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

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!

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Rorem Family: Tacoma In-Home Family Photographer

01.06.18

Let’s talk about in-home sessions. This is the third one I have done and I am smitten. My sister did family photos this summer with me. She loved her photos, but wanted something cozier for their Christmas card. So I came over for 20 minutes and we snapped a few photos. In-home is great, the first reason being this is where your family memories are made. This is the place your kids will remember for the rest of their lives. Even when they move out, they will remember every detail of your home. The second reason is, your kids are most comfortable here. Taking pictures can be really hard for kids, but putting them in the place they feel the safest and most secure. If you are interest in an in-home session let me know, I’d love to come over.