“Dont like coffee, never will.”

Family session details | The Photo Fuel Retreat

I used to hate coffee.

I tolerated the smell, wouldn’t put the stuff to my lips.

The men in my family all drank black coffee. The women drank tea. I drank tea.

Every morning in grad school on the way to my student teaching - tea.

Cold days studying in the library - tea.

In my head, I didn’t like coffee, didn't want to like coffee, and never would.

Then I met a man who drank coffee for a living.

Not really, but he was in the military and often switched between day and night shifts. 36 hour missions. The stuff you need coffee for. He drank it black, too.

But when we were living in Hawaii, there was the cutest coffee shop steps away from our apartment and I’d spend hours and hours there writing and studying.

On weekends, we would walk there together before the town got busy and grab a drink to stroll along the quiet beach with. Maybe it was my season of learning to be my own person, but I grew tired of plain black tea. I wanted to be a person who liked coffee.

He recommended chai lattes. I tried one. My mind was blown. It was so good.

Granted, this drink is mostly milk and spices, but nonetheless…I was drinking coffee.

Chai lattes turned into other lattes, which turned into americanos which turned into black coffee. 14 years later, one of my greatest delights is a hot cup of black coffee in the dawn hours as I write.

Coffee is a love language. It got me through sleepless nights with 3 children. And I love a good road trip with a thermos of coffee beside me. Fun fact - I’ve been prone to extreme car sickness since I was a kid, so I trained myself to fall asleep whenever I was in the car because it was literally the only thing I could do that wouldn't make me throw up.

So basically anytime I’m in the car for more than 30 minutes, I have coffee.

Come at me with all your health comments about how caffeine will kill me and I should drop it all together now that I’m of a certain age. I’ve gone entire lenten seasons without the beloved beanwater. I’ve given it up cold turkey for the first trimester of every pregnancy (or at least cut down to <12 oz a day).

My consumption is reasonable and purposeful and staying for the forseeable future.

I’m thinking about this little transformation as I sit at a different coffee shop down the street from my current house Virginia. There are no palm trees outside the window, but my hot, black coffee and seasonal muffin are delightful, nonetheless.

I’m thinking about how funny it is how we put rules upon ourselves.

“I don’t do ____.” “I don’t believe in _____.” “I won't ever _____.”

Why do we do that?

I decided something was true about myself (I don’t drink coffee) that was true once.

I swore something off because I made up my mind about it when I was a CHILD (coffee is gross and girls drink tea*) and then let that idea stick forever like a part of my identity.

When I started opening my mind up to the possibility of joy available through mud water and beans, I opened myself up to a whole new world of menu opinions!

More importantly, I learned I get to decide what I like.

I discovered that I get to change if I want to.

There are so many options and ideas coming our way that it’s easy to tune out.

Change is hard.

Hard things are uncomfortable.

And black coffee is gross the first few times you drink it.

Maybe you think you’re not ‘the kind of person” who does family photos or newborn photos. You’ve seen or done it once before and you've told yourself a story about how you don’t look good in photos or being photographed is vain or your family will be awkward or ___________.

What if the way you think family photos work isn’t really how it goes at all (when you work with me at least ;-))

What if you could bring your blanket full of chick fila nuggets to the skatepark and have a picnic before riding bikes and playing in the field together.

What if you could pick the spring vegetables from your backyard garden and blow bubbles in the yard and chase the dog around as part of your session and those are actually the most honest and beautiful stories you crave proof of.

Someone wrote to me this week about booking a session and said she wanted to capture “this current stage of my eldest being on the cusp of tweendom and Taylor Swift obsessed and my youngest with her gentle soul and whole body hugs!”

You don’t get those outcomes by sitting on a bale of hay in button-ups.

But boy am I excited to make photos that help this family soak up a season of delight.

There will be other beautiful seasons in the future for them, and hard ones, too.

But we get to choose to photograph the joys that light us up. They remind us of our foundation. Even when those good days inevitably get buried by bad days and responsibilities and big life curveballs, photos remain to tell a story.

And stories are what keep us afloat.

My calendar is all but full for 2025 with a few straggler options for late November and early December, so I'm calling out to you who are thinking about a session in winter 2026 - newborns due January-March, cozy in-home family sessions, small business brand concepts - lets make something that stays.

// new + noteworthy //

The Photo Fuel Retreat and Mastermind is here!

Photographers - ☝🏼 this page is full of all the details you're looking for. This experience is for those who are eager for hands-on learning and community to grow in vision, art, and business. I'm currently building out the booking process, but as soon as that is ready, I will make seats available to purchase on a first come first serve basis. For now, check out the details and make sure you're on the interest list for updates when seats are open to reserve.

Back on a spinning kick and adding to my playlist for smooth rides to the beat that push and steady, without the aggressive techno vibes.

About to finish up Into the Wild and it has felt like such a comforting story during a time when I often want to disappear from drama of the news and go live in the woods. I love biographies and stories about real-life people that give me perspective into the minds of others. On deck: Beartown. It's come recommended by quite a few folks and feels like a good vibe going into fall/winter. Have you read it?

*Today's story is not intended as shade on my tea-drinking friends. You are also allowed to just like what you like and continue not choosing coffee. I will not throw judgement upon you and love you no matter what.

CREATIVITY | FAMILY | SIMPLE JOYS

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