Louisiana Documentary Family Photography
I recently traveled to Texas to photograph the wedding of Julie and Ryan (whose blog post is coming up soon!). And I had the opportunity to spend some time with my great friend Marissa of Marissa Ann Photography while I was there. An obscenely talented wedding photographer. She had a wedding scheduled for Friday night, which I was able to shoot with her (it was epic, but that one deserves a blog post all its own). We had a ton of fun. Then we had a ton more fun shooting Julie and Ryan’s wedding the next day (also epic, and also coming soon).
Suffice it to say that we were two very tired photographers on Sunday morning. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some documentary photographs of their little family in their home before I flew back out. Marissa and Cody’s little girl McKenna had served as a flower girl in Julie’s wedding the night before. And was determined to wear her “wedding dress” again bright and early the next morning. She sat on the couch, cool as a stylishly dressed cucumber. Playing games on her tablet while the family dog, Chloe. Gave me and my super-scary-magic-picture-taking-machine the stink eye.
Me? I just got lost in the story a little.
I think that sometimes as parents. We get so caught up in what we “should” be doing as a family (you know, all those wholesome Pinterest-y activities). we forget that raising children isn’t all about the extravagent efforts. It’s about the quiet, seemingly mundane moments in between. There will be more lazy Sundays in McKenna’s life than meticulously planned family vacations. More dress-up days with any one of an insane number of dresses than there will be Christmas mornings.
This little girl will remember family trips and Christmas mornings. But she’ll also remember snuggling up on the couch with her dog and blissing out to tablet games. While Mom grumbled about dog hair on the furniture and the dog looked completely unphased. She’ll remember entertwining tiny feet with her Daddy’s while resting in his lap. And years later she will marvel that she ever fit. She’ll remember having a Mama that loved her enough to share her makeup, and indulge her love of clothing enough to allow her to change outfits no less than a hundred times a day.
Her own daughter may one day do the same. And when she complains about washing mounds upon mounds of laundry. Her mom will take every opportunity to smirk about it.
Documentary family photography is about more than preserving what people look like as a family. It’s about communicating the nuances of their relationships with one another. And the memories being created at that exact time in their lives. All within a single frame.
Families change so, so quickly. Eventually, the idea of sitting in Daddy’s lap “helping” him play a video game won’t sound as fun. Although she’ll always remember forming a bond with the most important man in her life during those times. She’ll also remember conspiring with her mom to block Dad’s view of the TV, and laughing together when he got grumpy enough to have that familiar line form between his eyebrows when he scowled.
High heels are grown into quickly, and dress-up clothes are grown out of.
The memories, though – they stay.
Bayou Rose Photography specializes in wedding, engagement, family, and documentary style family photography in Southern Louisiana, and surrounding areas including but not limited to Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Prairieville, Gonzales and Lafayette.
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