Why In Home Lifestyle Photography?
The truth is most people don't have a great idea of what I mean when I say I am a Lifestyle Documentary Photographer. So before I dive into this let me rave a bit about Pinterest. Pinterest is just a great place, its the hub for inspiration and creativity, so I went ahead and created a Lifestyle Family board as a resource of inspiration for any mom or dad who might be interested. These Lifestyle Sessions inspire me to be creative and share my passion so hopefully they will inspire you! Now hopefully you will also read this blog but if nothing else go check out this board to get an idea about why I have fallen in love with Lifestyle Photography.
Here is my passion in a nutshell, to tell real stories well. I love Weddings because they are a perfect society approved "day in the life" session. Where every bride is encouraged to have coverage from the moment they put their makeup on until she runs off into the sunset with her love.
Why don't you think we see our everyday life that way? Why is it not a priority to capture these moments with as much care and concern as our Wedding Days. Maybe an 8 hours session would be excessive but i would totally be down if it meant truly capturing the life of a family.
But imagine a session that captures a moment in time, a moment in your little's childhood. Where your little's are still learning to walk or playing with that one toy they are obsessed with. That small amount of time when your little boys are still cuddly and your little girls go to sleep every night with 10 stuffed animals. Who doesn't want to remember those things?
I think about my own childhood and the little memories I keep tucked away. I remember a deep love for the pink power ranger, tutus, and hitting my older brothers with plastic swords. And now as a documentary photographer who loves shooting lifestyle family sessions, I wish I had a picture of all of that, mostly to show my husband. To prepare him for what kinds of daughters he could have; but also because I think those moments matter.
I think my mom felt the same way. We used to have this 1990 sony video camera. My mother was a photographer and creative as well so she saw the art in recording what our childhood was like. Since Videography became accessible to the masses in the 1980s, its always been about recording the family unit. So it made sense that I grew up loving and comfortable with the raw unedited life being filmed or photographed.
When looking back at old family videos this passed year we came across one of the greatest films of all time. Imagine this, my two older brothers and I each dressed up as the power rangers, my father with a odd rubber star trek alien mask on chasing us all over the yard and my mother speaking from the other side of the camera to me as I begin to cry thinking my dad is truly a monster. That's real life, its not crazy or dramatic its just a glimpse at my childhood.
Now I know what you're saying, well we have Iphones for that and I actually would agree. We are in a time where we have the ability to photograph and record any and everything we do and we fill up our phones with these memories. I'm all about it, I just also want to say its not the same as photography or celebrating life. There is an aspect of quality and care that goes into a true photographers process. Iphones don't compare to what can be captured when you have someone photographing and perceiving your family's beauty.
So all of this to say if I could encourage my clients and future clients to do anything, It's try one of these sessions out! Its not about a clean house, and its not about a perfect wardrobe. Lifestyle photography is about capturing those temporary moments with care. Filling your photo albums with the experience not just the posed pictures.
If you have any questions let me tell you, I love talking about this stuff! Whether its family, couples or even birth photography. My passion is to capture your story in a real way and tell it well with beauty and care.