Most people tell me the same thing before their session: “I’m not photogenic.” I smile, because I hear it every time, and I’ve never once found it to be true.
Here’s the secret. It isn’t about being photogenic. It’s about forgetting that there’s a camera at all.
I stay close, and I stay quiet.
I don’t stand far away and shout instructions. I stay near enough to catch the small things: a laugh that starts before the joke ends, a hand that reaches for another hand, the way you straighten each other’s collar without thinking.
You’ll get very little direction.
A few simple cues to start, such as “walk with me” or “tell each other something only you two would laugh at”, and then I step back. The less I direct, the more the real moments arrive. That’s what you’ll want to look at in twenty years.
We take our time.
We talk, we walk, we laugh a little. The first ten minutes are usually the stiffest, and then something shifts. You stop performing and start being yourselves. That’s when I’m ready.
What to bring
- Something comfortable you feel like yourself in.
- Someone you love (or just yourself, for a portrait).
- Nothing else. I’ll take care of the rest.
At the end, you shouldn’t feel like you’ve been photographed. You should feel like you’ve had a good afternoon. The pictures are simply what it left behind.