy some of my favorites from this Sunday session! 
I was so thrilled when Brooke contacted me about doing these photos! I had met Brooke and Zhas back in 2015 for their engagement session, followed a year later by their beautiful, intimate backyard wedding in Chicago (which has long lived as a favorite of mine!). So I was extra excited to see them again, now 4 years later, on the cusp of them welcoming their first child into the world. (Brooke’s sister is also pregnant and so they will be having little cousins just a couple months apart, which I can tell you from first-hand experience with my own sister, is just a delight.)
I had forgotten about pieces of their love story until I looked back 5 years: “He moved to the U.S. in 2007 and just a few years later, she made a 1-year commitment with her job to transplant to New York. It was there, in the upper corner of the states, that they met at work. He says he knew she was the one because she was always open with him and didn’t hide her feelings. When she introduced him to her parents a few months later, he fell in love with them and, in some ways, the rest is history.
“After dating for several years and moving back to Iowa, where Brooke is from, they planned a trip overseas to visit Zhas’ family. Zhas decided they should stop in Europe for a few days before heading into Central Asia so they chose London as their vacation destination & extended layover stop. He took along the engagement ring he had picked out for her and proposed to her at the London Tower Bridge.” (You guys know how much I love England in general and London specifically so it’s super swoony to me about a London Tower Bridge proposal.)
Brooke and Zhas, I know you’re going to make the most wonderful parents and the best teammates in the joy and challenges. I’m so excited for you to hold your daughter and feel the world shift under your feet.
