What is Lifestyle Photography?
If you’ve been on any sort of social media in the last 5 years or so you’ve likely seen the buzz words, “Lifestyle Session”, “Lifestyle Photography”, or something similar… It feels like a trendy kind of photo shoot that’s happening during this current time. But what does that “lifestyle” part really mean?
While this may vary slightly from one professional to another, a Lifestyle photo session is usually one that is centered around you simply doing something that might be part of your everyday life, but styled in a way that makes it a more memorable experience with lots of candid moments being captured by the photographer. For example, I tend to work mostly with newborns and their families for my Lifestyle sessions so I’ll come to the home and photograph the family in the nursery, main living areas, and often the parents bedroom while they interact with the newest addition to the household.
One of my favorite niches for lifestyle photography are the in-home newborn sessions. For these clients, having me come to them often gives them a confidence boost because they don’t have to worry about packing up their new bundle of joy and carting him or her around town; anything they might need for the baby is right there and ready. Being in your own home allows for a relaxed atmosphere and often feels like you’ve been given extra permission to show genuine emotion as the events of the session unfold. My sister-in-law that lives in Seattle, WA books a cookie baking lifestyle session for her daughter every year. For this the photographer comes to her home and captures candid photos of my SIL and niece as they bake holiday cookies together, it always produces the sweetest pictures that we all get to enjoy as cards each year.
The biggest key to a Lifestyle session is being somewhere that you feel comfortable and understanding that the images captured will focus more on candid moments than posed, looking at the camera photos. It’s become a catch-all phrase to mean a more emotive form of photography, very similar to how a documentary photographer might work with more of a “fly on the wall” point of view while offering small suggestions here and there for posing and interacting with each other.
If you might be interested in a lifestyle session or just have more questions about this style of session please reach out to me!
