Why TSpp matter!
A message from found JONBOB (for 2025)
Each year as things heat up at The Simple Portrait Project, I like to pause and reflect on why we do this and share what I’ve learned that feels important for families to carry into their own stories.
Last month we took a trip to Yosemite, a lifelong dream for me. I’d grown up seeing images of its big walls and soaring cliffs in books and postcards. Our first stop was Mariposa Grove, home to some of the largest Giant Sequoia trees in the world.
Walking among them, I was struck not only by their overwhelming scale but by what they stirred inside me. Standing at their base, you feel your own smallness. You sense time differently. For me, it was a relief: though our lives are short, time is long. Maybe we can hold our moment here and now with a lighter grip; with less scarcity and less fear.
At the trailhead, there’s a massive slice taken from a tree that lived for over 900 years. It reminded me of the family trees we drew as kids—mapping grandparents, uncles, cousins, all the messy branches of belonging. But what if we thought of our families less like branches, and more like the cross-section of that Sequoia? The rings don’t just make a beautiful design—they tell a story. Years of drought. Years of growth. Years of fire that release seeds for new life. Wounds from storms that left scars but didn’t end the story.
Our own trip wasn’t without storms. At the end of our time in the grove, our rental car simply wouldn’t start—not a dead battery, but a full system failure. We were stuck: two hours from the nearest rental location, limited cell service, no Ubers, no taxis, and one tow truck in the region (not allowed inside the park). What followed was seven hours of frustration, problem-solving, and “rental car purgatory.”
As parents of three college kids, our time together is rare and hard-won. To lose an entire day of our trip to car trouble felt crushing—the wonder of the grove quickly fading.
But here’s the connection: every family has moments like this. Seasons of beauty and wonder. Years of disruption, disappointment, or struggle. Years of both. When you look back, the story is not in avoiding the hard years—it’s in showing up, year after year, and letting the rings tell the truth of your family’s life together.
That’s what The Simple Portrait Project has taught me. Each session is more than a picture, it’s a ring in your family’s cross-section. The year of the new baby. The year of braces. The year Joey broke his wrist playing baseball. The year of starting (or losing) a business. The year cancer entered the story—or the year it was defeated.
After six years of showing up, families begin to see the bigger picture. The growth is profound. The story is layered. The investment begins to pay dividends you could never predict in the first year.
So whatever this year has been for your family—joyful, heavy, or somewhere in between—you are invited to step onto our set and add another ring to your family tree. Together, let’s tell your story.
Best..