With all the couples and family portraits I’ve been making this Spring, I got a break in the action and took the opportunity to spend a week with my family up in Anchorage, Alaska.

Their official Anchorage Alaska Family Kids Portrait Photographer was back for more.

It is so much fun being an uncle!

We were celebrating the 1-year-old birthday of my nephew Paul and I wanted to see the look on his face as he bit into his first chocolate birthday cake.

Not having any kids of my own, it’s been such a fun experience for me to watch my younger brother Eric as a father and a caring partner to his wife Brandy. Household laughter sums up the experience every time I visit. He is so good at playing and engaging his children. It doesn’t take much for him and Brandy to get their kiddos to giggle.

There is a lot of love in this Alaska home.

I feel grateful that the flexibility of my work schedule allows me to travel up to see them a couple of times a year. I want to be a part of these kids lives and what better way than to be present and document them.

As a photographer uncle, I want them to be able to look back at their candid selves in pictures years from now and see all the love that was and is all around them.

Photographing my family has become a fun, personal project for me where I get to observe how these little lovable humans process their world and continue developing their different and unique personalities.

It means something to be there on that lazy morning to capture the pure joy in the face of Molly, my niece, as she cruises down the hallway on her scooter with “Jones”, the family Labrador in stride.

Laughing and watching smiling Paul, who is just months away from taking his first steps, currently opting to carry all sorts of items in his mouth and utilizing his new crawling habit.

The kid can move.

For me, the best gifts from these experiences are being present for the little things.

Watching them helps me receive the world in a whole new way. A glimpse into the perspective of all things a new.

Here are some favorite moments from my time with my Alaska tribe. I can’t wait to return. -M