The best love stories are a swirl—like that softie vanilla chocolate ice cream where you take two things that seemingly couldn’t be more opposite and then they actually blend together so poetically you’re like, what is even happening.
The chocolate is that movie kind of love that makes your heart explode with starlight. The vanilla is that real life kind of love, the flavor that holds up to life with kids—solid, supportive, sometimes mundane, but ready to laugh and swirl back to chocolatey magic at a moment’s notice.

Last night Rio age 5 held an impressive amount of water in his mouth after brushing his teeth…so he could spit it on Gemma age 6, for no apparent reason other than maybe most 5 year old boys love nothing more than to bug their sisters. She was dumbfounded more than angry, I gave him an earful about prioritizing his connection with his sister, then gem said: “you spit water on me. That was bad.” Then Rio sighs this big sigh and says: “yeah…
but also kinda funny right?!”
and then they both erupted into giggles. Cause of course.

When it’s bad out there and in here, I like to try to turn upside down and see the “but kinda funny too” side. Even if only for a minute, there’s relief and breath and lightness and the possibility of every future we can’t usually see, right there.

This shoot was orchestrated by Miesh, who is a brilliant clothing stylist + photographer, and as she said goodbye to her studio of six years we had to do something (or maybe 134 ‘somethings’, ha!) to commemorate all the incredible creations she’s brought to life there. Forever inspired by creative friends and the love stories they weave in their four walls and out.

PS i know you’re weaving a beautiful love story of your own, so message me for all the deets about family sessions. Your photos should represent the magnitude of what you’re doing in your four walls every day. Full family session details here.

Also, if you’re a family photographer, applications are now OPEN for the fall 2021/spring 2022 Love Soaked family photography retreat + mastermind cohorts. Click here to apply + we’ll reach out with a call to share all the deets!

I get flattened by the mundane. Making stuff proves to me over and over how shiny it all really is.

when the tide is rising and you think all the good possibilities have washed away–

infinite whispers choir up to meet you.

everything is here, they remind you. when you feel it deep, the volume cranks high, high as your hopes

everything you want for you, for your little and big people, feels so close you can taste it. even just for a moment, relish. breathe it in

and clear your throat

open your mouth

so you can sing too.

PS speaking of legacy and honoring our future selves, message me for all the deets about family sessions. I want your photos to represent the magnitude of what you’re doing in your four walls every day. Full family session details here. Also, if you’re a family photographer, applications are now OPEN for the fall 2021/spring 2022 Love Soaked family photography retreat + mastermind cohorts. Click here to apply (there’s no obligations, just getting more info to see if it’d be a good fit!)

The love language of smell and hair twirls

Poem shards on scraps of paper
It’s hard to carve time to meet my insides
It’s so special to see them on the outside
in the witnessing of a family.

Had my heart broken this week by a blue car that drove by in gold light, under the spell of the perfect music playing.
It feels good to reconnect to inner me.
Even if I’m tuning in to find a broken heart.

PS speaking of legacy and honoring our future selves, message me for all the deets about family sessions. I want your photos to represent the magnitude of what you’re doing in your four walls every day. Full family session details here. Also, if you’re a family photographer, applications are now OPEN for the fall 2021/spring 2022 Love Soaked family photography retreat + mastermind cohorts. Click here to apply (there’s no obligations, just getting more info to see if it’d be a good fit!)

Hazy days where time crawls and flies
I still stumble through the dance we’ve done a thousand times

Somebody always gotsta drink in the exquisite love story that started with two but now balloons and ripples out to who even knows how many souls, reaching backward in time to roots of who you came from, reaching forward to a gorgeous unknowable future of babies, grandbabies, in-laws, adoptions or strangers on the internet who got inspired by you.

It’s crazy to think about the ripple effect of a family. Of a love nurtured with hearts beating outside yours, of crumbs and birthday parties and anniversaries and a whole lot of regular days piled on top.
Of the thing we call legacy but which is very hard to describe or even wrap our minds around. Because who you come from is bigger than where you come from, and where you’re going isn’t as big as who you’re going there with.

Here’s an open letter I wrote to myself:

Dear future me,
I promise to not overromanticize this too much. I promise not to paint it as squishy baby thighs and the moment at the piano tonight when Vienna played “imagine” with Jared and the world exploded with rightness.

