Granddad’s Bluff
Family Photos
Family Photos
The Ellingers
Family Portraits at Grandad’s Bluff & Hixon Forest Human Powered Trails, La Crosse, WI
Some sessions give you everything. Four kids, golden hour, a view that stops you mid-sentence — and a family that showed up ready to have fun.
Lauren and Aaron Ellinger came to us with four kids ranging from toddler to elementary age, which in portrait terms means you have about a thirty-second window before someone is upside down, running in the wrong direction, or making a face that will appear in exactly zero wall art decisions. We planned for that. And it made the session better.
The Locations — Granadad’s Bluff & Hixon Forest Human Powered Trails
We started at Grandad’s Bluff, which sits above La Crosse with a view of the Mississippi River valley that gets better the closer you get to sunset. The elevation gives you open sky in every direction — the kind of light that doesn’t require much explanation. It just works.
From there we moved down to the Hixon Forest Human Powered Trails, which is essentially a BMX-style bike course winding through the forest. It’s one of our favorite spots in La Crosse for family sessions — not because it looks like a portrait location, but because it doesn’t. Kids move through it naturally. They climb, they run, they forget there’s a camera. That’s exactly what you want when you’re photographing four children who are running on adrenaline and sunset energy.
Two locations. Completely different moods. One session that felt like a Saturday night should — active, easy, and a little bit wild.
Top 10 Photographer in the World · Three consecutive years.
By This Is Reportage, Fearless Family Photographers, and Flash Masters.
What Happens When You Stop Trying to Control It
Family portraits with young kids aren’t about getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time. That’s not what makes a portrait worth hanging. What makes it worth hanging is the moment right before the chaos — or right in the middle of it — when you can see exactly who these people are together.
Lauren and Aaron have four kids who clearly love each other. That’s not something you manufacture in a session. But it is something you can photograph when you’re in the right place at the right time with the right light. Grandad’s Bluff at sunset, with the trails below — that was the right place.
“Working with Jeff AND Alisha was the best life decision I’ve ever made. FULL STOP.”
LEILA
Transform your house into a home
A photo on your phone is nice. Seeing it every day on your wall — in a frame your guests stop to look at — that changes how a home feels.
The $300 session fee reserves your date, covers your planning call, the session and your theater reveal — and applies in full toward your artwork; most clients invest $1,500 or more.
We design everything: handcrafted albums and wall art from Graphi Studio and Dreambooks Pro. Built to be seen, felt, and lived with for decades.
Your portraits don’t belong in an app. They belong on your walls.
About J.L. Wiswell Photography
J.L. Wiswell Photography is Jeff + Alisha, and we photograph seniors, families, couples and headshots in La Crosse, Wisconsin. You get both of us at every session: Jeff builds the light, Alisha directs the posing, and nothing is left to whatever light happened to be there. Afterward your portraits go up large and in person in our theater, and the artwork is designed with you in the room. Top 10 Photographer in the World · Three consecutive years.
the experience
Want portraits like these? We photograph families throughout the La Crosse and Onalaska area and even travel worldwide.