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Portrait & Lifestyle Photography Sessions: two choices for your family session

When it comes to photography sessions for your family, I offer two different styles to choose from: Portrait & Lifestyle. Many photographers only offer one or the other, but I love them both too much to choose between them!

Portrait sessions take place outdoors, usually at a park in and around Fairfield County, CT. If you’re interested in booking this type of photoshoot, I have a number of favorite locations to suggest. I’m very particular about lighting for portrait sessions, and so I generally schedule them only in the evenings, about 90 minutes before sunset. This timing is crucial for that gorgeous flowy, golden light for your family’s portraits! The focus of these sessions is (as the name would indicate) awesome portraits of your whole family.

Alternately, Lifestyle sessions take place at my client’s homes, and are in general a more casual and candid approach to a photography session. Lifestyle sessions tell the story of a family’s life, including details about your home, your favorite activities, and your kids’ toys. The goal in these sessions is to document a slice of a family’s everyday life, and is less focused on a wide variety of everyone-looking-at-the-camera portraits.

Are you considering a Lifestyle Family Session this year? Here are five reasons why this option might be perfect for your family:

1. Family Lifestyle Sessions take place at your house

You might choose Lifestyle because you like the idea of being at home. Perhaps you’ve spent a lot of time and energy to make your house a home you all enjoy. Or maybe you’ve just moved into a new place (or are getting ready to move out of a house) and you want those memories captured.

If the goal is to freeze time on your life as it is right now, there’s no better place than your home. If you’ve ever felt nostalgic when you seen a snapshot of your childhood kitchen, backyard, or bedroom, you’ll know just how special is to capture this backdrop for you and your own children to look back on.

I like to take pictures in kitchens, living rooms, and playrooms, and wherever your family tends to spend their time. Kids’ bedrooms are a favorite, as they show better than anything the age and stage (and interests) of each child.

Weather permitting, I shoot both indoors and outdoors. The family featured here chose to focus a lot of the session outdoors, because they have active, sporty kids that love playing in the yard and on the driveway.

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2. You want to document your family’s favorite activities

Lifestyle sessions are awesome for this! Whether your kids are into bubbles or boardgames, lacrosse or board books, lifestyle photography sessions are perfect for showcasing what your family loves to do together. I always touch base with clients ahead of time to discuss what these activities might be, so we can form a loose plan for the photoshoot. I always give direction on where to set up the scene and what families might want to do, but then can hang back and capture real-life moments between parents and kids, brothers and sisters. For this session we had a great time with soccer, Chinese Checkers, puzzles, and hoverboards. Each session is 100% tailored to each family, so no two sessions look alike.

3. Lifestyle Photography Sessions are A way to freeze time on your family’s life

If you’ve ever wanted to press pause on your family life, a lifestyle session is something to consider. Like many parents, I’m often struck with how fast my life with little kids seems to go (despite many long days and sleepless nights!) Daughters who once loved princess dress-up parties, are now more interested in Roblox and Harry Potter. Wooden train tracks and race cars have given way to Pokemon cards and soccer balls for my son. Lifestyle photography allows me to freeze frame time on a family’s real life as it is that day, capturing the little precious details and moments that I know parents will look back on with fondness and nostalgia. Lifestyle sessions are memory keepers, plain and simple.

4. The time of day is flexible for a Family Lifestyle Photography Session

While portrait sessions are mostly only offered around sunset, a lifestyle session is a lot more flexible on timing. Perhaps your toddlers go to bed early, or your work schedule is such that a 10am photoshoot is preferable to something in the evening? Lifestyle would be an excellent choice for you.

5. You’d love a beautiful keepsake album (that someone else designs!)

In a world of digital overwhelm, my clients love the thick-paged, lay-flat premium albums that are included in most JW Brown Photography packages. These are keepsakes, sturdy enough to weather the many hands that will page through them, and beautiful enough for any coffee table.

The more I’m in this profession, the more I worry that digital images are in danger of getting lost to changing technology, hard drive crashes, and time. After all, will someone in 30 or 50 years comb through my old hard drives for pictures of me? Will they even be able to? I think it’s unlikely.

I can also appreciate that designing an album can be overwhelming, too! Many of us have great intentions to create photo albums, but it’s easy to put that task low on a priority list. For these reasons I take the overwhelm off of my clients’ plates and design an album for them with the images from their gallery. After I design a first draft, I meet with clients over Zoom to make any desired tweaks or changes. A gorgeous custom album arrives at their home just a few days later.