Bring The Camera Everywhere | flower mound family photographer

Seeing as I am dead set on documenting the small every day details of our lives, I learned early on to take my camera with me wherever we go. Now, I don't have my camera with me 24/7 because with three little kids, sometimes it just isn't feasible to take photos when we are out and about, especially if Brad isn't with us. However, I take my camera with me even to the weirdest places. I may get some funny looks, but whatevs. I don't really care! So, here are some examples of photos I have taken in random places...some more random than others.

1. Barber Shop
Having three boys with particular haircuts means we are at the barber shop almost every month. We usually see the same stylist so she probably knows me as 'the mom with three boys who always has her camera'. I have a ton of photos of these boys getting haircuts (or waiting for their turn), but I love them all!

2. Restaurants
We don't take the boys out to eat a lot because they tend to get antsy and they are picky about what food they like. So on the rare occasion we eat at the restaurant instead of taking it home, I have to snap some photos.

3. Doctor's Offices
These photos were taken in the waiting room of Matthew's speech therapists office, although I have been known to take several photos at the dentist office and try to entertain the boys with photos at the pediatrician's office. The dentist is pretty easy since they are contained to a chair, but the dr's office is more tricky since we are usually crammed into a tiny room without any windows. However, I still have that camera with me just in case I can get a good photo!

4. Library
We make it to the library for story time every once in a while, and the camera is packed along with our overdue books that we seem to always have at the house.

5. Random Sidewalks
Cool lines means photo op!

6. Grocery Store
Might as well seeing as we are always there and the boys eat a ton of food each week!

7. Tire Shop
Sometimes we have the boring errands to run, but a precious boy makes it more bearable!

8. Nursery

This is one of my favorite photos of the three boys together. Good thing I had my camera with me when we were shopping for flowers for the backyard! 

9. Parking Lots
On a foggy day, Thomas and I hung out at the back of the parking lot after dropping off Matthew at preschool. I managed to snap a couple cute ones in the ultra rare foggy weather in Dallas.

I have had an idea of a project where I shoot photos in completely random and even ugly spaces to see how creative I can be to make such settings photo worthy. I think I might start that one soon so check back and see how it turns out!

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

Happy Father's Day! | flower mound family photographer

Being that Father's Day is this Sunday, I thought I would send out a quick post celebrating these precious fathers. Of course I also have to mention that I am married to the most perfect person who is a loving father and we are lucky to have him in our family!

Happy Father's Day!!

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

Nana's Old Photos | flower mound family photographer

For as far back as I can remember, I have loved flipping through old photos. Looking through photos of my parents when they were little was fascinating to me. Looking through old baby books from my childhood gives a couple good laughs.  I distinctly remember loving to look through old drill team scrapbooks when I was in high school. Every photo is almost like a little mystery and behind the scenes look at what life was like at that time. Well, my mother-in-law, Diana, brought home several old photos from her family's farm house recently and while looking through them, I realized a couple things.

What I learned From Nana's Photos...

1. Meaningful Photos Don't Need to Be Perfect
If you look at my photos for all of 2 seconds, you will realized I am a documentary and lifestyle photographer. I absolutely love taking photos of the small moments, the every day occurrences, and loving interactions between people. Thankfully this style works well for photographing my three crazy boys. I take hundreds of photos of them a month and there is no way they will all be perfect. However, I love the imperfect photos just the same. When I looked at Diana's old photos, not one time did I think 'oh, this is a cute picture, but the lighting looks weird' or 'hmm...the composition is off on this adorable photo'. I simply enjoyed looking back to see what she looked like when she was younger, what the farm looked liked, what Brad's grandma whom I never met looked like, how silly my husband looked when he was young. Documenting your life in photos doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to capture the moments.

2. Write Down Descriptions

Like I said earlier, I take hundreds of photos of my family each month. Many times I make a book of photos online for a 6-12 month period. Due to laziness, I don't add any text to describe photos. I really need to start doing that because it was extremely helpful to look at these old photos with  simple descriptions. Dates, names, locations...I may remember where or when the photos were taken, but my grandchildren won't know if I am not there to explain it. I love the fact Diana's photos have her mother's handwriting on them. That makes it so much more personal and I would love my children and grandchildren to be able to see my handwriting when I am not around anymore. Perhaps we should start jotting down info on the back of the printed photos. I even thought about printing labels for the back of photos so I didn't have to write the same thing over and over again. Either way, adding info seems to be a must for passing down photos.

 

3. Print Your Photos
Haven't we heard this a million times? Print your photos! While I have some photos in a photo book, (and some photos printed individually and many more on a hard drive, but I digress) I don't think that is the same as being able to hold a single photograph in your hand. If you see in the photos above, these books don't have the photos displayed in any sort of fancy fashion. Yet, I didn't care when I looked through the pages. I wouldn't care if all the photos were in a shoe box. Simply, the photos need to be printed so they can be passed down to the next generations. I heard on the radio that our generation will be the most photographed yet least documented because people don't print photos as often. I need to bite the bullet and pay to get my thousands of photos printed!

4. Get In the Photo
OK, so maybe I didn't realize this tip from Nana's photos, but I feel I must reiterate how important it is to be in the photo. Be it by yourself, with loved ones, with children, with friends...YOU are important and need to be photographed. Your children want to know about you and your life. That means you need to get over the 'need to lose 15 pounds' issues and get in the dang photo.

Here is a photo of myself and my three boys. Guess what? I really don't like this photo of me for various reasons. However, I love that we all look happy, it is real life, and my kids will know I was hugely present in their lives and they are loved more than they will ever understand. That is what is important and why I am in photos with my kids regardless of how I feel about my appearance.

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

How Boys Play | flower mound children photographer

Last week after tearing the boys away from the ipad and cell phone, I found them playing in my bedroom. I have three boys so I don't have much to compare to, but I would venture to guess that boys playing is a bit different than girls playing. These two kids reminded me of little bear cubs that you might see on tv. They rolled around tugging, pulling, poking, laughing, pushing, and squealing. All day long I say 'Be careful!', 'Not so rough!', 'No hitting!', 'Be gentle!', 'Watch out for Thomas!', 'Quit jumping from the couch to the ottoman!', 'Someone's going to get hurt!', 'Don't come crying to me when you get hurt!'. One day they might listen to me, but until then this is how boys play and how they have become inseparable.

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.