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in home lifestyle session

Cardwell Family Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

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Cardwell Family Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

There’s nothing I love more than walking away from a session feeling like I just took a peek at normal life for a family and getting to share that back with them, showing them all the beauty in that time. Please know that I am not saying perfection, because we all know that our days hold the whole gamut of emotions and feelings, messes, mundane chores and exhaustion. But seeing the beauty and especially the blessings even there, and reflecting it back through photographs to you, is what it’s all about for me. Sharing a beautiful morning with the Cardwell family and their newest baby girl today, where all those things I mentioned were happening at the same time. Here is the result.

If you are interested in sharing a morning or afternoon with me and creating together with your family, I would love to chat. Contact me here and let’s get your session scheduled.

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Ryg Family | Knoxville Family Photographer

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Ryg Family | Knoxville Family Photographer

I’ve been photographing this family for several years and I can say fully that every time I’m with them is so incredible. Mostly because their mama, Sarah, always shows up with zero pretense and her children follow suit. It always feels so easy to get into a groove photographing them because they show me who they are from the minute I get out of my car. She is the kind of mother you would invite over for coffee and know that you didn’t have to pick up your house but that you could just clear a spot on your couch, relax instantly and feel seen. And when she left you would feel less alone in this motherhood gig. This is how I feel when I’m with her and her family and really, isn’t that just an incredible accomplishment? But this is just who she is and I’m so happy I get to photograph them. I got to spend a beautiful chilly late fall evening with them on their farm this year and I am so excited to share it with you all today. Enjoy!

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McCafferty Newborn | Knoxville TN Newborn Photographer

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McCafferty Newborn | Knoxville TN Newborn Photographer

Come and be here in the present moment,

Come and be reminded of all that is beautiful and true.

All the things fear wants you to forget.

-Morgan Harper Nichols

A beautiful morning with this precious family seeing them live fully present in this season with their new baby girl. Blessings to you McCafferty family. <3

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Life at home during Quarantine | Knoxville Family Photographer

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Life at home during Quarantine | Knoxville Family Photographer

It has been a long time since I did a personal blog post and what better time than now. Like many of you, this time has held so many mixed emotions for our family. So much has changed, yet so much has remained the same. We’ve always been homeschooling but we lost the ability to gather with our friends and family, which bring lots of life to us. That has felt sad but we’ve also gained so much more meaningful time together with fewer distractions and less busyness. We’ve enjoyed the sweetness of having my husband Aaron at home with us. Spending time in the mornings with him reading the Bible and discussing the application with him has been really sweet and comforting. Not to mention how I’ve loved to escape to his office when I felt overwhelmed during the day. lol. It’s been nice to have him here. Although it hasn’t exactly been easy, it’s been nice to enjoy a simpler life these past few weeks. I have thought so much about how it’s felt like a nod to my own childhood. I’ve missed photographing clients but I’ve spent a lot of time documenting the life of my own family during this time. As I put this post together, these photographs were precious reminders of the beauty of this time, my life at home with the children, the simplicity of it all and for that I am so so grateful. I hope you enjoy these little reminders as much as I did. Blessings friends.

I’ve been part of a beautiful group of women over the past few years that came together each month to share some of our favorite lifestyle of our families from the month. We haven’t participated for several months but felt the desire to come together again to share during this historical time. Please make your way around the circle by starting with Kalamazoo Michigan Photographer Sara Rypma and make your way around the circle.

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Fay Family | Knoxville Family Photographer

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Fay Family | Knoxville Family Photographer

This session made me fall in love with extended family sessions. There is no need for them to be stiff or stuffy. Just come as you are. Since the start of this year, I’ve lost 2 of my grandparents so sessions like these seem to hit me right in the feels as the images I have of them has increased in value to me by infinity. It’s really the most important thing I have left from them. I hope these are as treasured as my images with my family are to me. An evening with this family is time well spent. I’m so glad I’ve seen Matt and Danielle’s journey since the start of their family and I loved that he surprised her with this session for Christmas when they were at home in Tennessee visiting family for the holidays. If you want treasured memories like these of you and your loved ones, send me an email, there’s nothing more I’d love than document this time for you.

