Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Life. Documenting.

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(Super yummy Greek salad with chicken!  The girls loved it.)

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Unintentionally, this past week, I happened to stumble upon a few articles regarding documentary photography.  It appears that this could possibly be a new trend in family photography - you hire a photographer to capture images of your family, completely unposed, documentary style.  Well, I did read how one photographer suggests you plan for a specific activity with your client ahead of time.  I'm not quite sure that qualifies as documentary photography though.  Maybe a hybrid.  So I'm not sure if all this talk about documentary photography is good or bad.  I hate photography trends because they come and go so fast and next thing you, that trend is so two years ago and everyone is avoiding it like the plague because god forbid you aren't trendy.  I try to avoid trends but documentary photography has always been my thing.  I'm still tossing around photography ideas in my head and if I were to ever go the family photographer route, I would offer documentary photography sessions.  You want beach photos?  Great.  I'll photograph you on the beach but I'm not going to pose you.  Be yourself.  The issue with this is that I believe the majority of people who hire a photographer want posed photos.  It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend or not.  In the meantime, I'll continue to document us.  It's what I do best.     

5 comments:

Christi said...

I agree. People think they want "natural" photos but then say 'oh if only he was smiling and looking at the camera"
Really they all want group poses on the beach wearing matching white shirts and jeans. LOL

Love all the different ways you captured your girls reading around the house.

Bree at Clarity Defined said...

"You want beach photos? Great. I'll photograph you on the beach but I'm not going to pose you. Be yourself. The issue with this is that I believe the majority of people who hire a photographer want posed photos."

This. This is exactly the problem I run into. I've always been a more "candid" photographer and posing people feels forced and unnatural to me, but people also want to be posed. They want that "Christmas card" shot. I try to balance between both in my sessions because real life and real relationships are interesting and kids are more relaxed.

Unknown said...

I love your style of photography, i think its great and you're great at it....let the trends come and go, lovely photos sarah.

Merks said...

I definitely prefer documentary photography and capturing my kids in their element. That's not to say we don't do the posed photos, too, because we do those as least twice a year to share with family and for me to get a good family shot (since we don't hire photographers). I love your photography and have since you were on thebump.com.

Marcia (123 blog) said...

Do you follow Tara Whitney? She does that documentary style photography really well.

I adore your photography of your girls, especially as they age. Yours are a few years ahead of mine and I've seen how much more creative one has to be as they get older :)