Hi!!! I hope you’re having a fantastic day!!! I had written this question (it’s not really a question but more of a thought that can also be a question/you get the point) down to answer later in the year, but then we had our own family photos taken last week and I realized that I needed to talk about this sooner than later, especially with spring right around the corner and family & child sessions popping up!! So here we go… today’s “question” or really topic is: Why are my family and child photos less posed & more journalistic when we do a session with you?
I mentioned in on a Q&A with Kendra a few weeks back that combine traditional portraiture with photojournalism for my sessions. (I know that I am repeating myself from that blog post, but if you missed it I want to be sure I say it because I don’t want to say it a lot of different ways and end up confusing anyone:) )… During my sessions I am totally going to give you some direction, but when you hire me, you are hiring me to photograph your memories (and in my opinion that’s lots of fun & love) that are happening right then and there. I love capturing a family interacting with one another, kids just being kids… I am all about capturing the essence behind whomever it is I am photographing in that moment of time!! No matter the age of the family or the kids, you will all only be who you are in that moment right now and I think it’s important to capture it all (the good and the “bad”). I love natural, real images, & I truly want to capture you and your family or your kids being “y’all”… whether that be smiles, laughs, cries, no smiles, not everyone looking at the camera, etc… I really am just a huge fan of capturing someone as they are in that exact moment of time (I know I just repeated myself, but I feel it was worth repeating 🙂 ).
With that being said I’m a mom, so I know you moms out there want “the perfect photo”… I will always do my absolute best to get everyone looking and smiling at me (even to the point of looking like a fool), but at the end of the day I’m going to capture you being you (smiles or no smiles… looking or not looking) and from my own experience (my little girl decided from 3 months old and on (which is now 2.5 years old) that if it’s family photo time she will not smile 🙂 ) those are still “the perfect photos”!!!
I actually just got done looking through my family photos from our session last week. Originally our session was supposed to be on Saturday, due to basically a 100% chance of rain we switched it to Friday (and this wasn’t here in town, we were making the trip 4.5 hours away on FRIDAY so that right there just scared me but there really weren’t any other options). Kenzie didn’t nap Friday (she’s a napper so I knew she was going to be not her happy self), we were definitely dressed for warmer weather and when we hopped out of the car it was FREEZING, add the ocean wind… and ohh geeze I had no idea what was going to unfold in that next hour, I just prayed that our photographer could pull a handful of images that captured our family…. and you know what… SHE DID, and I love them. I will say there aren’t a lot of “perfect photos” (as in we are all looking and smiling and picture perfect) but that day didn’t lend to “perfect photos”… but y’all what she captured was better than perfect photos because they were us, the three of us just being our normal selves… playing and loving on Kenzie and Kenzie exploring the beach and the sand and shivering and red nosed and I am so excited to plaster them all over our walls, I LOVE these images!!!
I purposely get our family in front of someone’s camera 1-2 times a year to experience what you all experience when you step in front of my camera. I also get us in front of the camera a few times a year because I want our lives documented, I want Kenzie to have something to look back on however many years from now to trigger memories, and I think I’d rather her see the “realness” of life than us just standing “picture perfect” (which also means the images CAN NOT STAY ON A DISK… we’ll touch on that later)… Soooo yes, your session may seem all kinds of crazy and chaotic and it may not be a “perfect photo” day and you may be saying to yourself “ohh my goodness I have no idea what Kendra’s going to get from this”…. Please know that as your photographer I know those feelings ohh soo well and I want y’all to know that yeah it may be crazy and I may be running after your 3 year old to get a picture but I am LOVING capturing the memories that are unfolding right in front of me and I can’t wait to get them into your hands so you can cherish your family and your little’s as they were in that instant of time.
So the next time you step in front of my camera know that I’m going to do my best to get a few posed shots but I am going to spend more time photographing the love that’s going on between your family or the child like wonder that you little one is experiencing!!! All of the images that I’ve shared in this blog post are photos that I captured because I just stepped back and let the moment happen… These are the images that I LOVE to capture for you!!!!
If you have any questions you’d like to ask please feel free to email them to me at kendramartinphotography@gmail.com or just fill out the contact form and send them over that way!!! See y’all next week for another Q&A with Kendra!!!
Kendra Martin Photography is a Greenville & Spartanburg Photographer specializing in Wedding, Senior, Lifestyle, Newborn, Maternity, Family, and Child Photography.
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