One of our favorite sessions from this summer was heading out to photograph Tonya & Matt for their Wissahickon Park maternity session. And, as most of our beautiful maternity clients, these two opted for our Lifecycle family sessions, which meant just a short while later, we were able to join these two in their home once they welcomed baby Peter to the family.
We’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Tonya & Matt on a number of levels. Between photographing these two during their engagement & wedding, bringing Tonya on to the team as a core assistant & second shooter, and just adoring these two as individuals, we couldn’t have been more excited to venture along for the next phase of their life together.
After Tonya & Matt’s waterfall engagement session (which is well-known by anyone who follows along on our instagram account), we knew that they’d be up for a little more adventure during the first part of their lifecycle family session. And it was a good thing that they were!
Venturing out to the Wissahickon on a gloriously warm day during the quarantines of 2020 meant parking nearly a mile away from our planned starting location and hiking down into the park. Luckily, as soon as the parking monitor realized what we were doing, he sent Matt back for the car and left us drive through to the parking lot by the Valley Green Inn. We were so grateful, because saving those steps meant that Tonya had plenty of energy to climb into the water, on the rocks, and along the path for so many beautiful maternity portraits among the Wissahickon trails!
Fast forward just a few months. We were so thrilled to receive the message that baby Peter had been born. Both he and Tonya were healthy and able to return home as normal, so we headed into their home (masked & distanced) for a truly exciting part two of their lifecycle family session – their in-home newborn session.
Photographing another photographer always adds a layer of excitement (& nerves), but these two genuinely value photographs in their lives, so the pressure was on! We grabbed some wonderful photos of these three in the living room with a beautiful background of their wedding photos and custom paintings from their wedding day!
While we were taking a pause from the photos so Tonya could tend to Peter, Hermione & Olivia, the two cats that Tonya & Matt have adopted from Ashley a few years ago made an appearance. Not only did they enjoy using Matt as a cat tree, but these two even cooperated for a full family photo! If you know anything about cats, you know that is a miracle in and of itself!
Once we managed to get two cats looking in the general direction of the camera, we changed Peter into an outfit that Matt was photographed in as a tiny baby and got some lovely “daddy & me” shots and a studio-esque baby portrait. We know that Grandma is going to absolutely melt when she sees this sentimental outfit paired with those squishy little baby cheeks!
And to cap it all off, November babies are extra fun, because they arrive just in time for family Christmas jammies! We packed in shots in both the matching family Star Wars holiday sweaters AND their jammies. Plus, the cats made an encore appearance!
Tonya, Matt, Peter, (Olivia, Hermione), we hope this is just the first of many opportunities for us to track alongside and watch your family grow! Welcome to the world, baby Peter! And here’s to many more lifecycle family sessions for you guys!
