Lifestyle Photography Why you should book a lifestyle photography session over a traditional portrait
Do your parents keep a stack of albums on their shelf, and do you still flip through them now and again when you visit them? You know those old albums with the off-white pages and the sticky adhesive holding your photos together? Do you ever take them out of the album and look for the dates either printed or handwritten on them, to see when they were taken, and how old you would have been in that photo?
Which pictures take you back?
I bet it’s not the picture where your mum made you sit nicely and smile at the camera.
I bet it’s the photo where you’re holding your favourite teddy, or the one where you’re playing with your favourite toy that you got for your birthday. I bet it’s funny one where you’re giggling uncontrollably about something you no longer remember, but maybe your dad is right next to you. What about the one of you and your siblings playing at the beach that summer? Your favourite beach? And you’re wearing some cool (or ridiculously dated) swimsuit and you’re squinting because it was so sunny that day?
The most precious photos hold the memories that we also hold so dear, but even more so, the ones that slipped away from us while we were busy living.
Over the years the photos would turn yellow and the colours would fade. Your Optimus Prime and your Strawberry Shortcake are gone and you wish you still have them to pass down to your children, but at least you got a photo of it before mum took it to the op shop.
Do you see a photo of you snuggling your mom as a small child, your mom looking at you as you look at your children? Do you see a photo of you and your Dad doing something special together, be it fishing, building something in the garage, or just having a plain old tickle fight?
These are the moments that most of us treasure. So why not make sure somebody captures them, so Mum can be in the photos as well? (Because Dad hardly ever thinks to take a photo when he’s busy having fun with his kids.)
That is why you should book a lifestyle session. Don’t worry, you will still get nice photos of the whole family with everyone looking at the camera and smiling, but it won’t be all you get. You’ll get the real moments too to make that album that your children will one day cherish.
All the milestones
lifestyle maternity sessions
There are two kinds of parents. One will say that their normal lives either ended when they had kids; while the other will say that their life never truly started until they had kids. Either way, becoming a parent is undeniably one of the biggest milestones you’ll reach in your life. A lifestyle maternity session celebrates motherhood (and parenthood) by capturing a mother’s natural beauty without the fancy dresses or the awkward poses. Just you, your gorgeous growing belly, and your partner.
birth photography
Ask any mum and they will say one of the happiest days of her life was the day her baby was born. For me personally, it was happier than even my wedding day. I saw and touched my baby for the first time and immediately realised that I hadn’t known true love before that moment. Giving birth is one of the most important and amazing things a woman will do in her lifetime. The pain can make labour feel like it’s never going to end, but as soon as it’s over, we always wish we could feel that moment of meeting our baby all over again. And that’s why a photographed birth will ensure that the important moments are preserved so you can look back on it when those sleep-deprived nights of endless cluster feeding are way behind you.
lifestyle newborn sessions
Lifestyle newborn sessions are the perfect way to document your baby’s first memories in your home in a relaxed way. The first weeks spent with your newborn at home is precious and fleeting. They feed and sleep day and night; that’s how they manage to grow so fast. A lifestyle session captures your life as new parents. The memories I aim document in your lifestyle newborn session are your baby in his nursery, a bath (you’d be amazed at how few people have pictures of this adorable experience), feeding your baby, rocking him or her to sleep, and hanging out in your home as a family. During these sessions, I will capture your family in a way that you can look back on and remember how you really were. Pets and siblings can comfortably join in parts of this session and go back to their normal activities when finished. Little to no posing is done in-home, just gentle and relaxed direction, which allows for natural connection and interaction to occur.
lifestyle child sessions
Lifestyle sessions capture your child in their element. We plan this session totally around their interests, so the planning stage can be nearly as fun as the session itself. Think about your child’s favourite hobby, sport or art outlet. It can certainly be as simple as playing with their bestie, swimming at their favourite swimming hole, playing tea party with a sibling, or doing whatever your child does, right at home.
Save those moments that only you as parents get to see, with professional photos. You want to treasure photographs of your child with their real smiles, playing with real toys of their own, in the home that your child is growing up in. This lifestyle session is sometimes best booked to mark your child’s age or milestone. You will look back at the photos and remember your children as they were at that age. And decades from now when they have long forgotten, your kids will ask you, “Mom, what was I like as a child?” “Where did we live when I was little?”, and you’ll be able to show them.
lifestyle family sessions
Family sessions immortalise your family bond. Documenting your family’s favourite activities in natural settings captures your family at a frozen moment in time, with you parents in them! How many photos do you have of your kids, and how many of those are you actually in? Selfies don’t count. I’m talking about candid photos of mum and kids reading in bed at night, mum making her famous dessert in the kitchen with kids licking the whisk… We can’t always count on dad to document them all. I’ve photographed families take fun walks on the beach, make a camp fire to roast marshmallows, play in their favourite creek, or simply cuddle up to one another and share a loving moment. Some candid moments might not be picture perfect like the ones you see in magazines (or on social media these days!) but I promise you they will be personal and meaningful, capturing real dynamics between family members, and they’ll be just perfect.
Get in touch and book your lifestyle session today. x