it’s hard to sit with blankness.
we try so very hard to fill empty space with something, anything. we’re so uncomfortable with silence, uncertainty, not-knowing, awkwardness.
 
and then there are people who don’t feel that. who have some “deeper meaning” thing about life completely DOWN, and always seem comfortable in their own skin with plenty of that to share, and you can’t help but hope it rubs off on you.
 
sam is one of those people.
 
a march-to-the-beat-of-your-own-wildly-fabulous-drum woman. she exudes confidence, but not in a yucky way that makes you feel lesser. a way that makes you feel included.
and she’s probably snorting reading this right now, because probably those people who have that kind of air have no idea they’ve got it.
something else: she’s an ALL IN person. That kind of present-ness, in love with life and ready to jump from the cliffs her heart takes her off but not in a careless way, just a way that inspires you to say more YES to the life you’ve got.
 
i can say all these things about sam, and they’ll tell you things about hero and goldie too. because as much as our little ones are their very own, there’s no denying that all the things we are rub off on them lightning quick. i’ll be real–i get scared about this a lot. i get bogged down under that weighty responsibility of being The Person my babies take their cues from. it’s something nobody ever told me about motherhood: you’ll feel how important it is to get it right while seeing how royally you’re getting it wrong.
 
but people like sam teach me: we do the best, the very best we can. we give ourselves grace. we sink into the knowledge that we are the mothers our children need and no one else.
 
no one else.

Brooke Schultz is a Southern California (Laguna, OC to be exact) based family + wedding photographer who adores the ocean, writing, being non-sensically soulful and chocolate chip cookies that are just a liiitle underbaked. And hi hey hellllooo if you are a rad loving family in need of non-cheesy family photos she’d love to photograph you with your favorite peeps. See more family session details here, or contact me and let’s make it happen.

“i’m terrified to have a girl!” christa confessed to me.
 
and i told her that i wouldn’t know what to do with a boy.
 
we decided that raising boys takes more energy, and raising girls takes more patience. i’ve thought about that a lot. because i’ve got the patience but not the run-around force. and if there ever was a beacon of combustible beautiful contagious energy, it’s christa.
 
but also we’re meant to stretch. and that’s what mothering is. a constant, uncomfortable stretch that’s good for you but also you can’t overdo it and you gotta know your limits and stretch just a little at a time…until life throws you those curveballs that make ‘stretch’ seem like a tame word and mostly make you want to curl up in a corner. and yep, i’m talking about me now–though we all have those duck-and-cover moments.
 
so before they welcome their first little lady to the crew in just a few short months, we got some lovin documentation of mama and her boyfriends–and ohh, what a love affair it is.

and hi. if you’re in southern California and you want photos of you and the ones you love best in the places your memories get made, i’d love to to be your lady. learn more about family sessions here (and if you like things that are beautiful but not too fancy, feely but not too cheesy, I think you’re gonna like it) or email me about shooting your family. i won’t lie, i’d be thrilled.

I’ve (pretty much almost) accepted that I’m never going to be one of those moms who is content at home.
If I’m being honest, I used to look down my nose at those moms, before I had kids–ohh, they have no ambition, i’d scoff.
 
now I just envy them.
 
I admire how present they are with their families; their vision for their life as one of nurturing, sacrifice, and joy of course–but also one of mostly unglamorous details of managing and shaping lives other than their own. The life of thanklessness, the life of very little acknowledgement and hardly any praise and no big awards. I hate to admit that those outside pats-on-the-back still matter to me. I still want proof that my existence is making an imprint, while I make food that we just eat with no proof it was ever there and clean spaces five times over that weren’t dirty when we woke up. the end of the day the evidence would suggest we’re all worse for the wear, that i sat around in pajamas and did the bare minimum.
 
but i am here. my two girls know i’m here. they see me. and then, they don’t–there’s also that feeling of “otherness” that no one really explained to me before i had kids. people told me i wouldn’t want to do anything but snuggle and dote on my newborn, that i’d be “over” photography and running a business and pursuits outside four cozy walls. it just wasn’t true, for me. there are aches inside that remind me every day that no matter how much of my heart is given to these littles outside me, i am my own.
 
that’s part of what i’m trying to show when i photograph moms with their children, and families. this sense that family IS everything, we are all so connected and will be forever and it’s arguably the most beautiful thing in the world–but also, that it hurts sometimes. that it’s hard a lot of times. that there still lives an endless soul inside who needs to be seen, heard, cherished and fed.
 
so all that feels like wayyy too much to assign to one family, hahaha.
 
I just want to keep trying to show all the ways choosing family, choosing to be a mother and a father–is the boldest, most admirable thing I can think of.

And hey! I’m Brooke Schultz, an OC-based family photographer who has this thing, this ability to truly SEE the people I photograph in an inside-out kind of way. If you’d love someone to Really Get You and empathize with what it means to keep raising your hand to participate in this crazy love that is family, while making some beautiful photos of the ones you love–I just might be your girl. Contact me to chat about your family session. (And also, that’s completely real–you can actually email me with your questions, blocks, uncertainties, and just to say hello. I’d superlove it.)

Family travel sessions.
So many of you wonderful, beautiful families overflowin with love have contacted me about shooting your crew in your home–only your home is not anywhere near Southern California.
 
