I feel like I’ve photographed and blogged so many families, that I’m starting to run out of things to say without sounding insincere.  But the Hehn’s were a family who made this shoot easy for me.  Not only were they happy and fun loving, but they were very natural and authentic in front of the camera.  They truly just enjoyed being and playing with one another as if they weren’t even aware of me being there.   They are the picture perfect little family….

A family shoot with little kids is one thing…. a family of four adults is another.  When I get inquires to do shoots like this, I have to really get to the point with my potential client, that my style is very unconventional, and that I simply don’t enjoy doing super posey family portraits.  And of course, the more “mature” the family is, the harder it is to get  the really great candids.

So when Robin called me and asked me to do some family portraits, I said just this.  To top it off, she is a photographer herself—so there was that extra pressure.    She assured me that they did not want conventional family portraits so we gave it a shot.  Literally.

I was a little nervous, but what  ended up transpiring here during this hour was a revolution of the idea of the family portrait—I realized that they can actually be fun to shoot—they can be edgy and can still draw out personalities and emotion—especially when I’m working with other artists….

Between the nine weddings that I have this month and the 15 smaller shoots, I decided that a family reunion in Arkansas would be a nice thing to do….  And actually aside from the 108 temperatures and the very bumpy plane ride home, the trip was a nice culmination of both rest and relaxation and more time getting to know my family.  I did a blog post about a month ago about my immediate family and our Harris harvest.  This post is about the other side of my family—my mother’s side, and her 93 year old mother’s side—  The Thomas/Norton 2008 family reunion in Petit Jean State park, Arkansas.

I have to say that I spent the majority of the time at this family reunion, hanging out with a couple of cousins and my two brothers.  I’m not one for crowds, and I  value intimacy and real conversations over small talk and playing 10 year catch up.  While I love all of these people dearly, it really boiled down to how I wanted to use my time while I was out there (which was only 2 full days),  and for the time that I wasn’t working on post production, I really wanted to get to know my cousin Hillary, her boyfriend Rob, my little cousin Jordan and of course spend more time with Robbie and Mark, my two brothers.  While I would have cherished some time with my grammy, I wasn’t able to get her alone very often, and she wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t see much of her.  That is my one regret about the trip….

The images that I chose to post are ones that portray a mix of the emotions I felt out there, and the ways that I viewed my family.   There are also some juxtaposing images of Arkansas—some very naturesque, the  others represent the “other side of Arkansas” and the way I expected to see the land.

On the first morning of the reunion, we did a group hike down to the falls at Petit Jean State Park.  It was gorgeous and quite refreshing.  It was about a 2 mile hike down to the bottom of the canyon, where there was the most beautiful waterfall and still pool of water.  I couldn’t believe I was in Arkansas, and felt like I had stepped into the movie, “Last of the Mohicans”.  With the 108 degree heat, this was probably the best place in the state to be….it was a good 15 degrees cooler at the bottom of the canyon.

This is my cousin Sam.

I’m sad to say, that I don’t know who this is….  My Grandma’s sister passed away last year, and they combined her family reunion with ours this year.  So, technically this is a second or third cousin… or something like that???  The son of my mother’s cousin.  You catch my drift.  None the less, I loved “his look”.

This is my cousin Hillary and her boyfriend Rob.  I spent a lot of time with them, which was great.  We had our own little “happy hours”, before dinner and of course after dinner at my cabin every evening.  I really felt like I got to know the two of them better, and hope to spend much more time with them in the future….

… and of course my two brothers, Robbie and Mark, who always make for good photo content.

This image looks pretty droll, but check out the bottom left of the photo.  I had to give some perspective to this canyon….

Again, another 2nd or 3rd cousin….

This is my cousin, Jordan.  Sam’s older brother.  Jordan joined us for happy hour every night (of course he didn’t partake as he isn’t 21).   It was such a nice surprise to see how mature and insightful he is.  I was really glad I got to spend some quality time getting to know him.  He is an amazing pianist and graced us with some of his own original compositions at our family “talent show”.

I’m always drawn to those on the “edge”.  These bikers were, quite literally on the edge of the trail and up a ways… I hiked up to talk to them and grab a portrait or two.  A waterfall at the bottom of the canyon was really the last place I thought I would see some authentic southern Hell’s angels, but I guess they wanted to cool off, too!

…not sure who this is.

It was so hot after our hike, that I actually jumped in the pool with all of my clothes on…. I didn’t even have the energy to go back to the cabin to put a suit on.  These next two images were actually taken much later in the day, but I loved the light, so I thought I’d post them.

My mother is one of 5 kids born to Harold and Roxie Thomas.  Harold, my grandfather passed away a couple of years ago, but this is an image of the original Thomas family.  My mom is the baby in the flowered shirt.  The Thomas family is Welsh, and apparently, it’s a tradition to sing together and tell stories through song.  Our family (the Thomas’s) do this together all the time.  This image is of them singing the “orchestra song”, which involves something like 8 part harmony… I’m always with the clarinets.

The Thomas’s are also a very spiritual family.  My grandfather was a pastor of the Church of Christ for his entire adult life.  It’s norm for the family to get together every night for Christian devotionals.  I snapped this image of my aunt, Rosemary worshiping the lord.  I really think if there is one image that would sum up the vibe of the “thomas family reunions”, this might be it.

I loved this moment between my cousins, Erin and Hillary,and my Grammy.

Ok, so totally off in the other direction from family devotionals…..

