For me, I really strive for natural, authentic photographs of your family. I truly long to capture photos that will be enjoyed for years to come. Certainly not all beautiful photographs have to include smiles. Actually, I am trying to really embrace photos where there is not a smile. It is hard because we are sort of engrained with this concept of only photos that reflect happiness are good. But just typing that makes me realize how silly that sounds. I mean, life if full because of not only happiness, but seriousness, right…?? And a bazillion emotions in-between. Now look, you are not going to see a bunch of photos of sadness on here…not that those photos aren’t lovely and beautiful in their own right, but those are not the images **most** folks want and I get that. Nor or those really the kinds of photographs I want to take, besides the occasional ‘out take’ where someone is unhappy. I’ll most certainly get a few of those. ha!
Anyways, I do have a point here. Hang with me. If you have been around here even for a bit, you will quickly see that I am not the photographer who will offer you a million photos of everyone looking at the camera in every shot. While you can certainly find photographers that offer such, I am not ‘that’ photographer. I do try to get a few shots like that, of course. I enjoy photos where everyone is looking the camera as much as the next person. However, a good friend of mine recently made a very good point, which I had never realized before, but found so very true. I mentioned that there was just something very odd about a gallery of images where in every single photo, all the subjects were looking at the camera. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why it was odd, it just was.
Then she made a somewhat profound statement about such galleries.
The subjects are interacting with the photographer and not each other.
Wow! bam! Just like that…I was like, YES!! That is exactly what it is. That is why it seems odd to me. I am a family photographer! What I love most are connections and real emotion, which is much more than just a ‘smile’ or ‘happy face’ looking that the camera. I love my clients interacting with each other, not with me so much. Duh. I couldn’t believe I never got that before. Of course, there are exceptions…there are always exceptions such as individual photographs where I am most certainly getting my subject to react off me many times. But surely you get my point here. 😉
Which leads me to photos like this, that I do love so much. No one is looking at the camera, but yet it screams joy and emotion. Sure, it just so happens everyone is smiling in the photo, sure, that surely adds to the overall ‘happy’ feel of the photo, but it is more than that. It is full authenticity. And these are the photos that will no doubt be cherished for years and years to come.
And how about framing this lovely photograph in a 20×30 Organic Bloom frame. So nice, right?
{ birth, newborn, maternity, baby, child & family photography in Houston, The Heights, Montrose, Bellaire, West University, River Oaks, Rice Village, The Woodlands and Cypress, Texas }
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Houston Family Photography
