There’s just something so magical about In-Home Motherhood Sessions. This one, in particular, holds a special place in my heart. For one, it’s of one of my very best friends and two of her sweet little ones. You’ve seen them before on the blog a couple of times. But this was also the first session I photographed on my newest piece of camera gear, the Contax 645. It is a medium format, analogue film camera that I had drooled over for years. The lens is really what makes it — the Carl Zeiss 80mm f/2 is legendary for it’s painterly bokeh, sharpness and contrast. It’s just about the crème de la crème of medium format lenses. What better way to test them both out than an In-Home Motherhood Session of a dear friend?

I asked Emily if I could come by one afternoon and just capture her and her babies on a normal day so I could test out my new gear. The gracious friend that she is, she agreed. This is the beauty we created. In-home Motherhood sessions like this are a dream for me. They’re slow, intimate, and really give me a lot of room to get creative and connect. Shooting film just magnifies these opportunities, so it was a doubly dreamy session!

I shot most of this session on black & white film, which gives these images their gritty and emotive feel. It felt like a perfect choice for simple moments like this of a mother and her children. The moments we often overlook. The messy, imperfect but filled with love moments. Playing with blocks, feeding her baby a bottle, reading her 3 year old a book, and all the snuggles in between are things that happen in those four walls every day. And yet, they’re only seen by those within them. I count it a privilege to be able to witness to some of them and to capture them in timeless imagery that they can cherish for generations. The black & white film removes any opportunities for these photos to age or become outdated. One could look at these images and not know what year they were taken. And I love that.

Long live analogue film and the moments we capture on it.

Gear: Contax 645, 80mm lens

Film: Portra 400 120, Ilford Delta 400 120

Processing: Photovision