Michelle and Henk's ceremony in Tynaarlo

Traci White August 11, 2014

More international love today! Michelle is American and Henk is Dutch, and they had a short and sweet ceremony at the city hall in Tynaarlo in Drenthe. Michelle had a home-made crocheted bouquet, and Henk's sense of humor shone through as they were surround by family and friends on a gorgeous day here in the north!

Helen's PhD defense at Radboud University in Nijmegen

Traci White August 5, 2014

Helen is a lovely, nerdy friend of mine who is one of the most international people I know: she's British, studied abroad in Germany, finished her PhD in the Netherlands and is now working in Canada on her post-doc thanks in part to winning a Rubicon grant. Fittingly, her work as a linguist is similarly international - I can't hope to accurately describe it, but it involves language development in babies in related languages. When she and her partner, whom I'm also lucky to count as a friend, came back to Nijmegen for Helen's defense ceremony, I was so pleased to be asked to photograph it. It was a very different experience from the ceremonies I have covered in Groningen: as the photographer, you can take pictures at all times throughout the ceremony, and if you're a little bit lucky, you can even take photos as the professors sign the diploma. It was raining torrentially outside during the defense itself, but during the reception and sharing of pies, the sun joined us and it was a sweet way to end a momentous morning. Congratulations, Helen!

Modern glamour shots, now featuring less stone-washed denim!

Traci White July 11, 2014

Hooray for more fellow American collaborations! I met Candi last October during the TEDxGroningen event, and found out that she had actually already heard about me (since the international circle in Groningen is, in fact, one inch in diameter) while looking around for a photographer to do some updated professional photos for her. After months of weather thwarting our plans, we finally got together a couple of weeks ago at the CiBoGa terrein (which I continue to be obsessed with) in Groningen to do some photos for Candi to use in her upcoming projects - she's working on a memoir of her Sex in the City-like life before winding up in the Netherlands, and she's a party planner/designer/self-described "domestic goddess" with a soon-to-launch website. After I sent Candi the photos, she sent me back an article that the New York Times had just published yesterday about professional head shots not being something that's just for actors anymore - in other words, selfies don't cut it! Aren't we trendy :)

An ice cream cart and a gorgeous red Boretti oven inside Het Gasfornuis cafe made unexpected but serendipitously pin-up-like guest appearances, and Candi was just a great model to work with! To be totally honest, I'm still honing my portraiture skills, and probably always will be - and having a setting like the CiBoGa terrein and a subject like Candi really made me feel comfortable and confident. Thanks again for working with me, Candi!

Stephanie and Thomas

Traci White May 1, 2014

More international love here in the North! Stephanie, who's British, and Thomas, who's Dutch, had a short ceremony at the city hall in the town of Meppel on the Tuesday following second Easter day (since the Dutch love making two holidays out of one as often as possible), and they wanted to have a laid back shoot along with their families in the nearby Wilhelmina park. I was happy to oblige! It was a fun morning, spent dodging aggressive geese and finding the prettiest trees in the park. Congratulations, Thomas and Stephanie!

Stefano and Chiara: Love Shoot in Amsterdam

Traci White January 7, 2014

If every couple that I get to photograph for the rest of this year is as sweet, loving, friendly and downright photogenic as these two, 2014 will be an excellent year indeed. Stefano hired me to do a photo shoot for him and his fiancee, Chiara, during a trip to Amsterdam for her birthday in the first week of the new year, and we got so lucky - there was light! January in the Netherlands is usually very much the opposite of well lit, but this Saturday morning shoot was just perfect. We started and ended the shoot with coffee, and in between found some beautiful bridges, matching bikes and houses, the Rijksmuseum and the Vondelpark. I had a great time hanging out with these two!

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Olya & Casper: mother and son autumn shoot in the Noorderplantsoen

Traci White November 12, 2013

Let's do the time warp again today, kids! This shoot with Olya and her son was actually from last fall, and since this shoot there's a new little boy in the family. This was a special shoot with that in mind - Olya was just a few months pregnant at this point, and it was a sweet surprise for her husband to have a fall photo shoot with their son before adding more adorable blond children to the mix. I did another shoot with this fun family in March of this year right before their second child arrived, but looking outside and seeing the red and yellows as autumn winds down inspired me to share this shoot today!

Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/mints026wm.jpg

Trouwdag | Landgoed Lemferdinge, 28 september

Traci White October 24, 2013

Ik voel me heel erg gelukkig om deze reportage te delen. Nogmaals voelde ik me heel gelukkig om trouwfotograaf voor deze aardig en lieve stel te zijn! Ze waren getrouwd bij Landgoed Lemferdinge in Paterswolde op een stralende dag vroeg in de herfst. Het liefde en geluk van alle gasten was onmiskenbaar - iedere gast houdt van de bruidspaar heel veel. Het was fijn om deze prachtige dag met jullie mee te maken, en nog een keer: gefeliciteerd!

