How Melissa Batzer Photography came to be

Looking back on my childhood and teenage years I have always loved documenting the moments of my life. I was the girl with the camera who was saying “Let’s take a picture!” First disposables (hello not knowing what you would get and endless doubles!) and then my first digital camera in high school. I still remember it: tiny, blue and stolen off the dashboard of my boyfriend’s truck. Still salty about that one. Anyway, I brought my camera to every event and took photos of everyone and everything during college. Wanting to always remember through the images.

I don’t know why I had this desire to remember, it might be that I seemed to realize time goes by and nothing stays the same. I do believe photos are God’s way of allowing us to see visible growth and reflect on it.

I graduated college in 2011 with a Bachelors in Nutrition & Dietetics, married in 2012 and started moving around the country with my Air Force husband. There are a lot of factors that went into me asking my husband and parents to split the Canon Rebel t3i together as a Christmas present in 2013. I did ask for it with the intention of learning and becoming a wedding photographer. Let’s get to the reasons:

1. In my opinion, we did not have a good wedding photography experience. Sure, I love the photos because they are from when Brenton and I committed life together with everyone we love around us. But the client experience just wasn’t pleasant. I wanted to be able to give clients an experience that was the complete opposite of mine.

2. Growing up my father worked out of the house in his office upstairs. He was able to attend all our field trips growing up and be there when we were sick and needed to picked up from school. That’s what I wanted (and still want), to be able to work from home and be flexible for my family.

3. I wanted a job option that would be easily moveable from state to state. Moving is a part of our life and I knew I wanted a career I could relocate with ease. Entrepreneurship sounded like the best of all the worlds for me.

4. Remember how I quickly mentioned my bachelors in Nutrition, well I LOVE food and cooking all food. I also am drawn to beautiful food photography and wanted to start a food blog sharing my created recipes with beautiful images accompanying yummy recipes.

So the self teaching began… turns out most food was a great subject to help me learn manual mode. It isn’t squirmy, doesn’t talk back, I could pick it up to move it if necessary, looks good hot or cold. I’m still a big fan of photographing food! I can’t find the beginner food photos but these below were after 3 years of practicing! Yummmmmmmy. You can view my old food blog here (which I am still holding onto for hopes of finding the time between homeschooling and running my business to resuscitate it!).

Again, I was the girl who brought her camera to every squadron event so people knew I had a “nice” camera. In May 2015 my dear friend, Tiffany, down the street had her second baby and asked if I would take her newborn photos. I jumped on the chance! I did them for free and was so excited how they turned out. And a huge shout out to my best friend, Kelcie who gave me her old 50mm/1.8 lens… my first prime lens, so good! It really changed my game graduating from that kit lens! <3 There’s sleeping baby Oliver who is now 8!

From there I thought, “I could make this my thing” and started scheming on how to grow my portfolio, market and save up for a full-frame camera. Melissa Batzer Photography’s original name was Kindred Hearts Photography. After a year with that name it never really sat well, I felt like it limited me somehow and then I switched to Melissa Batzer Photography. I asked friends to be models, shot mini sessions for $25 and second shot for wedding photographers in Spokane. I worked on my editing and discovered the style that made my heart the most joy-filled. I shot my first wedding in 2017 where my sweet husband was my second photographer. He was a great logistics guy and my calming person, not so gifted with the camera though, sweet man.

Once we moved to New Jersey and had our first I decided pursing weddings at the time wasn’t for me with young children. Maybe I’ll pursue them again in the future, only the Lord knows. But I have learned my true love is families. Chasing toddlers, capturing tender snuggles that you will never grow tired of, holding hands that will soon outgrow your own. It’s all so beautiful and children grow way too fast to not keep photographing them for you!

I have photographed more families than I can recall over these past 8 years! Wow, 8 years in business… Just typing that made my heart flood with gratitude. It’s been stretching and humbling to embark on a business as a military spouse. Relocating every couple of years definitely has its difficulties as a service based business. But the Lord has been kind to me and always providing new and incredible families to work with with each move. Whether they started off as friends who have given me the opportunity to photograph or cold clients who I know can call my friends each and every client is now a friend and either a Melissa Batzer Photography family or bride & groom! How blessed am I to be gifted with the opportunity to meet so many incredible families and honored they trust me to provide heirloom images for their family and the generations to come. I can’t wait to see where God takes this little business of mine over the next 8 years.

Welcome! I’m so honored you are here checking out my blog. I wanted to tell you a little more about me; I am a family lifestyle photographer and a Mama of two. If you would like to learn a little more about me click here. I serve clients in Colorado Springs and Denver.

If you love these photos, and you are looking for a milestone, family, maternity, or newborn photographer in Colorado Springs and Denver I would love to learn more about you, your family, and the season of life you are in. I’m currently booking all of 2024 and early 2025 for my lovely Baby-Bump clients. Fill out the contact form here and we will be in touch!