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Cleveland Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

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Cleveland Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

It’s a wild world out there right now and so much has changed since the last time I blogged. I’ve thought about how to share my work during this time. I’ve wanted to share how I’m struggling because I feel that there is so much power in not feeling alone in the ways that we struggle, but I haven’t wanted to be a discouragement. I’ve wanted to encourage all you mamas that now find yourselves homeschooling your children so suddenly, wanted to tell you that it will all be fine and to extend yourself SO much grace during these days and everyday, as I have to remind myself often, but I didn’t want to be just another voice offering advice in a time when everyone seems to be giving their advice. I do want to share all of these things with you, in time but right now, I just want to remind you of the beauties of home. When we are in the absolute thick of it, which we all are right now, I'll be the first to admit, our lenses get fogged up quickly. It’s a hard job what we’re all doing, some days it feels impossible so we need some reminders for ourselves. I am at home with our children every day and we homeschooled even before this happened, but I still need a reminder (often) about these beautiful and precious days. I need to be reminded to forgive one another(including myself), to have patience with my little ones, to let things be messy, to put on a show when I need a break, to step away from a lesson that is bringing frustration and read a book, to make a meal together and do my besssssst not to get frustrated(lol), to sit down and build a hot wheels track with my 5 year old rather than scroll social media, to choose joy even when I don’t feel like it and to call a friend and cry if I need to. After a week that held so many emotions, last night I lay in bed and scrolled through my camera roll while looking at old photos of my kids and felt the need to remind myself of all these things. God’s grace is new for us every single day mamas and now more than ever, I am clinging to that and I hope you are too.

Grace to you.

xo Bethany

And speaking of reminders of the beauty of home, I’m sharing the Cleveland family with you today that I photographed last month. My time with them was precious and even then, a breath of fresh air for me. I arrived and daddy was wearing their newborn as he sipped his coffee and cuddled their toddler on the couch. It felt like a beautifully simple but sacred time in the life of a family and I was so glad I got to be there for a small piece of it.

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Thomas Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

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Thomas Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

I had the honor of photographing this incredibly talented mama and her family as they welcomed their first babe into their family this fall. Anne is the creative art director at Altrd State and I probably spent a whole afternoon watching her instastories after her inquiry. Go see for yourself and you’ll understand. She has the most incredibly creative brain and is responsible for the window displays at Altrd State’s retail stores. Seriously seeing what she comes up with is INCREDIBLE. I could have spend the entire afternoon at her session just picking her brain. lol. So, of course I had such an incredible time getting to know her and her husband and of course the star of the show, little Behr. <3 Congratulations Thomas family!

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Bessom Family at home on the farm | Knoxville Family Photographer

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Bessom Family at home on the farm | Knoxville Family Photographer

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” -Abraham Lincoln

I have photographed this family for years and each time is special but this time was even more so. That’s because I got to photograph them on their new farm. I’ve seen and heard them dreaming about this since we met and to see them in this space that’s been talked and dreamed about for so long was so beautiful to me. I love that they are seeking a life for their family where their days are filled with homesteading, farm chores, chickens and goats and long walks to the fire pit, watching sunsets on the pond and most importantly, each other. I hope you love these photos of the Bessom family at home on their farm as much as I do.

If you’d love for me to capture your family at home where you’re comfortable and you and your kids let your guard down. Where all the beauty of the mundane and real living take place, I would love for us to talk about a session together this year. You can drop me a line here and we can chat!

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Noll Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

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Noll Newborn | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

“There are divine things, more beautiful than words can tell.” - Walt Whitman

Time spent with this family is time well spent. I first met them when they brought their twins home and I’ve been fortunate to see them blossom into a beautiful family. It does a heart good to be around families that love each other in a deep deep way, and these are those people. Congrats Noll fam, you guys are such a wonderful family. <3

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The Rise Retreat 2019 | A recap and an invitation to join us in 2020!

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The Rise Retreat 2019 | A recap and an invitation to join us in 2020!

This blog post is a long time coming! I’ve shared several images from our time in Colorado at the Rise Retreat earlier this year but haven’t sat down to share more of my favorites as well as some about our time together.

When Nicole, Sara and I set out to plan our first retreat, one of the big things we all agreed on was that we wanted it to be real and applicable for our attendees and was it ever! We wanted our families to be just like any family we would photograph on a normal day, with all the normal challenges that come with family photography. While our families were AMAZING we had some crazy challenges with weather but thankfully it all turned out great! We started our retreat on Friday night with two sessions led by Sara and Nicole. They each had a family they directed and our attendees were able to split their time with each of them and be in even smaller groups to listen, ask questions and even direct the clients themselves if they wanted.

Here are a few film images I snagged while Nicole and Sara led their sessions.

