AT HOME WITH THE SILER FAMILY

I'm going to be very honest right now: when Dave & I started our photography business almost four years ago now, it was a lot of learning-as-we-go. I mean, technically speaking we had the basics down, but so much of our journey these past years has been one of discovery and growing into ourselves, finding what our natural strengths are, and most importantly to us, what stories we're most drawn to and passionate about telling. I think this may be true of any artist's journey. Lately, we have found our voice and a deep passion for encountering people and families within the four walls of their homes, documenting them within the space they've created in which to spend the normal day-to-day moments together.While we were on our road trip this past November, photographer friends of ours Ray & Kelly invited us to stay with them in their family home in Wisconsin. We were introduced to Ray & Kelly through mutual friends and immediately knew that we saw eye to eye and shared similar dreams for what we wanted our photography to mean for the people we worked with. We would have Skype calls on weekday evenings with four glasses of wine between us and chat about our hopes and struggles, brainstorm together, laugh, with their kids Willow & Hadley occasionally creeping down the stairs to be a part of the fun... so to be sitting in their actual living room doing the same thing in real life when we arrived late that November night was such a treat :)To be in a family's home, a space where there are no pretenses, the space where real life happens. The space where you are you.It's a humbling thing to be invited in to tell that story. To help celebrate a family's life -- not the perfectly-posed, hair-combed, both-pairs-of-socks-on life, but the real one that happens every day, the one that passes by way too quickly. The one where there are joys and there are struggles, but with the promise that you will never give up on each other and what you've created.That's where Dave & I have felt a deep pull of our heart strings. We can't thank the Siler family enough for having us and allowing us to explore this with them :)Ray, Kelly, Hadley, Willow... thank you for your friendship. Viroqua, Wisconsin, November 2012. ps -- Dave wants that quiche recipe ;)Please contact us to learn more about having your own family's story told :)