"I'm Not A Photo Person" | Family Photographer Melbourne
- Paige Gotts
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
You know that feeling...
Someone points a camera at you and suddenly you forget everything. How to smile. What to do with your hands. How to just be a normal person. You stiffen. You do a weird thing with your mouth. You say "I'm not photogenic" and mean it with your whole heart.
I feel it too. We all do.
Because being photographed, really photographed, in the traditional sense, is an uncomfortable, unnatural thing. Standing still, looking at a lens, performing a version of yourself for someone you've just met. Of course it feels awkward. It's supposed to feel awkward. It's not how humans actually are.
Which is why I don't do that.
I'm not going to ask you to line up and look at me. I'm not going to count to three or tell you to say cheese or position your chin just so. From the moment I arrive, my camera is the least important thing in the room.
What matters is you. Your kids. Your home. The things you do together every single day without thinking.
Before I even arrive, we talk.
A questionnaire, a conversation. We work out together what matters most to you, what you want to remember about this season of your life, and what you actually enjoy doing as a family. Do you bake together on weekends? Kick the football in the backyard? Jump on the trampoline? Make smoothies in your kitchen? Run through the sprinkler on a hot day?
That becomes your session. Things you already do. Things that already feel like you.
So when I arrive, you're not standing there wondering what to do. You already know. You just do it. And I disappear into the background and document all of it.
And then something happens.
It's different for everyone but I see it every single session. There's a moment, usually when the kids do something funny, or someone forgets I'm there, or a dad who walked in looking like he'd rather be anywhere else starts roughhousing with his kids on the living room floor, where everything clicks over.
The awkwardness just goes. And what's left is pure magic.
That's the photo. Not the version of you that's trying. The version of you that forgot to try.
A note for the partner being dragged along.
I see you. I know this wasn't your idea. I know you've already said "I'm not really a photo person." But here's what I know from doing this... By the end, you'll be glad you did it. Not because the photos are beautiful, although they will be. But because somewhere in the middle of kicking the footy with your kids or reading them a story on the couch, you stopped thinking about the camera entirely.
And I caught it all.
You don't need to be photogenic.
You don't need a Pinterest worthy home or perfect outfits or children who sit still. You just need to show up as you are, do the things you love, and let me do the rest.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
I work with families across Melbourne and the Macedon Ranges, with my camera happily going wherever your family is — Regional Victoria and Australia! I just want to help you remember this, whatever this looks like right now.
Let's create something beautiful together.
Paige x
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