Ever looked at those glossy magazines such as Hello or Grazia and thought ‘wow that family looks perfect’. They’re sitting there with the perfect smile looking at the camera; everyone is colour coordinated in pastels. The little girl has the perfect ponytail, each strand of hair where it should be; the boy has that perfect side parting and is wearing a bright white jumper. The mother has beautiful, perfect dewy skin and is wearing four inch heels and the dad is looking dotingly at his beautifully, picture perfect family….
But wipe away all the gloss and studio glamor and you’re left with far from a ‘polished’ picture. Family life just isn’t the staged picture we see in magazines creating a fake story of just how wonderful family life is.
As a mamma let me tell you, being a parent is possibly the best, hardest, most rewarding, exhausting, job I have ever done in my life. Most days it’s a toss between brushing my teeth or having a shower, eating breakfast or emptying the dishwasher, hanging out the washing or making the bed. I’m lucky if I get to slap some moisturiser on my face let alone put a full face of makeup on! I’m curranty worried about where I’ll find the time to brush my hair when the weather is too warm to wear a woolly hat.
And don’t get me started about Noah. He only ever sits still when he’s strapped into his highchair. He always has a snotty nose from a cold, yogurt in his hair from where he’s rubbed his spoon in his hair and a wet bottom from where he’s dramatically thrown himself on the floor in the rain and thrown a tantrum because I won’t let him play with my mobile phone.
Sound familiar?
But why is it some photographers want to slap a family photoshoot with gloss and wrap it up in all that studio perfection? What’s wrong with showing our beautiful family just as it is?
When I capture your family on camera, I’m not interested in rubbing out the truth, creating an illusion or a makeshift story. That’s just not what family means to me. I want to photograph the real, the raw and everything that makes your perfectly imperfect family so…perfect. After all when you look back at you’re photos after your tribe has flown the nest, what do you want to see – A ‘nice’ staged, perfect family photo, or a characterful and soulful photos that shows personality and connections?
If I sound like the photographer for you, get in touch and let’s chat.
