The Stephanie Newman Photography Journal

I’ve photographed the Mischke family going on 6 years now and so I always love when I get the opportunity to photograph them again. This time it was with the whole extended family on Allesha’s side to celebrate her grandma’s 90th birthday! I got to meet most of Allesha’s family, one of her siblings had […]

These peeps are my favorite peeps. Enough said. HA! Laura is my bestie and fellow photographer. I could tell you the LONG story of our friendship, but I won’t. She is the Frodo to my Sam.  I love these guys like they are family. The girls call me Miss Neffers, a nickname that goes back to Laura and Kevin’s second oldest couldn’t say my name right, so she called me the closest she could get to my name, and it stuck. 

It’s really hard to see kids you’ve known since they were like 8 years old and then all of the sudden, bam! They’re fully grown people who are basically adults now. Anthony is the youngest of the Peters family, and the third I’ve photographed for their senior portraits.

I have spent A LOT of time hanging out at Whitetail Woods this summer and early fall, that it was a bit of relief that I was able to head towards Eagan for Amber’s senior session. I’ve only done a few sessions here in the past and it’s fun to try to find fun and newish areas to take my seniors to, to get a little bit of a different vibe than from the other times I’ve been here.

I absolutely loved hanging out with Aryanna and her mom Nikki for her senior session this month. She was super sweet and fun to get to know throughout her session. I loved that one of the locations she wanted for her session was downtown Farmington, specifically out front of her church, Homestead Church. It’s one of my favorite buildings in Farmington and a must when I shoot there. The building was for sale for years, I told myself that if I won the lottery, I would snatch that building up and use it for a studio. Unfortunately, I have not won the lottery, and they bought the building before I could.

I have known Ali since she was like 6 or 10. I know that’s a huge age gap, but I honestly can’t remember when I first met her. I’ve slept since then. Ali and her family used to attend our church and was in Sunday school and church plays with my oldest. So, like I said, I’ve known her for a LONG time.

Another year with the Mischke family! I see Allesha and most of her men folk on a regular basis through a boys book club we are both apart of, but it doesn’t hit me until their family picture time, that these boys are growing and becoming more mature. Ben was just a little guy when I started photographing their family and now look at him! He’s half the size of his dad! And Brad is a tall guy!

Family is the most important thing in the world.” – Princess Diana

Sarah reached out to me in early spring to book a family session with her her family and in-laws, as a gift to her mother in-law for Mothers Day. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever. Also something the matriarch of the VanBenthusyen family would cherish for years to come.

I LOVE photographing this family. I’m sure I’ve said this before in previous blog posts about them. But they are the kindest, most wonderful group of people that I have had the privilege to work with. Seriously. I’ve photographed Kayleigh and Taylor’s family with her mom, dad and brother at one session. The next year I worked with them again, but with Taylor’s mom, dad and brother. This year, Kayleigh wanted EVERYONE! They were all together to celebrate little Oliver’s 1st birthday and what better way to continue the celebration than to get some family pictures done!