I was introduced to the idea of an “everyday” session today for the first time and it has been quite captivating as well as heartwarming to see simple moments of life captured to where you can feel them as they are taking place. This everyday session with the Bassham family is nothing short of amazing, being able to see a part of people’s story within the images brings a realness that we all crave!
This year, I started offering “everyday” sessions: sessions that are meant to honestly reflect each family’s daily life. While I love a beautifully designed family portrait session, I’d been missing the chaos and reality of the snapshots of my own childhood and wondered if there might be others out there looking for a little of the same. Marissa is a talented photographer herself, so when she opted for this session over a more formal portrait session, I was elated. And when she suggested a trail ride as their activity, I was over the moon. As a fellow horse girl, nothing makes me happier than seeing families embrace that lifestyle, and getting to photograph this sweet family and their horses on 35mm film in a way that felt like I was getting to see them as they really are was a dream come true. -Keeley McKay 
What’s your favorite family pastime together? We enjoy just being together, wherever we might be and whatever we might be doing. We love to ride our horses and spending time with them. We love hiking in our beautiful mountains. We love to support our girls in their talents so we go to many softball games and cheerleading and gymnastics events! We love a good road trip and jamming out to music. We also love just being home in front of the cozy fire watching a movie together. 
Any lessons you learned as a family through the last year? Our family mantra is “Find the joy”. Life can be relentless with challenges, disappointments and overwhelm. But joy can be found through it all, you just have to be looking for it. 
Tell us a fun or silly story that happened to your family recently! During this photoshoot our youngest got to have a little taste of the rodeo! We were taking pictures of the girls galloping through the field. Our daughter, Zoe, and her horse, Bruno, went first, they looked beautiful and graceful. Then our second daughter, Cora, and her horse Kuzco went next. The only thing Kuzco was thinking about was getting back over to his buddy Bruno. He was galloping full speed and bucking and crow hopping the whole way. Somehow Cora stayed on! Her eyes have never been bigger and she was not amused. But we were all giggling and proud of her for hanging on!
What are the best things you’ve learned from each other? To love unconditionally. No one is perfect. Saying I’m sorry is hard, but it’s essential in any relationship. 
What does family mean to you? Family is literally everything to us. It’s at the core of our whole belief system as to why we are here on this earth. We believe a higher power has put us in our families to teach us and to love each other.
What have you recently done to put family as a major focus in your life? Life is so busy, so for us keeping our family as a focus can certainly be challenging. But what I’ve learned in life is that if something is important to you, you will make time for that thing. Raising our children to be good humans and positively contribute to society is very important to us. So we try to make time to spend quality time together, instill in them basic truths, expect good manners, teach them right from wrong but allow them to make choices for themselves and then learn to deal with the good or bad consequences of their choices. We try to teach them the value of hard work. The world doesn’t owe you anything, you work for it.
If you had one piece of advice for other families, what would it be? To enjoy it all. The good, the bad, and the mundane. Life is fleeting. Tell the ones you love, that you love them.
Photographer: Keeley McKay
Film Lab: PhotoVision
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