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

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!

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Olya, Chris and Casper family shoot

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)!

 

Miranda, mom-to-be

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!

 

Lauren and Karl's maternity shoot in Groningen

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 :)

Rebecca, Alain & Ilya: family shoot in Heusden

These guys are some of my favorite nerds, and they've started the important work of spawning the next generation. I've known Rebecca and Alain since I first studied abroad in the Netherlands in 2005, and since then they've gotten married, started a business together and started a family. Their son is a clone of his dad, and they're expecting their second child soon. They technically meet my unofficial international criteria too, since they are a Dutch-Belgian family, and both my fiancee and I were really happy to have a good excuse to spend the weekend with them, hanging out, eating copious amounts of baked goods and watching "Scott Pilgrim versus the World." I always appreciate it when my friends want to work with me, and I love to work with people that I know won't think I'm truly crazy for my suggestions - in fact, they're often crazier than me, which I love.

The ministry of funny walks is genetic.

Michelle and Jeroen Christmas maternity shoot in Groningen

Merry Christmas and fijne feestdagen! Today I'm blogging from the quiet Frisian village of Warns, taking it easy on tweede kerstdag, as it is called here. But, way back this summer, I was lucky enough to end up in the same level two Dutch class as another awesome American woman who's now calling Groningen home. Michelle and Jeroen were so nice to work with, they're just effortlessly photogenic and were very sweet with each other, and their soon-to-arrive baby. It was an unbelievably beautiful day in Groningen on Christmas eve, and I really enjoyed getting to be a part of this time with them.