I promise not to remember only the way Cy runs away and squeals with delight at being chased, but also to remember how I cant leave his sight without him losing his mind, to remember how my hands were in fact as full as everyone loved to comment. I promise to remember the tangled sleep configurations that make my eyelids concrete and the way they talk over me constantly so having a conversation with my husband is an Olympic sport and I promise to round out the glittery memories of delighting in beach sand and family movie night with the afternoons that sprawled out like an endless desert (who knows what to do with their kids from 3-5pm? I sure don’t.)

I promise not to forget the mundane ways I clean the same decrepit spaces over and over but I can’t promise I won’t also see even that, even the most disappointing flat gray lackluster realities with rose colored lenses. Your current reality, Future Me, will be like this too—hard and soft, sparkly and stupidly ordinary. I hope you remember it all, and to release the cynicism hucked at you from every direction, I hope you do it with a splash of extra romance—just for fun.

PS speaking of legacy and honoring our future selves, message me for all the deets about family sessions. I want your photos to represent the magnitude of what you’re doing in your four walls every day. Full family session details here. Also, if you’re a family photographer, applications are now OPEN for the fall 2021/spring 2022 Love Soaked family photography retreat + mastermind cohorts. Click here to apply (there’s no obligations, just getting more info to see if it’d be a good fit!)

I want to take a moment to highlight the overwhelming talent of the Love Soaked attendees. They showed up perhaps a little apprehensive, but left confident, more attuned with their creative voices. Thankfully the journey doesn’t end with the in person portion of the retreat (though that’s a real party), but we continue on with six months of coaching where we really sink our teeth into the business side of things and their strategy skyrockets.

Without further ado, here’s a sampling of the work they created while at this year’s spring retreat:

Alison Hatch: https://alisonhatchphoto.com/

Brooke Wilson: https://www.brookewilsonphotography.com

Callie Walker Dhonau: https://calliewalker.com/

Dalayna McKnight: https://www.dalaynamcknight.com/

Katie Plas: https://www.katieplasphoto.com/

Kylie Biessmann: https://kylieandcompany.com/

Maddy Bratcher: http://www.maddmall.com/

Monette Wagner: https://www.monettewagner.com/

Nicolette Aguinaldo: http://fotopopkauai.com/

Nikki Caviness: https://nikkicavinessphotography.com/

Doors for the Love Soaked retreat + mastermind for fall 2021 (November 10-13) and spring 2021 (April 20-23) both in sunny, gorgeous San Diego, California are officially OPEN! So thrilled to be accepting applications here, it’s first come, first served so let’s chat and see if this retreat is right for you.

And again, if you’d like images of your very own family that go far deeper than just a portrayal of what you look like but who you are and how it IS–let’s make images of your family together.

Welcome to the 5th and final day of Get Love Soaked Week where I’m sharing the last family we photographed at the Love Soaked Retreat. PARTY FACE EMOJI!

Have you liked having so many images in yo face all in one week? I hope it’s inspired you to make something, whatever your medium. If you’re a photographer interested in photographing families in a way that’s true to you AND true to them–you gotta check out the Love Soaked Retreat and Mastermind and apply for the next round.

Even if you’re not a fellow photographer, can I leave you with this?

Every single one human being is creative. To be alive is to be creative. There’s no dividing line between us, artists vs. non-artists, makers vs. non-makers. There’s no one who has created nothing. That smile you coaxed out of a sulky baby–creation. That meal you made, the elegance you embodied, the outfit you wore, the apology you truly meant–creativity at its most fundamental.

It’s a runaway train you can chase and think is elusive, or you can hop on and RIDE. Riding is easy and fun and doesn’t take a lot of effort, just noticing what’s outside and in

and responding with intention.
And then, the crackle of something deeper than you sizzles and there it is–your creation, a thing that wasn’t there before there was you.

And hi, hey, hello if you’d like images of your family that speak to the core of who you are and the DEPTH of the work you’re doing every day–depth that can’t even be touched by a Christmas card–let’s make images of your family together.

It’s Day 4 of Get Love Soaked Week, where I’m sharing my images from each family we photographed throughout the Love Soaked Retreat! If you’re like hang on what IS the Love Soaked Retreat, it sounds…wet? Catch yourself up to speed here, hunny.

If you’re a family photographer and you wanna take your images from generic to love-soaked and MOST importantly: infused with your unique creative fingerprint, apply for the next Love Soaked Retreat here. (and hey! the application isn’t a commitment, just a way for me to get in touch when the details for the Fall 2021 retreat + Spring 2022 retreat drop!)

This incredible fam drove from LA down to san diego to model for us and I only wish I could have photographed them longer…like…hours longer. ha. I joke that clients have to kick me out the door because I kind of won’t stop unless they do.

