I believe every family should have a beautiful portrait together. But that’s only part of the story.
I’m also looking for the expressions, relationships, and little interactions that show what being together feels like right now.
Your family won’t look exactly like this forever
El Paso Family Photographer
Family photography in El Paso, Texas, and throughout Southern New Mexico, including White Sands and Las Cruces.
The Family You Are Right Now
One of my favorite things is photographing a couple's wedding and then seeing them again years later, this time as parents.
The two people I once photographed together now have children reaching for them, laughing with them, and becoming part of the photographs.
Whether I've known your family for years or we're meeting for the first time, your family won't look exactly like this forever.
The way you fit together today deserves to be remembered, not only what everyone looked like, but what it felt like to be together.
Once we have the family portraits, I keep watching.
I’m looking at the way your children reach for you, the expressions between parents and kids, the laughter, the play, and the little interactions that happen when no one is thinking about making a photograph.
Those are often the photographs you couldn't have planned, because they come from simply being together.
I’m not only photographing the people in front of me. I’m paying attention to the relationships between them.
What Happens Between the Portraits
I don't have many photographs with my grandparents, and I don't have the kind of photograph with them that I wish I had today.
I loved them dearly. They taught me a lot, and I have wonderful memories of them. But memories are different when you have a photograph you can actually hold.
Today, my parents live thousands of miles away, and I only see them once or twice a year. Maybe that's why photographs of generations together mean so much to me.
A photograph of grandparents with their grandchildren may feel simple today. Years from now, it may be one of the photographs that matters most.
If you have the opportunity to bring grandparents into your family session, I would love to photograph them with you.
The Photographs I Wish I Had
I’ve always loved landscape photography, and that naturally finds its way into the way I photograph families.
Sometimes I want to come close and photograph an expression or a small interaction. Other times, I want to step far back and show your family within the place you chose surrounded by the desert, the mountains, or the openness of White Sands.
Both photographs tell me something different about your family.
From the Franklin Mountains and the desert around El Paso to White Sands and Southern New Mexico, we’ll choose a location that feels right for your family.
Your Family, Within a Place
My family and I have been doing portraits while on vacation every year for about a decade, and Stephane is by far the best photographer we've ever worked with.
He took the time to hear what we had in mind and executed that far beyond what we thought possible.”
— Edward
White Sands family session · Parents, two children + their dog
I don't photograph your family with a number of images in mind.
If I make a photograph of your family that I believe is worth keeping, I want you to have it. Your finished gallery includes all of the photographs I select and carefully edit, not a small collection you have to choose from afterward.
Because I don't think you should have to decide which memories make the cut.
If It’s Worth Keeping, It’s Yours
The Family Photography Experience
You’ll receive all of the finished high-resolution photographs I believe are worth keeping, along with a fine-art print personally made by me.
3.
KEEP
We’ll talk about your family, what matters to you, and where you’d like to be photographed. I’ll help with the location and timing so everything feels easy.
1.
PLAN
PHOTOGRAPH
2.
I’ll give you direction when you need it, while leaving plenty of room for your family to simply be together.
Digital files are important, but for me, the photograph becomes something different when you can actually hold it in your hands.
I print photographs myself on a professional 24-inch printer, using different fine-art papers, each with its own texture, surface, and character. The paper becomes part of the photograph itself, and I can choose the one that feels right for the image.
From smaller prints for your home or grandparents to large 24×36 photographs for your walls, I want your photographs to become something you can actually live with and keep.
A Photograph Isn’t Finished When I Export the File
24 × 36-inch fine-art family portrait
Fine-art papers, each with its own texture and character.
Family Photography Investment
Every collection includes planning and location guidance, all of the finished high-resolution photographs from your session, a private online gallery, and a fine-art print personally made by me.
For families wanting more time, multiple family groupings, or a location outside El Paso such as White Sands, extended coverage is also available.
Family photography collections begin at $475
Most families invest around $650
Your family will keep changing.
The photographs you make today become a way to remember the people you were, the relationships you shared, and what being together looked like at this point in your lives.
You don't need a special occasion.
Your family, as they are right now, is reason enough.
Photograph Your Family as They Are Today
@stephanelemairephotography