My goal is to capture relaxed and candid images of your family.

I want your family to be as they always are,

doing what makes them happy.

These sessions are casual and customized to your family’s personality. 

Follow your regular daily routine, or engage with your family through a pre-planned activity. Doing something together helps you forget about the camera and allows those special moments to shine naturally.

Don’t worry about standing still, looking at the camera, or what to do with your hands. Just be yourself and do as you would normally do. Pretend I’m not there.

What can I expect at my documentary-styled session: 

When I arrive, I’ll chat with everyone until I feel we’re all warmed up and ready. I might play with the kids and your pets for a few minutes before shooting any photos. I’ll remind you that all you have to do is be yourselves. Some of the time I may be more of a fly-on-the-wall, and some of the time I may put the camera down and just chat.

Children feed off of their parents’ energy. So we focus on keeping our time together light and fun.

Clothes: 

The most important thing is for everyone to be comfortable! Wear what you wear on a normal day. Clothes should also be comfortable and easy to move around in so that your documentary images will look natural and reflect your true personalities.

Posing/Directing by Photographer:

In these sessions, I will not do any directing in order to capture authentic, unscripted moments. If your child looks at the camera and pulls a face, I won’t have the self-restraint not to capture that moment as it captures a side of their personality, but I won’t encourage it.

Lighting: 

Unlike studio photography, documentary sessions are always different and unique to your family. Your home and lighting is real and honest and as a photographer, I don’t have the control that I would have in a studio. There’s no use of flash, as flash can be really distracting and will interact with the moment. This means that sometimes, the lighting won’t be perfect and there may be some noise (tiny little speckles, think old, black and white film) from time-to-time as my camera settings will be crazy high to compensate for the darkness. But, your photos will be honest, unique, and capture the true essence of you and your family. It will be beautiful.

Rain/Snow:

For documentary sessions, the weather is not as critical as with lifestyle sessions. Weather is a part of our lives and we make it fun! If inclement weather is severe and limits travel or our planned activity, I will keep in touch with you leading up to our session day and we will reschedule to our next available date.

After the Session: 

I take a lot of images during a documentary session. I carefully select and edit each image in your gallery so that they look their best. When editing is completed, I will send you a link to an online gallery where you can view and download your final images.