Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago, Family Photographer | Adam, Karly, Eleanor, & Owen

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago, Family Photographer

Every year around Christmas time, I fall off the blogging wagon and end up with a backlog of shoots to blog, and well, this shoot is one from November 2019 that slipped through the cracks. I try really hard to blog most of what I shoot, with the only exceptions being senior sessions (because I don’t normally photograph them), mini sessions (because I have limits in the amount of images delivered), and event-ish things (like concerts, conventions, birthday parties, etc). The only reason I don’t end up blog a wedding or family session is 100% because I’m insanely busy and something has to give. Sadly, that ends up being blogging (I’m sorry to all of my November & December clients ever! ILYSM!!).

Now I know that you’re probably thinking I should give myself some grace and just let this shoot from 2019 go since it’s been well over a year. Normally I would, but this shoot was a pivotal one for me. This was one of the first shoots where I decided on purpose that I would not focus on posing, but on connection. That I would make intentional space for the children to be free to be, and allow the parents to not feel like they were doing it wrong because their children weren’t posing the way I asked/forced them to. I left that shoot feeling more refreshed and inspired than I had in years and vowed to stop making my work about me (my vision, art, fads, whatever), and make it more about my clients…how they are and how they interact with each other. I do still give some gentle direction here and there, or occasionally some interactive posing to alleviate the awkward “what-should-I-do-now-that-I’m-being-photographed” feeling (Oh man I relate to this so hard), but the heart of how I approach a shoot is no longer with a goal to create something to get likes on social media or to be pinned on Pinterest. Now I strive for images that accurately represent what is.

Sometimes at shoots, “what is” is a baby crying, or pouting and refusing to look at me because they barely know me. Sometimes it’s a toddler who wants to run when they “should” be standing still, or hold a stick for the whole shoot, or not kiss their sibling tenderly on the cheek. Sometimes it’s wanting to look at the camera and smile the whole time because it feels weird not to, but sometimes it’s looking anywhere but camera because it feels scary and vulnerable to do so. Babies cry, toddlers have their own ideas, people love or hate eye contact. These are facts of life not confined to the hour in which they’re being photographed and are therefore worthy of remembering. They stand individually as little glimpses of a whole person. They make the images that, in no time at all, house the dear memories of the way it used to be.

So without further ado, here’s a sweet family that I photographed back in November, 2019.