Some of my favorite photographs have happened completely in between the moments people thought mattered most.
Not during the perfectly posed image where everyone is smiling directly at the camera.
But right after it.
The second where everyone relaxes. The genuine laugh after the kids start being silly. The way a couple instinctively reaches for each other’s hand while walking to the next spot. A parent brushing hair away from their child’s face without even thinking about it.
Those are usually the moments that feel the most alive to me.
I think a lot of people come into sessions believing they have to perform in front of the camera. They worry about posing correctly, smiling correctly, standing correctly, and making sure everything looks perfect at all times.
But real connection rarely lives inside perfection.
It lives in movement. Emotion. Comfort. Familiarity.
It lives in the moments people are simply existing together instead of focusing on the camera.
That is why I love photographing the in between moments so much. They tell the truth about people in a way perfectly posed images sometimes cannot.
The way your child reaches for your hand without thinking. The way your partner looks at you when you are laughing. The way your family naturally falls into each other during a quiet moment.
Those little interactions are often the things that carry emotional weight years later because they reflect who people truly were during that season of life.
Photography becomes meaningful when it captures more than appearances.
Anyone can stand still and smile for a photo.
But the images that tend to stay with people are the ones that make them feel something when they look back at them years later. The photographs that immediately pull them back into a memory instead of simply showing them what they looked like.
I think that is especially important with families and children because so much of childhood is movement and emotion. Kids are constantly changing. Their personalities shift. Their voices change. The way they interact with their parents slowly becomes different over time.
The in between moments preserve those little pieces of life before they quietly disappear.
The quick hugs. The forehead kisses. The uncontrollable laughter. The moments where everyone forgets the camera is even there.
Honestly, those are usually the images families end up loving the most.
Not because they are perfect, but because they feel honest.
I think that is what I want people to feel when they look at their photographs years from now. Not just that they looked beautiful, but that the images still feel like them. Real emotion. Real connection. Real memories frozen for just a second before life kept moving forward again.
