The Petersen Family – Heber-Overgaard Family Photographer

There’s nothing like being a Heber-Overgaard family photographer taking pictures of someone you knew in high school with his wife, four sons, and brand new granddaughter to remind you that you are, in fact, getting old.

Sorry, Andy.

To be fair, I did tell him during this Heber-Overgaard family session that he was getting old, conveniently leaving out the fact that I’m actually a year older than him.

Andy and I went to high school together, although we didn’t know each other super well back then. So it was really fun getting to see him again all these years later, meet his family, and photograph this stage of their lives.

And their family has grown quite a bit since high school obviously.

Andy and his wife, Mechel, have four boys. Two are adults now and two are still in high school, and when all four of them get together they are HILARIOUS. They’re jokesters, they give each other a hard time, and they’re just genuinely fun to be around. There was definitely no shortage of laughing during this session, and maybe a few jokes I probably shouldn’t repeat here.

But this session was also a little extra special because there was a brand new Petersen joining the family photos.

One of Andy and Mechel’s sons recently had a baby girl, making them grandparents for the first time. She was only a few months old when we took these photos, which meant we officially had three generations together for their family session.

Again, Andy. Getting old. 😉

There were eight people total, which meant we were able to get the whole family together while also photographing all the different relationships that exist within it now. I think we put so much emphasis on having family photos taken when our kids are little that it’s easy to forget how much families continue to change once those little kids grow up. Eventually girlfriends and wives start joining family photos. Then babies start showing up. Your original family of six starts growing into something entirely new. And suddenly you’re a grandparent.

I photographed the Petersens in late October among the aspens near the Mogollon Rim, which is one of my favorite parts about being a family photographer in the White Mountains of Arizona. Fall up here is just GOOD. The leaves had already started falling, so the ground was covered in yellow and gold while there was still plenty of fall color around us. It gave the entire session that warm, golden look that makes fall family photos in Heber-Overgaard so pretty.

Was it a little chilly? Yes. Did we survive? Also yes.

Late October in the White Mountains can definitely mean cooler temperatures, especially once the sun starts disappearing, but I will happily deal with chilly fingers for aspens and golden leaves like these.

One of the reasons I love photographing families in Heber-Overgaard is that there is so much variety in the White Mountains. Pines, aspens, mountain views, changing leaves in the fall and plenty of places that actually look and feel like northern Arizona. It’s also an easy area to make family photos feel less formal. The Petersens were a perfect example of that. This was not a family that needed to stand perfectly still with everyone on their best behavior. That wouldn’t have felt like them anyway. They joke around. They mess with each other. They laugh a lot.

Whether I’m photographing a family in Heber-Overgaard, Show Low, or elsewhere in the White Mountains, I want the photos to actually look like the people who were there. Of course we’ll get the photo where everyone is looking at the camera because Grandma needs one for the wall. But the personalities, relationships, weirdness and everything else that makes a family their family deserve to make it into the photos, too. And for the Petersens, there is definitely plenty of personality to go around.

It was so good seeing Andy again after all these years, finally meeting Mechel and the boys, and getting to photograph their family during a year when it grew by one very tiny person.