Dan, Anna, and Juniper: A Portland Family Session
Some sessions feel less like work and more like a long-overdue reunion, and this one with Dan, Anna, and their daughter Juniper was exactly that. Dan and Anna are friends from my college days in Portland, and I've had the honor of photographing them through some of the biggest chapters of their lives, including their wedding back in 2015. Watching them grow from the couple I knew on campus into the parents Juniper gets to come home to every day has been one of the quiet gifts of this work.
We met on a stretch of private property tucked into Portland, all tall grass and old apple trees and that soft overcast summer light the Pacific Northwest does so well. Juniper showed up in the most perfect little floral dress with bright pink sandals, and it took about three seconds for her to start running through the grass with her whole heart. She is so clearly her parents' daughter: bright-eyed, curious, and completely unafraid to be her loud, joyful self.
We started with a few portraits of Dan and Anna on their own, tucked into the edge of the tree line. Even after all these years and all these chapters, they still look at each other like they can't quite believe their luck. A wool-striped blanket came out for a picnic moment in the grass, and Juniper spent the next several minutes being tickled into the kind of belly laugh that makes every adult in the vicinity laugh with her. There was nose-to-nose time with Anna, airplane rides in Dan's arms, and one quiet, perfect frame of the three of them curled up together under the apple tree with Juniper tucked safely against her mama's chest.
What I love most about photographing families I know is the shorthand. I don't have to work to make Dan and Anna comfortable. I already know how they are with each other. I know their humor. I know the way Anna laughs with her whole face and the way Dan's grin goes soft whenever he looks at Juniper. My job that afternoon was just to stay out of the way, keep up with a very fast two-year-old, and make sure we captured the real thing.
Dan and Anna, thank you for letting me keep showing up for your family. From your wedding to this, and hopefully many more chapters to come, it's one of the great joys of my career that I get to be the one holding the camera.
If you're a Portland family who wants an unhurried, warm session somewhere meaningful to you, I would love to hear from you. Reach out here and let's make something beautiful together.
