Documentary Photography vs. Lifestyle Photography: What’s the Difference?

When most people think of family photos, they picture the classic Christmas card: coordinated outfits, golden light, smiling faces. That’s lifestyle photography—a beautiful, polished version of family life.

Families often wear outfits in a matching or complementary color scheme. The photographer will direct the family where to go at the location, provide some basic guidance regarding how to pose, and will then step back and allow the family to interact together, while photographing their "natural" interactions. The photographer will direct the family toward the best area for lighting and background, might fix an out of place strand of hair, and maybe even give prompts to illicit authentic looking interactions.

A Lifestyle Image from a session in 2013.

But there’s another way to tell your family’s story: documentary family photography. Here, nothing is posed or staged. I don’t direct you into the best light or move objects out of the background. Instead, I capture life exactly as it unfolds—pancake breakfasts in pajamas, messy hair before school, Target runs, soccer in the yard, bedtime stories, and even the realness of sibling squabbles and the hugs that follow.

A Lifestyle image from about 2008! You can see my old logo here! This baby is now 18 and started college!

I started out photographing families using the lifestyle approach, and while those sessions were beautiful, when I found documentary photography, I was in love. My favorite images show true personality and connection, kids being their silly messy selves. Shifting into documentary has allowed me to be more artistic and creative, and families are far more relaxed when there’s no pressure to perform for the camera. They don’t have to keep their kids clean or worry if they won’t smile or have a full meltdown. I used to see parents really struggle with their kids during lifestyle sessions. Kids would be kids and not want to smile, would want to do something else, and parents would resort to bribery just to get through the session. Not only that, they’d have to make special time for the session. With documentary, there’s no need to have extra time, because I join you in what you’d be doing anyway. So, it doesn’t matter if you are busy.

That’s why I now specialize exclusively in documentary family photography. To me, these everyday, unpolished moments and milestones are where the magic lives. They grow more valuable with each passing year, because they don’t just show what you looked like—they bring you back to what life actually felt like in this season. Connection over perfection.

Sometimes, it can be hard to tell the difference between a lifestyle session and a documentary one. I’ve provided examples here of some past sessions that are lifestyle. An important difference is the authenticity and lack of direction, and that’s something the family may only know. They’ll know that those weren’t real moments, those were moments that were fabricated by the photographer. This is the only place on my site you’ll see lifestyle. Every other image is documentary.

But wait, what if we want a couple of posed photos? No problem, I’m happy to do that for you. I’ll ask you during our planning session if that’s something you want, and if so, we’ll spend just a few minutes of the session with some posed portraits.