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Holiday Home Decorating with Documentary Family Photography
One extraordinary experience as a child is transforming your home into a holiday paradise. If I’m honest, it still feels like magic today as an adult. The magic is peaked in our hearts when we see those twinkling lights or pull out an old ornament that makes us say, “Oh yeah, remember this thing?!”
We have meaningful decorations that were handmade, a gift from someone special, or a family heirloom piece that has been passed down through the generations.
We decorate our homes together as families. As a parent, it’s a high of love + pride to see the happiness we’ve brought forth into the world through our kiddos’ eyes.
Deck the Halls
It’s the perfect holiday family photography experience to get away from the traditional portraits and holiday mini sessions!
This will give you documentary-hearted photographers a way to give your clients a fresh perspective on what a documenting life is all about. Put these photos into a story book and the memories will visually live on forever (even long after Great-Grandma’s glass ornament accidentally breaks and becomes a memory).
Every client experience can be unique as each family will brings a different dynamic. Here, I had a family of 4 with one on the way. Their 18 month was in awe of everything, because let’s face it, it was like she was seeing all of the decor for the first time. At nearly 8 years old, big sis knew what it was all about and was eager to help with the lights and dress up the tree.
This type of photography isn’t limited to families with children. Imagine documenting newlyweds spending their first Christmas (or holiday they celebrate) together as a married couple? Imagine empty-nesters that are hosting a holiday party for all of their children, grandchildren, and even great-grandbabies.
I’d love to have photos of my grandparents and all the work + effort that went into to prep for a big, family meal and holiday magic in their home for us all. Baking, twinkling lights that aureate the home, shopping, wrapping, the things that can stem from holiday decorating are endless.
Photographer Intervention and Client Reaction
Before you go on photo overload, you have to know how it all went down. Do you see a trend in these picture? It’s kind of like you’re there, right? You’re following along to a story. As the photographer, I was simply there documenting what was happening – not directing. I didn’t tell them where to stand, what to do next, pretend how to feel, nothing.
The little bit of intervention I had was by flicking off lights here and there. In one moment, I did ask their older daughter to turn as she was setting up the nativity scene. Her back was to me and blocking my view.
Before I even got home, there was this lovely email that landed in my inbox from Meghan (mom):
“Thank you again for coming and photographing our family. It was a totally different experience that we all loved, especially Kris and Alexis. They both hate taking posed pictures and getting them to smile and look normal is usually a fight lol. Alexis who usually complains about getting photos taken whispered to me while you were here and said, “She’s so nice, can we please have her take all our family photo from now on?!” So you definitely won her over :)”
Decorating the Tree and Bokeh Inspiration
They pulled out candles, nutcrackers, and lots of ornaments. It was important for me to photograph their expressions while decorating as well as plenty of the details (the decor). I want the girls to remember the details throughout the years for no other reason but to bring joy into their hearts when they look at the photos.
The bokeh light photos always look pretty in a photo book. The bokeh in these photos below are from standing with the tree lights within inches from my lens in the foreground of the image. The all-over bokeh is from turning my camera to manual focus and turning the lens til I had the amount of blur I desired when photographing the tree.
Doubling as a Holiday Maternity Photo Session
Meghan has the cutest little bump I’ve ever seen!!! It’s the perfect, round belly. It was important to incorporate her pregnancy into the session, but maintain my documentary approach. Since I didn’t want anything posed or traditional, I simply photographed her belly while she was busy decorating the tree.
With her focus on what she was doing gave me natural maternity photos in her natural stance. So often when people know they are the subject in front of the lens, they start to stand funny or do goofy things with their arms. These photos were taken with stealth 😉
When you have little ones, sometimes you have to take a snack break. And then back to decorating the mantle, nativity scene, and finishing touches to the tree. As the decorating was nearly complete, the excitement started to wane and there was a feeling of relaxation. Hanging out had to be documented too.
Let’s lift each other up – share your holiday photos (links) below. Pin your fave photo from this post and let’s start documenting what the season is all about – love & togetherness – for us, and for our clients.
