REDWOOD FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT | the incredibly extra pictures I took myself in a national park

This week on Instagram I’ll be sharing all my top advice for orchestrating your OWN family photo shoot! I’m not talking snap snap snap done - I mean a full out extra EXPERIENCE with all those big frame-worthy shots and the little quiet candid moments in between.

Scroll through this post to see how even a tripod shoot can turn into the beautiful content you’d never think you could do on your own!

Questions? Ask over on Instagram and I’ll include them with my advice this week!

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KIM FAM COSTUMES 2019 | yes that's a twilight themed pregnancy announcement halloween costume yes it is
A CUSTOM BABY BOARD BOOK | a rainbow book of the places we've been

A CUSTOM BABY BOARD BOOK | a rainbow book of the places we've been

Before my first child, I made a watercolor ABC book and decided that I wanted to do it again before number two was born - with a SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER PAGE COUNT. It was easy for me to decide on colors, because I love them a ton. You know how photographers are “supposed” to wear all black? (Who decided that?) Well that ain’t me. For some insight, I’ve been trying to convince my husband that we absolutely need this extremely colorful duvet set for YEARS. Please leave a comment below if you agree that I need it. Please leave no comment below if you do not.

Anyways.

Color. I just love it so much and I love painting with watercolors and I love road tripping to different beautiful places around the country, particularly national parks, and this board book combines it all.

I printed the book just like I’d print a photo album. This one in particular is through ZNO because it’s on the affordable end and they offer these rigid pages that are crucial if you ever actually want to trust your baby to handle the book themselves. Printing as a photo album is significantly more expensive than a regular ol’ board book you’d find in the infant section at Barnes & Noble, but it was important to me that the image/color quality was just as good as a photo print and in the end - you’re paying for the value of giving your child an experience completely unique to them.

My number one piece of advice for doing any sort of custom book project like this is to truly make it AS CUSTOM AS POSSIBLE. Make the pages about you and your family and use all the tiny details you can to make it unique. My favorite detail about this book is on the very last page, I included all the photographs that the landscapes are from! I’ll show them here in a bit.

I like to think that these pages can be conversation starters in the future. I don’t know about trips that my parents went on before I was born - I don’t know how or why that would come up in conversation. These pictures are just a glimpse into lots and lots of stories from our trips. Such as, but not limited to, running out of dry clothes because we went to the Redwoods during the rainy season but arriving at the laundromat 30 minutes before closing so we put our dirty wet clothes DIRECTLY. INTO. THE. DRYER.

Designing the inside cover pages is truly just a lil treat for myself.

These board books are the perfect size to prop up in front of a baby when they’re doing their daily mandated tummy time.

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Here are the full illustrations and photo that goes with each:

So there it is! I’d love to keep making books for my children (and other children? idk) so if you know a more affordable way to make board books than using this photo album route, please share!

INSPIRED BY THE TETONS | a wind-swept periwinkle bridal wonderland thanks to our gal Faith Hill

With big grey storm clouds hovering over the horizon, the Tetons turned to shades of hazy blue and periwinkle. The wind picked up, throwing dust and sagebrush scent through the air. Our periwinkle chiffon dress twisted in the gusty weather and I wish I could say...... YEP. TOTALLY PLANNED IT THIS WAY.

In reality, this should have been a sunrise or sunset shoot. You know, those times of day that photogs love and gush over non-stop when they can't think of any other Instagram captions. It wasn't realistic for us to get out to the Tetons at that time because myself, my sister (pictured here), my dad (our personal location guide and driver who knew the way to all these spots), my husband (reluctant camera bag carrier) drove about two and half hours to get here from our place in Yellowstone AND we had gotten home at nearly midnight the night before from a much anticipated concert in Bozeman, Montana to see Tim McGraw(!!!) and Faith Hill(!!!) perform together. 

That concert was our main event and putting together this Teton shoot was merely an afterthought, to be honest. We planned for literally months in advance to get those tickets and coordinate schedules, all for the sake of surprising our dad with a visit and fulfilling some dreams. (I'll put our video in the bottom!)

But my sister MADE THIS DRESS BY HAND and stuffed it in her luggage so we could do this, too. We had a groggy drive down, she did her makeup in the truck, we got there in the middle of the day (notoriously a terrible time of day for portraits) and the stars aligned with THE most grand, photogenic, epic clouds you could possibly ask for.

I look back at these pictures and think, "We could not have planned this any better" when really the truth is, "We did not really plan this at all and got freaking LUCKY". 

Insert pun about Faith (((Hill))) here. Wink. Praying hands emoji.

And here's that vid! Like I said, planning this Teton inspired shoot and making it happen was amazing. But 'amazing' doesn't even come close to how it felt to TOUCH. FAITH. HILL.

Floral hairpiece designed by Sheer Rose.