Real Life Family Photography, telling your story in the magic and the mess

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival: PNW Family Photographer

04.07.18

Disneyland, the ocean, the pumpkin patch and the tulip fields are my favorite places to go with my family. Minus Disneyland, wide open spaces are what these places have in common. These are places my children get to roam…the sky is endless and it’s where I get to see my children truly be children. No toys, gift shops, screens, etc.

We went to the tulip fields yesterday, and though it’s not easy loading three kids in the car who get thirsty, hungry, hot, cold, tired and antsy, despite all that, my heart and soul were filled with joy and contentment.

While we drove home, all I kept thinking was I wanted to go back, for just a little longer. I kept dreaming of following family’s around for documentary sessions at the tulip fields…but those are the weird dreams we photographers have. We drool over, light, color and capturing life. If you have strange dreams like me and are not a photographer, shoot me an email. I’d love to go back to the tulip fields and follow your and your family around (in a not so creepy way).

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The Birth of Baby Mira: Tacoma Birth Photographer

03.09.18

Kiri and Isaac didn’t hire me as their birth photographer. They actually hired me as their doula. Years ago when I was contemplating what I wanted to do if I left teaching, I was trained to be a doula. I haven’t had time to work on my certification, but I have been a doula for 3 births. This one being my third, and second with Kiri and Isaac. I had the privilege of photographing their wedding, and then got to be the doula at the birth of their first baby two years ago. So this time I thought I might bring my camera along.

This lady was strong, she labored through the night with very little rest. From the top floor of the hospital she labored as snow fell all over Tacoma. It was beautiful, and peaceful and a privilege to watch the strength of this woman work as she brought her baby into this world.

I don’t do a lot of doula work since I have three little kids at home, but feel to reach out if you are looking for a birth photographer, a doula or possibly both. Although if you hire me as a doula, you always come before the photos.

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Spring In-Home Sessions: Tacoma Photographer

03.07.18

I love spring, I love it when the sun is out, the birds are chirping and the flowers are in bloom. It’s so cliche, but it’s true. The problem with being a PNW photographer is those gorgeous spring days can be very rare. The rain still makes an appearance more often than I would like. But, the silver lining to that, is the most beautiful thing next to sun and flowering trees. And that is YOUR HOME. Yes, yes it could be a bit messy, or at least mine is. But it is your sanctuary, it’s where the most important memories are made, it’s where you are safest and can be your most vulnerabilist (I just made that word up, someone call Webster).

That is why I am offering HALF OFF any in-home session. Yep, half off, family portraits, newborn session, documentary session, and heartbeat sessions. If you don’t know what a heartbeat session is, it’s all the goodness of posed family portraits and documentary style all rolled into one. So, if you book an in-home session in the months of MARCH, APRIL, and MAY, and let’s throw in JUNE just because, I will take HALF OFF your SESSION FEE. To learn more about my collections of prints, albums and digitals, shoot me an email HERE.

My camera and I would love to hang out with you and your family at your house for a while. And of course, if that gorgeous sun graces us with her presence we can go outside, because why wouldn’t we?!

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365 Project: Best of the First 100 Days

03.01.18

I decided to transfer my 365 project from facebook over to my blog. The daily facebook posts made me weary. So I will post 7 photos a week over here on my blog. If you don’t know what a 365 project is, it’s my commitment to take one photo a day (mostly of my kids). I did it once before when it was just my boys, but now that the gangs all here I thought I needed to do it one more time. The first time I didn’t miss a day. Here I am, almost to day 100 and I’ve already missed two. But hey, man, that’s life with 3 kids. So feel free to follow along, you can also get emails for when I add a new blog post HERE.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 8

Day 14

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 26

Day 28

Day 34

Day 35

Day 44

Day 53

Day 58

Day 59

Day 64

Day 65

Day 70

Day 75

Day 76

Day 83

Day 90

Day 91

Day 94

Day 97

2 comments

Molly AdamsMarch 2, 2018 - 10:21 pm
These are magical. What a gift to your kids and yourself! ReplyCancel
- emilyhoganphoto@gmail.comMarch 3, 2018 - 5:38 am
  Thanks so much Molly!ReplyCancel

The Howell Family: Tacoma Family Photographer

01.16.18

The holidays are a good time for extended families to do photos. Often people live in different parts of the country and rarely is everyone together. But the holidays are one of those rare opportunities when everyone is home. For the Howell Family, this year Christmas was one of those rare magic times where everyone was together.

And to avoid the cold air and make sure everyone was comfortable I rented out a friends studio space. It was fantastic. It was warm, the window light was delicious and we didn’t have passerbys staring or photobombing the photo. Studios had aways intimidated me, but now I’m considering pursuing more opportunities to shoot in the studio. Who knows, maybe one day have my own space.

Thanks Howell family!