ARTCATION / CHICAGO

A few months ago I thought it would be fun to have a trip that is just all about art and wished I had an art friend to go on that trip with who loved art as much as I do. Then I realized, oh my word, I made that person!

Art is something that really bonds me and Grace because we are both so consumed by it. So we set out to Chicago. Thankfully Ryan could come because without his expertise in driving, parking, finding a cool hotel and basically doing all the work of the trip, this wouldn’t have happened. I get overwhelmed planning trips and I’m so thankful when he does it.

So we went to Chicago for a couple days, just the three of us before school started as a final send off to the best summer ever.

Although we had MANY meltdowns on this trip, it was still really fun and I’m excited to do it again next year.

There are some missing things since this doesn’t have any of my iPhone photos or videos like me getting car sick on the way there, tour of the hotel room, her singing in the parking garages, etc. so this is just what Ryan shot and I am so thankful for him.

I’ve never thought of hiring a vacation photographer before but my goodness, WORTH IT. Just to follow you around, take photos from an outside perspective, have a fun little impromptu portrait session wherever you feel like. It was really cool. So go hire Ryan for this. It is worth it. :)

Grace loved jumping, singing and dancing in all the parking garages.

The ceiling was amazing at the art museum! They had a special Van Gogh gallery up which we were so excited about since we have been doing our own versions of his paintings lately.

Now I was really interested as I really loved Van Gogh when I was younger but Grace was more interested in this square hole in the wall that looked into the other gallery room.

Then meltdown #1 happened. She didn’t like me holding her hand but it was really busy there and she didn’t like not being able to touch things so she fell apart.

So I waited. She eventually was able to come out of it.

Another hole in the wall helped her mood.

But not for long. Meltdown #2.

She was just so overwhelmed I think.

I feel like this is an important part of the trip and I’m glad Ryan took photos of it.

This is life with Grace. She is so sensitive and still little. In hindsight, she wasn’t ready for a big museum like this. But she tried really hard to take deep breaths and to keep going with me.

After the Van Gogh gallery we ventured into the rest of the place which was better since it wasn’t as crowded.

She was trying to get out of Ryans way to take a photo of this painting which made me laugh.

I have a video of her trying to talk to this head but he wouldn’t talk back haha

Meltdown #3. I think I said something wrong because I was frustrated with her attitude. I was trying to go Grace speed which means really fast and be really accommodating but she still was acting rude. So we had to work through that one again.

Grace was SO excited to see this Van Gogh painting as this is one that we both made paintings of and have the most fun doing. She couldn’t believe it was there in real life!

This was her favorite thing there, these little miniature rooms. It was so cute! I was glad she was finally really interested in something

This sweet girl loves to be of service to others. She was so insistent on opening the door for a bunch of people. It was a really heavy door too!

This was so funny. We walk into this room and this GIANT painting is just a bunch of dead animals and Grace was like OH NOOO and I was like ok time to go and she was so sad to leave them because she felt so bad.

Teaching Grace how to find her light.

Meltdown #4

We were trying to figure out the plan for the rest of the day and in that process Grace couldn’t stop inturupting so when I told her to be patient she lost it again. Ryan distracted her to jump around to bring her back to being happy.

We found this nice little spot outside of the museum to draw for a while

Meltdown #5

We were taking those fun, happy, silly photos together and I was tickling her but I tickled too much apparently and she turned just burst into tears in a split second.

So we had a chat about that and got it together again.

Meltdown #6

This is when the hotel couldn’t find our reservation and then while we waited for them to figure it out, I asked how late the pool was open and she said they didn’t have a pool and Grace was just shattered.

They then figured out we were not at the right hotel! We were one building off, thank goodness! That girl was so looking forward to this super cool pool they had at ours.

Our hotel is so cool! It is a two bedroom apartment with the coolest view. It was such an awesome place!

I wish I would have taken photos at the pool since it was a really unique one but I was sleepy and they had a hot tub haha

We watched a lot of “is it cake” on this trip. Then off to sleep to rest up for day 2!

I taught Grace how to hold our big camera and how to focus and take photos! This is me and squeaks.

This fountain shot like a million feet in the air. Grace loved watching it from the giant windows!

Well things don't always go the way we hope haha

They had this Barbie Cafe that we thought would be cool but didn’t realize you need reservations for places like that.

We had tickets for the WNDR museum for a certain time so we were scrambling for food. I saw a Target and was like this will save us!

Easy quick food and tables to draw while we wait!

WNDR was way more her speed. She loved it and it was fun to get cool photos of her!

This was a place where she could touch everything and that made her very happy.

Grace LOVED this LED floor! We stayed here for a good long time. It was really cool how it reacts to pressure on it.

