Spring Homeschool Picture Day at Riverside Park

Spring Homeschool Picture Day is always a highlight of the year for me. On this day, I get to celebrate the unique journeys of homeschoolers and capture their achievements and milestones.

This year, I had the privilege of photographing quite a few homeschool families in the area. Two of them were cousins Tessa and Maddox, both amazing individuals who recently graduated with associate degrees from Indian River State College (IRSC) while still in homeschool high school.

Our session took place at various places around Riverside Park. This park is a go-to favorite of mine, particularly because of the gorgeous oaks and the gazebo. The lush greenery and serene surroundings provided the perfect backdrop for Tessa and Maddox's photos.

Tessa, with her radiant smile and confident demeanor, and Maddox, with his thoughtful gaze and amazing hair, were a joy to photograph.

For many students, Picture Day provides an opportunity to commemorate their educational journey, create lasting memories, and celebrate their individuality.

Unlike traditional school photo days, homeschool picture days are tailored to each student's unique experience, capturing their personality and achievements in a way that standard school photos often can't.

I can’t thank these homeschoolers enough for trusting me with their photos! I can’t wait to do it all again in the fall! Our next Homeschool Picture Day will happen in October.

This will be a one-day event, providing another wonderful opportunity to capture your homeschooler's achievements and milestones. Whether it's a graduation, a special project, or simply a celebration of their unique educational journey, I'd love to help you preserve these precious moments.

Spaces are limited, and I want to ensure everyone has the chance to celebrate milestones through photos, so make sure to let me know early!

The homeschooler’s journey should be documented just like any other student’s. I'm grateful to have been a part of documenting their stories and look forward to capturing many more incredible moments this fall. See you there!

Tilly's 6 Month Baby Program Session

It’s crazy how fast Baby Tilly has grown. We just had our six month update for Tilly’s Baby Program, and I can’t be happier with the results we got! If you’re an expecting mama looking to document baby’s first year in pictures, definitely check out my Baby Program package!

My six month update with Tilly and her family was so much fun! Sitting up is a brand new skill for the baby. She was a little wobbly, but definitely getting the hang of it! It was awesome to document this huge milestone for her and her family.

Alekos is a pilot, and Erin homeschools the kids. Big brothers Ace and Calix are stepping into their new roles nicely. They really love their baby sister!

This family loves nature, but this time, we had the session at home. Being in a familiar place helped the family be more relaxed, which gave us some stunning candid shots.

We played games, sat on the couch, and gave Baby Tilly so many hugs and kisses that she was beaming!

Of course, it wasn’t all smiles from Baby Tilly. Life at six months old is hard!

Tilly is adored by absolutely everyone, and it’s easy to see why! She’s as cute as a button as she begins to explore the world around her.

The rug in the nursery was so colorful and fun that I just had to snap some photos from above! Calix was so funny and playful with Tilly! They’re two peas in a pod.

Tilly’s first teeth were starting to come in, so she was putting absolutely everything in her mouth!

But it was so much fun to capture this stage of life in photos. You are so loved, baby Tilly! See you soon for your nine month update!

Laughter with the L Family!

Most of my fall sessions are Mini Sessions so I can help as many families as possible get their holiday photos, but when I can, I squeeze in longer sessions. This one in Jupiter was quite the adventure last month!

I was unfamiliar with area, but my clients (friends since our first Day In The Life Session in 2017!) knew the area and suggested a photo shoot at the Jupiter Lighthouse after Mae’s orthodontist appointment. Sounded great!

Until we discovered at the gate that the lighthouse park was closed.

No worries, we drove around to a park where you can see the lighthouse from! We scouted out an area, looked great - then the heavens open up, wind picked up, and it felt like a hurricane was coming through.

We weren’t too worried. It was still early so we went to have dinner at utikibeach and while I got pretty soaked during my run to the restaurant, the family fared better and we had a fun and yummy dinner.

After we ate, we snapped a few family pics at the dock with the lighthouse in the background. This picture shows how wet it got and why my toms were soaked!

We then drove to the pretty park, and light was absolutely amazing! We started going through the various portraits, and then the kids screamed out: no-see-ums!!! We had to take multiple breaks for them to slap the bugs.

Sometimes this is how it goes, but we kept going and laughing and everyone had a good time.

And we got great pics too 🥳📸💪🏻

Year In The Life Program by Stories of Joy Photography

If you’ve followed along my photography in any length of time, you know my heart is in documenting ordinary family life. My specialty sessions have been Day In The Life Sessions (all day sessions to tell the story of your family’s day), but my new program called Year In The Life is starting to become my favorite. They are kind of the same type of a session, just structured differently.