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Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/carienleonardo060wm.jpg

Hans & Carla's Stadhuis ceremony on Terschelling

Traci White September 13, 2013

Almost a year ago, Elger and I were in the still very much summer-y North Carolina for my sister's wedding, and it looks as if attending/photographing a close family member's wedding in the first weeks in September has become an annual tradition.

Elger's father and my future father-in-law, Hans, had a short but sweet wedding ceremony at the city hall on the island of Terschelling, which has been a special destination for the family for generations. Hans first remembers visiting the idyllic island when he was four years old with his parents, and there are photos of Elger building an igloo on the beach with his dad from around the same age. Elger's brother studied and lives on the island, and it was the location of one of mine and Elger's first dates back in 2005. So, for all of us, it is a place full of meaning, happiness and a sense of being home away from home - the sort of place that so deeply relaxes you that you sleep sounder and dream deeper than on any given day. Elger and I were the only guests and both served as witnesses for the ceremony, and then, along with Billy - the family's inquisitive and energetic springer spaniel - we took a long, barefoot walk on the beach on one of the last summery, sunny days on the island.

Congratulations, Hans and Carla!

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Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/hansencarlatrouwdag034.jpg

New collaborations: Flytographer and Earlybird Foundation

Traci White August 30, 2013

I am so very pleased to share two wonderful new organizations that I am a part of! The first is an innovative concept called Flytographer, founded just a few months ago by Nicole Smith. The concept: families, friends, couples and individuals on vacation nearly anywhere in the world can hire a professional photographer to document their trip. It's a perfect fit for my photojournalistic style, and I'm happy to save travelers from selfies and well-intended but unreliable strangers. I've already done two shots for Flytographer in Amsterdam, the first of which was with Sara and Josephine, two best friends traveling through Europe together.

The second is a non-profit called the Earlybird Foundation, a group of professional family photographers throughout the Netherlands who provide free photo shoots for families of premature babies. Although I am not a mom just yet, I understand how important it is to have pictures of your family members, and being able to provide the first professional photographs for families who are acutely aware of the value of those images is a privilege. I admire the importance, the sensitivity and honesty of the group. Not every pregnancy goes exactly according to plan, and the children and families in such a situation deserve to have some joy brought to them. I am proud and honored to be one of Earlybird's photographers.

Jeroen, Karin & Alexander!

Traci White July 13, 2013

There is a major baby boom happening here in the Netherlands! Well, at least in my social group, which is wonderful first and foremost because more wonderful kids are entering the world, but also because I get to be the one taking all their pictures. I always feel lucky and flattered when my friends hire me to be their photographer, and this shoot was especially, well, special - I was Jeroen and Karin's wedding photographer three years ago (along with my fiancee Elger), and yesterday I got to take their first family photos with their adorable and already very loved son, Alexander. We all laughed so much throughout the shoot, and Alexander mostly slept through it, but it was so cool to see that this kid is guaranteed to have two of the coolest, nerdiest, sweetest and just all-around awesome parents possible.

The beautiful, Japanese-inspired design on the left was created by the always lovely Anniek Olsder - Jeroen and Karin both love Japanese art, and wanted a design that reflected the summertime to use in their birth announcements for Alexander. To the right, some of the first congratulations cards from friends and family :) It got very strangely Disney very quickly.

I love how serene Karin is in this shot. It feels like a stolen moment, like I wasn't ever there. That's what it felt like for much of the shoot, as they just loved on their little guy and I just happened to be nearby taking photos.

And then it was playtime with hats and puppets. Alexander already rocks so hard. I can easily imagine that this will be a wonderful microcosm of his coming childhood and life with these two.

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Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/dsc_8715editbwblog.jpg

Miranda, Richard and Femke!

Traci White June 12, 2013

Femke is here! My buddy Miranda and her husband Richard's little girl has arrived and everyone is happy at home with stuffed giraffes and hundreds of geboorte kaartjes. I did Miranda's maternity shoot a few months ago, and Femke is nearly a month old already! We had a nice home shoot on a sunny Saturday with Miranda's parents, who are visiting from South Africa, and Femke pretty much slept through it - even when we put her on top of the standing piano that Miranda's family had shipped all the way from Africa to now live in the Netherlands! Miranda and Richard are both so natural and sweet with their little girl, and getting to hang out with Miranda is always one of my favorite activities :)

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Iekje, Harriët and George family shoot in Glimmen

Traci White May 28, 2013

This fun family session took place about a month ago in the Quintusbos near the town of Glimmen, just south of Groningen, and it was a fun afternoon spent romping around on hay bales and playing with the pets.

