Right as I moved to the Bay Area in 2021, I worked with a brilliant professional Search Engine Optimization expert. She tweaked my website to help Google, or more accurately, people using Google to search for my kind of services, find me more easily. When she was done, she told me the most important thing I needed to do was write a blog post about the best local locations to take photos. Google would love the keywords that come with specific locations, and I would come across as an expert local photographer by demonstrating my knowledge of the area, she said. I agreed that I would get to it, and then promptly decided that I wouldn’t.

My job as a photographer is absolutely to make the process of being photographed easy and fun for you and your family. My job is also very much to make sure that the result is not only something that the 2023 version of you will love, but that the 2028, 2039, 2050 versions of you will cherish. It’s even more important to me that the 2050 version of your children will have the photos we make together as a reference of their personal and family narratives. That’s a value that can’t be measured. What do the kids call it? Priceless?

A delightful contradiction about photographing people is that location matters, but it also really, really doesn’t. Recently, a new client thrillingly noticed that place plays very little role in my work. If anything, it is a supporting character, never the star. As such, the two most important elements for me in choosing a location for clients are

1. Is there light?
2. Is it meaningful? Or, put more broadly, when glimpses of the environment peek through around the family in the photos, will that environment be instantly recognizable and heartwarming to the subject when they become the viewer?

A random list of random locations might answer the first question, but I doubt it will address the second. The good news about the first question is that generally, after more than 15 years as a photographer, I can find good light almost anywhere. The good news about question 2 is that your family already has a list of locations that are meaningful to you, you’ve just maybe never before considered them photogenic! Those are the places that you either spend the most time - home, the park, school, sports fields, hiking trails - or where core memories already have been or have the potential to be formed - ice cream shops, repeat vacation spots, summer houses or camps, fishing holes. I couldn’t possibly create an exhaustive list of all of the potentially perfect-for-you spots where beautiful photos can be made, but you get the idea.

Personal photography can be artful (and, of course, I’d argue that it should be). It can be elevating. But first and foremost - especially when children are involved - it should be meaningful and representative of their actual existence. Why? Because long-term memories and family narratives are shaped by the imagery we have of our past, and kids deserve the truth more than they need fantasy or ideal.

My intuition tells me that those popular, perfect, beautiful images of families prancing through backlit-fields, where they’ve never before been and never will return, will end up obsolete in those families’ histories. And by “obsolete,” I mean prints stuffed in a drawer, digital copies lost or deleted, grown children mocking or eye-rolling their existence.

Yet, photos of families in fields at sunset have become so ubiquitous, it can be difficult for people to imagine any other kind of professional photos of themselves and their loved ones. There’s several reasons they’re popular:

• I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sunset into dusk is a really beautiful, often downright stunning time of day! If you haven’t seen it, you should really check it out some time.
• The serenity depicted in these scenes is an aspirational break from the chaos that is real life. (Ironically, capturing these images can be anything but serene - kids are often overwhelmed by the random environment and either want to explore every corner of it or get back to their usual, comfortable environment. Also, there’s A LOT of treachery in these spots in the form of animal poop to sit or step in, cactus to look out for, rocks for tripping, etc, etc.).
• Moms are the heroes of these photos. Mom is always centered, always dressed as a goddess in a flowing dress in the most eye-catching color or pattern of anyone in the group. Who does 98% of family photo shoot booking? Moms. Who are so overworked and burnt out and existing in a culture that still equates physical beauty with moral goodness? Moms.

Photographers push this scene because its tried-and-true. They’ve scouted 3-4 locations and don’t have to put more time into it (time is, after all, money). It’s one tiny thing that can be scaled in the time-consuming business of personal photography. It’s a formula that can be sold over and over.

I don’t completely fault the formula. Truthfully, I wish that my brain could be satisfied with it, that I could charge one flat fee and photograph essentially the same thing over and over, regardless of the individuals before me. Unfortunately, I’ve tried it, and I find it both mind-numbingly boring and a real disservice to the families I unfailingly fall in love with as soon as we meet.

All of this to point out that these images aren’t memories. Not really. Sure, they capture a family’s likeness at a given time. And maybe that’s all you’re after. My artistic mission goes deeper, though. As I mentioned, packing as much personal meaning as possible into my imagery is what I believe will make it timeless. Not my personal meaning, not timeless to me. Personal and timeless to you, my subject. I get enough personal fulfillment out of my work without imposing my own ideas of what’s meaningful on you.

All of this is part of a point that I try to reiterate as much as possible, that how you show up to your family photo session - your state of mind, and willingness to love, play, and be witnessed - will determine our success far more than to where you show up (or what exactly you’re wearing when you show up, but that is for a blog post in progress).

Booking me as your family photographer will come with a personal conversation about choosing the best time, location, and clothing for your family. And in that conversation, if you can convince me that your family visits empty meadows just before bedtime on the regular, that’s where I’ll be 30 minutes before our session start time, scouting out light (and cacti ;)).

Below is a favorite session from last fall. Just a sweet family playing in their backyard on a cloudy morning. Beautiful.