Documentary Family Photographer

I have had the privilege, nay the honor, of photographing Nathan and Ebby’s family for 14 years now. I photographed their wedding WAY back then, and every year since they have hired me to take their family photos. I can’t believe 14 years have already gone by, but it’s the passing of time that makes me see more and more the true value of photography. You don’t know the value of it until it’s too late to do anything about it. Life is now, and we are all stressed about tomorrow. But looking back and remembering where we have come from is so important. But just having records of the past is not enough; you need to have the right records. With the age of iPhone, we all have 20k photos on our phones or in the cloud, and we have too much we don’t know what to do with them. This is one of the many reasons my style of family photography has changed over the years. I started out thinking we just need to get the best-looking photos of your family for holiday cards. That’s what I thought, so that’s what my family did. As the years have gone by, we almost never look back at those photos, and when we do we all just remember how stressful the session was trying to wrangle all the kids and with the stress to look good and get a good-looking picture. It wasn’t us; our kids don’t normally stop and look perfect for a camera.I started to realize the photos we loved most and that mattered most were all the little mundane (what we thought at the time) boring things in life. That’s the stuff we so easily forget and need to remember. It’s the moments in life we just want to fast-forward through so we can get to the next thing—those are the very things we will look back on with the most fondness. You can’t truly live in the present if you don’t appreciate the past, and if you appreciate the past, you can start to truly appreciate the present, and make clearer-headed plans for the future. If you’re raising kids, you are doing a HUGE thing: you are raising little, soon-to-be adult humans who can make a huge impact on this world, for good or bad. I know it might just seem like photos, but keeping a good record of your life can help you live a more intentional life. This is why I love doing documentary family sessions: I get to photograph little time capsules of what the families and their lives are like now. So if you enjoy your family, and actually have fun with them on a daily basis, then give me a call. I would love to come and eat dinner with you all and photograph your slice of heaven.