The Petrera Family // A Summer Evening Portrait Session

This is the year I mark a full decade as a wedding and portrait photographer. Ten full years, photographing couples and families on their most joyful days. And so it's only fitting that the first session I was able to schedule amid all of the Covid-related cancellations and postponements, was with Hannah & Mike and their beautiful baby boys Luca & Milo. Because this year also marks ten years since Hannah and I met and I photographed her for the first time, and five years since I photographed her wedding day to Mike. We've shared some of our most beautiful days together, as well as some of our hardest. While bearing witness to engagements, wedding days and anniversaries, we've also been there for each other through loss and heartache.Seeing Hannah become a mother, and Mike become a father has been one of the most beautiful and humbling experiences of my career as a photographer. It was by working with them, and watching their sweet family grow that I came to realize that I didn't want to be just a photographer for couples on their wedding days, I also wanted to serve my couples well beyond that. I wanted to be a photographer who celebrated marriage.For me, this is exactly what this session was about. There were baby tears and diapers to be changed, distracted toddlers and refusals to "come stand by mama!" But there were also sweet giggles and blanket snuggles and kisses and noses rubbed (and nibbled). Embraces shared by parents five years married, and hands held and bumped knees kissed better. And in the end, it was wonderful to see that even in the midst of all of the chaos overshadowing daily life these days, these sweet souls are surrounded by so much beauty and so much love.Hannah & Mike, I hope these next five years are even more beautiful than the last. So excited to see what new and beautiful adventures life brings your way. #PetreraPartyofFour