Families at Home

Why a Families at Home session?

Sessions at home are my absolute favorite. It is so much easier to relax and be yourself in a place where you all feel comfortable. The stress of travel and being on time or making everything perfect is just lifted, and instead, I come to you and gently guide your family into natural situations and poses, while encouraging you to be yourselves. You don’t need to have a perfectly clean and decorated home, it just needs to be the space where you spend your time. The focus will be on your family, and it will be beautiful. I love having families do activities they like to do so I can get some documentary-style story-telling shots in addition to the portraits, which really makes the session feel fun, authentic, and an important part of your history. We also often spend a lot of time outside, in the yard, in the neighborhood, on the porch, or any other outside space you love. The time of your session usually depends on how the light hits your home, but I especially love mornings with the beautiful gaining light.

What can you expect?

I really want to tell you that your session with me will be fun. But I know you will be stressed. I know you’ll have lost shoes just before which caused a giant family fight. I know you spent like 4 hours rearranging clothes on the bed to find the right combo. I know there will be certain people who are really just OVER having family photos done. So, I can’t really promise that it will be fun, as much as I want to (because for reals, we usually have lots of fun in my sessions). What I can promise you is that if you let all that stress go, if you just let yourself be in a moment with your favorite people and relax into everything that happens, I will be there to capture those moments. It takes some trust—in me, in yourself, and in the process—but it really works. Don’t worry, I have seen it all in photo sessions. Nothing your kids or husband or dog can do will garner any judgment from me. The more they challenge me and watch how I react, the more they will trust me too and let their true personalities show. I WANT all of it.

I can also promise you that I will do my best to get something beyond the traditional money shot where everyone is looking at the camera in perfectly spaced windows, smiling, and head-swapped into perfection. I’m looking for the details, the clues to what’s below the surface, the relationships and conflicts and support and love. I’m looking to record what will become your memories, in a way that feels like a memory, or maybe even a peek into your heart. The photos might not all be in focus. They might not all be perfectly composed. But they will be your story and your moment, and they will be beautiful.

I try to keep the sessions to about 1 hour, because, let’s be honest, no one wants to have a camera in their face for much longer than that. But if we’re in the groove and pretty stuff is happening and no one is melting down quite yet, I’m going to probably stick around and take way more shots than I need. Sure, I’ll do some posing and arranging, and I’ll help you know exactly what to do and when. In other words, I’ll be in charge—you don’t have to worry about anything. But, I’ll also just be hanging out, spending some time getting to know a little more about you and how you interact, so there will be some downtime. It will all be pretty easy going. I will let you know what I’m thinking and ask for your input, I will keep you informed about how much longer I intend to keep taking pictures, and I will just remember the whole time that this is not the easiest thing for you and try to make it easier.

What’s included in your session?

Here’s the deal with me. I just CAN’T have a photo of a family that I think they will love and NOT give it to them. It’s just going to be sitting on my computer, gathering digital dust. (Or literal dust on the film negatives!) So you get them all. You will probably receive about 90% of the photos I take, whether or not they are perfect. They will be printable up to 5x7, and you can download them, share them, and print them as much as you’d like forever and ever at no additional cost. I will send them to you in a beautiful online gallery with music and a slideshow that will hopefully make you shed a little tear as you watch it and then share it with everyone you know. I’ll also send you a selection of prints in a little wooden box that just makes you happy to hold in your hands. Next you will want to order prints from me so you can get them from the best professional labs, or even have me put together a lay-flat linen album for you with many of your images because you just can’t decide on a few to order and you know you’ll never put together your own book (because we all know that one you started in 2006 is still sitting there piling unnecessary guilt onto you and your already too-full plate). But no matter what, we won’t let your images sit on your computer or Instagram feed. You can also purchase full resolution files printable up to 20x30 right from your gallery.

Are you worried about the film?

Yeah. Some people are. Here’s the deal. Does film sometimes not work out, get destroyed, get lost, or otherwise ruin our lives? I’m sure it happens. It has never actually happened to me. I’ll tell you what HAS happened to me. My digital memory cards, hard drives, computers, and cameras have all at one point died, corrupted, erased sporadically, spontaneously combusted (jk, not that last one), and generally been unreliable much more often than film. So am _I_ worried about the film? No. Not any more than I am about any photos I take on digital. Are you still worried that I need to see the photos on the back of my camera to make sure I’m doing it right? Well, that’s where you’re going to have to trust me. But all I can say to that is that my keeper rate is exponentially higher on film than it ever was on digital. Like, by a lot. And yes, I CAN edit the film images! You have a zit you REALLY don’t want to remember? I got it. You’ll get all your images in the form of jpegs, not in little envelopes of double prints, I promise. In other words . . . don’t worry. It’s going to be amazing

See PRICING page for information on session fees and what's included in your experience, and keep scrolling for more beautiful families and blog posts!

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