kristin abigail

why i love family photography - and some photos of my 8 week old babe: jakki :)

hallooo humans.

it has been some time since i've had the time/energy/motivation to post. why? because i birthed a tiny human 8 weeks ago and am recovering from my c-section + managing all the various changes and difficulties one faces in postpartum life.

my fellow mamas know what i'm talking about!

this week was my husband's 30th birthday! we woke up slow, had banana pancakes topped with powdered sugar, sprinkles and candles, and just hung out as a family in this rainy af corner of the country near seattle. it was lovely.

oh and did i mention the impromptu baby shoot?

this is jakki. she's rad - like her dad.

jakki is just over 8 weeks old and she is cooing (baby talking) like CRAZY. it's adorable and makes me so stoked to hear her voice speak words for the first time. i just can. not. WAIT to hear what she has to say about the world around her. i want to know it all. oh, and she is also insanely loud - like her mama. when she's happy, and sad.

i promised i'd talk about WHY i love family photography.

well, here goes.

i love family photography because these sessions contain so much:

1) FREE FEELING / MOVEMENT

2) AND UNFILTERED LOVE

as well as

3) DEEP CONNECTION

What do i mean by all this and how does it impact you (the client) and me (the artist/photographer)?

FREE FEELINGS / MOVEMENT

- Most of us stiffen up when a camera is put in front of us. Children, however, tend to respond to the camera lens with curiosity. They are not concerned about how the image will turn out, and so they do not altar their way of being. They are experiencing their feelings freely as well as moving freely. Which often encourages this same sense of freedom in their parents/guardians.

- As the photographer this means i get to photograph you and yours in your freest forms. This is the ultimate dream and honor for me.

- As the client you get to witness yourselves in these forms of complete love + freeness via my work and use them as a reminder that this is what matters. love is what matters. not perfect images portraying the perfect family/life/home etc.

PURE AND UNFILTERED LOVE

- i find that there is an easy intimacy that's easy to draw out of anyone who has or cares for a child. sometimes we aren't super into being touchy feely with our partners in front of the lens, which is a-okay on my part! but with children - our filters go down. we touch. we play. we giggle. we make silly faces. we. are. unfiltered.

in family photography there are so many visible expressions of love in the ways our bodies move and interact with one another. i love love capturing these dynamics. your family creates a shape of its very own. and my job is to photograph them!

DEEP CONNECTION

you and yours have a deep connection. it is electric. and it is quiet. and it is completely magical, all at once. and it shows up in so many different ways.

it's not always about getting that perfect portrait of big smiles. sometimes - for me - family photography is about capturing (as i said before) the SHAPE of your family. how you all move and interactive with one another and the world around you.

the places you explore, the scenes you inhabit, the earth and trails you cross, the nooks and crannies of your sweet home... i aim to capture all this as well.

and yes - i love love the coziness of a more traditional family portrait. because, come on. we all want it. i want it. you want it. but i aim to make it traditional only in the sense that the framing + posing is traditional. YOU and yours are timeless, and reflect your time, all at the same time (life is like that. one thing, and another, all at once.)