What is “Lifestyle” Photography?
When you’re looking at session information on my site, and other photographer’s websites, you might see the phrase “Lifestyle Photography”. In a lot of ways, the phrase feels self explanatory, because it is what it sounds like. It’s photography that captures your lifestyle, in your natural habitat, so to speak.
But there’s more to it than that!
Lifestyle Photography is what you make it
But I know that sounds like a fake answer.
When you schedule Lifestyle Photography, whether it’s in Denver or elsewhere, you have a lot of control over how your session looks. This is because as opposed to occurring in a photography studio, Lifestyle Photography usually takes place in your home! It can include as much or as little of your usual at-home chaos as you want it to. It’s entirely up to you where in your home photos are taken, and what ends up being a part of the “set”. Instead of the control being with the photographer, in their studio, where they’ve set up an area for your session.
This also means it’s easier for you to capture memories of not just the people you love, but of your world, too.
It can be candid, or posed!
Lifestyle Photography is usually more candid than studio photography, but that’s not always the case! If you want your photographer to prompt and pose you, that’s always an option whether the session is in-home Lifestyle, on-location Lifestyle, or otherwise. Usually, I go for a fairly casual approach to posing during sessions, but if you need guidance, I’ll be there to hold your hand.
One of the benefits of Denver Lifestyle Photography taking place in your home though, is you’re naturally going to feel more comfortable during your session. You’re not having to worry about being in a new environment, while trying to act natural. It’s just you and the people you love, being yourselves somewhere you already spend time.
Lifestyle Photography isn’t necessarily in-home
Now, all that being said, Lifestyle Photography isn’t always taken in-home! We can absolutely schedule Lifestyle sessions that are outdoors, in a location you love, or one I scout and choose for you. What makes a session qualify as “Lifestyle” isn’t always the location, it’s more about the tone. We’re capturing the details of your favorite people naturally, as you would go about your life. Hence… Lifestyle.
So if there are magical places in the greater Denver area that you spend time with your family – a park, a forested area – we can absolutely make that work for your session!
Scheduling Lifestyle Photography comes with low stress
Although Lifestyle Photography can come with home-prep (depending on how you want your final images to look!) it generally feels less stressful than scheduling a studio session. There are a ton of reasons for this! The biggest one though, is that if the session is going to take place in your home, you don’t have to pack up your toddler and bring them with you. You don’t have to convince your teen to attempt not to wrinkle their shirt on the way to the studio. And you don’t have to pack snacks, or worry about someone staining their outfit in the car because they dribbled their juice on the shorts you picked out for them.
When the session is in your home, all of those stressful items just poof out of existence, and you can focus on what you’re supposed to be focusing on! Being you, in your own environment.
The same can be said for your children. New environments can be stressful, and even moreso if your children have any variety of neurodivergent traits. Holding your Lifestyle Photography session in your home can help eliminate stress for them too, and also help them get comfortable with the camera, too! And you know what it means when your kids are less stressed, right? You get to be less stressed too.
Lifestyle Photography is about Storytelling
When you book a Lifestyle Photo session, you’re booking a session full of storytelling. Your story. As opposed to posed images on a sofa, we capture you lounging together. Instead of clustering under the studio lights, you’ll sit together on your bed. And every time you look at those images, you’ll think of the moments you’ve spent there together, without a photographer. You’ll think about the movie nights, and comfy mornings. The fabric of the stories that make up your life, captured and preserved just for you.
You’ll be able to look back on your newborn in their crib, before you transition them to a toddler bed. And depending what you want out of the session, you might even leave some of their toys around – because that chaos? It’s a part of your story. And whether it feels beautiful to you on a day-to-day basis, it’ll feel beautiful when it’s preserved in images. You’ll get to see those little details through a completely different lens – my lens. And I promise you, it’ll be gorgeous.
Capturing emotion is a huge focus
One of the reasons I say that Lifestyle Photography is what you make it, is Lifestyle Photography has a focus on emotion instead of perfection. It can be so easy (especially when you book a studio session) to want every detail to be exactly perfect. And I totally understand that impulse! If you’re going to hang photos on your walls, you want them to be pristine. But we’re going for a totally different kind of perfection with Lifestyle Photography.
The perfection we’re aiming for is held in the beautifully imperfect smiles between you and your partner. The look on your newborn’s face when they’re staring into your eyes. It’s in the calm of your toddler on your lap, and the storm that might come after.
Perfection in photography isn’t all about unwrinkled clothing and having your hair styled. It’s about so, so much more. And it’s about preserving the details about your favorite people.
Lifestyle Photography isn’t for Everyone
So if you’re reading through this, and thinking to yourself that you really WANT the pristine, prim and proper studio-style imagery… then maybe Lifestyle Photography isn’t for you. And that’s okay! Everyone is looking for something unique when it comes to the images of their family.
But if capturing perfectly imperfect moments, so that you can remember your life as you lived it sounds beautiful to you, then it might be time for us to talk.
