March 19, 2011

Getting “Real Life” in Lifestyle Photography


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Slice of Life. Photojournalism. Lifestyle Photography. What exactly is it? I daresay, it’s different things to different people. But to me? Within my own family, it’s quite elementary: lifestyle photography is simply taking pictures of my family doing what they do.

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It’s not setting up a shot.

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It’s not asking anyone to look at me.

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It’s not asking anyone to look away from me (smirk).

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It’s not POSING anyone in any way, shape, form.

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It’s not tidy-ing the surrounding first.  In fact, it embraces the details in the mess.

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It’s simply, only, documenting a moment happening (for real!!) with a photograph. That’s it.
When I’m taking pictures for clients, I’m aspiring to the same level of authenticity as my own family pictures. The difference being, that since I don’t live with my clients, I don’t have the luxury of waiting indefinitely for the moments to unfurl as they may. A “lifestyle” session may last for a day or even just a couple hours. However, I do still have similar personal standards for lifestyle photography with my clients: no POSING, no “styling” (I realize this standard of mine would make some photographers gasp in shock & horror), no asking that anyone look at me and smile …

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You see, photojournalistic type photos are really truly NOT about me or my vision

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… lifestyle images are ALL about the person/people being photographed. I’m far more interested in my clients being completely aware of each other and not so aware of me

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Because, at the end of the day, my ultimate goal is that my clients recognize themselves & their history, their story, their love, in the images we capture together.





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