Get ready to get to know me a little better today! You would think blogging personal work would be easy but honestly not for me! I am on my fourth Project 365 which means I take a photo every single day for the year and share them on my Instagram. It is a struggle to share the images monthly here but I wanted to give it a shot! Click here to check out my Instagram and follow along with my 365 this year! My work tends to be a lot of my children but sometimes nature and light play with still life as well. As a Cleveland documentary photographer I mostly share client work here – but everything you see in this post is my personal work. Some of these were taken in Cleveland and some during the two years our family lived in North Carolina. All of it is from the heart!

by Alison Nicole Photography | Cleveland Lifestyle Photographer

Cleveland Documentary Photographer – Documenting My Own Kids

Clearly one of the reasons I do what I do is to document my own children. Time flies. We all know it. I want to remember ALL of the things. This is why most of my personal work involves my kids. These images are everything to me! Just as a family loves going through their gallery after a session, I love looking through all of these photos of my own kiddos. A few recommendations… if you are going to do this consider giving your kids a hashtag. It does not need to be their name but something that represents them that no one else has used. That way you can easily find all of their images on Instagram. And please – PRINT THEM. Not just to hang around the house but in books too!

Storytelling

One thing most of my images have in common whether it be client work or personal work is storytelling. To me storytelling images make you FEEL something. Although not every image of mine does this, many tell some kind of story. This can happen even when there are no people in the image at all. Expressions, light, movement, color vs. black and white, composition, layers… all of these things add to a story. They set the mood and give you the feeling that is trying to be portrayed. It is honestly what drives every single thing I shoot.

Humor

Another favorite category of my personal work is humor! Kids are funny. Experiences are funny. Sometimes all you can do is laugh! These are some of my absolute favorite things to document. Just thinking of some of my favorite humorous images still brings a smile to my face. It just so happens that many funny images tend to tell really great stories as well. I also love the expressions that come with them!

Self Portraits

My kids often need breaks from being photographed so frequently – ha! When this happens I look to none other than myself. As a Cleveland documentary photographer I love being able to share images of myself that tell more about who I am. This year I took on the challenge of trying to take at least one self portrait every week. Many of these include my favorite things – storytelling, movement, light, color, and more!

Nature

I also just love to capture something beautiful in nature sometimes. There is so much beauty in the world. Colors, light, depth, texture, scale, and layers can make for some really gorgeous nature images. I probably shoot nature the least of everything else but I really enjoy it. Living in Cleveland with Lake Erie so close is just incredible for this – the light on the water never gets old!

Cleveland Documentary Photographer – The Voice Competition

Many of the grids you see in this blog post are images I entered into The Voice Competition – and it was my first time entering! It is really hard to choose what images to share so I tried to stick with my own personal favorites. There were categories so not every image necessarily had a place to go. I really enjoyed going through my work and looking at older as well as more recent images. Seeing everything in grids is also such a neat way to compare and see growth!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through and check out the images in this blog! If my work is speaking to you please know that I serve families in Cleveland and the surrounding areas. I offer family, newborn, branding, couples, and senior sessions. Check out these links: Cleveland Family Photographer, Cleveland Newborn Photographer, Cleveland Branding and Headshot Photographer, Cleveland Couples Photographer, Cleveland Senior Photographer. I would love to work with you!

Blog Circle

From time to time, I have the honor of sharing other incredible photographers through blog circles. Today Today I want to share my dear friend Jennifer’s blog, who shared a blog about a content session with Nature’s Pace LLC. Be sure to click the link and check it out! It’s all about a branding session she did last fall with a local outdoor program Nature’s Pace and is geared toward getting kids outside!