Grace stayed at this thing for a while. Each button plays a piece of the music so you can build it all into a finished song if you press all the buttons.

I liked this thing a lot. It flips little tiny circles to white when it sees you to make your shape. The sound it made was really cool.

Her shoes gave her a blister so Ryan carried her for the longest walk ever back to our car. I am so glad he came with us!

We then went to the Blick art supply store and I was SO excited about this but Grace had Meltdown #7. No photos of this one.

Within 5 minutes of being there I told her no to something she wanted and she lost it. So I sent her to the car and I shopped. After a while she came back and gave me a hug and said sorry and we continued on.

After that we went to dinner because you know what, maybe shes just been super hungry all day and that is what all the meltdowns are about.

Chasing the sunset to take photos of Grace!

Meltdown #8

I asked her to stand in the grass but there were tiny bugs flying around.

This is the best photo ever of me and Ryan!

After struggling to hold the heavy camera, she took a couple regular boring photos and then started guiding us to get more personality in the shots! haha she has learned from the queen of getting personality out of people and I couldn’t be more proud!

She started yelling TICKLE EACH OTHER!

We spent the evening drawing and watching more “Is it cake” and went to bed.

I have so many other photos with my phone but these are just the ones that Ryan took and I am so thankful for his eye during this trip.

Having our own professional photographer for our Artcation was just the best! I will cherish these memories of seeing my time with Grace from an outside perspective forever.

I highly recommend hiring a vacation photographer!

Grace // 10 Months Old

Grace is becoming such a cool little person! It's so hard to comprehend that she is the same baby that we had just 3 months ago. Ever since we sleep trained life has been incredible. She is a sassy pants for sure but she's so happy, curious, fully of energy and so much fun. 

The biggest change recently is being able to make her laugh a lot. Making her laugh is my favorite thing in life currently. I also love seeing Ryan so happy. She's at this awesome stage in life where there really isn't anything bad happening to weigh things down so we are just soaking as much of this in as we can. 

There's lots of of fun GIF animations in here which I really like since this girl is all about moving around constantly :) 

• She loves Avocados and we are doing big bites now! 
• We are trying LOTS of new food with her which is both scary and exciting. 
• She is trying to walk so bad. Once she figured out how to balance, I'm certain she is going to take off running! 
• She is not going to be a quiet kid. I'm both excited and terrified of this. 
• She's been laying her head on our shoulders when we pick her up. She only does it for a moment though so I'm pretty sure it's a hug which is crazy! 
• She has 3.5 teeth! Her two bottom ones are already in and one of her front teeth has popped out with the other one not long behind. 
• She repeats us now! Oh man this is also one of my most favorite things. I am teaching her lots of monster noises. 
• She finally looks like me! I found a baby photo of me around this age and its crazy! She has Ryan's square head but her actual face looks just like me as a kid which is really cool and weird for me since I've been so sure she wasn't my child this whole time. 

Grace // 8 Months

We are usually so busy working on other people's memories that we never take the time to give our own family the the quality work we give everyone else. That ends now! 

We rented a studio in Grand Rapids, got Grace her first pretty dress and she had her first proper GAUPERphoto session! It's hard to believe she is ours a lot of the time. When she goes to bed at night I wonder if she even exists when the house is so quiet and life feels similar to how it did before she was born. It's so weird. Then in the morning, with her cutest good morning smile, I'm reminded that it's real for today and how lucky we are that we've all made it this far. 

She just started crawling this past week so that has made life interesting. This girl has been trying to run away from us since the day she was born. She's always been so strong and her legs have been anxiously waiting for her coordination to catch up with their strength. 

She's a little chunky butt with an endless appetite and her normal look is in jammies being covered in food and puke (as seen below). So I figured it was only right to start with who she really is before I got into this super girly stuff of dresses, pink, frillies and bows. Being extra cute is fun for the day but jammies and being gross piggies is our favorite way to live! hahaha

We had so much fun just playing with her for a couple hours, capturing her personality that has started to emerge. Her crooked smile, he dorky laugh, chubby thighs and insane amount of pride she has when she crawls is pretty much the best thing in life. 

Grace did SO GREAT at the shoot but on the way home, the prunes she had for lunch made their great escape with her biggest blowout of her life. Ryan also ran out of wipes in the process. She makes life such an adventure! 

So when we got home she HAD to have a bath since that was new levels of nasty and then the night ended with our typical routine of standing at the tree, taking off the little lady ornament and being the cutest thing ever. We will be keeping our tree up all year round I'm pretty sure because tree time before bed is my favorite part of the day! 

