The Documentary Family Photography Experience

There are a million tiny details that make your lives and relationships extraordinary. The most ordinary of activities can have the most intimate of moments. Bath and bedtime, a family meal, a walk in the park. Your kids and your relationships with them are unique, quirky, funny, sweet, exasperating and definitely not boring!

It takes some time for self consciousness to fall away and for everyone to feel comfortable enough to be themselves. I won’t be posing or directing you during our time together, and we just let the moments unfold. The more time I spend with you the more the photos will reflect the soul of your family. That is why my shortest session is 2-3 hours. Even this often feels too short!

4-5 hours is the sweet spot for really getting into who you are. And if you’re really all in then a full Day In The Life is the ultimate in telling your family’s story.

On the very odd occasion I offer shorter sessions to my current clients and newsletter subscribers. Sign up if you’d like to know when they happen.

That is one of the beauties of documentary family photography. You don't have to change any of your routine plans, postpone your errands or find a time when everyone is free. Whatever you're doing, let me tag along.

Is it an afternoon T-ball game for one kid while the other, who refused to get our of his pajamas this morning, runs around the park finding snails? Great! I'll join you. No time to leave the house because you have a zillion loads of laundry to do, your two year old is potty training and your eight year needs help with homework?. Awesome, I'd love to come hang out.

A documentary session happens around a specific event, or it can slot right in with your daily plans. 

I have been in many families’ intimate spaces and seen a vast and sparkling array of behaviors. I’m also the parent of a small but mighty firecracker. Believe me when I tell you I have seen it all, I am not fazed and I am not judging.

I hope, in fact, that your kids do not behave for my sake. I have made many photos of children (and parents) having a hard time. Those photos are honest, sweet, sad, often funny and revealing of your own parenting strength and composure.

Bring it on, I say!

Absolutely! You don’t have to have a whole brood of walking, running kids to have a day worthy of capturing. The ease of a documentary session is perfectly suited to a new family adjusting in the early days. Typically for a single newborn I would suggest a 2-3 hour session. If you want to include extended family then a longer session works too. You can get a sense of how a newborn session works here.

Yes! It is SO important to have grandparents and beloved pets and friends included in the family album. There is no extra charge for more bodies, but everyone present must agree to be photographed.

Traditional, no. Portrait, yes. If you’re wanting a picture where you are together and all looking at the camera (or at least some approximation of) we can spend a few minutes of your documentary session making a family portrait. It won’t be stiff, you might not all be smiling, but it will be filled with the personality of your family.

There is no right time. The right time is now. The right time is tomorrow. The right time was yesterday. There is never a moment that your life is not worth being lovingly captured. Good times and harder times. They are all your history. They are all worthy.

Yes! I do travel. This Austin family photographer is also an anywhere-you’d-like-to-travel-me-to photographer. Think Texas, across the USA, and all around the globe. I’m particularly fond of going back to New York to catch up with old friends and clients. Want me to come to Ohio? Sure! Tell your friends and neighbors to book a session too. If I’ve got more than one session in a place then travel fees go down.

I charge travel fees outside of a 40 mile radius of Central Austin. The fees depend on the distance, time and transportation required. Get in touch with me for more details.