Family: Jon & Nicole; Ari, Barrett, Emersyn, Beau
Scene: Fence, East Orchard Gate, a few minutes at Wildwood
Time of day: Evening
Season: Early summer
Atmosphere: Cheerful, playful, occasionally reserved
Summertime Portraits on the Eagle Ridge Acreage
Let it be known that even in the midst of some forced time apart (I’m looking at you, 2020-2021), we did not stop loving. We texted, Zoomed, and played outside until our collective looming questions subsided. The hooligans among us even went so far as to carry on with normal life in the face of fear. And we longed for summertime portraits. (Or was that just me?)
Families everywhere used the extra time in 2021 to evaluate their priorities and chart a new course for the coming years. Some families, like Jon and Nicole’s, started new projects, like refinishing the basement.
Still, something was missing. Time with family in the presence of friends shores up our families in a way few other things can. Summertime portraits—the sweet faces of those we love hung on our walls—unify us in the face of the unknown, the unexplained, and the impossible.
Are Portraits a Luxury?
Many of us see frequent family portraits as a luxury only within reach for the 1% among us—everyone else destined for 20-minute mini sessions in the same season every year. But most of us don’t want to be limited in the portraits we choose for our families. As one recent commentator observed, “As a parent, I can tell you that each of my children has a unique personality and unique relationship inside the family. I think that’s what a mom wants—to understand her child better through a lens.” (John Jantsch)
Nate and I believe in the power of summertime portraits to light up your home in ways that surprise you. Whether your inclination is to hang up the images you want to enjoy every day, snuggle on the couch with your favorite people and a hand-crafted album, or grace every nook in your home with simple reminders of your blessings, seasonal portraits on the Eagle Ridge acreage (also known as our backyard) sustain your family—and safeguard your sanity—even when the world outside your door looks more questionable every day.
Jon & Nicole’s Summertime Portraits
On a warm and breezy June evening in 2022, Jon and Nicole made the familiar drive to our home. The back seats of their SUV were full of kids … and clothes. Jon, a baseball-card-trading branch manager at a local Wells Fargo, and Nicole, a gracious and encouraging mom I’ve been blessed to call a dear friend for nearly a decade, chose to commemorate the first birthday of their youngest child with an hour of family portraits in our backyard.
For years they’ve heard about all sorts of portrait ideas, family sessions, and other priorities in our lives. As Nate and I adjusted to the arrival of our newest little one (now nearly two years old) and made plans to enjoy photography at our new home on 4.5 acres, Nicole continued asking for updates.
“Hearing all of your ideas and everything … I love your photography skills and how you go about it. I wanted to support you as well as get some good family portraits.”
Nicole, as we stood in their basement looking at the play room gallery during delivery night
A Vibrant Summer Evening
In the days when our eldest girls were three years old (and we took portraits of Jon and Nicole for the first time), neither of our families could fathom a time when there’d be eight kids between us. Today, those eight kids are our joy. At once excited and hesitant, on that beautiful June evening Jon and Nicole’s four little ones explored the furthest reaches of our yard with shy smiles.
Our riding lawn mower, affectionately called a tractor by our little boys, dutifully pulled our two oldest kids and Jon and Nicole’s family of six to the best spot in the yard for a 6pm summer session. We bumped along down the hill, past the tree house and orchard, to the low ground beyond the giant fire pit. Nate parked the overflowing trailer on the north side of the pond and pointed the camera to the southwest, over the water and toward vibrant summer grasses in the evening sunshine.
Attitudes and Outfits
Before the session began, Nate and I had decided to forego the smile-at-Nate portraits until the kids had warmed up to us. In place of that industry-standard beginning, we spread our favorite ivory blanket in front of the fence and told the kids to pile on Mom and Dad. We noticed immediately that Nicole’s decision to use Emy’s dress to pull all of the outfits together played out beautifully. The only potential pitfall? Little Beau had grown more than Nicole realized. He didn’t have as much range of movement in the fabric of his pants as she’d expected!
Nicole’s favorite dress for herself was off the table early on. She remembered that her youngest sister had worn the same style in a slightly different color for her own family’s portraits last year. But Nicole’s second choice had unrelenting water stains on it—which she didn’t notice until the last couple days before her own session. She ultimately wore her favorite dress, similar as it was to her sister’s, because she loved the color.
(Oh, boy, can I relate to outfit troubles. Don’t get me started on the time when I picked out a charming set of outfits for my boys, and was about to start taking pictures at that same fence, when our four-year-old took a swig of water—which I didn’t realize was in the trailer—and dumped it down his shirt. I hoped nobody was looking as I rolled my eyes … and offered grace for accidents even when it was the last thing I wanted to do. You can read about that evening session on the blog, too.)
Summertime Portraits on the Wall: A Dream Come True
Throughout a series of pre-session conversations Nicole told us about the two places she wanted to hang a gallery in their nearly finished basement. Her initial idea was to display a portrait of each child on the wall in the kids’ play room. The idea soon grew beyond those walls, though, and stretched to the living area next to the window to the backyard.
In what felt like the most natural process in the world, we worked together to design two galleries. The first, a four-piece Spark Collection for the play room featuring a 12×18” portrait of each precious gift. The second, an Inspire Collection showcasing various groupings of her favorite people, and including the complimentary 16×20 we offer to all families designing their first galleries with us. Frames will come later, once the entire basement is finished and the frames can accentuate the very best of Jon and Nicole’s new space.
“I need to incorporate Beau looking through the fence with his little pudgy fingers. I need that one somewhere. Or we could put Beau with his pudgy fingers in that last spot on the far right and get a separate picture of Jon kissing my forehead to put somewhere else. I just love all of those pictures and need them somewhere.”
Nicole, as we finalized plans for the living area
Like Christmas in July
Like Jon and Nicole, we were excited to see the kids’ portraits on the play room wall, too. On the night we delivered their galleries I told Nicole, “It’s fun for us to see them in your house. It’s one thing to unwrap them when they arrive from the lab, and bring them outside to take unboxing pictures, but this is so much better. That’s a good-looking family.”
Nicole’s smile grew as she lifted each portrait from the box.
“These look so good! I could just stare at these all the time. This is like Christmas! Beau’s and Em’s eyes are just this incredible blue. I’ve been dreaming all week about what these photos will look like.”
About Ari’s portrait, “Gosh. So big. That’s beautiful.”
About Bear’s, “I just love how their personalities shine through. That pose and pulling on his shirt…”
About Emy’s, “Oh, that beautiful lady. Those chunker cheeks!”
About Beau’s, “Oh my gosh, he looks so old. My little Beau!”
Photographer’s Favorite
On any regular day we love the atmosphere of our yard. (When we’re getting ready for portraits, we affectionately call it “the acreage.”) We love it even more during portrait sessions, because there’s an intangible quality in the air that gets pulled into portraits. Our favorite set of images from Jon and Nicole’s session highlights their firstborn in front of a beautiful summertime scene, the East Orchard Gate. Ari reclined on the grass, backlit by the lingering sun through the gate, giggling at the silly things Jon was doing just off-camera.
Summer Portrait Highlights
Browse the highlights of Jon and Nicole’s evening session.
Want to see a bit of the evening Nate and I delivered portraits to Jon and Nicole? We filmed it, then wrote about it on their testimonial page here.
Kind Words
“You guys got multiples of our kids together! I’m all teary eyed. Thank you. We just haven’t been able to do this—take pictures all together. These kids look like they like each other. That says a lot about you guys! You captured our family so well.”
Nicole, at the reveal
