Our feeds are full of golden hour summer landscapes and families frolicking in the grass, and although this is a lovely scene in its own right, is it real? Is this how you spend time with your family? Aren’t you hungry for imagery that speaks to the reality of your life instead of some idyllic fantasy?

I am.

But I wasn’t always. I used to think my reality was ugly. Raised in poverty where we often lived in shacks without running water or power, I thought my reality was garbage. I always assumed that because I had nothing, I was the exception in this, but now as an adult and a portrait photographer, I’m realizing that very few people recognize the beauty in their everyday.

Maybe they’ve never considered that their reality is beautiful.

It’s funny how you can see things more clearly when it’s someone else’s life. I now live in a beautiful home on an acreage; the kind of home I only imagined in my wildest dreams as a child. Yet when I

booked my own family session this past spring, I picked an outdoor location that my family rarely goes to, and dressed us up in perfectly curated outfits. Yes, the images were beautiful, but did they reflect who we are as a family? Not really. My photographer actually called me out on this (being the wonderful friend that she is). She said to me, “so you want raw and intimate images of your family but you booked a session in a field during golden hour. Why did you do that?” I realized then that I had blindly followed the established family session script, even though as an artist I was actively trying to go against it. She offered to reshoot. I said no, I love the photos (and I really do), but next year I will book an in home session and document the everyday moments that reflect the beauty of our reality; the morning snuggles in bed, the daily walks to sit under our Willow, and the livingroom dance parties, because those are the elements that make up my family, those are the memories I want to hold on to.

I learned a powerful lesson this summer; Unless pretty is a reflection of truth, I have no use for it in my images. And now that I live in a home I had only dreamed about as a child, I’m drawn back to the rugged simplicity of my childhood days and I’m constantly on the lookout for an old worn out building to shoot my kids in. There is beauty to be found in my impoverished upbringing that I couldn’t see when I was in it. So I started suggesting in-home sessions with my family clients as often as I could, or I asked my clients to tell me what they like to do together and then I followed them around while they did it, infusing creative elements along the way.

Utilizing urban areas is one of my favorite ways to illustrate the individuality of a family who spends much of their time in town. These are the families who go for walks together around their block, who go for ice cream, or who bike ride to nearby parks. Why aren’t we photographing these beautiful realities of our daily lives with our families? Could it be that we don’t think they are photograph worthy? That our reality isn’t pretty enough?

Or maybe we’ve been so over-fed families on golden lit hills that we’ve never considered that our family photos could be done any other way.