if the suggestion of taking photos at home
raised your blood pressure, that would put you in the 90th percentile of families who end up hiring me to take photos at home. For really-reals!
The biggest concern prospective clients have about about photos at home is.... home! Extenuating circumstances are common: a recent move, a zip wall, a recently flooded basement, a tiny apartment space, a door the new puppy destroyed, the list goes on. But if you have viewed my portfolio you have already seen all of these things without knowing you saw any of these things.
Transition is normal, we're just programmed to think everyone else somehow has it more "together" than we do. (Trust me, we don't.) No offense to your space, I'm sure its really nice, but isn't the star of the show anyway.
I try to see your home as your children see it or will someday... not as an editor from Better Homes and Gardens. I see your home as your respite, your safe space and the hub of your life. I see the scene of new beginnings and I understand that your home is a work in progress just like mine. I don't take your trust in me lightly: I know that it's very vulnerable to let a photographer into the inner sanctum.
You may be wondering, why I bother if it's such a hard sell? Because I want your photos to bring it all back to you, year after year, anytime you view them. I want you to feel the season of their arrival, I want you to smell their new baby smell and hear their breathe go in and out as you both sack out on the couch. I even want for you to remember the hardship and monotony of long days and nights and to feel all the mixed up emotions that were bouncing around your chest. There is no other time like this, where the planet skipped right off its axis and realigned somehow.
Can you tell that this family moved in just before their son was born or that he surprised them by coming a week early? I'm fairly certain that all you see is love, connection, wonder, partnership, care and a beautiful baby. We took a few photos outside to remember the lush, cicada-song season that will accompany his birthday each year.
I know that these photos have a value that builds as time passes, as homes change, as life changes. I know we made visible memories that Baby F can't make for himself but will now be able to see and know one day. And you can't make that happen in a studio. - as perfect and tidy as it may be.
L & N, congratulations and thank you for inviting me into your beautiful new home and for trusting me to capture this time with Baby F! I already can't wait to see him again!
XO, Mel
























