Why Authentic Family Photography?

I pulled out an old shoe box full of photographs and greeting cards the other day. It was filled with images I had been collecting since I was 6. The images in the box were full of fun, and laughter, and spontaneity. There were pictures of my grandmother the day of her 16th birthday, pictures of my parents eating dinner on the back patio, pictures of me and my friends in the middle of doing our hair and makeup. What I loved most about each photo was how authentic each moment felt. No one telling the people in the photos to say cheese or to stand stiffly. No awkward poses or disinterested kids. Every image felt like a moment frozen in time and full of life.

I often think about what kind of photos my children will pull out one day when they fish through their own shoe boxes full of photographs. In my mind its not the posed, the stiff, the formal family photos that they pull out but rather the ones that show how happy we all were to be around each other, the ones that show just how little their hands were in mine, and the ones that show just how effortless our love was when around each other.

I’m starting to ramble now, but if you’ve made it this far - know that my goal during our sessions is not to capture what you look like, but rather to capture the feelings your children hold when they look at you. My goal is to capture all of the wonderful and loving and mundane parts of your family so that one day when your children have grown and pull out their shoe boxes full of photos, they pull out the ones from our session and think to themselves “these people are my home”.