My family recently had a full portrait session with Kirstin LaMonde, owner of LaMonde Photography, and the results she produced were, in a word: magical.
Kirstin’s family portrait session is a combination of formal portraits and photojournalism. She captures a slice of real life to tell a story of what your family’s life is like in the present moment.
Our first contact was through email where she asked basic questions such as how many of us were there? What kinds of photos were we looking for? Then she went beyond the typical and requested I tell her about the kids: what do they like? What are their personalities like? What do we like to do. I told her, and pointed out that my daughter can be hard to photograph because she tends to retreat inside herself when faced with something she doesn’t want to do. Kirstin was understanding and assured me she could work with her.
She arrived at our house early one spring morning in May dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. She introduced herself to my kids just like a mom we might have met at playgroup. She gave my shy girl space and followed her lead. We made our way outside and she pointed out spots in our yard with the best lighting for portraits and didn’t hesitate to lie down on the damp, and overgrown grass to get the perfect angle as we played with the kids blowing dandelions and she even crawled under our large bushes to follow the kids into their “fairy house.” She both gave us direction for photo opportunities, and took our lead for different shots as the kids played with our new baby chicks, soared on swings, and climbed into their playhouse.
We then went back into the house for snack. I happened to have a pineapple on hand which I think looked cool in the photos. I apologized for my messy house, wishing I had cleaned up more. She assured me it wasn’t at all bad, and pointed out that someday I will look back and miss the messy bookshelf, or the random toys strewn about or left on a table. I must admit, Kirstin is amazing with lighting and managed to make my messy house look down-right charming.
In all she was with us for about two hours and captured a wide variety of photos and moments.
She produced a blog about our photoshoot to preview some of our best photos as a sneak peak.
A few weeks later I received a beautiful linen covered book of photos that she put together to tell the story of our time together. This was a great bonus. I had a hard time picking which photos just to put in this post! For the book Kirstin did the all hard work of selecting photos and getting them printed so we can flip through and enjoy them whenever we feel like it, rather than have them relegated to a disc or hard drive.
I highly recommend LaMonde Photography. Kirstin really does capture your family’s essence.
Kirstin is giving one of YOU a chance to win a weekday, evening family photo session! Just enter the rafflecopter below for you chance to win!
*BVTMB received compensation for this post, but the views and opinions expressed are entirely her own.
I haven’t had family photos since leaving California 3 years ago.
We had some quick family photos last winter (mini session for our holiday cards) but my son has grown so much since then and we’d love to capture the essence of our family on film now that he’s almost a year old and nearly walking. Fingers crossed that we might win this session!
I would really love to win this. We’ve never had a complete family photoshoot before….last one was when Maggie was growing inside of me! 🙂
Almost a year ago.
Wow. I love her style. Keeping my fingers crossed!
These are great! I love her style! We did family photos when my oldest was a year, but now we have added another kiddo, so it would be fun to do them again.