Brittney Hobein is a Wisconsin based lifestyle photographer.

Creating authentic portraits that tell the story of your beating heart.

HI. I’M BRITTNEY.

I am a wife, a mom, a sister, a friend… and kind of obsessed with kids and babies.

Residing in rural Wisconsin for most of my life, I'm a roots-deep country girl fueled by the beauty of breathtaking sunsets and fresh air. I love dark chocolate and red wine, campfires and S'mores, dandelion bouquets delivered by small dirt smudged humans, the smell of rich Columbian Roast in the morning, and baby hand dimples.

I am fifteen years married to my best friend and favorite person, Andy, and together we have built a life that we love. We have three young sons—Jimmy, Colton and Turner. I know I’m biased, but they are literally the best, most loving kids ever—if you don’t mind noise, dirt, flying footballs in the living room, finding a fresh-caught fish in the kitchen, and wrestling—a lot of wrestling. We have two pups—Winston and Winchester and together they’re a Win-Win (ha, I’m so punny)—a cat that forced us to rescue her and crown her princess. We built our simple dream home on nineteen gorgeous acres in the Colfax area of God’s country, and are currently in the process of building a little farm with the recent addition of chickens with dreams and plans of adding more animals soon.

I take photos every single day; it is how I live and breathe. For me, photography is therapy. It is what got me through postpartum depression following devastating miscarriages. It’s how I reclaim my mood when my kids make me a little crazy. It is how I find peace when the world feels overwhelmingly turbulent. It is how I preserve the precious memories that are today and remember the beauty that was yesterday.

My photography journey really started as a little kid. When I was probably around age five I remember being fascinated by any random tiny object and would look at it a million different ways, studying its texture, observing the way it appeared in different backgrounds and light. I wondered how cool it would be if there was a machine that could make a background fade, or subsequently bring it into focus while causing the object to fade. A machine that could make the sun burst with rays or turn little Christmas lights into large blurred circles. I didn't realize at the time that I was imagining things like f-stops and composition and light and bokeh and ultimately fantasizing about a camera. This same fascination was also revealed by the way I obsessed over photographs. I would study them for a very long time. There was a story in every one and I wanted to read every single word. I still do that. A flimsy little fifty cent Kodak camera at a garage sale when I was nine ignited my passion as I burned through roll after roll after roll.

A few cameras later and when my husband deployed to Iraq five months after our wedding, I decided to pursue my photography passion and one of the ways I achieved that was working at a portrait studio. This gave me a lot of invaluable hands-on experience and taught me about posing and working with families. I quickly learned that I loved being behind the camera, but it saddened me that most kids are timid of dark studios with obnoxious lights. I wanted to get kids out in their natural habitat where they have space to be themselves, and capture those expressions and memories.

This is why I always love on those babies and go out of my way to help kids feel comfortable. My goal is always to make a photo session experience lighthearted and pleasant. I like to do less posing and more "directing" for natural moments of fun together and authentic portraits. I want to tell that perfect story—your story, the one about your beautiful and unique family.  When you see your portrait on the wall, I want it to showcase who you are; I want you to smile at the memories that went into making it, not see the masked anxiety and frustration behind every stoic smile or grimace. I have endless patience and I love naughty children. Really, I do. I have tranquil methods of achieving magical images. So let’s turn your moments into memories.

Unpopular opinion:

Squirrels are a million times more entertaining than birds.