I am an older mom. My kids are now 21, 14 and almost 7, and looking back at our family life, the special moments in my heart are not the celebration days (even though those are meaningful too). I want to remember the ordinary days in between celebrations. I want to remember the crazy or quiet days when we forgot about school and obligations and spent time together on the beach. And the quiet evenings playing a game, having dinner with everyone still home, being silly at bath time and watching tv shows together.

Even the days when we didn’t get everything done, dinner got burnt on the stove, and I dried tears from my kids’ cheeks - I want to remember all that. I wish I had pictures from the ordinary days, and I wish I had more pictures of me in them. Oh, how I always felt like I needed to lose a few pounds, and I deleted so many pictures with me in them because there was always something in the pictures of me I was critical of. I still do this too often, but I’m learning to give myself more grace, as these pictures are not just for me, they are for my kids and future grandchildren. There is so much beauty in us and our mundane days, in all our messiness and imperfections.

That all is at the core of documentary family photography. It is telling our stories with us as we are. There is no need to dress up or put on cheesy smiles - our families are so beautiful just the way we are, everyday. Sometimes it’s fun to dress up and get special pictures of that too (and I do offer these types of portrait sessions as well), but the heart of documentary sessions are the real, honest, raw moments and feelings of parenthood and childhood. The highs and the lows. Both Day In The Life Sessions and Year In The Life are perfect for documenting the real and honest life you live.

A Day In The Life Session is typically twelve hours long, telling the story of one day. A Year In The Life Session is also twelve hours, but spread over twelve months. Most Year In The Life families will have 2-6 sessions within 12 months that add up to twelve hours, but families with newborns can have more than six sessions.

I love the flexibility of the Year In The Life Program! It is so tailored for each family. My first Year In The Life family had me come for five hours the first day, to document a homeschool morning - including dropping off and picking up a preschooler at a school where Grandma teaches. They still have seven hours to use up (they are thinking a birthday preparation and a session right before Christmas when their house is all decorated for the holidays. The second family had me start with one hour of horseback riding lessons, and then had me come for three hours to document a typical evening in their family’s life. My third family were expecting a baby, so we are doing more shorter sessions to document his growth. And yet another family to sign up for a Year In The Life Session is an extended family gifting Grandma with lots of professional pictures of her children and grandchildren.

Year In The Life Program can be a calendar year, a school year, baby’s first year - or have no special agenda. It doesn’t even have to be twelve months, it can be completed in a couple of months, if that’s what works best for your family. The way I have structured the program is with no hidden fees. You can pay all at once, or we can set up automatic payments. After each session I’ll upload a few sneak peeks (usually the next day), and within 3-4 weeks you’ll see your full gallery from that session. After we have completed twelve hours of coverage, you’ll have an online gallery of all the edited images from the year, and you can heart your favorites - or I can choose the best images, and I’ll make a professional quality photo book for you (like this one).

I have three collections to choose from, and all of them include the book, because I believe that is what has most value for you and your family for years to come. If you’d like to purchase an additional book to gift to a family member, it will be discounted for you.

Because I believe in having family portraits too, we can take more formal portraits at each session, if you’d like. Just make sure to let me know beforehand. It is possible I will include an image of your son licking his little baby brother - after all, I do specialize in the real and honest moments :-)

PS. This program really is designed for my local Florida families, but since we travel so much, please do reach out to me if you’re interested in it in a different part of the world. Let’s chat to see if we can make it work!

As always, stay well, and send me a message with any questions!

xoxo

Sennu

Happy Mother's Day 2019!!!

Moms and Grandmothers - we love you and honor you. Thank you for all you do!

Happy Mother's Day from Stories of Joy Photography! Moms and grandmas are a big reason why I (and we) do what I do. If you have had a session with me this past year, you might show up in this video, so enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

I have been blessed with wonderful examples, my own mom and my mother-in-law, my sisters, and my many friends who inspire me in so many ways and love on my kids too.

Mother’s Day always gives me many mixed feelings, and I just want to reach out to every person who is hurting today. I see you, I hear you, I remember the pain so well. For me it was because of our infertility years and loss, but I know there are many reasons for grieving today.

Know that it is okay to be sad. Give yourself grace and space. Look up to the One who can give you peace and comfort beyond understanding. (((Hugs))) to you.

And to the moms who might feel disappointed today - I give you permission to do something for you! (I may or may not have picked up a key lime pie yesterday and stuck it in the fridge 😜) This day can be a bit intimidating to dads and kids - it can be pretty tough to show appreciation for ALL we do!

Happy Mother’s Day!

PS. It’s not too late to gift Mom and Grandma with a photo session! Contact me. I am running a Mother’s Day Special for the month of May.

Sennu