In the whirlwind of daily life, busy families often juggle countless responsibilities, leaving little time for planning and organizing family photoshoots. From work commitments to school activities, it's normal for everyday family moments to go by undocumented and likely forgotten.

In 2023 I reached out to Melissa Lewis Wong, an artist I met in 2016 and hadn't connected with since. Melissa had just posted about a collaboration they were embarking on with their mother, Joy. As someone who focuses on families and stories, I was intrigued.

This world. It has so many expectations of us. Why does everything have to be perfect? These expectations make everything so much harder. But we all do it. I’m not immune to perfectionism. In fact, as I write this I’m trying to fire up Grammarly on my computer to make sure I’m not making mistakes. Ha! So sad. asdflkjh. Take that, spellchek.

As 2023 comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to the families I had the privilege of photographing this year. Your willingness to invite me into your lives means the world to me.

For this Full Day "day in the life" session I arrived the night before and had dinner with the family. They had a guest room I could sleep in so we could hit the ground running once the kids woke up in the morning. I have to say spending the night is helpful on several fronts.

I followed the G. family during a typical Saturday for them. This included lots of play, arts and crafts, chores, dealing with sickness. Oh, and chickens.