How to document your day-to-day beautifully and honestly

As a family photographer in Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, and beyond, I spend a lot of time taking portraits of newborns and capturing family connection. While I believe deeply that these photos are meaningful and important in their own way, they only tell a part of your family’s story.

What would it be like to prioritize capturing the everyday moments in your life: the messy toddler hands, the imaginative play, laughter at the dinner table and the chaos of bedtime? These kinds of photos can round out your family’s storytelling through images.

Here are some ideas for how to document daily life with your family.

First, a disclaimer

Let me begin with a disclaimer: this list is meant to inspire you to think about how you document your family’s day-to-day life. It is NOT meant to make you feel any negative feelings that you’re “not doing enough.” Trust me. I’m well aware that we all are doing our best. I made this list for the parents who are wanting to incorporate creativity into their lives in a fun and meaningful way. Use what works for you and forget the rest. You may be surprised by how easy it is to implement some of these ideas into your daily life.

5 tips for documenting your day-to-day

1. Find Beauty in the Ordinary

What’s normal today will be nostalgic tomorrow. I’m sure you know what I mean by this, but if you need ideas, here are some jumping off points: your kid’s “fashion,” the way they use their imagination and play with their toys, missing and wiggly teeth, the way they interact with each other or pets, what and how they eat and the state of their face after they eat, what their bedroom looks like, technology, handwriting, the way they sit/lie down and get comfortable in weird positions.

Embrace the moments that make up your day, including morning routines, playtime, quiet time, sports practice, etc. And remember to zoom in on details to tell the full story. Faces aren’t always necessary to convey the feeling you want to show in your photos.

2. Use the camera you have

This is something I preach to myself on a regular basis. I used to try to bring along my “big” camera all the time, but it became cumbersome. The camera you have on your phone is more realistic to bring along with you and is honestly great!

Your phone can capture beautiful images that tell your family’s story, and when you are intentional with how you use it you’d be surprised by what you can create. Above are some images I took using my phone camera and some editing during a day at the beach. Below are some simple adjustments you can make to your phone’s camera settings and the way you use it to help elevate your phone photos.

Turn on gridlines for better composition (On your phone go to settings > camera)

• Enable the rule of thirds grid in camera settings to help frame subjects more naturally.
• Place key elements at the intersections of the grid for a balanced look.

Adjust focus and exposure manually

• Tap on the subject to set focus.
• If it looks too dark or bright, adjust exposure by dragging the sun icon up or down (on iPhones) or the brightness slider (on Android).

Use “portrait mode” for depth

• This mode blurs the background slightly, making the subject pop.
• Good for portrait photos of people or detail shots. I like to use it when I photograph flowers on my phone. I don’t always love the way the blur turns out so I recommend checking the phone’s work after the photo to see if you like how the effect looks on your shot.

If your phone allows you to adjust HDR, keep it on unless you’re photographing sports/fast subjects

• HDR (High Dynamic Range) helps balance shadows and highlights.
• Use it for outdoor shots but turn it off for fast-moving subjects to avoid blur.

Clean your lens!

• A simple but often-overlooked trick—wipe off smudges from the outside lens on your phone for sharper images.

Adjust white balance using your phone’s built-in editing system

• White balance refers to the way the quality of light in your photo makes the colors appear. The coloring in your photos may sometimes appear “cooler” (more blue/purple tones) or “warmer” (more orange/yellow tones). Many phone cameras allow you to adjust the temperature of the image.
• To access your white balance settings on an iPhone camera, open your camera. Click the arrow at the top that points up. Select the icon with 3 squares that appear to be at an angle. Swipe through to choose the look you like. Sorry, I don’t have an Android phone so I can’t help you Android users with specifics, but I’m sure a quick Google search will do the trick.
• While the technical purpose of adjusting white balance is to get your whites in your photo to look “true white” and to make the colors look true to the scene, you can play with white balance to achieve the look you want.

Avoid using digital zoom when you can

• Instead of zooming in on your screen (which reduces quality), step closer or crop the image later.

If you want an idea of how to use your phone’s built in editing system, you can see a reel I created about this here.

3. Capture Authentic Emotions and Connections

What I have found to be true with my own family is that the more I photograph them, the less likely they are to pay attention to what I’m doing. It sounds funny, but it’s true. Eventually the novelty of the camera or the phone wears off, and they get back to doing whatever they were doing.

Capturing genuinely candid photos requires patience and consistency. If you set the timer on your phone camera, you can step into the shot as well. And don’t stress about the background being “perfect.” The background adds to the story of this moment in your life. Let things be how they are.

4. Play with Composition and Light

Composition refers to the way your subject is positioned in the frame of your shot. The more you know about different compositional techniques, the more you start to incorporate them naturally. A few examples of compositions you can use are:

Rule of thirds: position your subject at the points of intersection in the grid of your camera instead of centering everything in the middle.

Leading lines: use lines in the shot to lead the viewer’s eye to the subject.

Natural framing: use the environment you’re in the create a frame around your subject within the photo.

Start to notice the way the light comes into your home and use that to enhance the photos you take. Shadows and silhouettes can add fun artistic depth to your shots.

5. Make It a Habit and Create a Legacy

Like most things, the more you photograph the people around you, the better you’ll get. Something really cool that I have found about being my own family’s historian is that it makes me more present. The more I photograph my family, the better able I am to anticipate when a great photo is coming.

I highly recommend organizing your photos in a way that makes sense to you so that you can get them off your computer or your phone and into an album. For me, that means organizing first by year and then by month. When I get around to making our family album for the year, I can easily organize my pictures chronologically and get them uploaded directly into an album online to get printed. Here are some sites I love for printing my family’s photos and albums:

Shutterfly – budget-friendly since they always have coupons. I recommend switching to 6-color printing instead of their standard printing if you have an album made with them. The improvement in quality is drastic in my opinion.

Artifact Uprising – more heirloom-quality, higher end options for albums and printing. Beautiful products.

Ready to be your family’s historian?

Start now. Take your phone out at school pickup and photograph your walk home. Find the joy in creating things your family will have forever. Most importantly, never forget that storytelling is about capturing love, not perfection.

And the next time you need a family photographer in Camarillo for family portraits, I’ll be here. You can inquire about a session using this contact form.

How to document your day-to-day beautifully and honestly

Erica Hurlburt is an award winning Ventura County Photographer who specializes in newborn, family and school photography. Her style tends toward cleaner, classic images, both in how they’re composed and edited. Her goal in every session is to keep things relaxed and fun and to create images that are both meaningful and unique.

Erica serves clients in Camarillo, Ventura County, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, Westlake,
Malibu, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Ojai and beyond.