Front Porch Sessions

To say 2020 has been a surprise in many ways would be quite an understatement. It’s a weird year, but I’ve found so much joy in photographing families lately.

My amazing friend and previous co-worker Niki recommended that I do “front porch photos” or “porchraits” if you will. At first, I brushed it off and thought “That’s cute, but other people are already doing it in my area. I’m good.” And then session after session got canceled, school got canceled for the semester, and life really changed dramatically in a matter of days.

Looking at my empty calendar, I eventually decided to do it. I said “Hey friends and family and past clients, I’ll come take your photos and give you 5 edited ones for a minimum $25 donation to Sparrows Nest.” Little did I know… those people would share it with their friends and their friends and their friends and 120 families later, we raised $5035. OVER FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

I didn’t even know what to do with myself as the inquiries kept coming in. Work was slow until that moment so I jumped right into full-on scheduling mode. Yes, there were some days where I drove way too far to make any sense, but eventually I got smarter about it and mapped things out a few weeks in advance. If a family lived further away than my other clients that week, I asked them to send out the form to their neighbors, and I photographed what felt like an entire neighborhood in a night on more than one occasion.

Google Maps, Calendly, and I became BFFs. Once I locked down a day with one family, I sent a link through Calendly for their neighbors to pick a time that worked for them. It let them automatically enter their names and addresses right onto my Google Calendar, saving me about 9000 emails.

I’ve never done this many family sessions before. Seriously, I think I’d done maybe 20 before this took off, so it was like a crash course in super quick posing with all types of families. We had ten minutes and I needed to get at least 5 solid photos every time. I had couples with their dogs and cats, families with five kids, families with two adult kids… every combo you can imagine. It challenged me in the very best way. I adored it, truly, and I’m so grateful that we were able to raise money while doing it!

I still can’t believe that so many people were interested, but what nearly every family told me was that this process a.) gave them something fun to put on their calendar and b.) was significantly easier than making their kids get dressed up, ride in the car, and take photos for an hour. Needless to say, family photos will look a lot more like these mini sessions in the future.

If you were one of the dear families I got to photograph, THANK YOU. You helped raise over $5000 for an incredible nonprofit in Athens, and your generosity doesn’t go unnoticed. I adore you all. Thank you x a million.

If you weren’t but you’re interested in having your photos taken in the future, make sure you’re signed up for my emails and following me on social so that you don’t miss any future mini sessions. I can’t run a $25 Porchrait deal all the time, but there will be a fun announcement this fall for holiday card photos that you don’t want to miss!

Scroll down to see some of the photos (there’s no way I could include all of them in one post!)