One of the interesting things about being a photographer is the simultaneous voyeurism and being a part of the moment. We photographers get to watch the world, capture images that tell the specific story we want to tell – such as how I almost never click the shutter when a child is crying, even if the parent’s find it funny in the moment! That is just not the story I want to tell for my clients… and let’s be honest, many of our childhood memories are really just memories of seeing photographs in an album and hearing mom talk about those photos. In this way, our memories become the story told in photographs. As a photographer, you are really an observer whose been given a free-pass to see inside your subject’s world. That translates, in our world at The Pod Photography, into this fantastic space where we observe and document families while at the same time being a part of it all by posing them and suggesting fun candid interactions. We are voyeurs watching the different relationships and interactions, but creating the story we want to tell (and our clients want us to tell) as we manipulate the moments.

One of my favorite shoots from December was this family because they so genuinely had fun and were present in the moment with one another. Of course I gave suggestions like “Eskimo kiss mommy” and “throw your son in the air” – but really, this family’s story is such an obvious one of love that I had the privilege of sitting back and just enjoying the story unfold.