Emily, Phil, and Lucy’s sweet and sentimental family portraits at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Emily and Phil are lovely humans who I’ve worked with for many years now. I photographed their engagement and wedding ceremony back in 2017, and I photographed their newborn session at home after they welcomed their daughter Lucy into the world. I was so delighted when they reached out again last summer to schedule a family session now that Lucy was a toddler.

As is super common with parents of little kids, Emily shared how she and Phil have a lot of pictures of just Lucy, but since they often are the ones behind the camera, they wanted portraits capturing each of them with Lucy and all three of them together as a family. They were excited to capture Lucy as a full fledged kiddo with so much goofiness and personality, and to document their everyday joy as a family. In a beautiful turn of events, Lucy and Phil found out they were pregnant again around the time of this photoshoot, and I’ll be photographing another newborn session for them this winter! Not knowing at the time how their family constellation would shift and grow again within the year, these family portraits of Emily, Phil, and Lucy now hold an extra dose of sweet sentimentality.  

When taking family portraits, I have two approaches that inform the photographs I take: one is a “lifestyle” approach that can feel more storytelling and is structured around candid moments and actions, while my “portrait” style is more focused on capturing fine art photographs and highlighting emotions and relationships. Emily and Phil felt most drawn to this second approach, wanting to create beautiful portraits that would really focus on capturing them as a family. 

I met up with Emily, Phil, and Lucy on a gorgeous summer day at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Emily and Phil got married here, so it holds a special place in their hearts and has become a place they love to take Lucy. Lucy is a bright, curious kid who loves to giggle and play outside, and it was so tender to see her explore the gardens with her parents. 

Walking the trails, sitting beneath flowering trees, and seeing Lucy burst into laughter as her parents scooped her into the air, these portraits offer such a tender time capsule for their family– documenting this joyful, and fleeting, chapter and savoring all the sweetness it contains. 

Emily, Phil, and Lucy’s family portraits outside in the summertime