Elijah Clark's Story + Newborn Photos

I have always loved reading birth stories. They are all full of power, grace and surrender. Being moved by reading another women's birth story made me so excited to experience birth on my own. It has been Four years since and I've had this written in my drafts since Elijah was 4 months old but now seems like a good time to share our birth story.

Of course I had a "plan". Everyone has a plan, don't they?

Labor would start naturally. I would have BB at home and unmedicated. I would have a water birth. Some of these things happened, and some of them didn't.

Here is our story…

John 6:21 | When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Rewind all the way back to before Christmas 2018. My husband wasn't yet home for Christmas from training in Oklahoma and I had a contraction scare in mid-December. Called the midwife told me to take a warm bath and chug a liter of water. If that didn't stop them to let her know. I did that, prayed so hard and thankfully they stopped after an hour of doing that. After that I thought, okay surely this baby will be here any day... before the due date even!

Thankfully, Brenton came home from training on January 9, 2019. He did have to leave before finishing but he wouldn't officially have been done until the week of my due date. We weren't willing to risk it. But then January 18, 2019, BB's due date, came and went. (The due date was very accurate because we had an IUI and therefore knew the date of conception)

For weeks leading up to my due date I felt so much pelvic pressure on walks and ball bouncing and had bouts of stronger than Braxton Hicks contractions that I thought multiple times "today is the day!" Psych!

We went to my 41 week appointment and Liz my midwife asked if I wanted to be checked. I was pretty against being checked in the weeks prior because I didn't want to risk an infection or have the number mess with my head. And I'm grateful I had no idea up until this day. I said sure and we discovered I was already 3cm dilated and the babe was certainly low. Liz stripped my membranes to hopefully speed things up. So we went home and waited for things to start to happen.

Thursday night came and went with nothing.

Friday night came and went with nothing.

We woke up Saturday morning (9 days past my due date) confused and discouraged. No contractions, no bloody show, no water leaking, no anything. We have done everything known to man to try to induce labor naturally.

I texted Liz and told her I would like try Castor oil to induce the labor. Prior to actually being so late I was very against trying this approach. I so badly wanted to go into labor without any help. I was so torn about trying the castor oil. It will only work if your body is ready, so what if I wasn't ready? What if it makes me sick, since it’s a laxative? What if it doesn't work? So much apprehension ran through my head.

But at the end of the day, a healthy, home birth is what I desired and I was creeping a little too close for comfort to 42 weeks of a medically induced hospital birth. And so with the peace of God about the situation we made a creamsicle like shake with the first dose of the castor oil and I drank it up at 1130 am.

Contractions started to happen a little more frequently but they were no more intense than Braxton Hicks. By 2:30pm the contractions waned and I was getting discouraged again. Liz instructed me to take the second dose 4 hours after the first dose, as thats the one that makes the contractions stick.

And so at 3:30pm I took the second dose.

We went for a walk immediately after. I had to stop a few times on the walk to focus through a contraction. But they weren't that close together yet. On a 20 minute walk I had to stop about 3 times. Upon getting back home I went to lay down to hopefully catch some much needed z's. But no, I only laid there because the contractions were a bit more intense than a BH.

I emerged from our bedroom around 6pm and I waddled over to the yoga ball and bounced comfortably for a few while counting contractions. They were definitely more frequent and I could not talk through comfortably them at this point.

Brenton made some pasta and meatballs and put it in front of me around 7pm. I took two bites and pushed it away. I couldn't even eat or stand the sight of food, the contractions were 2-4 minutes apart and really starting to hurt. I texted Liz at 7:40pm, here is my exact text...

"I have no idea when you should come over but these really hurt! I'd hate to bring you here prematurely. What do you think?"

haha who says that to their midwife when contractions are like 3 minutes apart and are already known to be 3cm!

She replied, "I'll head over soon. I mean we know you were already 3 in the office so it's not like you’re going backwards."

And thank goodness I did text her because not more than 5 minutes after that exchange I pushed the yoga ball across the floor and got on my hands and knees. I had the sudden urge to vomit so I had Brenton bring me a trash can. And so I rocked and labored on the floor like that for 30 minutes or so. Never threw up but felt soooo close!

I continued to labor standing up hunched over the ball that rested on the couch. I told Brenton to start setting up the pool. And poor guy he was busy doing that while I focused through the intensity of transition and I constantly asked him if it was ready.

It was around 8:30pm and the midwife still hadn't shown up yet and I had a contraction that was so intense that I audibly said, "I can't do this!" I think there is a point in labor where every woman either has that thought or actually says it out loud. But then Jesus took my face in his hands and said "Yes you can. I'm right here with you. Breath."

I was weak and helpless and yet I could feel his strength and tenderness in my pain.

