When you want to take pictures of your family and your kids are finally willing to cooperate for you, forget Pinterest and forget the pictures you've seen from others. You don't need to recreate someone else's image, someone else's story--you just need to show up as your real, messy, beautiful selves. Trust me, those are the pictures that are going to resonate with you 10, 20, 30 years down the road. Give it a shot. Or you could just hire me to come do it.
Family studio portrait
I’m not sure how other family portrait photographers run things, but around here, we invite people to come to the studio to view their images a couple weeks after the pictures have been taken. We put them up on a big screen so the client can see the images big, in all their glory, instead of looking at them on a tiny screen. We offer digital files, books, and prints, and we really focus on the value of a tangible, printed piece that will last for generations.
When Brett and Beth hired me to photograph their family, they weren’t entirely sold on the print idea and mostly just wanted digital files. Well, they came back to the studio to view their family pictures and I sometimes say my goal is open weeping for people looking at their pictures. I’ll just say, that goal was achieved that day and the ended up getting a good amounts of prints including a big honker for their wall.
There’s just something about a printed photograph.
My approach and philosophy for family portraits
I’ve always loved this quote from Peter London in his book “No More Secondhand Art”, he says, “It is not beauty we are after, but meaning. Big, deep, wide meaning.” That strikes a chord. While I sure appreciate aesthetically pleasing moments with family pictures, my primary aim is to capture authenticity and something that is true, and I value that over an idealized version that might not actually exist in real life. So, I look for genuine, unscripted connections that not only look amazing, but are real. And heartfelt. So, if you are looking for a family portrait that gets at the depth of your family’s story, let’s chat. — All that said, I just got some film back from my time with Shay and Ryan and I think this image gets at the heart of what I’m talking about.
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all who pay attention to such things. Here’s a teeny collection of mothers with their kids from recent portrait sessions.
