Lifestyle sessions are a newer type of photography. I would love to spread some knowledge and recognition about how wonderful these sessions truly are. I am so innately geared towards the natural, candid shots myself. Even when my kids were young I would just follow them around with my point and shoot camera like their personal paparazzi. They were young wanting to explore the world and were much happier when I wasn’t interrupting them every few seconds to "say cheese". These pictures were always the most dear to my heart. Capturing my children right where they are in that particular time of their life helped me to literally freeze part of them in that time and space.
Let's talk about that phrase "say cheese" for a second...
WHY cheese?
I find when I normally tell clients to "say cheese" they immediately give their best fake, perfect smile. Like life is all polished all the time, black and white. Let's be real, life is not like that. It is mostly grey, messy and absolutely beautiful. I am not saying your'e perfect fake smiles are not pretty, there is just something irreplaceable about genuine, natural facial expressions that show our real personality. I love raw, real emotions, they are life.
Pictures and feelings go hand in hand. The best photos are the ones you felt good while taking. It is not the moment of you in the picture you remember. It was the way you felt when the camera snapped and froze that moment.We are truly emotional driven beings who use feelings to convey who we are.
Lifestyle photography is a guided approach to capturing life. Where a photographer will pose or position you and then help guide you to interact with each other to make the most memories out of the scheduled time of your session.
As you grow older it gets harder to remember all the little details of your life and the people you love so much. Like that quirky face my daughter makes, it is definitely not a fake smile but it always makes me laugh. Or the Rico Sauve turnaround my son will hit you with when you least expect it. My daughter's features have changed over the years looking less like mine and more like a little of everyone else in the family. But those expressions of hers are mine through and through, in that moment I see myself reflected in her. I will forever cherish that connection. That is not the face she will give you though if you “say cheese", you have to lay in wait for it to come out naturally. These are the pictures I will look back on and truly remember the way she made me feel not just how she looks.
I know when I look back on my life I want to remember the honest, actual, messy, beautiful, real, raw emotions that we felt all the ups and downs and just absolutely real life.