What is lifestyle family & newborn photography?

“Lifestyle family photography” and “Lifestyle newborn photography” are pretty popular terms these days.  But every photographer seems to interpret the meaning slightly differently.  

Wikipedia defines it as “a genre of photography that mainly aims to capture portraits of people in situations, real-life events or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday. The primary goal is to tell stories about people’s lives”  

And that’s definitely a good jumping off point — with both newborn and family photo sessions, my goal is to tell your family’s story.  A large part of that is capturing the emotional connections between family members.  To do that, I set up “poses” (loosely using the term) and then give prompts to help create a moment that will remind you of the emotions you feel at the time when you look back at the images I capture.  

A true documentary style is entirely hands-off — the photographer is just a fly on the wall capturing life as it unfolds, and lifestyle is something I think of as both in between documentary style and traditional posed portraits, but also as me helping your family show your true selves in the best light (both figuratively and literally!).  My sessions are relaxed, playful, and fun — a mix of those in-between real-life moments and prompted joy.  

My sessions are also child-led.  What does that mean?  Does that mean we won’t get that holiday card photo or portrait for Grandma?  NO! It means that we will get there, but we will do that by following your child’s interests and lead — at a recent newborn session, the big brother wanted to play with his vehicles — he was totally obsessed — and had zero interest in being in a photo with his newborn sister.  So what did I do?  I pulled together some of his favorite vehicles, put them in a spot with great light, and put his sister in the middle — we got great shots of him interacting with her and looking lovingly at her (and happily at the camera) while he played and he was SO thrilled I had come to him he was then much more willing to try some of my ideas for more classic sibling shots as well.  When I come to your home for your photoshoot, I’m not there to declare The Right Way To Do Things from on high — it’s a collaborative process as together we figure out what makes your family tick and showcase that.