I think we put too much pressure on family photographs. We plan around the weather, search for the perfect location, coordinate everyone's clothes, and hope the children cooperate. Somewhere in all that preparation, it's easy to overlook the place where everyone is already most comfortable: home.

Family snuggles on a cozy sofa as a mother cradles a sleeping newborn while a curly-haired toddler leans in to touch the baby's hand.

I've always loved photographing families outdoors, and I don't think that will ever change. But lately, I've been thinking more about the difference between taking beautiful portraits of a family and telling a family's story.


I can take you to a beautiful park, find the nicest light, and take photographs of everyone together, but there's only so much I can learn about your family in a place that I've chosen for you.



A toddler in a striped shirt browses vinyl records in a wooden storage cabinet while an adult stands nearby in a bright living room.
Parents playfully swing a toddler upside down in a bright living room with a plaid curtain, cozy gray sofa, and colorful toys.

Think about how much of ourselves we put into the place we live. The hours spent painting a nursery, choosing the furniture, and picking out the first books we'll read to our children at bedtime. We put so much thought and care into making these spaces feel like home. And over time, they become the places our children know most intimately. The rooms where they feel the safest, where they learn and grow, where countless ordinary days accumulate into a childhood full of extraordinary memories.



Parents playfully swing two laughing children upside down in a sunny backyard with a wooden playset, red slide, and soccer ball.

I don't think your home needs to be particularly beautiful or perfectly put together to deserve a place in your photographs. We spend so much time looking at carefully curated versions of other people's lives that it's easy to forget how little of what we see reflects the actual reality of living. The laundry waiting to be folded, the toys scattered across the floor, the familiar clutter of a home that's lived in. I think there's something far more meaningful in documenting life as it is.


Maybe your family spends Saturday mornings making pancakes. Maybe your children love helping in the garden, or your dog insists on being involved in everything. Maybe there's an old camper in the driveway that's waiting for your families first adventure. I want to document those things because they're a reflection of who you are, the things you love, and the life you're building together.

A bearded man and a woman in an orange dress hold a baby beside a vintage green van with a pug on the grass.

There's so much meaning behind photographs where our lives have taken shape. Because one day, the things that seem so ordinary to us today will be the very things we wish we could see and feel again.

Smiling family of four hugging in a bright kitchen as a father and mother hold a toddler girl and a sleeping newborn baby.