Angie Mahlke
- Apr 22, 2020
- 8 min read

Documentary with Lauren Webster

I met my husband when I was 18. We’ve been together 12 years. He’s helped me build the life I used to dream of. We have two children and four fur children. We live in and raise our family in the home that was once my grandparents’. That small, yet significant fact about me, has shaped my life as a mother and photographer.

I just recently resigned from teaching first grade to stay at home while my babies are little and run my dream business. Learning to let go is hard. Change has had a major impact on my life and my growth as a photographer. It drives my desire to document life. I’ve always been greatly affected by it. It’s difficult, yet refreshing, for me to come to terms with the fact that nothing stays the same.

When my daughter was a baby, I started taking a photo of her nearly every single day, as many parents do, with my cell phone. That was before I knew what a 365 project was or how to shoot in manual. Back when I loved photography, but didn’t really know how to use my camera.

2016. I was just a couple of months into my second attempt at a 365 at this point. This is about the time I really started finding my voice as a documentary family photographer.

I’ve had a camera in my hands my entire life, though. I’ve been documenting life since my sister was born 25 years ago. It’s always been a part of who I am. It just took me a while to realize that storytelling photography was where my heart longed to be.

This is a photo of my sister taken back when all I had was a disposable camera and before I realized that real life is beautiful. I was 9.

My journey to this point has been long, and I am still nowhere close to where I want to be, but I’d love to share a few things I’ve learned a long the way:

Finding Clients

I live in a college town in West Virginia. The people who live here around the year haven’t ever seen this approach to photography before. When I started my business 2 years ago, I had a handful of clients that year who really got what I did. The rest would ask for a storytelling approach, but when I got to their house they’d all be in matching outfits asking me what to do. That’s not at all what I consider real life. It has taken me years to build my website and client communication up to a point that the public is starting to realize what I do. I think that is due to a few different things:

Clear, honest, and constant communication with my client leading up to their session. Questionnaires, phone calls, emails, and sometimes texts, are all ways that my clients and I communicate. It is JUST as important for them to feel like they know me as it is for me to feel like I know them. They are going to be more open and authentic with their lives if they feel like I am a friend.
Be open. My social media is filled with stories from my own life. I don’t hide much, because I want my past, present, and future clients to see me as a real person who understands parenthood and life. I am no better off than anyone else. I truly believe that stories from my own life invite people to be more open about their lives with me.
Show. If you want to document clients the way you would document your own family, use your business page to show them what those sessions look like. They are not going to understand what you do if they can’t see it. Imperfectly perfect photos of real life are what you love, they’re what you want to make for other people. Don’t be afraid to show them. You may take lifestyle clients too, but if that isn’t something you want to do much of, I wouldn’t fill a business page with it. There is such a wide range of what lifestyle photography can be, that it becomes confusing. Taking photos of a new mom in the nursery with a long, flowing, lace dress on with fresh makeup and washed hair is beautiful...but it isn’t real life. Take those photos but only share them if that is what you want to make.
Get your name out there! There are people who want what you do. They just don’t know you exist yet. Business cards, a website, and social media are all great ways to share your business. I recently had the honor of hosting my first ever gallery show. I got to show 25 photos, so I decided to fill the room with real life photos of moms. The public was able to see a tangible description of my work. I encourage you to do things like this even if they seem scary. The answer will always be no if you don’t ask.

The more you photograph and share clients who are craving this approach, the more you will get. It takes a while to build a portfolio, and that is ok. Just be true to yourself, and the rest will fall in to place.

If you have been upfront and honest and communicated with your client many times before the session, then there should be no confusion when you arrive to shoot the session. If you see everyone in white and denim, your clients don’t get it. Don’t let that happen. It would be awkward to ask them to change.

Documenting Clients and Your Own Family

I’ve been asked, quite a few times, if there is anything I do differently when I document clients as opposed to my own family, and I can honestly say there is not. I don’t turn on or off lights, I don’t move furniture, I don’t ask people to move or stand a certain way. I just document things the way they are.

A documentary session cannot be “planned,” because you can’t plan real life. Lighting, movement, and emotions are things that we just don’t have control over, but we can go into a session with an idea of what we are going to shoot. Having an idea of the story that you want to tell is important so that you can have it in the back of your mind while you anticipate photos that you want to include. I always go into a documentary session, after talking with my clients multiple times, with “scenes” in my mind. I break the session down into different scenes with ideas of the photos that I would like to create during each one. This gives me a little more control and allows me to think about how I want to compose a shot instead of worrying about what’s coming next.

Anticipation:

It is very important to be observant of everything going on around you during a session or even when you’re wanting to document your own family. Since I don’t interfere with a scene, I have to guess what may be coming next. Thinking and moving fast is important. If you think something is going to happen that you would like to photograph, compose the photo and be patient. Wait a few minutes, shoot through the scene, and photograph the story you want to tell. If there is something particular that you were waiting to happen, but it still hadn’t after 3-5 minutes, I would move on. It is just as important not to miss the other stories going on around you.

In this instance, I was hoping that my son would touch the curtain while they were playing so that I could see his silhouette. I positioned myself to compose the scene the way I saw it in my head and waited, with my camera up to my eye, for the moment to happen.

Lighting

Lighting is another thing that you cannot plan for. Some houses are dark and some are filled with natural light. Learning how to use the light to your advantage is important because you can’t change it. You might as well embrace it. I used to be so afraid of artificial light, until I realized how much it contributed to the story. I don’t use flash and I don’t turn on or off lights. Now, with that being said, you cannot take a photo with zero light, but as long as you have a little, you can make a photo. Practicing and photographing in different lighting situations is imperative to your growth as a photographer. Knowing and understanding white balance and how to photograph light makes a world of difference.

For example, you need to know that your shutter speed has to be slowed down when photographing in florescent light so that you capture a complete flicker cycle. If you don’t slow your shutter down, you will be left with dark lines in your photos.
Use split toning in editing when photographing a scene with mixed lighting.
White balance for the main subject.
If you’re not comfortable shooting a scene with natural and artificial light, do your best to compose the image so that one or the other is blocked off.

There were lights on in every room of this house. Just in this image you can see four different sources of artificial light and natural light coming from the windows in the back and on each side of my subject. I have grown to really love light like this. Instead of fearing it and letting it control me like it used to, I realize that it helps to tell the story well. I also have control over how I use it now. In this image, I chose the white balance based on the subject in the center of the photo who was facing the bathroom.

One of the best things about being a creative is that you DO have control over the way a photo looks even when ups don't have control of the scene. This image was taken early in the morning. The sun had just started to peek through the windows in our house. I wanted my viewers to see that, so I just exposed for the highlights on his face. I didn't move his chair, tell him how to sit, or turn on or off any other lights. You may not have control over what is happening around you, but you do have control over how you expose and compose an image.

Composition:

We’ve all been hit in the head so many times with the “rules” of composition, and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that this is my biggest hold back. I get so hung up on how I should compose a photo to stick with the rules that it leads to some miss shots. From experience, I just want you to know that 9/10 your client has no idea what a well composed photo looks like. First of all, YOU are an artist. As much a you may think you don’t know what you’re doing, you do. You’ve got the eye for what makes a photo interesting, so stop letting it interfere with the stories you’re trying to tell. Here are some new things to try, though:

layering-add some interesting elements to the foreground to add a sense of depth
framing!
diagonals and triangles
don’t be afraid to fill the frame!
negative space
change your POV
Rule of Space: there should be more space in the frame left in front of a moving subject than behind it