Ypsilanti Family Photographer Archives - Photographer Natalie Mae

Style Guide: Fall Family Photos

September 27, 2017 By Natalie Mae Photography Leave a Comment

As I was gathering outfit ideas for my own family photos this fall, I fell in love with the mustard and eggplant color combination. These are the colors we are going to go with for ours, but I wanted to make an inspiration board in case anyone else wanted to do the same. Seriously how can you not love that combo?! The yellow is perfect to pair with all those autumn leaves and the purple gives the outfits that extra elegant feel. I wish we owned these exact outfits, but we are going to have jeans paired with our tops. I love getting our family photos taken, not to mention our daughter will be old enough this year to interact with the camera, whereas last year she was only 2 weeks old. Now I just have to design a holiday card to match our photos!

Family Portrait Mini Sessions

January 8, 2015 By Natalie Mae Photography Leave a Comment

When was the last time you had your family portrait done? Preserve those precious memories with a family mini session. For only $200 you will receive a 30 minute portrait session, 5 digital images with a print release, custom timeline cover, and a 5×7 print of your favorite image. Additional prints and products are available for purchase.

Offer good through February 28, 2015. Session fee must be paid in full to hold your date.

Saying “No” to Digital Files

August 4, 2014 By Natalie Mae Photography 2 Comments

Grandpa Julius as Santa & Natalie — Each year my grandpa volunteered to play Santa at the Northville Rec Center, here I am on “Santa’s” lap.

There’s a rather heated debate in the photography world about whether or not to sell digital files to our clients. I have always stood on the side against digitals, but I do include web-ready files of each image purchased as a print because I understand wanting to share them on social media. Personally, I feel that strictly handing over a disc of the images from your session is doing you such an injustice, and my beliefs couldn’t have been more solidified by my grandfather’s passing.

Butterscotch & Natalie — My first pet, Butterscotch, but we always just called her Kitty. We ended up adopting her because I kept sneaking hot dogs to feed her & she liked them so much she never left.

He passed away in June and while my parents were going through the house they found thousands of prints. Some just Polaroid snapshots, some were studio portraits dating as far back as 1930 (it’s at the bottom of this post). Now think of how much technology has changed since then. What if I only offer you a disc of your images? Sure you’ll post them on Facebook or Instagram, but will you ever actually print out those photos and hang them on your wall? Where do you think that disc will be in 20 years? Forgotten and tucked away is some drawer. CD/DVD readers are already on their way out, how are you going to retrieve your images in the future? At his funeral we had multiple displays of printed images from throughout his life, how will your loved ones remember you when you just have a CD hanging on the poster board? I’ve found that the majority of people who buy discs never print a single image. How sad is that not to have your family proudly displayed on your walls.

Dad 2 or 3 — My dad was about 2 or 3 years old in this portrait, so roughly 1948/49.

As a photographer I feel like it’s such a disservice to my clients to not offer prints. I treasure each and every one of those photos from my grandparents house. There are photos that I never even knew existed of my dad and my grandparents all when they were young children. Looking at them is like going back in time. I have very fond memories of my grandpa always taking a Polaroid of the family during the holidays and me watching in wonder as the image would magically develop on the page. Words can not truly express how lucky I am to have had a grandfather that saved so many wonderful memories. Memories that I had long forgotten or was too young to remember. I will now be able to show those photos and the pictures of him to my future children and tell them what a wonderful man he was and how the whole town of Northville adored “The Werther’s Man.”

The next time you get your portraits done, I really hope you think will twice about only requesting the digital files. Please consider those beautiful heirloom prints that your family will cherish for years to come.

My grandpa at 2 years old in 1931. — This is one of my favorite images that we found at their house. This is my grandpa at 2 years old in 1930.

Grandpa and Ben — Grandpa, as I remember him, with his great-grandson, Ben.

Julius Saner

December 5, 1928
June 4, 2014

The B Family Portraits

July 1, 2014 By Natalie Mae Photography 4 Comments

I was going through my old blog posts and realized that I forgot to blog this amazing family portrait session. These photos were a gift for the holidays so I had to keep them a secret, but since the holidays are long gone I can finally post them. These two sisters were so much fun to work with. They were very polite and had me laughing the whole time, not to mention they are the best of friends. Together they had plenty of inside jokes between them squealing with little girl giggles between the photos. I just loved how the youngest girl would mimic her big sister. You can just tell they are going to be inseparable for life.

Ann Arbor family photographer captures the funny side of the B Family — This image cracks me up of the B family, the expressions on the two girls faces is just priceless.

Jones Family Photos

December 19, 2013 By Natalie Mae Photography 1 Comment

My parents have been married for 16 years and the last time they had professional photos done was at their wedding. How crazy is that?! Since I’m an Ann Arbor family photographer, I decided to give them a gift card for updated photos last year for Christmas. They’re lucky enough to live really close to Island Lake State Park so we chose the park for their portrait location. The funny part about that day was they fought me tooth and nail, trying every excuse in the book to get out of doing them; but good thing they raised me to be stubborn because I eventually got them out there. And once they saw the finished images they were thrilled! I designed Christmas cards for them to send out this year as well and every one of their friends called to tell them how cute they were. It’s so awesome to hear all the positive feedback they got on them and my parents liked their family photos so much they are talking about doing them every year (this Ann Arbor family photographer couldn’t agree more!). They also have a little surprise coming to them for the holidays this year, but I’ll have to wait and share that AFTER Christmas day.

Julius Saner

December 5, 1928 June 4, 2014

December 5, 1928
June 4, 2014