And lemme tell you. My heart skips more than one beat at the thought of prancing all around the world getting to meet YOU. you dedicated mamas with your big hearts and your kids with their adorable quirks and your husmans with their supportive playful dad ways and the little details that make your house a home. I’ve swirled around for weeks trying to figure how I can do all the world-prancing my insides want and, care for my own two little souls plus me and a husband of my own. And it’s comin down to a thing called compromise.
 
All this to say, please know how I wish I could come to you everywhere all the time.
And, that the very real “I can’t” is coming from a place of choosing my family, choosing to say yes to this unglamorous undocumented life of wiping tears and bums and all the same tiny things I yearn to prove to you are worth your every energy through photographs.
 
K. So here’s the deal with travel outside Southern California for family sessions.
 
I’ll be making one trip per year to one destination (or possibly a couple very nearby locations). This announcement is for 2016’s trip.
 
To make this thing happen, I’ll need at least four families in a location to come.
 
Sessions will include all the bells and whistles:
 
-up to 2 hours of shooting in your home + fave places
 
-travel costs (no hidden extra anything)
 
-files for you to get cah-razy printing the ish out of the beauty we make together
 
Sessions will be $1400 each.
 
If you’re interested in having me come to your area, please pretty please send me an email. All you gotta say is that you’re interested for a particular location. This is not a commitment, cause I kinda cringe at those too. It will help me mega to decide where to go if I know how much real alive interest there is in a particular place.
 
Annnd, if you really want your city to be The city I choose, of course you’ve got to tell all your friends and force them to email me an oozy love note saying they’d book a session, too. just kidding–but really, the more peeps who speak up for a particular place, the more likely it is that place gets choosed!
 
Utah friends–I will be back to your neck of the woods and available for family sessions Nov 30-Dec 5.  Email me for special just-for-my-home-state-people pricing and to choose a date for your pics.
 
(Also, are these announcements sometimes kinda annoying cause it’s just like look how fancy i am people wanna hire me everywhere!? i need to tell you. for real. how freaking ecstatic I am to even be writing this post + even having this wonderful problem of more families wanting to be photographed by me than I can reach. It is an incredible gift, and not one i unwrap on Christmas morning and forget about by noon. thank you, thank you, for every kindness and support m’friends.)

heaven knows I freak out with joy at things that go against the grain in meaningful ways. everything about this family is that. they parent with heart, giving everything that doesn’t fit with who they are the cold shoulder. it’s a delicious model, and so much more carefree than being crushed under the weight of parenting “shoulds.” plus, any parent who encourages their kids to paint each other is absolutely winning in my book.

in a world that stifles creativity outta kids the second they walk into school + touts blind obedience with gold stars over humans thinking for themselves, i’m just heartened by the fact that there are families like this out there. families who embrace exploration, dance parties mixed with yoga, and a healthy dose of sass.

If you’re in need of non-cheesy photos of your family and you live in Southern California I’d love to be your girl. Let’s chat about your family session.

Nowhere near Southern California but you’re interested in a family session? I’ll be sharing all the deets about travel sessions this week. #ohthesuspense

The huge upside of having a child who is developmentally behind is that everything lasts longer.
 

That frantic feeling of time slipping through your fingers, ahh it was just yesterday she was born–it doesn’t grab me so often. But with starting to plan Gemma’s first birthday party, I’m starting to squeeze her more and more and offer more squealy “i just looove you!”s (some might call it smothering, we’ll just go with affectionate, riight) knowing that Year One is closing down.
 

I know what it’s like to have a child who’s different. And to have that slice of different consume your whole world, so you forget everything but remember it all, too. So you can’t see ten days in front of you let alone ten years. Seeing Jen with her family, with her Hannah, gave me so much hope. That we, me and my people, can all grow together in a beautiful way, an intertwined flowering vine like them. because they held the hardness of dealing with different–but they have so obviously let it soften them and squish them together.
 
I work so hard to stay soft. It really fails miserably a lot of times. But the times I let myself be leaky, gushy, malleable–I get filled.
 

If you friggin love photos that aren’t cheesy and you’re cool with ocean splashing and giggling like crazy let’s make some photos of your family.

I remember showing Jared Braedon’s photos before I shot film and trying to explain that THIS was what I wanted my work to look like. He’s hugely talented, and a nice guy to boot. He identifies himself as a husband and dad, and when I asked him what some of his favorite things were about his family, he said the sweetest things about each child–wild adventurous Rhys, sweetheart Declan, adorable mama’s girl Neela.

 

Lindsay is the genius behind Jack and June, and one of those light-up-a-room-with-goodness people.

 

It just makes sense that their kids would follow this trajectory of incredible. But these two aren’t the “you will be great or else” type–it never ceases to move me, seeing all the ways love shows up in a family. Theirs feels a beautiful kind of natural–the kind you want to buy at trader joes. the kind we label some people born with. the kind you can’t always put your finger on but it’s all over the swings and in this salty laid back California blue sky I’m getting used to living under.

 

Simple kindness, sunny hearts and house full of organic all natural no preservatives added love.

 

If you need non-cheesy photos of your family this year, I’ve got 2 sessions left for September and 3 for October. Email me and I’ll send you available dates, pricing, and all the goods about what to wear.