1. We needed to be posed
One thing I learned from the amazing Elena S Blair is that lifestyle family photography is posed! It was something that took me a little while to grasp. How did photographers always take the most amazing images that look so candid and natural? It’s posing! We have to tell our subjects what to do. Even in lifestyle photography. This might mean sitting close together and telling your subject to look at each other. The toddler might be squirmy wormy so we might tell Mom and Dad to sing them a song.
We have to guide our subjects and what is created is unique to the family.
I love seeing images and thinking to myself, “wow I don’t know this would have happened if we didn’t do that”.
We were so comfortable with Allison. I had only met her once prior to our session and Chris hadn’t met her until our session. She posed us and made sure we had the fundamentals to make a lifestyle image. Even though this was the first time she had been to our home, she where to post us for the best light. She also kept saying “I want to see hands” and various ways of telling us that our hands needed to be in the frame. I want families to keep that in mind when I am photographing them as well -hands create connection!!
2. It took some practice to be ourselves
I mentioned that this was Chris’ first time meeting Allison and believe it or not he’s not the biggest fan of getting his photo taken. It took us being efficient with our time and making sure he didn’t have to stick around longer than he needed to. I am comfortable behind the camera and it actually does take some strategies for me to relax in front of a camera when a photographer is taking my photo! Since we had this lifestyle couple’s session in our home, it was comforting to have our home elements, which made it easier to be ourselves. Afterall, it is our living space. Chris and I have our own dynamic but a photographer isn’t always around to capture our relationship.
We had ideas of how we wanted our story to be told such as using color in our living room and seeing if our orange fatty cat Simba would participate. That is us.
It can be a little weird at first when someone is taking a photo of you being intimate with your significant other or your family but I promise it’s worth it.
3. It’s fun to use areas in our home a little differently
When Allison and I were first planning our lifestyle couple’s session we were trying to figure out the best place to take these photos. Did Chris and I want to go to a park or a local area? We really can be ourselves anywhere so a park would have been a fine place to have it but we decided on our home. We have been together for quite a while and made the leap to move from Atlanta to DC and thought it would be the perfect time to get photos taken of us in our home. Sure, it’s not all the way decorated (who am I kidding we haven’t hung our framed photos or set up the guest bedroom) BUT I knew if we waited until all those things happened we would have just put off the session until who knows when.
Don’t worry about cleaning every inch of your home. You can still have a session in your home. Done is better than perfect.
My ideas were to use our kitchen and bay window and Allison piggy backed on that and had us crouched into a little corner with amazing window panes and shadows. We got a variety in our kitchen! We also used areas of our living room because I’m all about whites and colors. I love both! So we wanted a warm, homey feel for some of the photos. We also wanted to spend some time in the bedroom just being ourselves. We have so much natural light in our home that we definitely took advantage of that and we were able to fill our gallery.
4. I got to view a different perspective
Each photographer has their own style of photography. Some photographers use elements such as leading lines, framing, or negative space. One of the reasons I love Allison’s work is because she tends to fill the frame and photograph close to her subjects. It’s something that I actually want to try more often now.
My photography style tends to be a little more wide so I can capture elements of the space such as a nursery or neat windows, but the image can tell a completely different story just based on how close or far away you are from your subject.
Most of my lenses are wide angle lenses but I feel I can be more creative with my use of lenses and how different an image can turn out with that change. One thing I also wanted to mention is that I had ideas in mind of how I wanted the photo to be taken which Allison completely did, and she also had more ideas of taking them from a different angle and using nontraditional framing that I absolutely loved.
If you’re a photographer I encourage you to be on the other side of the lens so that you’re able to see things from a different perspective and through another person’s lens.
Pun intended 😉
5. Any time is the right time to be photographed
I scheduled this session with Allison shortly after our move to DC. Allison and I are both lifestyle photographers and I was familiar with her work to know I was interested to book a session with her. Many couples tend to book a couple’s session with a photographer once they’re engaged (don’t get me wrong it’s an amazing reason to take photos!) but to be honest we had so much going on with the move and us starting new jobs that we weren’t really considering waiting until we were engaged to book a couple’s session. We are so happy with our decision to get these photos.
If you’re still reading this,
I wanted to let you know that CHRIS PROPOSED TWO WEEKS AFTER THIS SESSION!!
I had no idea it was coming and I actually have asked him a couple times why we didn’t just push the session back. I mean, he could have made up some excuse because he obviously knew he was going to do it. But he says “yeah right Tabitha, when you’re set on something there’s no changing your mind”.
And that is likely why we still got these photos done. Engaged or not. Ring or not. We are likely going to use some anyway until if and when we get “engagement” photos done.
If you’re thinking about the best time to schedule a photography session just do it. Don’t wait for the perfect time, don’t wait until your house looks like it does from the magazines, don’t wait until you lose a couple pounds. Just do it. Your future self will thank you for it.
Thank you so much Allison for taking these for me and Chris. We had so much fun with you and I can’t wait to photograph your family next month!
Looking to get some photos to tell your story? I am booking lifestyle newborn, lifestyle family, and fresh 48 sessions.