Leigh Ball - Family Photography

Lifestyle photography tells a story of how life could be, documentary photography tells a story of how life is. In Lifestyle photography, you get ready to look your best and have your family doing the same. The scene is staged or at least tweaked, activities and interactions suggested all of which can look good for the camera. Sometimes different lighting is used depending on your home or chosen location. In Documentary photography, nothing is moved or altered in any way. It’s a type of photo journalism, recording and preserving the way life actually is. The context is just as important as the people, the surrounds form part of the story. The interactions happen without direction from me. I won’t use additional lighting, I will move myself, rather than anything in your home to get the best images.

Your little person or people are learning, growing more independent, trying to express their true feelings in the best way they know how. To expect otherwise is unrealistic and honestly not fair. We often expect more from kids than we do of ourselves. There is no pressure or expectation for your child/ren to be anything but themselves. Depending on the age of your kids, you might like to tell them that I’ll be hanging out with my camera in your home. You can tell them that they can pretty much ignore me and just do what they normally do. You can also mention that I won’t be asking them to do anything in particular and I certainly won’t want them to be pretending to be anything they are not. That includes not pasting on a cheesy grin for the camera!

Where possible, I will meet you and your children before the day when I bring my camera with me. We can make friends, hang out and play for a while. I am a qualified early childhood educator with a gazillion years of experience with kids of different ages. When kids feel my genuine interest and are allowed to warm to that in their own time, they are free to just be themselves. Of course being in their own environment helps, it’s familiar and comfortable. Because I won’t be asking your kids to cooperate in any way, there is zero pressure on your little people. This approach avoids most issues but if you feel your child has a need that can be best met in a particular way, I’m all ears!

No stress, as there is no pressure for you or your child to be or act in a certain way, everyone is free to manage anything that happens in the usual way. I will be sensitive to everyone’s feelings and not add to any emotions that are being experienced.

You can do whatever you like. If you are normally organised in this way, you can go right ahead. If you are not and struggle just to get yourself and the kids dressed in something, anything, then no you don’t need to change that. If they get dirty, they can stay dirty or you can change them, whatever you would normally do. If they love that new fairy dress that they got for their birthday and want to wear it, they can. Remember this is a real life story, not a fabricated one.