When Generations Come Together | Southwest Michigan Extended Family

“When we gather together, we weave memories that last long after the day is done.” - Henry James

I think what I love most about family sessions is watching all the different personalities shine. In my own life right now, I’m caught between generations—watching my parents age and my daughter grow—and sometimes I feel suspended in the everyday, just noticing how quickly everyone is changing around me.

So when Meghan reached out about documenting her family all together—everyone traveling in from places as far apart as Dallas and Canada—I saw myself in that longing. The desire to freeze time. To capture everyone exactly as they are, because we don’t want to miss who our people are right now.

Most of my days are spent photographing weddings, and I often wish couples carved out a bit more time for photos with family - family, in the loosest sense of the word—not just the one you’re born into, but the people who love and embrace you for exactly who you are. So much of the good in life is relational.

That’s why I call these multigenerational gatherings “legacy sessions.” More than anything, I want my legacy to be love—woven into the lives of the people I hold dear. It’s the legacy of being known and accepted, of belonging to one another.

Photographs have this quiet way of outlasting us—they become the proof that we showed up for each other, that we lived fully in these ordinary yet extraordinary moments. Decades from now, when kids flip through these images as adults, I want them to feel the love that surrounded them, to see the joy that was present even in the chaos, to remember that being together mattered.