<span class="drop_cap">I</span>f you are a Facebook friend of mine, you will probably recognize the photo below that I recently uploaded. It's my husband, my daughter, and my dog (who sneaks into every single family photo). I adore this photo. It's real. It's honest. It's intimate. Her hair is wild as always, my husband is at his happiest. She's  holding her toys. Her cute little toes are pointed. There are toys on the floor. My dog sneaked into the photo in his usual way. 

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These are the kinds of photos I want to give to my clients, ones that mean something, ones that are natural. I want them to be ‘real’ in the sense that we aren’t dressed up, we aren’t sucking in our guts, we aren’t looking at the camera cheesing it up, we don’t have cutesy props, we aren’t over-edited to the point where we don’t even look like ourselves anymore. I want our images to portray us as a family as we always are, captured in an emotionally powerful way on ‘film’ (and in a way that looks as real and honest as film). I find myself cuddled in my bed with my family, my dog lying by the side of the bed, my hair messy, and thinking, “Where’s a photographer when I need them?”

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These moods don’t just happen automatically because I have a camera. It involves a lot of trust between you and I. And the challenge for you will be: forget you’re in a photo shoot without forgetting that you are being photographed. What does that mean? It means: don’t pose for the camera, don’t always face the camera, don’t always make sure your best side is showing, don’t color coordinate all your clothes, don’t stress, don’t scold your kids into looking at the camera and smiling all the time.

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Do laugh and interact with your family, cuddle with them, kiss them, tickle them, allow them to be themselves, make eye contact with each other, be present in the moment, be open and try to forget I’m there, embrace who you are and what you look like and forget all your insecurities. SMILE. LAUGH. TEASE. And forget what you currently think of as ‘photogenic’.

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Most importantly: LET GO! Let me in. Relax. I’m not judging you. You don’t need to make explanations or excuses to me the way people do when they have guests. Remember that this is a documentary of your life. I won’t whiten your teeth and airbrush skin and remove every single wrinkle and blemish (zits excluded because those are just unnecessary!) and remove stray hairs that the wind blows across your face like I feel pressured to do for my sessions presently. I want to shoot the way I would if I were documenting my own family.

I want these shoots to be personal and intimate some times, fun and laid back at other times. We will work together on ideas and what you're comfortable with, but ideally I want families who will invite me in when they have bed head, crawl back into bed with their toddlers, and be comfortable with me standing over them to shoot. I want families who have a sense of humor and an appreciation for the small details of life. 

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How will it differ from my other sessions? First of all, they’ll probably be quite a bit longer. My typical sessions are about 1.5 hours. These new sessions will most likely take more time because we will be doing real things with your family while I’m lucky enough to tag along. I always ask in my session questionnaires what my clients like doing with their families on a day-to-day or weekly basis when they have downtime together. These can range from routines and traditions around the house to actual activities that you plan or things that you would just like to do with your family and have photographed. This is really open-ended. 

The sessions will vary based on your family, but the difference between my typical sessions and these documentary ones are:  we’ll be doing real things in real time.  There will be downtime. We’ll be hanging out. You’ll get used to me just hanging around the general area with you guys. Pajamas are welcome. 

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They will also be edited a bit differently than they have been. There will be a much more real ‘film’ feel to them (like the ones in this post that I re-edited in my current style). They’ll be edited much less, but no less professionally. They’ll be much closer to the tones and moods and colors of my personal work and traditional film. 

How will they be the same as my other sessions? They will still be my vision. They will still be awesome. I really want to give people the kind of session I so crave myself. 

So who’s with me? 

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