Grace Lynn Gauper // Newborn

Well, Grace is 6 months old this coming week so I figured it was about time I posted her newborn photos! She was born right at the beginning of wedding season so I've been too busy working on everyone else's photos that I haven't had time to work on our own. I'd like to write a post about my pregnancy and her birth but I'll save that all for another day and focus on my first happy day since having her. 

To make what will be a very long story very short, I ended up having to have a c-section and although everything went well with the surgery, I was an epic mess and everything was so difficult and I wasn't happy at all. Well, that is until we had these photos taken. It was the first time I remember smiling and being happy since having her. I was in awe that Melissa was able to get my crazy baby into these sweet, sleepy poses. I suppose the only downside to her looking so perfect and peaceful is that isn't how I remember her, haha. I remember her screaming and crying since that is what I saw the most of. 

It's crazy to look at these because I see her in them but also they seem like such a stranger. At 6 months I feel like I'm finally getting to know Grace because she's this legit person now. 

I will forever preach it from the mountain tops how important experience is when it comes to photos. Memories are attached to pictures and it's not just about her being insanely cute in this little cat hat, it's about me standing a few feet behind Melissa with my hands up to my face, having it hurt from smiling so big and staring at this little baby be cute for the first time. Her confidence and skill in posing newborns make what I expected to be a stressful thing with Grace crying and us walking away saying "no, it's ok, we know she's crazy, at least we tried" to a truly wonderful, laid back experience where I left being so excited about seeing the pictures. It's the best photography experience we've ever had. It's what I always work so hard to achieve with our clients and to be able to be on the other end of it was really so valuable to me. 

I'll stare at these forever and never forget this happy day.

• Obviously we are cat people but whoa, that cat hat just kills me! 
• The flowers in the first photo I actually grabbed the last second when we left home that day. I just pulled them out of a vase in my hallway and ran. I'm sure glad I did, these are the images that are getting printed for my living room since it all matches so well! 
• The last two images I hope will be really special someday. The little kitten is her very own Duma that I hope she will grow to love someday. The monkey is my best pal Coco that I've had since I was years old. Coco has survived growing up with my older brother so I'm pretty sure he is indestructible and will be around forever. 

// Photography: Melissa Gregerson // 

The GAUPERS are Back!

It is our 6 year wedding anniversary this weekend and it felt like the right time to start fresh on this new blog. Our very first post on our original blog was the story of our engagement so this felt right.

Let’s have some story time to catch you up.

So why a new blog? First, the domain for our original blog wasn’t meant to be our professional blog. Our original intention for it was for our photography work traveling but then things just unraveled differently. 

Second, Our work has grown a lot over the past 6 years and we’ve been through a lot so a fresh start feels right. Our work is much more consistent now and since we are essentially starting over, why not clean the slate?

Ryan and I started this business in 2008 when we got married and we started it out of a mutual love for each other, photography, people and creating things. Over the years, we have hit some rough patches. I got quite sick, Ryan struggled with how to deal with his ADD and side effects from medication, we moved way too many times and have just been searching for the right path to take in life.

Along the way, we took other jobs, almost lost each other and learned a lot about how we didn’t want to live our lives. That journey gave us exactly what we needed in deciding on a path. It’s funny how you sometimes have to know what you don’t want to do in order to figure out what you do want to do.

We simply want to go back to doing something that we love, in a way that we love and the rest will sort itself out. When it becomes more about business and money and less about heart and photography it’s no longer enjoyable and the work loses it’s spark. There is a way to balance it all and it starts by following my gut and doing what feels right.

Simply put, if our goal is to create authentic, beautiful photos then we believe very strongly that we need to live an authentic, beautiful life because our life feeds into our work. There is a great amount of trust between client and photographer necessary to create beautiful work and by being relentlessly authentic, it creates space to be comfortable. Ryan and I have always been the type of people that move through the world differently and by committing to making that work for us is the new path we will be taking.

For those of you wondering where we live now since we’ve moved 9 times in 6 years...we live in Muskegon Michigan. We are currently looking for a house to buy around here and will be settling down and hopefully having some baby Gauper’s in the next few years. Ryan’s figured out how to naturally deal with his ADD, I’ve figured out all the foods that make me sick and crazy and we are excited about moving forward in a new, much more simple life together. All we really need is each other, a house and many, many cats. Sometimes simple really is the best way.

So I hope you enjoy taking this new, brighter journey with us.

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NOTE: if your looking for any work we have done from 2008-2013, our original blog is still up and will remain live. It is at www.mudeyes.com I will be posting some of my very favorite past work on this blog along the way as well.

Also, I realize how pathetic it is to have a photo of us on here that is taken with our iphone haha! We just were not able to have our photos taken last year because of a bajillion dollars of dental work that came out of nowhere. So an iphone photo is better than nothing...but we will be having professional photos taken this year for sure. :)