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 sixteen years married to my best friend and favorite person, Andy, and together we have built a life that we love. We have three sons, and I know I am biased when I say this, but they are literally the best 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. Most of our summers are spent around a baseball diamond with these kids, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We built our simple dream home on nineteen gorgeous acres in the Colfax area of God’s country, and have started a little farm featuring goats, sheep, a big gentle livestock guardian dog, and so many chickens.

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 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 blurry 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 hours. 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.


DON’T ONLY PRACTICE YOUR ART,
BUT FORCE YOUR WAY INTO ITS SECRETS.
— Beethoven