There are two styles of photography that I love capturing: lifestyle and documentary photography. Both of these tell someone’s story in real ways and take the stuffiness out of formal portraiture. While there can be a few similarities, there are some vast differences that a client needs to know before booking a session.
Lifestyle Photography
The style that has risen in popularity in recent years is lifestyle photography. This genre of photography is one that aims to capture the subjects in real-life situations. While these sessions can be done in a client’s home or space, this style can also be utilize outdoors and in a studio. The subjects are arranged in a natural or informal way to not get that “posed” feeling. Often photographers will use prompts to garnish giggles, laughter and smiles in a relaxed way. For instance, “Snuggle and share why you love each of your family members.” While a lifestyle session will include moments of looking at the camera, the beauty is in the in-between and candid moments. During a lifestyle session a family might play a favorite game together, cuddle on a couch, bake cookies or read a book.
I enjoy capturing lifestyle sessions because it’s a lot more natural looking and fun. Instead of leading my clients by detailed posing, I use prompts and capture the natural moments. I think of it as capturing common family moments in a polished way.
Documentary Photography
While lifestyle photography is a step closer to real moments, documentary photography is where they actually are, real life moments. Documentary photography has long been used in reporting. During a true documentary session, the photographer is completely hands off. The photographer’s task is to capture the accurate depiction of the events, people and places. Some common instances when documentary photography is used is to capture the wedding ceremony, a birth story or a day in the life session. One common misconception is that you have to have everything put together, or the other extreme, nothing together. Regardless of if you want to do your hair or not, the whole point to is to capture real events in your day.
Documentary photography is something new I’ve begun to dabble in over the last couple of years, first capturing birth stories and now putting together a storyteller collection of options for those clients who want more hands off. These sessions beautifully combine my background in journalism with my photography into a piece of art. I love capturing real and authentic moments that are genuine and sincere.
These two genres of photography provide a way to capture real, unfiltered moments. Some sessions I sometimes oscillate between these two like for an event. These two styles are my favorite and believe they breathe life into a photo, sometimes in an unexpected way!
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