Yes, but... we don't do exciting things

Welcome back to my another episode of “Yes, but…” series where I take all the reasons people give me why documenting their family isn’t right for them. The thing is, you might be right. But… What if you’re wrong?

Documentary family photography captures your life as it is. No posing, no instructions. To me, that sounds really easy and simple. To you, that might sound scary.

“How do you take family photos without posing? What should we do? We’re quite boring on a daily basis.” I’ve heard this question before, quite a few times actually.

The answer is: You do whatever you want. Pretend I’m not there with my camera.

Not helping? Ok, let’s try this….

What would you usually do with your kids on a Saturday morning? Or a Wednesday afternoon?
Make breakfast? Take the dog for a walk? Do some gardening? Play games? Draw? Literally any of these activities are photo-worthy. THIS is what I can capture for you.

We have this idea of what family photos look like but let’s dare to be different. Let’s show these kids what their life looks like. No fake smiles, no posing, no fancy clothes. Because none of these things will be representative of their life – or yours. So why do we dress up for photos then? Why do we have to make “photo day” special?

By documenting normal day-to-day activities we teach kids that a photo doesn’t need to capture a special moment. It absolutely can but the majority of images that tell us where we come from, are candid moments that help us understand our identity.

So the question is not “What should we do during a photo session?”. It’s “What do we usually do that deserves being captured?”.

The underlying question isn’t even about what you want photos of. More importantly, ask yourself what you want (them) to remember.

If you talked to your child about a day in their life they really enjoyed, they might mention their last birthday party if it was fairly recent or memorable. But they might also just mention yesterday afternoon – when you picked them up from school, took the long way home to get ice cream and then played football in the park before heading home and preparing dinner together.

I challenge you to ask your children about their favourite days and their favourite activities. Listen closely. They will tell you what makes their days special. More often than not, it might not be the most exciting outings but the normal days where you just spend time together and do “boring” day-to-day stuff.