I had never met little Miss Piper Raye before this holiday season, but I had heard plenty about her. Now follow me here…Piper is the half-sister to the two sons of our closest friends from down the street.

The ‘VanMullers’ as they refer to themselves, are a blended family. Dad, Jeff, has a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. Mom, Mandy, also has two sons from a previous marriage. Together they make the family “VanMuller.”

To be even clearer, Piper and her two half-brothers Carson and Coopers’ last name is VanDyke. Jeff, his daughter Livia and son Kellen are the Mullers, hence the “VanMullers”.

So, with Christmas around the corner, and the VanMullers in need of a family Christmas card, we began to coordinate gathering everyone together in the studio for a quick, fun family portrait. Part of that plan was to sneak little Piper out of her parents home, include her in a family portrait with her half-brothers and in turn, surprise her mom Holly with some sweet Christmas pictures.

The VanMuller portrait shoot was, as is always the case with the VanMuller family, tons of fun and laughs, resulting in images that everyone loved and shared. The family shots were great, the kid shots were wonderful and then Piper, who has cerebral palsy, sat in front of my camera she offered up smiles and even a little attitude. I was totally unaware of Piper’s aversion to men. Working around her disability was a new experience for me. Making it a fun experience, as well as coming up with creative, unique ways of photographing her without focusing on her disability was easy and fun.  She enjoyed it so much she was upset when it was over. Piper photographed beautifully. The images of her alone in the white leather chair, placing a silver star on the tinsel tree, were as sweet an image as I have ever taken. 

With the session done, and days passed, the editing process began. Part of the session plan was to recreate the poster from the movie STEP BROTHERS using stepbrothers Kellen and Cooper in place of Will Ferrel and John C. Reilly. Creating the Stepbrothers poster was a fun project. I couldn’t help myself from making posters for the other kids, and with Mandy's suggestion, that included Piper. Mandy worked diligently to find out what Piper's favorite Disney character, while also trying to keeping it a secret from Piper's family. Her favorite character is Elena of Avalor, a young Latino Disney Princess.

With that information in hand, Mandy and I found the perfect image of Elena. It took some work, but I finally felt that I had the perfect mix of the Piper portrait mixed with an Elena of Avalor poster. She and mom, Holly, loved the poster and adored the images from the portrait session. It was one of the things that made my holiday season so special. I sure do love being a photographer!

#StepBrothers #CerbralPalsey #ElenaOfAvalor #Disability #Portraits

The VanMuller Posters were a big hit as Christmas presents.