It has been quite a busy Fall. Lots of family love, lots of couple love, lots of nature and pretty Fall colors. Here’s a little peek into a few sessions from the last month or two.
Category: Family
Family Documentary Session
This shoot ended just as sweet as it started. Right before I left I witnessed a Dad carefully playing and listening to his son’s ideas. They giggled as they made ice cream rocket launchers from tangram puzzle pieces while a Mother sweetly read books and rocked her son to sleep. Blue twilight streamed in the windows as the yellow glow of the bedroom lights cuddled them in a warm hug. As I snuck out, I knew two little boys were tucked in and a sweet husband and wife were getting ready to unwind for the night – my heart was warmed. And I haven’t even told you about the beginning of the shoot yet. You know what, I think pictures will do a better job than I, so just take a peek into the life of this sweet Cincinnati family. 
Day in Life | Sneak Peek
All the heart eyes. 
Family Documentary Session
Having my own child has made shoots like the one I am about to show you a million times more meaningful for me. I am a photojournalist at heart, yearning to find those real-life moments that seem bigger than life, but also oh so true. Daily life is where we all live. That is kind of a strange sentence, but what I mean by it is that the posed, curated, and perfect images that we see around us all the time are pretty, but they aren’t our real lives. Our real lives are less glamorous, but more beautiful. Our real lives are filled with moments that are immense, but often go unnoticed. That is what I love doing – noticing. I want to notice your everyday beauty.
This family invited me into their home to document their everyday beauty. It included dinner and a little pout over the wrong color plate, it involved an impromptu living room dance party and the trek up the stair to get ready for bed. I witnessed Dad getting the little ones all scrubbed up while Mom floated around magically getting things done and ready for the next day. I watched a bed time story and a kiss goodnight. And at the very end I witnessed a husband and wife sitting back, getting their feet up and enjoying the end of a full, busy, and beauty-full day.
What can I witness for you?? Are there little pieces of your life that are so common and so sweet, but will fade away with time? If anything of this post pulled on your heartstrings, you should think about sending me an email…let’s chat!
Studio Mini Sessions
On August 27th we will be taking lots of photos and making new friends in our studio for our summer Studio Mini Sessions. It is hot and humid outside, the perfect time to come to our studio and make some memories!
Sessions will be about 20-30 min. It will be $75 for the sitting fee as well as 15 high resolution images hosted on a proofing site.
These photos will all be on a white backdrop, and are perfect for frames around your home, or even Christmas cards (it will be here before you know it)! Please email (stephanie@lyellphotography.com) or call (513-828-8727) to set up your time slot.
Lyell Vacation 2016
About a week ago Dave, Jonah and I traveled back home, muddy, dirty, and happy from our first vacation as a family – four nights of camping and 2 nights at Aunt Ashley and Uncle Billy’s house.
A couple months ago I was fiddling around on Facebook (where I certainly spend too much time, but that is a post for another time), when I saw a photographer post about a Creative Camping Trip that they were organizing. Let’s see here, we love being outdoors, camping, hiking, etc, I am a big extrovert and love meeting new people, and I love being around creative people and photographers, so yes, I jumped all over that opportunity. The trip was scheduled for a weekend so we decided, why not just make a whole vacation around it! We camped for 2 days in the beginning of the trip to get Jonah used to camping, then got clean, ate good food (including an amazing birthday cake Ashley made for me) and spent some time at Ashley and Billy’s new place in Marietta, then off to meet our new friends and camp again for 2 more nights.
We came back with dirt in every crevice of our cars, (and other places) memory cards full, and hearts warmed with that sweet feeling that comes from communing with special people in the grand and beautiful world that we call home. I could write more about the amazing people with big hearts that we met, and the special time we spent with that lady that is obsessed with Jonah (his doting Aunty) or how beyond words Hocking Hills is, I could go on and on but I will keep those and all the other sweet memories locked in my heart and show you all the photographic evidence of our amazing trip.
Summer Memories
This weekend seems like the perfect time to post this water-filled, summer documentary shoot. Can’t you just feel the summer in these photos? I certainly could while I was taking them. I felt like I was transported back to splashing around and wandering barefoot with my brothers and cousins. I had a serious wave of nostalgia hit me as I looked through the viewfinder. I couldn’t help but hope and dream that someday these photos would take these kids back to these very special days. My dear friend, Stephanie, hired me to document their family’s yearly cookout/family gathering at their lake house : water guns, lake-hair, food-filled counters and all. I am so thankful to her for allowing me to be a part of her family for the day.
And for all you future clients out there, I dream of this kind of session. Do you have any special traditions or just simple times that just feel so good, times when you look around and thing, this right here is the good stuff. Maybe it’s as small as your evening routine with your little ones who you know will grow and begin to put themselves to bed, or maybe it is a family reunion at a lake-house, or maybe it is the weekly trip the farmers market. Please please please don’t think that you can only make good photos in a park with everyone all dressed up and looking at the camera. I want to photograph your good stuff.
Reagan 6 Months
This little girl is almost exactly 6 months younger than Jonah. I have been photographing her since she was a newborn. While getting to see and document a little persons first year would already be a pretty special thing, I feel extra connected and blessed by this family because every time I step into and document their lives, I get to step back in time and revisit what my little guy was like 6 months ago. It has been a lot of fun!
This time this sweet little girl was working on sitting up, and was so smiley and expressive. Another huge difference is that she wasn’t too mobile yet, just a little squirmy baby that you want to snuggle. At the end of her first year it will be amazing to see how one little person grows and changes and learns so quickly. Until then, have fun playing and learning and growing sweet baby.
Obermyer’s | Documentary Session
My heart. This is where my photographer’s heart feels at home, happy. Samantha is a good friend of mine, and I have gotten to know her and her family over the past couple of years as we have bonded over babies and photography. I asked her if she would mind if I did a documentary session with her, a “day in the life” of sorts. She was excited about it, so we did it!
We started off the session with a couple “posed” photos by the window. I guess I would even say more directed than posed. And then after that, we just hung out and took photos the rest of the night. They got dinner ready, ate together, took a bath, and got ready for bed. Families do this everyday, and have been doing this every day, in a variety of fashions, for thousands of years. It is a simple routine, a common routine, and yet infused with beauty.
I asked Sam to write just a little bit for me about her experience with this session and here is what she had to say,
“So you may think…’why should I photograph my daily routine instead of getting all dressed up and perfect for a family photo?’…well, once you see your life on film through Steph’s eyes, you’ll understand why it means so much to have captured that moment in time. I am just in love with my day in the life session with Stephanie. I adore all the little moments that she captured that happen daily that I will miss so much in the future…but at least now I have the photographs to hold on to!”