If you want family photos of you and your crew that are anything but boring, pick me! Contact Brooke for full SoCal family session details + pricing.

Welcome to Day 3 of Get Love Soaked Week! I’m sharing my images from all 5 family shoots we did at the Love Soaked Retreat, one family a day, every day this week.

in a crazy turn of events, this family’s sweet pup died the night before our morning shoot. had there been any way to reschedule, i would have in a heartbeat; but because it was for the retreat we decided to make the best of a hard morning following a hard night and not force smiles or anything else, just to hold space for what was.

it turned out to be even more beautiful and meaningful than we could have wished for. because when we hold each other in hard times, when we intertwine ourselves in the roughest waters, that’s when the deepest love shows up. it was palpable and every photographer in the room felt it; this family generously let us witness it.

we also experimented with adapting our process to this: instead of so much focus on our direction as photographers–do-this-do-that–we utilized other methods to keep them moving and interacting in ways that felt good to them, and so many photographers had breakthroughs in their own processes as a result.

HEY want photos of your family that aren’t just a documentation of your FACES, but a documentation of the EMOTIONS you feel in family life behind the scenes , all day every day? You’re weaving a huge web of love and it deserves to be documented in a way that takes your breath away. Contact Brooke here for Southern California family session details + pricing.

Welcome to Day 2 of Get Love Soaked week! (I made that up, but it’s where I share images from the shoots we did at the Love Soaked Retreat, one family a day, every day for this week!)

Prep your eyeballs for today’s family who is in the process of remodeling their home.

I love what mama Erin wrote after she saw the images: “Oh my gosh. In the midst of life and chaos of family, we know for sure about this heart burst of wholesome intimacy that exists in spiritual form in our family…. this is so bizarre to have this intangible energy captured in visual form!!! It feels alien and odd but absolutely wonderful to own this. There are so many other photos with me at the moment, they just made my external hard drive a holy place, I have to give it another name other than the bland ‘external hard drive’ ? These images are so precious and intimate I feel like our family first needs to breathe these in and soak them in…. I truly recommend these women who are passionate about searching for the essence of what family means, I LOVE THAT, the soul searching and deepening of oneself before sharing their calling and talent, it has inspired me. The soulful family photographer I was so lucky to cross paths with, Brooke, thank you thank you thank you. We feel so lucky we had this opportunity especially at a time our family is starting a new chapter, each of us individually and as a family, more stronger and more entwined with one another.”

These are the types of incredible, soulful families we get to photograph. Feels surreal and feels so, so good.

If you’re wondering what the Love Soaked Retreat is like, you can find more info + read reviews here. To apply for the next round–Sep 2021 or April 2022, apply here! (the application isn’t a commitment, just a way for me to get in touch with ya when details drop!)

*EXCITING NEWS! It’s get love soaked week! I made that up but it’s where i’ll be sharing images from the love soaked retreat all week. One family a day for five days. Come back every day for a new set of images + to see more of what it’s like at the retreat.

um hi wait what even is the love soaked retreat?

it’s a 3 day intensive for family photographers to transform your family photography. You’ll stop making the images you’re “supposed” to make and start stepping into the photographer you’re meant to be. Most photographers teach you how to shoot like them; I teach you how to shoot (and run your business) like YOU.

Here’s what Alison said: “Before the retreat, I didn’t feel comfortable with the direction I was headed. I was uncomfortable with my clients, and unclear with my vision. I also didn’t have the confidence to go after what I needed. Now I KNOW that I am good enough, that I have the right vision, and am so excited to go after what I want. I’ve been to other workshops and the teacher tells you how to do things their way. Like “do this and you’ll be a success cuz it worked for me!” You don’t do that. You helped me go in the direction I needed artistically and then gave me the tools to be a success in my own way. Truly the best intensive workshop I’ve been to.”

More on the retreat here. Want to create a family photography style + business that’s completely unique to you? Apply for the Love Soaked Retreat + Mastermind here. (fall 2021 or spring 2022!)

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Local to southern CA or potentially coming here in 2021? Interested in having me photograph your family in a way that throws cookie cutter crap out the window and captures who you truly are? YES? Me too. Let’s chat about your family session.

Who even is this Brooke girl?

Brooke Schultz is a family photographer who’s obsessed with creativity + making parenthood deeply seen (instead of the surface-level representations of parenthood currently portrayed in the media and on instagram.) Her work has been featured in Oprah, Martha Stewart, and more, but what she really cares about is the hard, invisible work you’re doing every day to love your family. Contact her to photograph your family here.