Thoughts on being an international-ish documentary family photographer

Over Memorial Day weekend I had the joy of documenting an extended family as they went about their Sunday at the grandparents' home up the mountains in Pescadero.

Grandma Mary asked me about my background, and how I ended up where I am – doing documentary family sessions in California. After I told her a little bit about my journey, she made a statement that really only hit me on the winding drive down from the mountain:

It feels pretty dang remarkable to have picked up a camera 7ish years ago just for fun, and now be documenting the lives of people from all over the world.

Even though I work mostly in San Francisco Bay Area, I have photographed families in Seattle, Big Island, Mexico, and North Carolina. I photographed my friends and their babies in Sweden and Finland. The families I've worked with have been American, British, French, Brazilian, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Finnish, Swedish, Filipino, Australian, Chinese, Italian, Moroccan, South African – hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone.

It's so easy to stick to the daily grind and not take a step back to see what a difference there is between "then" and "now". I feel honored to be invited into the most intimate spaces of families from all over – every family teaches me something new about life or the world.

A giant thanks to all the families for trusting me with their memories this far – I hope to work with many more families like yours!