KIND WORDS FROM STORIED FOLK

“I am so impressed by your camera skills!!! The 20 minutes felt so chaotic with crazy Maple, but you capture magic and we love so many pics!!! Thank you, Mads!!!” // Missy

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There’s no doubt that family photography with dogs and one year olds will keep you on your toes– literally. Add the chill of a brisk autumn morning, and it’s safe to say there was some considerable bounce in my step during this Kinfolk session with Missy, Rob, Luka, and their devoted pup, Maple.

While you might think that there’s no way we caught a single good shot among the sheer chaos (Missy herself was certain we had left their twenty minute Kinfolk empty-handed), leaning into the beautiful mayhem of a young family– four legged friends included– is one of my favorite things on this planet.

And I love when the family leans right along with me, like Missy, Rob, Luka, and even Maple did.

Kinfolk and Catch Up

I arrived to my first Kinfolk session of the day to find the sweet fam already there and the morning light stretching low and soft over the field. 

While Rob was taking Maple on a few power laps to (hopefully) walk out some of her boundless energy, Missy and Luka sat waiting in the warm car. I quickly clambered into the front seat, eager to hear all about Luka’s first year of life.

You see, Missy and I go way back. As in, Missy was a bridesmaid in a wedding that I photographed back in 2018, and in the years since, I’ve captured both her maternity photos and Luka’s newborn photos. So yeah, way back.

While my Kinfolk sessions are short, they exist so that I can see my families more, witnessing the kiddos as they gain inches and the parents as they feel like they gain grey hairs with every inch. These sessions that fit in the margins of life give me such a welcome opportunity to catch up on what sticks in a mama’s memory since I saw her last. 

In this case, that included hearing Missy detail how the first time they braved camping with then nine month old Luka, they encountered a bear and swore they’d never leave the house again.

(Spoiler: they did.)

Family Photography with Dogs and Babies: My Dream Come True

The next twenty minutes were a whirlwind of corralling Maple, snapping away with lightning speed, and drawing sweet Luka out of his little shell.

While Luka is a reserved little guy, as the session went on, he became more and more comfortable and animated– crawling around in his wool and leather Nooks that you just know I ordered for Banks as soon as I got home, reaching for his dad’s face with glee just bursting out of his own, and playing airplane with his mama as the sun slowly made its ascent behind them.

Little did he know (but he will one day when he pulls out the photos of this particular Kinfolk, with quite a few more inches under his belt), but he also had the treat of watching his mom and dad get some precious moments for themselves, to look into each other’s eyes and wrap their arms around each other without a one year old clinging to their legs. 

His rapidly-developing brain may not (or maybe it did, what do we know!) have processed it as he took it all in with wide eyes, but that right there? That’s the love that brought you into this world, little guy.

Luka’s also going to look back at these photos someday and see Maple, his honorary big sibling who played a crucial part in raising him, zig-zagging around with enthusiasm and tail wagging at a metronome set to ‘pure joy.’

One look at this unit of four, snuggled in on their Faribault Mill blanket while they get lost in all of the scrunch-nosed giggles and hope-they-never-end snuggles, and you just know that you are getting a glimpse into how it really is.

Yes, chaotic. But also intermittently quiet, frequently joyful, and always wondrous.

I think of this Kinfolk session of Missy, Rob, Luka, and Maple as something of a love letter to family itself– to a mother’s kiss pressed gently against her son’s cheek, to a father lifting his son high as their laughter rings through the trees, to the playful and unguarded magic that arrives when you let go of perfection and let yourself be, chaos and all.