The Z. family didn’t quite want traditional family photos. They wanted something with more personality, and asked for urban family photos for their session.  I was thrilled to do a session in Kalamazoo’s historic downtown. The vintage but nicely restored buildings in the downtown area have so much history, personality and charm. Kalamazoo has such a great variety of buildings downtown that it’s a perfect choice. The backgrounds available range from colorful doors and walls to brick walls, iron gates and metal. There’s no shortage of choices, and many of them are within a short walk of each other. We had the right location, but Michigan weather turned out to be a little less than perfect. We were only a few minutes into our first session when the rain started. Not a gentle sprinkle, either…it came down hard and we just couldn’t keep going. Our second try didn’t even get started- rained out again. The third date we scheduled started out rainy, but it cleared just in time for our session- phew! We had a great time walking around downtown, looking for fun spots and variety.

 

One of my favorite spots for urban family photos is the 1874 train station that’s been beautifully restored by the Arcus Foundation. We started with group photos there:

the brick wall and the green door are both part of the old Whistle Stop station, and the mural on the building next door is a nod to the Whistle Stop, too.

Mom and Dad hadn’t had a picture of the two of them recently, and I’m so glad they made that one of their requests-

We continued our urban family photos by walking just a few blocks, finding a colorful set of stairs, an old and rustic metal gate, and corrugated metal doors for varied backdrops.

 

Thank you, Z. family, for a great experience photographing your urban family photos!