I’ve had the pleasure of photographing several alumni stories for Excelsior University over the years, and one of my most recent assignments brought me to the Reisterstown, Maryland, home of Loren and Matthew.
Loren and Matt are a young military couple, parents to five children, and—somehow, amidst everything that comes along with those two things—both Excelsior graduates.
I arrived at their home ready to tell a little piece of that story through photographs.
And like most location assignments, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to find until I walked through the door.
Finding the Photographs in a Real Family Home
That’s part of the fun—and the challenge—of environmental portraiture.
There was no styled set waiting for me. No location scout. No carefully selected photography venue. This was Loren and Matt’s home, where they were in the middle of raising five young children, and my job was to walk in and figure out how to tell their story there.
At first, I’ll admit, I wasn’t immediately seeing my photographs.
But that’s when the creative gears start turning.
I don’t need an entire room to make a beautiful photograph. I just need the right elements.
Beautiful light.
An interesting line.
A little texture.
A clean composition.
A spot where I can put my subjects and make everything inside those four edges of the frame work together.
Once I started looking at their home that way, possibilities started popping up everywhere.
A Little Creativity Goes a Long Way
We used little pockets of their home rather than worrying about finding one big, “perfect” setting.
A window. A wall. A chair. A great patch of light.
We shifted ourselves around, experimented with angles, and found compositions that felt natural to Loren and Matt while still giving Excelsior strong, polished imagery to accompany their story.
And this young couple absolutely delivered.
That’s one of my favorite things about photographing people on location. The most photogenic space isn’t necessarily an enormous, immaculate room designed for photographs. Sometimes it’s three feet of beautiful light that nobody else would have looked twice at.
Finding it is my job.
Five Kids—and One Very Willing Model
Of course, Loren and Matt’s children are a huge part of their story.
And these kids were wonderful.
One of their sons in particular was READY for his photography debut.
He had even dressed for the occasion in a little button-up shirt and was very eager for his own turn in front of the camera.
How could I possibly say no to that?!
Those spontaneous little moments are often some of my favorites from editorial assignments. Nobody sent me a shot list that said, “Please make sure this adorable little guy gets his own portrait.”
He decided that for us.
The Story That Brought Me There
There was, of course, a much bigger reason Excelsior sent me to meet this family.
Loren and Matt had pursued their education together while navigating military life and raising a growing family. Loren began taking classes while pregnant with their first child, while Matt found ways to continue his coursework even around the demands of his military career and deployment.
Over the years, earning their degrees became something they worked toward together—trading responsibilities, encouraging one another, and carving out time for coursework in the middle of everything else life required of them.
In 2024, they got to celebrate that accomplishment together at Excelsior University’s Commencement.
That’s Excelsior’s story to tell in full.
I just had the privilege of creating the photographs to go with it.
And what I loved about this assignment was that I got to photograph Loren and Matt right in the middle of the life they’d built while working toward that accomplishment.
Not on a set.
Not somewhere chosen because it would make a beautiful backdrop.
At home, with their five kids, exactly where this chapter of their story was actually happening.
In the end, I walked away with photographs I loved—and another reminder of something I already know but occasionally need to relearn:
You don’t need the perfect setting to make a beautiful photograph. You just need to find the right elements.
And sometimes, they’re already right in front of you.
