A lot of people think of portraits very traditionally — as head shots and photos with every member of the family facing the camera. These types of pictures have an important place in a family's photographic history because they tell the story of a person, or group of people, capturing their likeness so that in the future you can recognize family traits and see that your youngest child looks exactly like his great-great-grandfather. In fact, these are probably the type of photos you have of your ancestors.
But there is also another kind of portrait session that can tell a more complete story of your family. Many people call these lifestyle portraits or photojournalism style portraits; what is important about them is that they strive to capture more than just the likeness of person or group, but the dynamic interaction that occurs between a person and the world or a person and their family. These types of portraits can be shot in a traditional way — everyone placed or guided into position, as they might be in a traditional portrait, and allowed to talk an interact while the photographer captures those moments — or they can be done in a photojournalistic way — with limited or no posing, while a photographer observes and captures the story without interfering with the action of it.
I shoot portraits in a photojournalistic style because I feel these types of portraits tell more of the story of what it's like to be in a family; and, as a photojournalist, it is what I am best at.
Beyond just "portraits" these sessions can be a photographic story of an event — a birthday, a barbecue or planting the garden. These sessions lend themselves well to slide shows, storyboards, books and photo wall montages. These are the kind of photographs of my family that I cherish most because they remind me of not just who people are, but of what it is like to be with them.
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