For me, lifestyle family photography means that the photographer deviates from stiff and traditional portraits in order to capture deep and meaningful connections instead. You’re not usually looking for that wall art, but a collection of pictures from your time taking pictures of the family. Lifestyle family photography is about capturing the essence of a family. It is about documenting moments in their life story that are significant to them.
The most important part is capturing the emotions and connection between the family while helping them preserve the memories of their unique life story. Ideas for lifestyle photography focus on depicting a “piece of life.” A lifestyle photo session usually involves a family, especially the kids, doing typical family activities in an interesting way. Your job is to keep this family in action so that you give the viewer a sense of who the family members are and how they interact with each other.
A lifestyle photo session tells a story with a single image or a collection of images that don’t necessarily go together one after the other but give the viewer a sense of the life they’re looking at. For me, lifestyle family photography is about capturing the story of a family by documenting real emotions, real moments, and real situations through gentle guidance and moderation. Lifestyle family photography helps you freeze the moment and capture it forever in a natural, relaxed and authentic way. According to Wikipedia, “lifestyle photography is a type of photography that primarily aims to capture portraits of people in situations, real events or milestones in an artistic way and the art of everyday life.
One sentence or term you might see when doing your research is “lifestyle photography” or “lifestyle family photography.” A lifestyle family photographer gives your family something to do and captures the looks and emotions between you all as you get involved in the activity. A great lifestyle photo session offers some perfect shots that really give you an idea of what life is like with that family. Another school of thought views lifestyle photography as something that lies between true documentation (the fly-on-the-wall approach) and traditional posed portrait photography.
Jennifer Young specializes in family and newborn portraits in the lifestyle genre, which is a mix of traditional portraits and documentary photography.
References:
- The 12 Best Family Photographers in New York City – Peerspace
- Three Reasons to Love Lifestyle Family Photography
