For many many years I have felt a push-pull in the family space. I have such adoration for capturing every milestone or just because type approach to people's lives but I lacked alignment in a lot of ways. It's because of this that I take a very firm stance in what ways I take on family sessions. It's easy to say articulate to those who inquire about these that I'm not going to be super posey & what we all grew up believing a family session to look like--but it's far deeper than that when it comes to my approach.

For a long time it was adequately articulating what that meant or why I felt the pushback from it internally. I realized it's because it is a sector of photography that’s so engrained in subconscious perfection. Even in candid prompt-driven vs specifically posed and styled—there is still an element of feeling like I was too involved when I wanted to feel removed & to truly capture people in their element. This takes your ability to remove what you know & what you've lived of what it's supposed to look like & replace it with the understanding that all it requires is trust and the ability for you to lean in. This means letting the control go.

Let the kids be feral. Don't worry about the sticky fingers or stains on the shirt. The reality is that our children grow right in front of our faces but because we are so busy noticing the present--we dont realize until we look back how much they've changed along the way. So I realize there is a time and place for clean shirts & standing still--but remember that a year from now so much will change & we'd give anything for those sticky fingers and feral moments. Allow yourself to live in those moments & with release of control--your children will THRIVE. They will have space to be them vs contain themselves to be what we want/need them to be.