Four months ago an email popped up in my inbox from my long-time internet friend and fellow photographer Brooke. In it, she told me about her battle with PCOS, and her years long struggle to conceive. Her heartbreak. Her persistent optimism that was always, without fail, followed by a negative pregnancy test and an empty, hollow yearning. Tears poured from her body, aching and relentless, as infertility took her to the edge of a deep depression. Until finally, on the eve of her + her husband Mitch’s foray into the often unpredictable and trying realm of fertility treatments, she took one last test – it was positive. Tears of sadness quickly turned to ones of immense joy and shock and disbelief and gratitude and holy-shit-this-is-real-and-it’s-finally-our-time-and-OH-MY-GOD!!! At the tail end of her email Brooke asked if I was available to document this chapter in her and Mitch’s story. If I would be willing to make...
look into the sun as a new day rises | welcoming linus | an in-home newborn lifestyle session
Meredith and Kevin were married in their backyard last September, on a rainy and perfect Saint Paul day. I was blessed to share their day with them, and have been doubly blessed by their continued friendship. When Meredith emailed to announce her pregnancy, and her and Kevin’s desire to have me document the first few days in Linus’ life, I was overjoyed. I can’t think of anything better than watching my couples grow from engaged, to married, and onward as they start a family. So on a snowy November afternoon, I spent a few hours with this new family of three in their home, as they meandered the lazy and busy and hectic and perfect and calm days of early parenthood. Here are a few of my favorites:...
barefoot magic | a rural minnesconsin wedding along the cliffs of the saint croix river | rhiannon + aaron
I’ve spent the better part of a week trying to figure out how to word this blog post. How best to string adjectives and metaphors together to describe exactly what Aaron + Rhiannon’s wedding was. I could tell you that it was filled to bursting with love and magic and joy and wonder. It was. I could tell you how radiant Rhiannon looked in her one-of-a-kind custom wedding dress, and how dapper Aaron was in his tweed suit. They were. I could tell you about the heat and the barefoot dress code, or wax poetic over the cloudless sky embracing the jagged edges of the cliffs along the St. Croix River, sun gleaming and squinting off the steel-covered rock. I could tell you about the angry emu and Spotted Cow and rhinestones and Magnetic Fields songs. I could go on and on about the performance by Circus Juventas in the...
letters to a stranger | the darkness in the hallway
“I am putting this out there because I could use some encouragement. Sorry this one is such a doozy. Tomorrow I find out what the abnormal mass in my breast is (benign or malignant). Friday I went in for a MRI guided biopsy and have been mindlessly going about my weekend trying to not think of the worst case scenarios but it so hard. The first thing on my mind is my two kids and husband. The second thing on my mind is the long list of descendents I come from that have had cancer (this includes my mother and grandmother and great grandmother, all of whom had breast cancer). Additionally my 47-year-old cousin died just two weeks ago from cancer and so I think my doomsday attitude is a result of me witnessing the sad misery that all these amazing people went through. Cancer can literally go...
