Family
Day-in-the-life family photography
Did you know that day-in-the-life family photography is the best way for you and your kids to time travel? In just a day, you get to create an invaluable time capsule of what your life is like and how it feels.
It’s the unstaged story of a day in your life, unpolished, as authentic as it can be. There are no added filters and no trying to embellish or change your reality.
You get a glimpse of everyone’s personality, their quirks, their interests. It’s a recollection of the good, the bad, the happy and the sad. And it’s great because all these emotions and moments of connection are an important part of who you are—they help you grow and interact with others.
Feelgood medicine
I recently stumbled upon Feelgood ‘pills’ created by Remedy Medicine for the Soul, an Alberta small business. They’re like a message in a bottle, but in the form of pills. Each “pill” has an uplifting message in it and there are 30 pills in a bottle.
Wouldn’t it be great to have similar ‘pills’ of your life? Little capsules you could take whenever you want to go back to a specific point in time?
The photo books I create for day-in-the-life family sessions are time capsules. With one session per year, you end up with the best pharmacy of “memory pills”!
This first article of a series about day-in-the-life family photography features a Stony Plain family. It’s a chapter of their life—their own little feelgood medicine.
A day in the life of a Stony Plain family
For 12 hours at the end of August, Chelsea and her three children welcomed me into their life. They hadn’t planned anything specific for the day.
Chelsea likes to take notes and appears to be a very organized person. Every day, she writes a list of chores and things to do for herself and each of her children. The way she does it seems to work very well to get the kids to cooperate. They know what to expect, and when they’re done, they get some free time. I wish I had done that with my kids when they were younger! Maybe it would be less of a battle to get them to unpack their bags when they come back from school…
So, during their day-in-the-life family photo session, Chelsea and her kids kind of followed their regular schedule. Nothing more. And it was perfect this way.
They started with chores, including brushing their teeth, sorting laundry, feeding the snake, and two rounds of archery for one of the boys.
When they were done, they packed a lunch and went on an adventure in their backyard—the boys’ favourite part of the day. How nice it must be to live on the edge of town and have so much room to explore right behind your house!
They played a game of Cranium, built interesting things with Lego, drew some dinosaurs, read about Minecraft strategies, dug a hole in the yard, played on the swings, got dinner ready…
It was a beautiful and busy day in a family’s life. An ordinary day filled with a variety of emotions, tender moments of connection, fun and games. Everyone loved it.
A photo book of a day in their life
This is the time capsule that will always take them back to a specific day in the summer of 2021. A photo book designed with their family and home in mind. A book they love and will cherish for years to come.
In upcoming blog posts, I will answer questions I often get asked about day-in-the-life family photography. Sign up to my mailing list to be notified when the next article is published!
Do you have any questions?
Send me an email with your questions about day-in-the-life family photography and I’ll be happy to answer them.
I'm Marie-Pierre, an easygoing mother of two and a documentary family photographer. I believe we can all learn and grow from other people's experiences. Real life stories help us relate to each other, open our minds and feel better about ourselves.
this blog is a collection of featured client stories, tips, and articles on various family related topics. I hope you will find some inspiration!
