Documentary Family Photography

Photography is my longest standing love. It's the thing that still makes me giddy when I raise my camera to my eye and photograph moments, connection and emotion between people. I have a vivid memory of realizing who I was as a photographer and the way I saw people when I was about eight years old. I wanted to take a photo of my beautiful younger brother. A mop of blonde hair and blue eyes, winning smile. He was a beautiful child and I wanted to capture who he was. So I did what I had seen and heard adults do: I asked him to look at the camera and smile. The smile I saw was not one that reflected him. Before pressing the shutter, I asked him to do his normal smile and he just couldn't. What I know now and knew then but couldn't have articulated was that people are at their most comfortable when they are looking at the people they love, not when they are asked to look at a camera and smile. We become conscious of ourselves in a way that is different to how we move through this world, and that was the start of knowing I wanted to photograph in a way that reflected moments, not directed smiles.

For me, this is what family photography is all about. It's telling the story of your family in the season of life you are in right now. Whether that is in the thick of having a newborn baby and a busy toddler, or the middle of childhood where your tween is starting to shift away from you but still leans in for a hug and seeks physical connection. It’s the connection between siblings and the busyness and beauty of adding another baby to your family.

As a parent, I want the stories of our family on my walls and in beautiful photo books for us to thumb through and have hundreds of ‘remember when?’ conversations. I also want to provide this service for your family - to capture candid portraits of your children while they play and to reflect back to you the way your family is in the season of life you are in right now. Last month, we celebrated the 6th birthday of my youngest child, and I am keenly aware of how quickly I am forgetting the nuances of life with little children. We are no longer in the thick of sleep deprivation, spending time on our knees to clean up food off the floor, or having children hanging from our limbs and on our hips at all times. I am so grateful for having photos of those seasons too, to help me remember and to celebrate those seasons of life and all they held.

I’d love to hear from you - have you ever invested in having a family photographer capture your family? If you haven’t, I’d love to hear why and if you have, would you hire a photographer again? If you’re interested in having me photograph your family I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, or use the contact form to get in touch.