I am so thankful that 2025 brought me into my 15th year of photographing newborns, babies and families in the Minneapolis area and beyond. I photographed several client again this year that I’ve been photographing almost my entire career, and saw some that I hadn’t seen in over 5 years.  I also had a LOT of new faces in front of my lens this year!  Some found me on Google, some via referrals from friends.  No matter how you found me, I’m thankful that you did!

I started off 2025 with a photography retreat in California.  I saw some old friends and met some new ones, and we had a fantastic time hanging out and photographing model sessions in Palm Springs and Joshua Tree.  Literally the best thing I could have done to get out of the cold Minnesota winter and start the year off with some fun and creativity.  Lots of good food, site seeing, hiking….all SO good for the soul.  I wish I could go back every year, but for 2026 we’re meeting in Maine for another meetup and I’m already looking forward to it.  A few favorites from Palm Springs and Joshua tree.

2025 was a busy year through and through. I did take a lot of time off in June and July for my son’s high school graduation party, followed by my daughter’s national volleyball tournament in Orlando, Florida, which was followed by a quick vacation in Clearwater and then some family time at my in-laws cabin.  I had a great mix of work and family life this year, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in those regards.  I took most of December off this year, too, which was new for me but made the holidays SO much more enjoyable! I was able to focus on getting orders out before the holidays, and I had all of my own Christmas shopping and wrapping done before Christmas Eve this year – a first!

When I wasn’t traveling, I was photographing a lot of families.  I had 39 maternity, newborn, and family sessions this year, as well as some headshots for F&M Bank (I’ve been doing their headshots for years now, and call them my “banker headshots”).  I also had four senior sessions for some friends of my son – they were quick and painless, and I might just be offering these as simplicity sessions in the future because they were a nice change of pace.

For most of 2025 I photographed in studio (I did have three in-home sessions this year).  Once September came around almost all my sessions were outside for the next two months.  It can sometimes be a pain working around the light and the weather for outdoor sessions, but I feel like we lucked out because we had a long, beautiful fall with gorgeous weather.  It did take a long time for the leaves to change, but other than that it was one of the nicest fall seasons I can remember.

Here are some favorites from studio and outdoor sessions from this past year.  SO hard to choose just one from each session!

This fall, one of my favorite clients reached out wanting to schedule a session.  Her and her family had moved again, and were now 3.5 hours north of me.  The stars aligned and I had three free days in a row, so I suggested a road trip and we made it happen!  It involved a long car ride and some hotel time, sheep, sled dogs, and a new member of the family who was almost a year old!  It was one of those sessions that left me feeling like I was on cloud 9.  I had SUCH an amazing afternoon with this family, and I will be doing a whole blog post on it eventually.  For now, here are some favorites from my time in Side Lake, MN:

The biggest surprise of 2025 was how many heirloom portrait clients I had!  Throughout the year I did 31 heirloom portraits, which is a new record for me.  I’ve been doing these for over 7 years now and each year I have more and more clients requesting them.  It makes me SO happy to see these catching on here in MN (they have been very popular in the south for a long time).  These photos are timeless, and are quickly becoming a client favorite.

And that’s a wrap!  In addition to all of these sessions, I had over 20 sessions where my clients did not want any photos shared online, and I 1000% respect that.  I am thankful for those that do allow me to share, though, and I thank ALL of you for allowing me to be a part of your story this year.  Cheers to 2026 – I hope it’s a good one!  And if you’re looking to book a session in 2026, click HERE and let’s chat!