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.

Tips on Taking Better Photos of Your Children | Flower Mound Family Photographer

Today I am going to share five easy tips on how to take more authentic and real photos of your sweet children. As long as you have some sort of camera (even a cell phone!) then you, yes YOU, can take your photos up a notch! My take on photography at home is documenting the everyday life. This includes not only the pretty moments, but the raw, in between moments of real life with kids at home. Our lives are not posed styled portraits, which certainly have their place. Instead of trying to make it seem like real life is perfectly-just-so in your photos, I suggest embracing the nitty gritty so you can remember what life was like at each stage. I have three boys- age 6, 4, and 2 so we have a little bit of craziness always going on here. I love being able to photograph what is important to me in its own beautiful imperfect way.

Photograph While Playing
One of the easiest ways to get natural smiles from your children is to photograph them while they are playing. Thankfully, that gives you tons of opportunities because kids basically play most of the day. You can photograph them as an observer or you can play with them and capture some genuine smiles. Photographing the kiddos while they are playing will also authentically capture their personalities.  I do NOT suggest asking them to stop what they are doing and pose for a a photo. They probably won't go for it if they are young and it will likely be stiff and unnatural. Don't forget to use the timer and get in the photos with your children!

 Photograph the Non-Smiles
Yes, we all like to get the pretty smiles and happy faces in our photos. However, equally beautiful are those photos in which your child is not smiling. Embrace the non-smiling faces and even the cries!

Photograph Without the Face
Similarly to photographing the non-smiles, how about photographs without the face? Especially for little babies and toddlers, those precious other body parts are perfect for photographing: brand new hands, chubby hands, small feet, dirty legs, curly Q hair, pouty lips. You can also photograph them from behind and you can see what they are looking at in the photo. If the kids aren't cooperating with their face, try a different angle and see what you can get.

Photograph Everyday Occurrences
If I had to guess, your kids are 'in a phase' of something. Or there is something they would love to do all day long if given the chance. Right now my youngest son is in a phase where he HAS to get a drink out of both water fountains when we drop off bigger brother at school. My oldest is in a Star Wars phase and he actually finally embraced drawing because of the movies. My middle child loves to climb on the rocks when we go to the lake and calls it 'doing experiments'. Photograph that. It will be quick and easy but you will love to reminisce and have funny stories for your children later.

 

Photograph To-Do List
Lastly, keep a list of things you want to remember and photograph it when you have time. My most recent cross off the list was 'Matthew's Freckles'. He used to have 4 freckles in a perfect square across his nose and I noticed he had a couple more pop up. So I photographed that before he got anymore! Getting a shot of his lushes lashes was a bonus.

Hopefully you have found these tips helpful for enhancing your personal photos. Be sure to follow me on Facebook or visit my Website for info on a photography session for your family.

Meaningful Photography Locations | flower mound family photographer

I am in a fabulous DFW photography Facebook group filled with wonderfully supportive photographers. A question that is posted repeatedly in the group is where to hold a photo shoot in different cities. Location, location, location. Through my short journey in photography, I have come to the realization that a meaningful location is a high priority in my book.

Before I really understood documentary photography, I wanted the picture perfect photos of my family in an open field with the gorgeous sunset. Or at a rustic barn with an old fence. An urban setting. While these all provide beautiful settings for portraits, do they have meaning to my family? Not really. We don't spend any time in open fields. We don't own a barn or visit farms on a regular basis. We live in the suburbs. So this isn't really what I am going for anymore because those photos don't give me an emotional connection to my family in the photos.

What really resonated with me was a comment my mother-in-law made last year when we took our Christmas card pictures. We originally planned to go to Old Alton Bridge in Denton, Texas. As you might image, thirty other photographers thought the same thing, meaning we would have to spend a good chunk of time waiting for our turn on the bridge. We immediately drove back to my mother-in-laws house and took a photograph outside her home. When I apologized for the bridge location not turning out, she said 'It's ok. This is more special to me because this is where I live. It means more to me than a random bridge'. Granted this exact spot was across the street from her house, a mere 10 steps away from her property, the idea is the same. She sees this view every single day, so it is perfect for her family photos.

So for my family, my thoughts on meaningful photo locations has changed. I want the locations to bring back memories when I look at the photos. On the days I feel like documenting our quality time together, we head to the lake because the boys love playing at the lake. I have said it a million times, but I was meant to be a boy mom and I absolutely love enjoying the lake with them. I enjoy watching them throw rocks in the water, climbing the rocks, and hiking the trails, Taking family photos at the lake is a natural choice for my family for the simple reason that we are there often.

When going on to the beach last year, I couldn't pass up doing a quick photo session with my family. Again, this is a beautiful setting, but also has meaning in that this was our first vacation together with the whole family. We are also making it an annual event so you can bet I will be bringing the tripod along to do family sessions at all our summer vacations. I am super excited because I am also having Jennifer Dell Photography do a mini session of just my small fam so I can get some wonderful pictures with me in them as we play on the beach. I can't wait for it!

Just as I loved having family photos on my vacation, I loved photographing my sister-in-law's family on their camping trip. Giving clients truly meaningful locations for their photos can make those photos that much more treasured.



Lastly, and most importantly, the place where I will have the most memories is my home. Luckily the style of photography I am most drawn to is candid, genuine photos which are perfect for the home setting. I think my clients will completely get me on this and will be on board with a photo session in their home. You can't get much more meaningful a location than your own home!

So my challenge to you is to think about where you would want your family photos taken. If you don't want them in your home, what location would best represent your family? What are some activities you do as a family that could be the perfect photo session? Go beyond the cute Pinterest ideas and think of what encapsulates YOUR family. The ideas and options are limitless.

If you are interested in discussing the perfection location for your family photos, head to my website and fill out a contact form!

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.