Oh the relief I felt knowing that I could only do this because Jesus was right there with me. Palms up in complete surrender, I focused on the words of my worship birth playlist and swayed back and forth for a few more breaths.

Then I told Brenton I felt like I had to push. It was a mild pushing sensation not too intense but definitely different than the last few hours of labor.

A few minutes later, in walks our midwife Liz. Oh the relief I felt, but I'm sure Brenton felt it more!!

According to Liz I was 10cm dilated by the time she arrived and she quickly put absorbent pads underneath me. And thank goodness she did because no more than 5 minutes later my water broke! That was something that definitely didn't cross our minds to do.

And so being 10 cm dilated at 8:45pm and already pushing I could get in the pool if I wanted to. Well, funny story about that. It was full of water but the water was ice cold! Our poor water heater couldn't keep up with it. A water birth was not an option anymore for me since they thought it could happen anytime. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset for a breath but really I was pretty okay with it. I didn't have the energy to concentrate on anything other than breathing through these contractions and trying to push my baby out.

At around 10pm we moved to our bedroom and I pushed between the toilet and the bed for what seemed like forever. Liz and her assistant checked BB's heart rate every 15 minutes and it was at a steady 120bpm.

The pushing phase decided to take its time. I pushed on my knees, on my back, on my side, on the toilet. All the positions to move BB down and out. It took me quite sometime to understand what a productive push felt like. But once I did I channeled in on that feeling to try to make every push feel like that. I felt each push bringing me closer to meeting our baby.

There was a lot of talk when I would push my baby out... would it be January 26th or January 27th? I, of course, had no concept of time at all. I was taking it one contraction and push at a time.

At one point Liz told me I could feel my baby's head if I like... it actually took me a long time to reach down and touch BB's head. I just didn't want to get discouraged with all the pushing I've done and only feeling a little bit of the head. Well I reached down and felt a full head of hair! That was all the motivation I needed. I bared down and pushed through the pain with one goal in mind. I was going to meet my baby any minute! The baby I have been praying and waiting for for years!

I pushed for a little over 3 hours before I felt baby crowning... I knew it was called the "ring of fire" but y'all it burned something fierce and I wanted it to stop! And I thanked God hard that it only lasted a couple contractions.

I triumphantly pushed our baby's head out only to hear wailing!! The rest of his body was still inside, I haven't fully delivered him and he was screaming his head off! The most amazing sound I ever heard. And so with one more push our precious baby was born and the relief was instant.

"I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that."

I must have whispered that five times before I heard, "Reach down and grab your baby boy."

My baby boy! I pulled him up to my chest, kissed his head and looked at Brenton with wide eyes.

Our baby boy, Elijah Clark Batzer born January 27th at 12:28am. It was him all along! The secret between Elijah and God was out in the open. Our hearts could not contain the joy and the surprise.

He latched on to nurse within minutes of being born! Delivering the placenta was a breeze with a shot of pitocin, a few more crampy contractions, and a couple face grimaces later.

Unfortunately I needed stitches. Little man was born with his left hand by his face and the cord wrapped around his neck twice, he did a nice summersault through it on his way out. But I was holding my boy and thats all that mattered. Liz said that if he didn't have his hand up or the cord around his neck he probably would have came out a whole lot sooner. But the Lord’s hand is on every little detail and though because of this recovery was harder than I wanted, four years past I can honestly say it was all for His glory because its part of my motherhood journey.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY TO ME! (SAN DIEGO TRIP)

Well folks I have officially entered a new decade of life!  Hello #thirtyflirtyandthriving!!!

I didn't want to stick around cold, dreary Spokane this year so I decided on a place that was warm with sun, sand, beach and still the USA.  And that place was San Diego!!  

Fun fact: this was the first birthday of mine in 3 years that my husband was home for!!!!

^^gotta love the military for that one^^

Here's a blast from the past, I worked at UCSD in La Jolla for two summers during college as a counselor at a weight loss camp for kiddos.  I loved every minute of it there and really did not want to leave SD when the time came to go back to school. So I used this trip as an opportunity to go back to my old stomping grounds and share my love of that place with Brenton.  Living in a place for 5 months gives you some bearings on whats too touristy and what isn't.  I have never been to the zoo nor do I plan to.  I've been to Sea World way too many times with the kids at camp to ever want to go to another sea lion show... I'm more of an off the beaten path kind of traveler.  

With that said, I planned out exactly what I wanted to do on this birthday trip and it was absolutely perfect. 

We walked the path on the beach in Pacific Beach.

Hiked down to Black's Beach and watched hang gliders.

Watched the sunset while eating In-and-Out Burgers at Sunset Cliffs.

Went to local beach town bookstores.

Ate all the tacos in sight.

Saw the seals lounging at the Children's Pool in La Jolla. 

