Greensboro Family Photographer
capturing wonder
all of the moments that make your family unique
Classic documentary family in-home Session
These are cozy, connected, funny, and what I hear the most “comfortable.” In-home family sessions are incredibly intimate, honest, and special. I offer up to 3 hours of coverage, and a printed book with these sessions. My hope is always to tell your family story in an authentic and compelling way, through photographs of wonder and connection.
This is the best way to get a well-rounded sense of your family story.
Much like a book (family memoir), there are chapters that occur throughout the year that reveal beautifully complex moments of joy, sadness, reconciliation, and humor. Some ideas for your session include- park adventures, birthday parties, graduation parties, funerals, anniversary milestones, getting ready for prom, 1st birthday, playing at home, going on a hike, or simply waking up and making breakfast together.
Capturing your stories, the shadows and the light, the stillness and the wildness, and the subtle ordinary moments are what family sessions are all about for me. With a sequence of days throughout the year, we will not feel rushed, time is on our side and it will allow for your story to unfold at its own pace (like it does every day.) The quirky moments that feel insignificant at the time, will be the most cherished photos in your collection.
Why would I need this? This experience, having honest, heartfelt representations of your family life, is priceless. Not only will you cherish these for a lifetime, but your children will, as will theirs... it's your family's story, and stories are forever.
seasonal- a short in-home session in your kitchen or common space.
I have only a few spots available for this offering, but it is 45 minutes of capturing one activity with your family in your kitchen/dining room. These can easily be used on a Christmas card or a small coffee table book. I want to share a glimpse of your family story.
Investment
Parenthood Sessions
These sessions are a glimpse into your world and typically these are used for:
Maternity
This session will take place a few weeks prior to giving birth. I recommend 32-39 weeks. These sessions will contain only photos that speak to the true nature of where you are in your journey. I have done families swimming (with an exposed belly,) walking through the woods (shadows on the bump,) hanging out in the living room connecting with your partner.
Every time it’s unique and personal to you.
Fresh 48
Documentary photographs that take place within the first 48 hours of your baby's life at the hospital, birthing center, or home.
I will capture all the little details, the wrinkles, the umbilical belly button, and all the tiny fingers and toes. I will also get simple, natural, portraits of baby. There is no posing involved with these photographs.
Parents (and siblings) are encouraged to participate by snuggling up to their newest family member and soaking up all the sleepy moments together. (This can also include the siblings meeting baby for the first time!)
Newborn/ Adoption Day
A great newborn window is 2 weeks - 6 weeks. It depends on what you would like in your photos. If you want some baby wrinkles or umbilical cord stump, plan on early on; otherwise, a 4-6 week window is great.
Furthermore, your family adoption day is a profoundly emotional experience, filled with anticipation, joy, and sometimes a bit of nervousness. For many adoptive parents, it's a culmination of a long journey, whether that journey involved months or years of waiting, paperwork, and preparations. Capturing these moments will be cherished for the rest of your life. The day you became a family.
When you finally get to bring your baby home, it often feels surreal. There’s the excitement of a beautiful new chapter starting and the deep sense of love and responsibility that instantly envelops you. These sessions are very intimate and allow you to be present and now have to worry about any type of documentation.
Nursing Session
If you know, you know.
It’s the tug at the top three buttons, the hand down the shirt collar, the “milk” sign squeeze of the hand over and over. The death grip on the tee shirt at all hours of the day (and night.) It feels like it will never end. And then it does. And all you want is for it to never end again.
That nursing experience for me was so complicated with my first, salty tears mixed with pain and confusion. My Second experience was tender, healing (and honestly, funny, I laughed so much!) But, with both I felt a deep breathless sadness when it ended. A sorrow that was tangled up in an even more complicated sense of relief. Am I alone? Can you relate?
If you are nearing the end of your nursing chapter with your little (or littles) and the weaning has already begun. Let’s sit, have a cup of tea, and document your final session together. This can be quiet and still. Or it can be a celebration. Whatever you need. These pictures are for YOU. They are for you to look back and remember this short season of your life that felt like forever. Now you can have those memories in an album forever.
Anniversary Session
If the last time you got special, intimate, and personal photographs of you and your partner is at your wedding- let’s change that NOW. There is so much emphasis put on your love and connection at your wedding, let’s continue that with updated photos later on!
These sessions start at $385 each
Or bundle 2 and save! $700
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The apprehension is extremely common. Doing a documentary family session is stepping out of the “traditional form” and making a leap of faith. Faith that this session is going to grip you, and everyone who sees your pictures.
You are investing not only on an album of beautiful pictures, or the carefully curated experience that you will get with me as your photographer, but you are investing in a feeling. The feeling of who you are, what you were going through, and how you are connected at this point in time.
If you would like to know more, take a look around the website at some of the testimonials. Click through some of the galleries. Or if you would like to know more, I would love to connect with you and see if we are a good fit! I can also share a little more about what the experience will feel and look like.
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I recently did a photo session with my partner that I left feeling uncomfortable and uneasy. They had me doing all kinds of prompts and games, and things that J and I would never normally do in real life. It was stressful. If I thought about that experience as “all photography experiences” then I wouldn’t want a photographer in my house for8+ hours either!
Happy to say, sessions with me will never feel that way. I don’t force anything, I capture what is already there, and try not to ever manufacture an untruth. I think of the session as writing your story. If I was writing your memoir I wouldn’t say “ well do you want to do a chapter about going to the zoo on 4th of July. I know that never happened but I think it would make a great chapter,” no that would be ridiculous! The same applies to my photo-taking. I would never say “hey want to pretend XYZ and smile while you're doing it!”
ITo the skeptics I say: I will blend into the scenery, most of my clients forget I’m even in the room. If your child has a meltdown, or if your teen needs some privacy, the beauty of a full day or half day session is we have time on our side. It will all work out.
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I often think back to wedding photos. We don’t think twice about investing in wedding photos. We spend money for the entire experience. The expertise, the organization, the meetings leading up to the date where the photographer gets to know us, our desires, and what makes us- US. YET, we never think about that experience when it comes to family photographs. Those albums are beautifully curated and meticulously put together. Think of these sessions like a wedding album.
The investment is about the entire experience. You not only get a full day of coverage with images that are so incredibly personal and unique to your family, (photos that look like no other album,) but you will have two meetings with me before the experience, and a meeting afterwards where I will help to suggest which photos should go in your album, and help to tell the best story.
I shoot in both digital and film, which delivers a depth that I have always loved.
Are professional family photographs a necessity? Only if you think remembering your family history is a necessity. This experience, having honest, heartfelt representations of your family life, is priceless. Not only will you cherish these for a lifetime, but your children will, as will theirs... it's your family's story, and stories are forever.