The family had an awesome jungle gym in the backyard, and Iekje really showed the kids how it's done.

Harriët's pet rats Dolfje (left) and Cleo rode along for the photo shoot on Harriët's shoulders, and were super sweet critters.

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Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/scharke015watermark.jpg

Maarten and Annemiek's wedding at the Paterswoldsemeer in Groningen

Traci White May 19, 2013

This wedding was featured on the new Dutch wedding blog, Trouwshop, on August 19, 2013.

Maarten and Annemiek had so many cool geeky details incorporated into their wedding day(s) - in the Netherlands, couples will often have a ceremony at the City Hall (Stadhuis) on a weekday and then have a bigger official ceremony with more guests in the days to follow. On the Wednesday morning these two were married, the square where the City Hall is located was one of the sites in town setting up rides and roller coasters for a May fair. For Maarten and Annemiek, it was a sweet reminder of the first days of their relationship four years ago. From a reading of "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss, to Star Wars quotes inscribed on the inside of their wedding bands, to hand-crocheted dragons handed out as wedding favors, to using a copy of "The Hobbit" as their guest book, to LIGHT SABERS (!!), Maarten and Annemiek used so many personally meaningful aspects of their day to share their love with their friends and family. It's great when nice, nerdy kids get together :)

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After their City Hall ceremony on Wednesday, they had their ceremony at the Paalkoepel on the Paterswoldsemeer just south of the city of Groningen. Annemiek has family who live across the lake from the ceremony location, but after a trial run of taking a boat across the water to the Paalkoepel when Maarten immediately fell overboard, they decided to err on the side of dryness and wielded umbrellas against the rain.

One of the most touching parts of the ceremony was the attendance of Annemiek's grandmother from Friesland. Her presence was very special for Annemiek, and they shared a lot of little moments throughout the day.

An iPad came in very handy when the wedding party was trying to figure out how exactly to tie a tie.

Annemiek went for a dramatic black dress with red and white flowers as details, and her bouquet and AWESOME shoes were perfect.

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For their portraits, we started out in the woods near Annemiek's family's house on the lake, then we headed into town to the Cibogaterrein, which is full of cool graffiti and modern buildings - even in the rain, it was a great, colorful spot for these two to be my models.

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During the ceremony, our mutual friends Rebecca and Alain read an excerpt from "Oh, the Places You'll Go," which took on a special meaning on a wedding day:

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

Another sweet surprise during the ceremony was when friends and family stood up and read to the couple about what love means.

This photo was featured on the Moment Junkie blog on June 1, 2013.

Maarten seemed equally impressed and horrified by sharing the first slice of cake with his bride.

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I think Maarten and Annemiek both win with their new in-laws: equally crazy and fun.

I loved seeing Annemiek's reactions to her dad's toast - embarrassed for a second, then very seriously amused.

A very special surprise came when Annemiek's closest friends from college serenaded the couple with a rendition of "Afternoon Delight." Seriously awesome.

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These two win the best wedding ring inscription, as far as I'm concerned. Maarten's ring read, "I love you," and Annemiek's read, "I Know."

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Marina & Abbas' wedding party in Amsterdam

Traci White May 6, 2013

This celebration was a majorly international love fest. Marina is Russian and Abbas is Azerbaijani, and they can call both Moscow and Amsterdam home. They had their wedding in Russia and threw a sweet little dinner party and reception for their best friends from all over the world on a boat cruise through the canals of Amsterdam. Their guests came from all over Europe, and two of them even flew into the Netherlands from Africa (via London) while we were cruising around - we took a detour to the town of Amstel to meet them, and soak up some of the nice afternoon light. It was really a pleasure for me to get to meet such a great group of people, and to see how happy Marina and Abbas are together - she laughs at his corny jokes, and they jumped on a bicycle built for two in the Vondelpark. There were other surprises in the park - see for yourself!

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Marina is a lovely lady, and in spite of the offers of champagne, she made sure her make up was just right before we headed to the park for some portraits.

Suddenly, a wild bachelor party appeared. Toward the end of our photo shoot, we saw a crowd of Dutch guys careening toward us on rented red Mac bikes. As they came to a halt in the sandy soil, their ring leader hoisted Marina into the air and his friends attempted to share their beer with Abbas. The green of the Heineken bottles and the pink of the groom-to-be's curly wig matched Marina's bouquet. It was awesome.

We took a couple of taxis to the Piet Heinkade and passed by some more iconic Amsterdam scenes on the way.

