Today I'm excited to announce the first of a three part series from an amazing photographer and guest-contributor to Daily Photo Tips!


Amber Holritz, of Holritz Photography based in Chattanooga, TN, is fast becoming one of the best lifestyle baby photographers in the United States. Her warm personality, gentle demeanor, and patient devotion to capturing great natural images of babies and toddlers put her in great demand -- both with moms as clients and, along with her super-talented photographer-husband Nathan, on the photographer speaking circuit.

So, without further ado, I'm proud to present the first edition of Lifestyle Baby Photography by Amber Holritz!



Lifestyle Baby Photography- Edition 1: Philosophy and Strategy
by Amber Holritz

Lifestyle Photography is (and should be!) taking over the portraiture world. Slowly but surely, we are losing the market for those stiff, "smile at the camera" portraits, as a relaxed, journalistic style of imagery moves onto the scene. I have recently fallen in love with the world of Lifestyle Baby Photography, and wanted to share some of my newfound passion with you!

Philosophy:
Webster's defines lifestyle as "a typical way of life." The images that I want to produce during an infant session are, by definition, of a "typical" nature. Can "typical" be artistically fulfilling? Definately!! So my philosphy for portraiture is to produce artistically fulfilling images depicting a "typical way of life". It's just that simple!

Strategy:
An image of a child can and should serve the following purposes:
1. Appropriate likeness of the child
2. Artistic rendering
3. Historical documentation for future generations

An image of a child would ideally show:
1. Emotional connection
2. Scale
3. Reality

The first set of expectations are easily met. Add in the second set, make them the criteria for your images, and you will see that true Lifestyle Photography is going to be the easiest way to provide a perfect portrait! You will be creating an artistic likeness of the child with legitimate historical meaning. You will be making an effort to seek out emotional connections between parent and child, compositions that provide scale, and do it all within the reality of the subject's environment! The final product will be an image that will portray "typical" life in a creative, editorial fashion. And once your consumers see how emotionally provoking these images can be, they will have no hesitation about the style!

As a parent, I could go on and on about just how fleeting a child's life is. I can barely remember what my oldest child looked like sleeping in his crib, playing with his first toys, or eating in his high chair. Nathan created some beautiful portraits of him at various stages, we took a few "candids", but we have nothing that artistically expresses the reality of his life at that stage! I want to remember what he looked like at home at 3 days, 3 months, 3 years. I want to remember not only his big loving smile, but also his moods! I want to show my future adult child pictures of his life as a baby, and in doing so, give him history! This is what Lifestyle Portraiture gave us with our second child. We have all those moments captured! We have history! I present this to my potential moms, and they all get it!