In-Home Family Photography in Chicago

Some of the best photographs of your family will never happen in a park. They happen on a Sunday morning in the kitchen, in the three feet of light next to your bedroom window, while someone refuses to put on socks. In-home family photography in Chicago is about photographing that — the real version of your life, in the place where it actually happens.

I come to your apartment, condo or house anywhere in the city, and I work with the light you already have. No backdrop, no studio lights, no posing everybody into a stiff line against a wall. Just your family, your home, and about an hour of being together.

Why in-home sessions work so well in Chicago

Chicago weather is honest about its limits. From November through March, a "relaxed outdoor family session" usually means a wind-chill of nine degrees and a toddler who is done in four minutes. An in-home session removes the weather, the parking, the logistics and the car ride entirely — which is why so many Chicago families book them between late fall and early spring.

It also changes how children behave. At home, a two-year-old has no reason to be nervous: their toys are there, their snack is there, and the person with the camera is a guest, not a stranger in a studio. That calm is worth more to your photographs than any location.

What a session at home actually looks like

We start wherever the light is best. In most Chicago apartments that is a living room with a south or west window, a bedroom with soft filtered light, or a nursery. From there the session is mostly unposed: reading a book on the floor, making pancakes, a bath, a diaper change that turns into a tickle fight, the walk-up hallway, the view out the window.

• • Full session — 60 minutes, $325: the whole morning or evening rhythm, 35 edited images.
• • Mini session — 30 minutes, $175: one room, one anchor activity, 15 edited images.
• • Galleries are delivered within 7 business days in a private online gallery.

If you are expecting a baby, an in-home newborn session is usually best in the first two weeks — see maternity photography for the session that comes before it.

How to prepare (a five-minute list, not a deep clean)

You do not need a styled home. You need the light and the people. In practice that means:

• • Open the blinds and pull back the curtains in two or three rooms.
• • Move the obvious clutter — dishes, mail, the laundry basket — out of frame. The camera only sees one direction.
• • Put everyone in clothes they actually wear, in colours that do not fight each other. Neutrals and soft tones photograph best in a home.
• • Have one activity ready: a book, pancakes, a puzzle, a bath.
• • Do not tidy the toys. Toys belong in these photographs.

Who books in-home sessions

Families with a newborn and a toddler at the same time. Parents who want photographs of their first Chicago apartment before they move out of it. Grandparents visiting from out of town. Families adopting. Anyone who has decided that a posed photo in a park is not the memory they want.

I photograph in-home sessions across the city — Lincoln Park, Lakeview, the West Loop, Bucktown, Wicker Park, River North, Logan Square, Andersonville, the South Loop and Hyde Park. If you would rather be outside, my Chicago outdoor family sessions cover the lakefront and the parks.