While we can’t make a Wisconsin summer last forever, perhaps the next best thing is to capture its magical and everyday moments to remember the year-round. Jamie Brill did just that as part of the #northerlysummer project.
Jamie, a part-time photographer who will begin a job at an elementary school this fall, and her husband Andy, a programmer for a local tool shop, live in Cedar Grove, where they grew up and now raise twelve-year-old Elise, ten-year-old Abram and nine-year-old Nolan.
She offers a glimpse into what she loves most about summertime in Wisconsin.
What prompted you to participate in the project documenting 100 days of summer?
It was just starting to warm up around here and it seemed like a great idea to capture all the warmth and fun summer holds, create a book with the images and peruse it during those cold winter days that sometimes you feel like won’t ever end! The project has been a great challenge for me. I love that it encourages me to grab my camera daily and capture our life. With a busy summer of capturing other people’s lives, I can sometimes get a little lazy when it comes to taking my own photos. This platform has been wonderful!
What does summer mean to you and your family? What’s special about this time of year in Wisconsin?
Summer has always been my favorite season. Although I try to find good in every Wisconsin season, I find all the good in summer! Summer always brings new opportunities and renewed energy. We love the outdoors and summer highlights the greatest aspects of outside. My favorite summer night stays 80 until after nine, is full of stars and includes bugs and animals singing in the distance.
What are some of your favorite things to do in the summer? What have been highlights from this summer?
My grandparents live on Lake Michigan, so the beach was a huge part of my childhood, and now we live near the lake as well. I love that my kids are growing up as “lake kids!” You really can’t beat the beach. Warm sun, hot sand and cool lake breezes are what it’s all about! We spend a lot of time there.
My husband plants a big garden and I help with a little weeding as well as canning and preserving the goods. We like to hike at Harrington Beach State Park, which is close enough to bike to from our house. Our boys play a lot of baseball and we spend a lot of time outside in our yard. We coax our chickens and ducks to eat out of our hands, we hunt monarch caterpillars and chrysalis and we play yard games.
We already have been to a few Milwaukee Brewer games at Miller Park, we love that team! We watch and listen to as many as possible during the summer. When it’s a cold and windy April, I get a tiny glimmer of summer when I can turn on Bob Uecker and listen to the Brewer game!
We did a road trip to Wisconsin Dells and enjoyed some water park fun at Noah’s Ark. Andy and I celebrated our anniversary at a concert at the Riverside in Milwaukee and rocked out with one of our favorite bands, the Avett Brothers.
How has photographing your experiences impacted your summer?
I’ve always photographed our summers, but this year I’ve upped my effort big time. It’s been a really good thing. I feel like I get the most creative when I am photographing every day. Honestly, most of my favorite images that I’ve hung around our home have been from photography projects I’ve joined in or decided to try out. I’m a naturally competitive person and a goal setter. I like to check off my list of to-dos and see that result at the end of the day.
Any tips for others trying to photograph their kids and their lives?
Keep it simple and honest. Keep your camera close — like within grabbing distance at all times. I keep one camera on a kitchen counter and another on the dining room table, both near outside doors. And then just capture what you can. Focus in tight on details and keep the angle wide when you’re documenting playtime. Keep snapping that camera when nobody notices and then those real, authentic moments happen. My kids grew up with me taking photos all the time, so they became comfortable with it. They know I want to capture what is happening, so they just keep playing! Occasionally I will have them repeat a “moment” if I missed it, but that doesn’t happen too often. And if I do miss a moment on camera, I’m okay knowing I’ve caught it in real time.
What are the best parts of living where you do? Why do you choose to raise your kids in Wisconsin?
Small town living is all we know, but we really are content in Cedar Grove. We actually live in a small subdivision near Lake Michigan “out in the country,” but we have plenty of neighbors nearby. We walk year-round along the lake, and we’re pleasantly surprised how much we enjoy our walks in the wintertime. It really is a moving piece of art.
Andy and I grew up right here in small town Cedar Grove, went to school here and love it here. We have a great church we’re a part of, a great public school system we’re proud of and an ability to raise our kids simply. We know that Cedar Grove isn’t in a bubble where nothing goes wrong, but we’re happy at the pace we’re able to live here.
Our family also mostly lives near Cedar Grove as well. Our kids have grown up with grandparents in the pew with them at church or swinging on the same rope in the barn that their dad did as a kid. They also have cousins to play with or babysit. Andy and I are close with our siblings and we get together with them often, since we all live so close. Simple living, family and Wisconsin summers keep us living here!
Is there anything you hope to do before fall arrives? Anything you need to save for next year?
We were at a beach house on Lake Michigan with my whole family [recently]. It was probably the last big event of the summer. It’s been wonderful! Next summer we’d like to head north and find a river to go whitewater rafting. I would love to try an on-site farm-to-table dinner to go to somewhere in Wisconsin, too. Spending a weekend away at Door County, which we’ve never visited, is on the list too. I’m already excited for next summer!
Photos by Jamie Brill.