MY STYLE: A Documentary APPROACH

Your life is worth remembering, no matter how it compares to Pinterest.  

Instead of posing you, I want to capture your family interactions and special moments that showcase your life as it is right now.  No matter what changes in the future, these pictures will help you remember the little things that encompass your current normal: your real life.

If you are looking for a perfectly posed family picture, where everyone is looking at the camera with happy faces and every hair in place, then I'm not the photographer for you.  That type of family portrait is beautiful, and many photographers do that so well.  But that's not me!  

Real life is often messy, chaotic, and unscripted...but it's beautiful.  That's what I want to show as I tell the story of your family.

You will never get the moments back that you are living right now.  

Relax and be yourself.  Don't spend hours picking coordinating outfits, and don't stress about the kids smiling "the right way."

-Common Questions-

Q: How do I know if this type of session is right for me?

-If you want to slow down time....to preserve the ordinary, yet ever-changing memories that define life as you know it right now; if you value memories and aren't satisfied with the cultural whispers that life is only worth capturing when it matches a certain standard of perfection, then documentary family sessions are for you!! 

Q: Why are the sessions so long?  Can I do a mini session instead?

-My goal is to tell your family's story well.  In order to do that, I need to be with you long enough to

1) help everyone to feel settled and not focused on the camera, and 2) allow real interactions and moments to unfold.

Because of this, I do not offer mini sessions.  Instead, you will have a book FULL of memories from the time I spend with your family.

Q: What if my house is messy?  I don't want pictures to show a messy house!!   

- These pictures are helping you to remember your real life.  If you have kids, then that most likely involves some mess.  Those things are pieces of your story.  It's also like a hidden treasure when you can look back at pictures and see parts of your life that you've forgotten about.  

Q:  Aren't my cell phone pictures good enough for documenting my everyday life?

- Cell phone cameras are incredibly impressive AND convenient!  It makes it so easy to document little life moments every day.  But while you might be able to catch bits and pieces of the story as you are parenting, I have the advantage of being able to focus on putting all those pieces together to show a whole story.  That way, you can live the moments rather than worrying about freezing them with your phone- at least for one day.  Plus, YOU get to be in the images!

Q: What if I don’t like how I look?

When you hear that the pictures are unposed, you might be worried that you will end up with a bunch of pictures where you have a strange expression, you are making a weird face, or your hair is sticking straight up.  No one wants to see themselves looking bad in a picture.  But I promise that I will not keep pictures that I think are unflattering of you.  I want to show you looking natural, but I will also be aware of how you look.  

As a side note.....Your kids and grandkids will want to remember you and what you were like when they were little.  They don't want to only see a sterilized version of you every few years when you get family portraits done.  Think about your own parents and what a treasure it is (or would be) if you had pictures like this of them to look back on!  

And one more thing.  Just as you don't want your kids to hang their sense of self-worth on their appearance, you don't want to inadvertently model that for them either!  ("No, I can't get in that picture....I need to lose 10 pounds first!")