Essex Documentary Photographer - 5 Reasons To Hire A Documentary Photographer For Your Next Family Pictures
In past years it was all about studio settings with boring or fake backdrops, which is so far from real life its utter madness. On-Location photoshoots then became the trend where families would head out to the middle of a field somewhere (great if this is where you live) soon after this trend died, Lifestyle photography became the new must have, but again it’s not quite as real life as it seems as it still semi posed and can almost have a commercial feel to them. Most family photographers usually adapt to these ever changing trends (including myself) and try our best to keep up them.
Family Documentary Photography
Photojournalism or documentary is like, real life…..like, FOR REAL, REAL LIFE. No hiding in a pretty field or in an all white studio, no posing, just as it is. There is no actual time limit when I’m shooting your family so that you can all start to relax around me and my camera. But, on average I tend to be with families between 2-4 hours. Normally, for the first half an hour I don’t even get my camera out of my bag, in fact, by the time I actually start to shoot the kids have forgotten I’m there to do a job, dad has chilled and mum is like my new BBF. I just love the chaos that is about to erupt around me. I love to capture it all. The good, the bad and the ugly….every last drop of real smiles, real laughter, and even real tears….100% real chaos.
So, here are my top 5 reasons why you should consider hiring a documentary photographer for your next family photography session.
#1 – You will have actual magical ‘moments’ for memories
The average studio family picture doesn’t really reveal much as far as memories are concerned. Not that there is anything wrong with this, I actually like to think that documentary photography will only compliment any studio sessions you have hanging on your walls. Family Documentary photography sessions will not only capture the best childhood memories but also the other little things that, had they not been frozen in time by some ones lens would soon fade and then completely forgotten (like the crappy shirt your son insists on wearing or how your daughter will only wear her skirt if she can put her welly boots on with it). If the kids are splashing in muddy puddles, I’ll probably be getting in there with them and capturing that shit. Digging for insects, getting dirty, jumping on trampolines, attempting to bake a cake etc, I’ll capture the lot…Exactly.How.It.Was.
I want you to think back to your childhood, your absolute favourite childhood memories…..do you have any photographs of them?
#2 – You’re never in the pictures
Chances are if you’ve googled ‘why do I need a documentary photographer’ you love capturing family moments, but you’ve suddenly realised that you’re never actually In the pictures or videos yourself. You get to look back at photos when you get the occasional reminder on social media, and more often than not its other people having all the fun. You might have the odd selfie, but it’s not the same as being in the photo itself. It’s like there’s hardly ever any interaction between the parent and the child. Hiring a family documentary photographer will allow these memories to be preserved to the whole family, not just the one that was behind the camera for that particular day. You’ll then have physical evidence that your kids did not in fact raise themselves and that you was a massive part of their upbringing!!
#3 – Children don’t like being told how to act, especially in front of the camera.
A family documentary photo session is so easy that you don’t even have to schedule it, so, let’s leave that and the posing, props and the googly eye bribes for the studio photographers! My job is to capture the REAL smiles and the REAL moments that YOUR family will be creating. Don’t put your kids in any special clothing, no special locations to scout and no activities to plan. Clients often worry that their life will be too boring to document, but the fact is that your everyday life is enough. And hey, if you have to take the kids grocery shopping….guess who’s going to be tagging along?? When you book me for a session, I am led by you and not the other way around, so the pressure will be off.
#4 - Your family photos will be unlike anyone else’s
Hands up….who scrolls and scrolls through social medial platforms and finds it ends up getting monotonous? When photography trends catch on, everyone’s family images can end up looking EXACTLY.THE.SAME. With documentary photography, where we shoot in and around your home or places special to you, it would be pretty hard to duplicate. Your home is your castle, and in that castle you’ll have all of your acquired treasures. I love it when your Gran’s hand crocheted blanket is draping over the sofa, or the children’s toys are permanently on display because the box you originally had to put them in is now over flowing and even those tiny little shoes that are thrown off by the front door. I’m probably the least judgemental person you could ever meet, so I really don’t see your wonky picture on the wall or the nail varnish stain on the carpet. Your home is perfect the way it is, and that exactly how I want to capture it. So lets show the world this, lets make your images stand out on social media (if you choose to post them on there that is) and stop them getting drowned in a sea of families in matching t-shirts!
#5 – Photo’s never get printed anymore
Just recently a friend of mine made the most of the recent covid19 lockdown enforcement and printed nearly a 1000 images from the past 15 years. She’s put them into frames and photo albums and said that it’s the best thing she has done for a long time. This got me thinking….how many photos do you actually print from all of those special occasions?
Heres some nerdy information for you…
It was estimated in 2017 that 1.2 TRILLION digital photographs were taken – yes 1.2 TRILLION. That’s a lot of zeros (11 infact) 1200000000000 and how many from that figure were actually printed?? Answer – approximately 37 billion, which sounds a lot, but when you take that from the 1.2 Trillion it still leaves us with 1163000000000 of unprinted images. Now I’m not saying for one minute that we need to print all of these images, but if you work it out, the average person is only printing 5 images per year. FIVE – im sure there are more than 5 memories in a year you would like to have a physical reminder of when you reach those ‘senior years’
So, with this new found info put to you, with every documentary session I shoot, you will receive 3 x 10”x8” prints of your choice, as well as a USB stick complete with uploaded high and low res images and a digital gallery.
