I love how some photos can feel like a memory.

This one conjures up the late days of summer. Lazy, hazy evenings reading books by the fire... Cozy on the patio, the family's favorite retreat. Tiny, filthy feet resting on dad's legs after running barefoot all afternoon. Sounding out tricky words, counting fingers and toes. Finding rest from difficult situations—together. The safety of home base following the first few days of kindergarten. The dog supervising it all.

It’s the feeling I’m chasing with my camera. Not what you look like, or what outfit you picked. I’m chasing that feeling.

South Bend Photographer and Videographer

We didn’t just take photos, though. This relaxed, at-home family portrait session included family videography. Mom wanted to capture their right now, in all it’s guts and glory, and there is just no better way to do that than by booking a family film session. Her kids are in that stage where they bounce from one activity right to the next, dragging mom and dad a long for the ride. It’s exhausting. Sometimes it’s a good kind of exhausting, and other times it is a difficult kind of exhausting. It’s one of those things that you just DO, every day, one foot in the front of the next. It’s one of the (many) sacrificial parts of parenting, that makes being a mom and dad so Holy.

Mom and dad have been in a hard season this summer. It has not been complete joy. Giving a family a gift like this doesn’t necessarily make anything better, but I know it can be a balm. I speak from experience. I received a family film of my own during a hard season and it was like a balm to my soul… to see that even in the hard parts of life, our days are still full of blessings if we just take time to notice them. My hope and prayer is that these family pictures and the corresponding family video will be a comfort now and in the future hard seasons of their life. I pray it creates a time capsule of little voices, secret handshakes, trampoline tricks and kids bouncing from one activity to the next in an energized frenzy—to be relived on that future day when you realize you MISS IT SO MUCH.

Watch the film, check out the pictures, and let me know what part resonated with you. I’d love to hear!