It is fascinating to me, as I look back at my 14 years of photography work, that in the first few years, there were many documentary style images that I had taken (and honestly, disliked, because I was my harshest critic). and you know what? Now – those are my FAVORITE photos…. Why? Because they were real. honest. and true. They were what was really happening. They told the story of the soul of the person or people in them.
Keep reading to see what my top 3 things are that I adore the MOST about capturing authentic family moments.
If you want your family captured, contact me here!
#1 Giving the parents a bird’s eye view.
This is the best part. Truthfully. It’s so hard when you’re in the depths of parenthood to see the fruit of your labor. When you get to have this outward perspective of REAL life, you see that what you are doing… even in the simplest moments of the day…is unbelievably powerful. Reading the stories, tying shoes, kissing boo-boos… it all adds up to raising a full fledge human being. One that will grow to be a mom or a dad and will someday have their own child asking to be read to, to have help tying their shoes, or asking for their boo-boo to be kissed. What we do day in and day out, impacts the next SEVERAL generations.
#2 Telling each family’s authentic story.
When I did posed work, honestly, you could not tell one family from another. When I scroll social media of other photographers who do lifestyle or posed work, it’s the same. I can’t tell one family or one photographer from another. It’s all copy and paste cookie cutter work. (and it has meaning and is beautiful, but I am just being honest with what my heart sees). What I LOVE about doing this work, is that each session is different. Each family interacts uniquely and has different things they love doing together. It’s really precious to get to know them that intimately. and then to tell that story – is such a cool experience. I will carry those stories with me for a long time. The dad who sings Christmas music to his son before bed… in August. The mom whose son buries his fingers into her belly button 500x a day. The weird quirks of each family are things they will later see as precious attributes of their own family connection.
#3 Giving the gift of pressing pause.
When you choose to only invest in Fall Family Photos for the sake of a Christmas Card… you’re not really pressing pause. and when the kids graduate, you’ll be left with… Christmas card photos… But what about the season when your 4 year old was obsessed with trains? What about the season when your 7 year old begged to play Uno daily? What about when your 12 year old practiced basketball for 3 hours everyday with dad? Getting to press pause on theses short-but-sweet seasons is the best gift you can ever give yourself… and your children.