Abbas held the bouquet out the back seat window while we were stopped at an intersection to rally the small convoy of their friends.

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We boarded a spiffy boat where Marina, Abbas and their guests ate, drank and were merry (married?) as we wandered under bridges and past windmills throughout the afternoon.

A violinist (Melanie Waite) and a cellist performed classical songs for the guests as we sailed along.

Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/dsc_9636edit.jpg

Amy and Barend at De Keukenhof tulip gardens

Traci White May 4, 2013

Amy and Barend are awesome. Amy contacted me recently about doing an engagement photo shoot of her and her Dutch fiancee at the world famous tulip garden, de Keukenhof, and I could barely contain my excitement. Really, it was a little embarrassing. De Keukenhof is quite likely the most beautiful place in the entire country, and this week was the peak of the short tulip season. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather - not a cloud in the sky! We arrived at the gardens as they were opening on Wednesday morning, the day after the coronation of the new king, so we managed to have the garden virtually to ourselves as the Dutch were nursing their hangovers and tourist buses hadn't flooded the gardens yet. Amy, Barend and I had a great time, making bad puns about wells, Game of Thrones, and dogs providing natural fertilizer to the flowers, and even though we had to negotiate our way over some barbed wire to get to the gorgeous flower fields outside the gardens, no one was injured in the making of this epic photo shoot. Thank you, Amy and Barend, for making my dreams come true.

Olya, Chris and Casper family shoot

Traci White March 22, 2013

occ036 Olya jokingly referred to herself during our family photo shoot on Sunday as a "copy machine" in explanation for the clear Mini Me effect of her sweet son Casper - he is a tiny, rambunctious copy of his Dutch dad, Chris. Olya thankfully sought me out about a year ago to work with for a photo shoot, and luckily we have gotten together a couple of times since then, but this weekend's shoot was really special. The family will be growing by one in the next couple of weeks, and it was really a pleasure just hanging out with them in their well-lit and colorful house of love and occasionally questionable humor (mostly Olya and I)!

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Source: http://traciwhiteweddingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/occ022bw.jpg

Miranda, mom-to-be

Traci White March 21, 2013

Miranda may be the true personification of a ray of sunshine. She is just non-stop positivity and awesomeness, and she has been a good friend of mine since we lived together in a pretty awful international student house together in Groningen - the housing was so bad, it was actually torn down a few years ago! We called it The Containers, since it was essentially shipping containers that had been sparsely furnished and stacked on top of each other, and then exchange students were made to live in them. Miranda found a way to brighten up the containers with a plastic purple chandelier and copious cups of tea, and she was actually one of the very first people to encourage me to pursue photography back in 2005. Now, eight years later, we're both back in the Netherlands, she's having a baby, and I got to take pictures and laugh with her this weekend. I can't wait to meet her little girl and I could not be happier for her new little international family!

Bryn, Cees and Tobin in Groningen

Traci White March 12, 2013

If Tobin doesn't turn out to be a sweet, geeky, hilarious guy, I would lose faith in the science of genetics. His mom and dad, Bryn and Cees, are two friends of mine, and their son was fittingly born into laughter: his dad was performing in the English-language improv group, Stranger Things Have Happened, monthly show back in October, and his mom was laughing so hard at their nonsense and hilarity that she actually went into labor early! I was very happy to finally get to spend a few hours with this new little family in their house with wonderful window light and, naturally, lots of laughs.

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Rebecca, Alain and Ilya - now featuring Merlyn!

Traci White February 28, 2013

On a misty October afternoon, long, long ago - all the way back in 2012 - I spent a fun afternoon with my good friends Rebecca and Alain, along with their son (Ilya, otherwise known as Alain's first clone) in Heusden. In addition to it just being a family shoot, they also wanted a special maternity shoot before the arrival of their second son, Merlyn. Well, in January - while I was in Nepal - he arrived! Last week I headed back to the Dutch south to do a follow up featuring the family's newest addition!

The boys have matching dragon outfits!

My super talented friend, Anniek Olsder, used one of the photos from the maternity shoot in October in her Juno-inspired design for Merlyn's birth announcements:

Lauren and Karl's maternity shoot in Groningen

Traci White November 28, 2012

Lauren and her husband Karl came to Groningen from California, and thus share my struggle to find decent Mexican food here in the land of the Dutch. Lauren was a friend of my friend and client Erin, and we both assumed we would end up meeting at some point due to the mutual Americanness in Groningen, but I decided to just introduce myself, and almost immediately Lauren asked me to do a maternity shoot for her. The international love continues!

Aside from always enjoying meeting other expats here in the north, Lauren also recommended to me a totally decent Mexican restaurant in Leeuwarden, which brings me joy, too :)