And laid on the beach reading for an entire day with only a break to get what else but tacos. 

Perfection!

I asked Brenton as we were leaving what he thought of San Diego and he said he couldn't find anything bad about it! YES! The seed is planted for after retirement.  :) 

Here's the recap of my 30th Birthday celebration to San Diego with my man, eating amazing food and soaking up the sun in the only way I know how... through photos (iPhone & camera)!!

And keep scrolling to get the most important info...

all the food deets!

**All iPhone photos edited with the VSCO app for those who are curious

And here are the photos I took on my camera!!! 

cali looks good on you babe!!

Okay now the moment you have all been waiting for!  

The food...

I actually spent 4 hours last week planning our where we would eat for each meal every day.  I think I could research restaurants and planning restaurants for other people's vacations for my career! All the restaurants we ate at were phenomenal and I would recommend them all to anyone who asks.  As you can see by the photos my meals of choice we either tacos or fish!  Also an ocean view was a must for most meals.  This ocean loving girl must be able to smell the salt, hear the water lapping on the shore while chowing down on perfectly seasoned halibut to make her heart the happiest.

San Diego Food Tour

• Backyard Kitchen (Pacific Beach)

• In-and-out Burger at Sunset Cliffs, Point Loma to watch the sunset
• Brockton Villa (La Jolla) - OpenTable reservations recommended
  • I ate here before with my friend Leslie when I worked as UCSD.  It has the best views on La Jolla Cove and the Coast Toast is AMAZING!!!!!  Highly recommend this place for your next brunch in San Diego.
• Coasterra (San Diego) - OpenTable reservations recommended
  • This is where my birthday dinner was at.  Price wise it was the most expensive restaurant on our list but I think for a special celebration its worth the food.  The view from here was an incredible unobstructed view of the city at sunset/night!
• Cafe 1134 (Coronado)
  • Think cute little local cafe that gives off a European feel to it.  We got iced coffees a few mornings and walked downtown Coronado.
• City Tacos (North Park)
  • Top 5 if not the best authentic taco joint in SD!! This taco aficionado would have to agree!
• Brigantine Seafood Restaurant (Coronado) - OpenTable reservations recommended
  • Actually a pretty good price point for being across the street from the Hotel Del Coronado... $$ though. 
• Fig Tree Cafe (Liberty Station) - OpenTable reservations recommended 
  • We had originally planned on going to the Breakfast Republic after attending church at The Rock but the wait was wayyyy too long. So we stumbled upon the Fig Tree Cafe.  Price point was perfect as we were tired of spending more than $30 on a meal.  I will say that its directly underneath the path of the planes taking off from the airport, so every 2-5 minutes there was a loud plane flying overhead.

Have you visited San Diego??? What are your favorite places to eat at so we can hit them up next time!! 

Cheers to your next adventure!!  Make it a yummy one... should we even bother with anything less?? 

THE HI LIFE | MY HAWAII TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

I love that with my blog I'll be meshing personal and business life together.  You'll be able to keep up with our crazy lives and hopefully connect a little better with us.

Last week I went to visit one of my friends in Hawaii.  Tiffany and her family lived down the street from us and our husbands were in the same squadron.   They moved away about 18 months ago but left a void in my life.  She was my go to girl for afternoon coffee/wine dates, which always depended upon the mood and topic of conversation, feed me when my husband was deployed on my birthday, ask me to photograph her newborn son even though I’ve never held something that new before.  So now I traveled 1/2 way across an ocean to have those dates again and to love on her family in H A W A I I !!!!

So, I have never been to Hawaii, my husband has been here about 4 times just passing through for work and a few of those times got extended because the jet broke.  Actually thats usually what happens every time a KC-135 ends up in Hawaii.  They "break" and enjoy an extended stay.  Well thats pretty much what happened  this trip too.  We were scheduled to leave Friday but didn't leave until Sunday! I was so glad to have the extra 2 days to spend with my friends and explore more of Oahu. 

We did so much that I lost track of what day it was so I will be sharing with you scenes from around the island and our activities! Some of them were:

• Hike to Makapu'u Lighthouse
• Visit Pearl Harbor
• Attend a Luau 
• Downtown Waikiki
• North Shore Tour
• Matsumoto's Shaved Ice
• Lanikai Beach
• Kaena Point
• He'eia State Park Beach
• Long runs in 80 degrees on base

I documented everything as best I could and you might notice a bit of a different editing style on these photos.  I've been experimenting with some different editing on my personal photos.  I'm still deciding if I'd want to go this route with client photos but so far I'm liking it! 

I am already planning my next trip to Hawaii. I'm seriously so hopeful that we will one day be stationed there for a few years and we can call Hawaii our home!  Hope you feel the warmth of the island through these photos! Mahalo & aloha my friends.