As many of you may know, in October my wife and I had a baby. As such, I have taken some time away from the website and the personal business and the YouTube channel. But I'm dedicated to strengthening the site in 2017. So, please forgive the hiatus.

I've been thinking about home photography a lot recently, as you can imagine. And as such, thinking about photography not as a planned hobby, but as a lifestyle. This is the way that I think a lot of parental photographers think about the craft. It as an adjunct of parenting, something they want to accomplish, but always in the context of other responsibilities. Why a lifestyle? Because we build shooting as an activity into our everyday lives.

What does that mean for the proper gear we need as home and family photographers? The common answer is that the home photographer needs the more convenient solution, be that a long range lens or even a point and shoot or - God forbid - a cell phone. But I don't think this is necessarily true. I have not suddenly begun using my cell phone more than I used to. What lens am I using? Please note, all new parents play a game where we try to turn any conversation into an opportunity to show off pictures of our babies. As such, I will use this conversation on gear for home photography as a thin premise to do just that:

This was shot with my 55mm Zeiss. And that's the point. About a month before my son was born I decided to move away from shooting with ranged lenses and shooting, instead, about 80% of the time with prime lenses. And I only own two of them, a 55mm and an 85mm. Today my 55mm lives on my camera nearly all the time. I made this change a month before the baby came. And my habit did not change afterwards.

So my habits solidified and I relied on them more. They did not change. As a result, I'm thinking that way parents need is solid habits before a baby is born. This will ensure consistent results afterwards. If, on the other hand, they have only ever shot with cell phones then most of their baby pictures will be taken the same way they did their selfies. Educating someone with kids is difficult, but not impossible. They simply have to want to shoot their pictures differently.

Home photography is possibly the most rewarding type that one can engage in. What matters is comfort with gear, not what kind of gear it is.