The best way to get photos of your family is to take your camera with you wherever you go!

I often have to remind myself of this, because during the cold winter months when I’m hunkering down and doing all sorts of cosy winter activities like putting together jigsaw puzzles and playing video games… I don’t even think about taking photographs.

But when spring comes, something in me awakens.

This is the power of a candid photography session.

For any parent who is undecided about documentary photos a.k.a. candid photos, I hope this demonstrates why it is so much easier (especially for toddlers) to have a candid session than it is to have a post session.

Toddlers just want to get on with their fun play. They don’t want to be sitting still or being told what to do. They don’t care if there’s a photographer who is taking photos, as long as they don’t have to change what they’re doing for the photographer :) And that’s exactly what a documentary family session is all about. Letting the kiddos play and do their thing, and just going with it, and capturing THOSE photographs.

Now, having said all this, we did manage to get a few photos of Jude not crying in the group photos, an

So many memories were lived and captured there.

So it was only fitting that we would be photographing it one last time, as her own son celebrated turning two.

I met them in Newburgh on a beautiful sunny day in June.

Soren was at the age where toddlers are both curious and a little bit shy.

The first photographs we took are of him clinging to mom’s leg, which is completely expected at this age <3 And also adorable.

Picking meaningful family activities to photograph

The first question we always discuss with families is: “what should we do during our photo-session?”

Lots of families already have pretty solid ideas of what they can do to spend some time together, while I snap the photos. Some families aren’t sure. That’s okay, too. This is why we have a fun consultation before even putting pen to paper (by which I mean… booking a session 😜 no actual paper is involved, it’s all online).

I made the trip back to Mississauga last weekend, during some kind of migraine-inducing pressure system that drove temperatures in mid-October to 24 Celsius. It was just as well, because Isabel's son was recovering from croup and the warm humid air was probably good for him. (Just guessing. I'm not a doctor.) They'd moved in to a new house only two weeks ago. Grandma and grandpa were visiting from Colombia, and they were hoping for some photos to take back with them. So, a busy time for them, and yet they made time for me.

When it was time to end the journey, we had a similarly limitless amount of possibilities to come home to. Canada, the vast. 

We chose a place close to my family. A place we could pursue another dream: living on the land, having sheep and chickens and all the rest, and green fields for the kids to thread their bare feet through. There was never really much of a question. Even if it meant walking away from academia.