I am a huge, huge David Lynch fan.  I saw this site in the woods, and it screamed “David Lynch”.  Strange, and beautiful all at once.  I think that some brilliant person set up this sheet and a bright light in the woods to attract all the bugs away from the rest of the camp, but I don’t know.  I just like the way it looked out there in the woods.

The light also created some cool effects for more portraits of Robbie.

Petit Jean was a surprise.  I never imaged such a beautiful Arkansas.  These images below, however are more of what I expected to see along the side of the road….  These were taken on the road from Little Rock to Morrilton.

Aside from the harsh 10am morning light, my shoot with the Baker family was a walk in the park, so to speak. It’s been about two years since I’ve worked with Amy and Chris, but I was so excited when Amy called to say there was a new addition to the family, and that they would like me to come take some more pictures. Amy and Chris are a super chill couple, and they eally appreciate the art of documentation. They rarely even look up at the camera (with the exception of Kenedy, who is a total ham) and trust me to capture their lives. I love this about them! And because they give me so much freedom to do my thing, these images are straight from my heart. What a beautiful family!

Meet the Nekritz family—Ed, Wendy, Jessica and Matthew. What a bunch of strong personalities! There would be no “faking” it from them, which was quite refreshing, actually. I walked away from the shoot feeling like I had actually captured their true spirits—especially the kids. All I had to do to get some shots from Jessica, was to ask her to recite Shakespeare (she’s quite the actress). I think she completely forgot that she was getting her photo taken, and went right into character. As for Matthew, I knew from the moment that I saw him, that he is a fun loving, silly little guy. I simply had Wendy stand behind me while I was taking his photo, and crack a few jokes to get these smiles. Although I have to say, my very favorite shot of the day is of Matthew dead on and stoic. His eyes are amazing….

Meet the Nekritz family—Ed, Wendy, Jessica and Matthew. What a bunch of strong personalities! There would be no “faking” it from them, which was quite refreshing, actually. I walked away from the shoot feeling like I had actually captured their true spirits—especially the kids. All I had to do to get some shots from Jessica, was to ask her to recite Shakespeare (she’s quite the actress). I think she completely forgot that she was getting her photo taken, and went right into character. As for Matthew, I knew from the moment that I saw him, that he is a fun loving, silly little guy. I simply had Wendy stand behind me while I was taking his photo, and crack a few jokes to get these smiles. Although I have to say, my very favorite shot of the day is of Matthew dead on and stoic. His eyes are amazing….

What a lovely family! These four were so easy to work with—maybe it was being at the park, but they all seemed to genuinely enjoy the session (which is, of course my goal)! Alex and Michael are twins, and so completely different in their nature. Alex was the ham. Michael was a little more cautious, but was so honest… I loved that about him. When we were almost finished with the shoot. He stood up and said, “I’m done.” And so we were. I wasn’t about to pull any teeth and spoil our great evening at Wash park.

Meet Michael

…and Alexander

This was by far, my favorite shot of the day. The light was gorgeous and I love Michael’s candid expression.

I don’t normally post this sort of shot, but the light was perfect, and the family seemed to love to “canoodle”, so… I posted it! But take note, this is about as traditional as I get! 🙂

I don’t even know what to say about this family, except that  it is so clear to me how much they love each other.  There is just so much joy in their home…. Check out Louis for example, he was just getting over strep when we did these photos and was still under the weather.  Except for this first shot of him crying (which I just had to put in because he looks so cute when he cries), Louis was ecstatic to be outdoors playing with his mom and dad.  And Christy and Max look equally as happy.  What a great family!

I’m not sure what this shot is about, but I loved the expression on Louis’ face!  What a ham!

I never know what I’m going to get when I have a family shoot—sometimes they are hard work, and others, like the shoot with the Mitchell’s, I leave feeling so blessed to be doing what I do for a living.  This family was so wonderful to work with.  They let me stand back and truly document their lives.  Even Emma, who is seven was able to be very natural!  It was a great day with the Mitchells at Wash park….

Meet Andrew, Whitney, Emma and Will…

I couldn’t get over how beautiful and natural Emma was with the camera—-I think we might be seeing more of this little girl in the future….

This is the way I like to shoot family portraits! I had so much fun photographing this family (I think there were something like 18, all in all but who was counting). I was a little nervous about the expectations that this family had going into the shoot. I had talked to them beforehand and said that I really don’t do “family reunions” or “formal family portraits”. They assured me that they didn’t want formals, but 9 times out of 10 people think they don’t want “formals”, and then there is all this stress and pressure during the shoot to get everyone (yes even the dog) to sit still and smile for the camera. But this family truly had fun with the session which was very refreshing. I felt like I was doing what I was gifted to do with my profession… stand back, let them play and simply document the love. Thanks, Kimberly for trusting me to “do my thing”.

The “Original Kelly’s” are four sisters and their Father. The rest of the clan was all of their spouses and children. One of the sisters was about 45 minutes late to the shoot, which would have generally frustrated me, but it actually gave me more time to stand back and get some great candids. This is a shot of Kimberly and Leslie—the first of the sisters to arrive. I got this shot while they were hanging out waiting for everybody else to show up…

This is Erica (Leslie’s daughter) and Jaden (Kimberly’s daughter) spending some one and one time together. Leslie and her family live in Seattle, so the cousins don’t get to see much of each other..

These are the 4 beautiful sisters (and matriarchs).

... and all of the cousins.