Iowa City Children's Portraits in Prairie Grass | Lyla & Charlie

I always love taking Lyla & Charlie’s portraits. They are so into it and love playing around to get free-spirited candid shots that I can’t get enough of! I started doing Lyla’s photos before her little brother came along, and Charlie’s photos as a newborn. It’s amazing that I get to have this little window into their childhood as they grow up and we capture the milestones together.

We did this session at a little park in Iowa City that my boys and I fell in love with. We like to hop around the city and try out new parks. They are kind of hard to find in Iowa City, it seems. They are all soft of hidden behind a cluster of homes in a neighborhood here and there. It’s really kind of thrilling when you find one, tucked away behind some houses along the creek.

This one, though, has a natural setting playground, with tunnels build into the ground, bridges through trees and above the slides, a little clearing above the walking path where I can still hear the kids and like to roll out my yoga mat underneath the magical tree that resides there. One of the trees is a mulberry, and we love picking those in the summer.

Anyway, to my delight, next door is a community garden. I found out you can rent a patch of garden for like, $20 a month. And while we play at the park we can admire their garden and watch different people all working side by side. This prairie is right next door and is actually smaller than it looks, but it’s just perfect. A nice flat area, with a tree right in the middle to add a little something to the frame. I’m a sucker for any sunflower variation too –