Welcome back to the Weekly Wednesday blog-! You may have noticed that we were absent last week from blogging. This absence is because we don’t always blog all of our clients’ Sessions **and** because we had a very eventful autumn leaves week what with 4 (-!) Sessions throughout the week (all in the Midwest)-! Anywho, we’re back and are starting our Autumn Leaves Family Portrait & Engagement Session series this month with this little Midwest Family’s Fall Family Portrait Session from South Bend-! **Without further adieu, this wonderful little local South Bend, Indiana family-!
This little family of 4 has had a tumultuous time in the past 3.5 years since the Pandemic started. They’ve had to move 3 times in just 3 years for their jobs because the higher-ups at their jobs weren’t sure how to tackle in-person work after so many had done ZOOM work. The moves were quite significant forcing them to move all of their furniture, clothes, and belongings all by themselves with their little family- plus oldest child. They had to move all of their belongings and entire lives back-and-forth vast distances to retain their full-time jobs. This made it hard for their son to have a stable community around him, but luckily friends and family have rallied behind them to try to keep them connected amidst all of these huge life changes!
Currently one of the parents is dealing with strikes (as so many others are) at work due to no deal being worked out with their employer just yet, so they are down to just one Millennial income for all 4 of them. Being Millennials and especially this coupled with a whopping TWO recessions since university graduation at age 22 just 14 years ago, an extremely fluctuating housing market- both in 2009 and then again just a year or two ago- ((latest caused by the Pandemic)), and inflation and it’s amazing that they continue to persevere! So many Millennials and Gen Z- including those who didn’t go to university- are all feeling the sting of these absolutely huge & significant financial ups and downs. For those who had grandparents who made it through The Great Depression, it may all sound a bit familiar for some- especially for those not born into wealth, those with a darker skin tone, or those not of the male gender.
Visually you may have noticed that this lovely family perused our old Clothing/ Style Guide from 4 years ago and chose to switch it up! To our genuine surprise they outfitted their entire family in Barbie pink (thanks, Greta )-! Their older son was very excited to play, so we let him throw some leaves and enjoy hanging with his little sister. We think that the grey and pink together (that they independently chose) was super cute and very creative!
Some backstory on the green leaves you see: An added challenge in **most if not ALL** of the country are the fluctuating temperatures in the area. Here in the Midwest we’ve all seen temperatures rise a whopping 11 degrees, so October was insanely challenging not only for OUR work, but also for those who must dress correctly for work outdoors (like those in construction outside or those who fully rely on the weather for their crops, nursery indoor & outdoor plants, landscaping, and more). Though even locally folks have come up with very creative, revolutionary solutions ala that of movies about trying to inhabit other planets (like indoor lettuce farms), there’s still a need for the TRUE OUTDOORS to be safer and more stable, though time is running out for that per scientists’ recommendations.
We ourselves for <<real, worthy work>> only have really a week to two week window for beautiful autumn leaves for our clients and even that is diminishing extremely because of the high temps not allowing the leaves to change. Snow (and a huge snow at that) just hit our city here yesterday- an extreme fluctuation that’s only been seen around 10 times in 100 years according to our favorite meteorologist. We hit our 2nd ever recorded lowest temperatures on that date yesterday with the 2nd ever most snow ever recorded on that date (shout out to meteorologist Matt Rudkin). It’s not all about work though. These extreme fluctuations in Climate Change have changed the makeup of local lakes, forests, and more, so those who source fish for work or meals have felt the sting too. Fish species have fully died off, local fauna are changing, and those hikes you love for leisure…? No longer normal or pleasurable because of the unpredictable extreme snaps in forecast changes.
Now you may be thinking “Why are we talking about this in an Autumn Leaves Family Portrait Session blog by a dumb photographer…?” Well, we’re no dummies. Both of us were honors students, we have multiple university degrees, we have worked since we were a mere 16 years young, and one of us (of course the female) was in the 99th Percentile of her PSATs in school growing up (and has a terminal degree allowing one to teach at a university to boot). This brings us to our wonderful client- the mother you see here-! She actually graduated #1 in her high school class throughout her high school years! Her boyfriend at the time was always #2- that is until she headed off to another school for her Senior Year. What a great role model for their daughter!
We hope you enjoyed this week’s Weekly Wednesday blog post-! There was so much fun had with this sweet family and we can’t wait to continue editing their and all of our other couples’ and families’ Autumn Portrait Sessions-! A huge shout-out to this amazing family and we can’t wait to finish up with editing your Session in the coming week(s).
We have so much more to share of our clients’ Sessions in the coming months, so buckle your seatbelts-! We have amazing wedding couples, Engagement Session couples, Family Portrait Sessions, and more to share (and edit- lol), so get ready because all of your favorite Sessions and holidays are coming up! Since Halloween was just yesterday we have yet to take down our decor (but are excited to when we get the chance sometime soon), but our annual Autumn/ Thanksgiving decor is next, so get ready for some nice, tame fall content (and maybe some weird holiday snow thrown in there as well to really smash all of the holidays in there together). We’ll hopefully catch ya next week with some of our recent exciting Sessions-!