Cornwall Documentary Family Photography
Woooooowee! This one comes with lots of photos. :)
Welcome to the first post about The Toothbrush Sessions – 2-3 hour documentary family sessions that follow your family through their morning routine OR their evening routine – from bed to bathroom to table to playtime or the reverse. The idea is that this gives plenty of time for showing the connections that happen between family members while you go through the motions of everyday activities.
Meet the Osbornes. These guys have been in front of my lens more times than I can probably count, starting with Jon and Kelly’s engagement/family session way back in 2012 all the way up to their last session in September 2014, just before they moved to their new home. The boys have served as my muses on many occasions. I’m not sure what it is about them, but they just kill me every single time we work together. They’re hyper-observant, very inquisitive, rough-and-tumble sorts, and Jon and Kelly are so easygoing in their approach to parenting that it’s refreshing to watch the boys get themselves into unusual predicaments.
When I arrived, Kelly was starting on dinner, the boys gave me the once-over to make sure I was still the same person they saw at trampoline a few months ago (Ollie’s eyes got gleefully large for one split second) and then Oliver and Jon went downstairs to play ball hockey, so I tagged along. For the record, four year olds have VERY fluid rules for what counts as a goal against them. :) Jon was never going to come out a winner from that game!
Supper was a pasta-and-meat-sauce affair that Oliver best summed up after his first bite (said very quietly while wiggling in his seat and looking fiercely at his bowl): “This…is…..AWESOME!” Their mealtime is probably similar to that of countless other families: a little coaxing to concentrate on eating, a lot of movement to and from the table, and some good-natured chitchat about whatever springs into the minds of those two little boys, before it devolves into other random activities – in this case, vacuuming the windowsill after Scotty deemed that it was too dirty. Windows properly cleaned, it was time for a bath, and I was reminded just how immodest little boys can be. :) Some of my favourite images from the day came from bath time, largely because it’s something that is so unique to this stage in the boys’ lives. The dinner routine will modify over the years; the playtime activities will change; the things that capture their imagination and attention will alter; but the shared bath time – that will quietly and completely disappear one day.
I have so many favourites from this session…. Ollie’s face as he waits for his shot to land. Scott’s face while Jon unlatches the window (Scott realising why it was so hard to open). Scotty leaning on his bed while inspecting his new library book, his Pull-Up tossed on the bed for later. Oliver resting his nose on the edge of the tub or looking up at Mom as she dries him off. Kelly’s face as Ollie rips off his Band-Aid (from one of two bee stings he managed to get recently). The shot through the doorways into each boy’s bedroom, with each parent reading a bedtime story. Scotty’s fingers intertwined around his stuffed animal. These times won’t last forever. The boys will learn to do more on their own; they’ll kick Mom and Dad (or each other) out of the bathroom; they’ll get too strong to be smacking balls around in the house.
Jon and Kelly, thank you for trusting me with this. You guys are just plain awesome. Here are some favourites:
I’m Ang – a Cornwall, Ontario-based photographer with a passion for capturing light and photographing natural moments in life as they happen anywhere in the world. My goal is to capture memories that you will cherish once your children are too grown up to curl into your lap for cuddles and the house seems oddly quiet at night. I love meeting new families in their natural environment and getting in amongst the bedlam so that I can document the perfectly imperfect realities of daily life. Please explore more of www.momentusstudio.com to see more examples of Cornwall documentary family photography.
