Ten years ago I spent my first year of college at a small Bible college in the middle of Alberta.  One week my classmate Ashleigh's sisters visited.  Her youngest sister, Cassie, was probably 13 at the time and absolutely adorable so naturally being the queen of hindsight that I am, I pulled her into my room, showed her a picture of my little brother with glasses, braces and a dorky smile and told her that she would be at Bible college the same time as him and they would fall in love and get married.  I'm fairly certain she left the room contemplating a restraining order.  But, despite my craziness, they met at Bible college, fell in love and got married.

In 2009, Noah and I had the honor of shooting their wedding and then in December 2012 their beautiful daughter, Esther, was born.  Heading home to Minnesota is a rare treat, getting to spend time at Bluewater Bible Camp where my brother is the Program Director is rarer still so when we got to spend the 4th of July holiday at camp with our family I grasped at the opportunity to capture their lovely faces.

As photographers we love our family, we love beautiful places, we love beautiful people and when it so happens that my brother's family brings all those things in spades, great things happen.  People ask me if a 30 minute mini-session is really enough, you tell me.

Micah is quite the fisherman, I think that sunny had to be at least three ounces :)


This is probably my favorite series of images from this shoot, I think it embodies their family really well; relaxed, together, peaceful and most at home outside.




And then of course, the ever daring Esther loves her dad, she loves to fly and he loves to hear her giggle.


I love these people fiercely, but even if they weren't family, they would be a family I would want my family to know.  They are gracious, generous, genuine and kind and it took less than 30 minutes to get enough photos to convince you of the same.

I love you Micah, Cassie and Esther, hug each other from Noah, Soren and myself and I hope to see you soon.