You don’t have a personal photographer following you around all day.

So you tend to miss or dismiss those many moments which define your character and shape your life.

Photography is a hyper-saturated field. Everyone and their cat can become a photographer. All you need is an entry level body with a kit lens, and a business name.

BUT THIS CAN BE A GOOD THING!! Hear me out…

Meet the Himmelmans. Their life is rich and varied, and includes lots of hockey, pankcakes, cat cuddles, and connect four.

What does a day in your life look like?

You might know that I have a passion for capturing candid family life. In this post, I will compare candid photography to other types of photography. I will prove to you that candid family photography is the BEST (and possibly most challenging) type of photography ever.

Moving house with kids can be stressful. Shawn and Christen did a spectacular job of keeping their two young girls entertained and excited on this day, with Herculean effort. There was lots of running around, but most of all - lots of fun! Enjoy the slideshow I created and get in touch for your very own Day in the Life session.

Kindness is everything, and spending time with family is true happiness. I spent a small snippet in the life of Irit and Mike, with their adorable toddler Leo in Ottawa, and captured a bunch of fun things they love to do together.

I even made a slideshow! Hope you enjoy :)

Here’s the honest truth: It’s not as though when I first arrive at someone’s house for the first time, they’re doing a little excited jig, eager to get their photos taken for three hours or a full day.

Documentary photography enters with a bang. She is the youngest sister. She has forgotten to wear shoes outdoors, so that her youthful feet are caked with mud when she steps into the dining room. She has a tangled mass of flowers in her hair. She reminds you of the fire in your heart.

One of the amazing and wonderful women who made it that much better during my PhD was Jen. She was doing her post-doc at that time, and we quickly grew close. (At first, I just talked too much, while she tried to get her work done efficiently so she could go home to her then very young daughter).

I grew up in communist Bulgaria, which means I really do not like to break the law, or any rules. I get nervous around police-officers, or border-crossing people, or even security guards (perhaps especially security guards). One time, as a teenager, I got pulled over for speeding, and asked to hand over my license and registration. My hand shook so terribly that I had to lean it against the open window when handing the office my license….

I didn’t realize it back then, but this was one of the sessions that would shape my career in photography. It was after this session - during which I didn’t once glance at whatever lighting equipment I had brought - that I realized I probably do not NEED all that equipment I had planned on acquiring.

Imagine for a second you are a strong and able puller of a plow. You comb the field with your plow, or even the beach, tirelessly, but your plow has a magical ability.

When I was nine, a boy who liked me (he was 13) trekked through half of Sofia in the pouring rain to knock on my apartment door and hand me a bouquet of soggy purple irises. I looked at him suspiciously, I took the flowers... and I said

"Thanks for the flowers. That was really nice of you… but you shouldn't have wasted all your time."

WHY is documentary photography the best way to capture family memories?

The straight forward answer is simple: because there is CONTEXT. (there is also a secret reason that I’ll tell you about in a moment)

I often introduce myself to people as a documentary photographer. I put that right on my bio, on my website, everywhere.

The catch is that I have made a mistake in assuming everyone knows exactly how this works! 😱

Over the years, you have learned - without realizing it - that your real life is ‘ordinary’. You have learned that the everyday moments, those regular things that happen daily, are less than ‘special’.

What you have learned is a lie.