That night we had a cozy dinner waiting on us when we got home. Definitely come to the Rise Retreat ready to be taken care of because we are not playing around about our food. lol. I’m hungry just thinking about next years food. Think gourmet cheese boards and hot coffee on tap. yummmm!

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The next morning we woke up to a blanket of snow, and headed to Breckenridge for an in home family session that I led after I did some teaching on how I approach my in home sessions. Everything from my why, to how I walk through a home and get a plan for my session flow. I wanted this session to be just like a session I would have with a client at home so that our attendees could see what it would be like for me to walk into a client’s home for the very first time and photograph them there. That is just what we did and this precious family was as lovely as could be. All images shot on Kodak Portra 400 and Kodak TriX 400. Developed and scanned at The Find Lab.

For the rest of Saturday we sipped coffee by the fire and watched the snow fall outside as we chatted about all things related to business. We held discussions about marketing, SEO, film, creative projects, setting boundaries for your business and so much more.

Sunday morning we got up for a sunrise session that it ended up snowing for most of the session and I cannot say I was mad about it. Although the weather was a surprise, it felt like the most magical way to end our sessions together.

After our last session, we went back to the house to talk editing and gallery delivery as well as just answering any questions anyone still had after our time together. Then our goodbyes!

This retreat was so wonderful and there is no one else I’d rather do it with than Sara and Nicole. They’re incredibly talented artists but also strong and successful business women with a passion to help others achieve their goals and improve. I believe that we have created a beautiful retreat to connect and refresh the artist in you. So if your heart’s desire is to dig deeper into connection at family sessions and creating the kind of work that lights you up + you crave community with other creatives, this is for you. Our retreat is hybrid. Including both film and digital mediums. Because we believe there are strengths in both mediums. And while we each share our love for our medium of choice, this retreat is about so much more than that. It’s learning to pull those honest connections from families even when everything is going crazy at a session, it’s seeing and understanding light and how it can enhance your images, it’s knowing how to run your business well so that you can not only stretch those creative muscles but also help support your family with your art. We just announced our 2020 retreat in Asheville, NC April 19-21 and we would love to have you join us. You can find out all the details about our retreat and register at this link. We hope to see you there!

Also, a HUGE thank you to all of our sponsors from this years retreat! We were able to provide the best swag bags to our clients with some of our favorite things and business tools so THANK YOU!

The FIND Lab

Milkstained Tees

Greetabl

Shootproof

17hats

Vibe and Venture

Style and Select

Zaca

Bay Photo

Wayfaren

We have SO MANY good things in store for this year and I cannot wait to share it with you! Join us!

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Dyk Family at Home

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Dyk Family at Home

Have you ever met someone and instantly known they were your people? I always tell this but the first time I met Nicole, we were at dinner and she ordered 2 dinners and I knew right then and there I loved her. Lol.(I will never let that die because I love it so much) But seriously, not only is she one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, her love for her people runs DEEP and it is inspiring ya’ll. I am grateful to say that I’ve been able to get to know Nic really well over the past couple of years and recently co-hosted a workshop with her and Sara and through all that, I’ve grown to love her even more. She is genuine, not afraid to say the hard things you need to hear and I appreciate that SO much. So, to get to photograph her in her home with her family was truly an honor to me.

I love you friend. Seeing you with your family is a thing of beauty.

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Daugherty Family at home | Knoxville Family Photographer

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Daugherty Family at home | Knoxville Family Photographer

“What is done in love is done well.” -Vincent VanGogh

I got to meet Ali earlier this year at a gathering of local photographers. I sat across from her and listened as she spoke about her family with joyful tears running down her cheeks and how having her son had changed everything for her. So, it was my privilege to photograph her in her home and pull up a chair with a front row seat and spend time time documenting the beauty of this family. What a blessing your family is sweet Ali. <3

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McCarthy Family &gt;&gt;&gt; Knoxville Family Photographer

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McCarthy Family >>> Knoxville Family Photographer

Trying to get myself back in the swing of blogging because I have had so many amazing family sessions this year. So I’m gonna start by sharing this one. I met this family at home and hung out with them there followed by a walk at their farm. It was a sweet and slow evening and just really the most beautiful thing you can imagine. Enjoy.

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Meek Family | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

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Meek Family | Knoxville Newborn Photographer

I’m completely in love with this session for lots of reasons but mostly because my time with this beautiful family was so natural and honest. Kids playing all around, making coffee, practicing piano while mama fed the baby, warming up supper as I finished up. Just a beautiful piece of their story captured on an early spring afternoon. Congrats Meek family. It was a blessing to photograph you guys.

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