I honestly never dreamed this would be me.

I got the email, supa casual hey, shoot my family?

From the first photographer I ever followed, years before I became an actual photographer. His work influenced mine more than anyone else’s. This was B-I-G. Call all your people and scream big. Giggle/self pep talk in the car on the way to the shoot big.

Most of my days aren’t filled with big dreams coming true. Most of my time is spent quietly, reading books, filling up sippy cups with milk, changing diapers, enforcing bedtimes and coaxing smiles. So this day, finding out that this family is just as cool as they seem on the internet and making images of them–watching the ways they are normal, chaotic, loving, patient–it filled me up so overflowing to come back to the quiet, unglamorous days that stretch out in all directions.

welcome to dream town, schultz.

jonathan canlas and family, everybody.

Brooke Schultz is a wild-hearted family and wedding photographer who adores the ocean, writing, and telling love stories, based in Orange County, California and available for adventure worldwide. She can be found snuggling her two baby girls, hating on crocs and reality tv, and raging against the machine.

If you want to get out from behind your life and have photographs of your family that you and they will treasure for all time, let’s chat about your session.

Also! If you’re a photographer, I created a snazzy facebook group for photographers with heart who care about making fabulous photos and making a living while doing it, in a non-slimy way. come on in, it’s freeee.

Day three of little Lulu’s life was pretty fine. Sleeping, snuggling with the people who love her most, and just a little bit of dress up.

Kay, yes, that’s the worst possible description of newborn life. There are hormones, people. And your body is doing all kinds of weird things. And their body is doing all kinds of weird things. There is poop everywhere. There is milk everywhere. You have nothing to wear, you feel like you got hit by a truck, and then another truck bursting with heart emojis and the purest love on the planet, and then you want to curl up and die because you’re so tired, and then you want to freeze everything and never sleep because this little being is so insanely magic.

So if you can manage all that with poise, like this family? You’ve made it.

So you have a new little bundle of perfect wonder coming to your home? And that home is in Orange County? Or anywhere in Southern California, really. Or in Utah (I go there a lot.) And you want natural, candid photos of you and your people being you? Let’s chat about your family session.

(Like those beans from Harry Potter)

I’ve been trying to explain to myself how it is possible that Mikki is as nice and calm and centered as she is. She moves through the world so beautifully–scattering good vibes all over. And the kindness! There should be more words for kindness, the real variety that sloshes around in your heart until it flows out and over because people go above and beyond the regular requirements of pleasantry and cut straight to the middle of you because they actually. care.

The internet is weird, guys. One minute you can feel isolated and the next you’re supapopular with orange hearts lighting up your screen–and these weird things are kind of how I find myself measuring how people care. what they care about. who they care about. numbers.

Digging through those tunnels and out the other side I find reality. Humans who actually care about other humans for none of those internet reasons. And that makes my heart fly.

Thank you, Mikki and Braedon and family, for letting me in. On the comfort through tears, on the gentleness, and on the incredible fountain of sweetness that lives in your home.

Let’s make pretty, authentic photos of the people you love the most on earth. UTAH, I’m coming for you July 10-11 and still have a couple spots! California. I’m already here. So let’s do this.

 

This week we move away from Utah and away from 10 years of memories, bonding, brilliance, joy, pain, growing. I want to be like, California, we’re ready for you! And for like an hour I can feel it. And then I slush around again in all those years full of days, so scrunched up into this tiny week.

You can dance in a hurricane

But only if you’re standing in the eye

Because I’m so full. Hugely joyful but deeply sad. And it feels right to feel it all, every feeling I’ve felt in my favorite places with my favorite people, over again before I go.

This family radiates the simple joy of being in a family and I’m thanking my lucky stars that I get to carry that with me. If you can be calm, unhurried, and unworried while being photographed, you are those things all the time.

Every family teaches me so much–that’s what this family taught me. To be unruffled and let life flow. I love them for that.

Now booking sessions in Orange County, CA, and beyond, friends. Let’s chat. And if you’re a Utah folk, I’ll still be coming back so still let’s chat.

I drove to Millville, Utah in the alternating pouring rain and big bright sun gleaming over the greened-up mountains. These five let me into their home as if I was one of their own, showing me their rooms and their toys and their roaring laughter and the simple bliss of being in a family. 

If you have a family overflowing with love, I’d love to photograph you. We’re on the edge of moving to Orange County, California (2 weeks!) but I’ll be back in Utah regularly. Far away from both of those and want to have your favorite people photographed? I travel. Let’s chat.

But she really does. Enough to let you put gold leaf in her hair.

Let’s photograph your family at home.

I’ll confess I’ve been down on my words lately. Seeing so clearly where I’m weak (too flowery! not practical! where’s the concrete?! all the professors’s critiques come back) and writing about the photos I make is often hard. There’s so much that goes into the creative process–but then, too, it’s another world. I get in the “zone” and don’t think, just shoot. Trying to assign words to that intuitive process makes me feel like poking out my eyeballs and I want to just let the photos stand on their own. But the stories of how they were made is part of the story of what they are.

I’ve been dealing with a huge big mondo thing personally that’s sent me reeling and crashing with waves of grief and hope and loss and uncertainty. I promise soon I’ll be ready to name it all. On a particular day I got some hard news that stung with finality and I determined to infuse more fun and play into my life right that very second. Samantha Kelly and I decided to collaborate–push our creative boundaries, get out of our “typical” boxes, try to be unsafe. I didn’t perfectly succeed in making only mind-blowingly creative, dazzlingly different images–but the process nourished every piece of me.

If you wish for beautiful photos of your family, let’s chat about your session.

Aubrey–yes, that Aubrey, hair whisperer genius painter Aubrey–is someone you love before you really have a reason to. She’s warm and kind and down to earth, even though she’s exquisite. I admire her on so many levels, so getting to photograph her with her adorable Franklin in their home was a treat beyond words…only emojis can describe, you understand.

Can I even tell you how much you need these photographs, of your family? Can I overstate the import enough? Of course the answer is no. But if these images speak to you, and you’d like to make some of your family in the best place, where all the memories are made, send me an email and I’ll hold your hand through all the details. Cause I get it. It can be hard to let someone in when there’s an eternal list of things you want to change about your house or your dress size before you commit to photos. But I’ll croon the essentialness of this experience for as long as you need to help you understand the love that comes through. The love I could never orchestrate or pose. If your family is full of love, we’re set. Let’s do this.

Interested in having your family photographed at home but you have questions? Let’s chat, friend.