Picture of family of four sitting in a field at sunset

Photography is a great way to document a family’s life story. Finding a photographer with a style that speaks to you is key to getting what you want out of a family photography session. There are a number of factors you should think about as you try to decide how to capture those moments. One phrase or term you may see as you do your research is “lifestyle photography” or “lifestyle family photography.” For a lot of people, their first questions may be what is lifestyle family photography? What does lifestyle even mean?

What is lifestyle photography?

So what is lifestyle photography? There are different schools of thought when it comes to the definition of lifestyle photography. According to Wikipedia “Lifestyle Photography is a kind of photography that mainly aims to capture portraits of people in situations, real-life events or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of everyday. The primary goal is to tell stories about people’s lives or to inspire people in different times. Lifestyle photography is “posed” in a way that the photographer gives some direction and then documents the natural response after. Lifestyle photography is about telling a story through the lens. It’s about the legacy that is left behind because of it.”

Photographers define lifestyle photography differently depending on what school of thought they belong to. There are some photographers that only consider photography as “lifestyle” if there is no direction or interference from the photographer. For this school of thought, lifestyle photography is more of a documentary approach, where the photographer is a fly on the wall, documenting the everyday with no involvement whatsoever. Another school of thought thinks of lifestyle photography as something that lies between true documentary (the fly on the wall approach) and traditional posed portrait photography. With this school of thought, lifestyle photography is about capturing emotion but facilitating situations that will bring out that emotion.

What is family lifestyle photography?

So back to the original question, what is lifestyle family photography? First, lets start with defining family photography. Family photography aims to document a group of people that identify themselves as a family. Families have different options for how they choose to document their family story. Family photography can take place indoors or outdoors. It can have a very formal feel to it, with everyone posed in a certain way, and looking at the camera. Or it can have a very informal more documentary feel, where the photographer is documenting a family’s every day life or an every day event, without direct interaction with the camera. For me, lifestyle family photography falls in between posed portraits and a pure documentary style. For me, lifestyle family photography is about capturing a family’s story by documenting real emotions, real moments and real situations through gentle guidance and facilitation. In other words, as a photographer I will gently guide or direct a family into a situation that results in an authentic response.

For example, I may ask a mom to pick up her daughter and give her a kiss on the cheek; this is something they would do if I wasn’t there. As a photographer I make sure that they are standing in the light or with a backdrop that is flattering. Whatever happens as they interact, is real. Any giggles or any smiles, are 100% real.

Another example is when I am trying to capture an emotional moment between a mother and her newborn. I might ask the mom to cradle her baby like she always does and maybe to give her a kiss on the head. Again, a mom holding her baby and giving that baby a kiss is something that would happen if I wasn't there. Or the look that she gives her baby before or after the kiss is something that would happen if I wasn’t there. As the photographer, I may direct her where to stand in the room a certain way so that I capture her and her baby in the best light. But that love and emotion that I capture between that mother and her newborn, is 100% real.

Lifestyle family photography is all about capturing the essence of a family. It’s about documenting moments in their life-story that are meaningful to them. The most important part is to capture the emotion and connection between the family, while helping them to preserve the memories of their unique life-story.