We’re Not Really Photo People (And Why That’s Exactly Why You’re My People)

We’re Not Really Photo People

There’s a photo I keep coming back to.

A mom on a bed, laughing so hard she’s basically defenceless. Two boys — bare feet flying, pillows swinging — completely and utterly piling on. The sheets are a disaster. Someone’s upside down. Nobody is looking at the camera.

*Yes, that’s me. Self-timer, two boys, zero mercy.

It is one of my favourite photos and this is what I mean when I say I’m not here for perfect.

The line I hear most often “We’re not really photo people.”

I hear it in enquiry emails. I hear it at the start of sessions, whispered a little apologetically, like it’s a confession. And every single time, I want to say: good. Because honestly? Neither am I. Not in the way people mean it, anyway.

I’m not here for stiff spines and fixed smiles and everyone staring down the lens on the count of three. I’m here for the pillow fights and pile-ons. The inside jokes that make one kid lose it completely. The way a little one still reaches for your hand without thinking, even when they’re pretending to be too old for it.

I’m here for the stuff that’s so ordinary you’ve stopped seeing it and so precious you’ll ache for it later.

The real reasons people don’t book

Let’s be honest about what’s actually going on, because it’s rarely just “we’re not photo people.”

It’s that the timing never feels quite right. There’s always a better season coming, a haircut to get, a few more weeks to sort out the calendar. It’s that it feels indulgent somehow — like you should be spending that on something more practical. It’s that standing in front of a camera with your whole family sounds, frankly, kind of stressful. I understand all of it. Every single one.

But here’s the thing about timing: this version of your family — right now, at these exact ages, in this exact season, is already leaving. Slowly and then all at once, the way these things always go. The bed pile-ons have an expiry date. So do the bare feet and the gap-toothed grins and the chaos that currently lives in your house.

Photos aren’t indulgent. They’re the pause button.

What a session with me actually looks like

It doesn’t look like a photoshoot, is the short answer.

For families especially, I love shooting in your own space: your home, your backyard, your favourite beach on the North Shore. The places where your kids already know how to be themselves. Where the pile-ons happen naturally, because that’s just what a random Tuesday looks like.

I’ll never ask you to pose in a way that feels unnatural. I’ll never make you hold a smile until it goes stiff and plastic. What I will do is follow the energy, stay close to the good stuff and make sure you forget I’m there as quickly as possible.

The results look like your family. Your real, loud, loving, chaotic family, caught in a moment that already felt like nothing and will one day feel like everything.

For the moms especially

I want to say something directly to the moms who are behind every camera in every family photo right now.

You are part of this story too. Your kids aren’t going to remember whether your hair was perfect or whether you felt ready. They’re going to remember that you were there: laughing, present, fully in it with them. Get in the frame. I promise I’ll make it worth it.

(And if you need proof that I practice what I preach — see above :)

Ready when you are

You don’t have to feel ready. You don’t have to love the camera. You just have to love your people and show up. I’ll take care of everything else.

Tasha offers relaxed, lifestyle-led family, couples and maternity sessions across North Vancouver, West Vancouver