Durham Family Photographer

Carolyn Scott is a Durham family photographer. She specializes in candid and documentary at-home family photography in the Triangle area (Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, etc). Carolyn’s work has been published in several popular books and magazines, including Apartment Therapy, BuzzFeed, and Fangoria. Locally, she’s been voted Best Photographer in Durham Magazine’s Best Of Durham and INDY Week’s Best of the Triangle. She lives in South Durham with her husband Geoff and three cats.

Delighted to have these folks over to the house for a mini family photo session in Durham! Jaymie works with my good friend Jen, and since all my favorite people also know all the best people, we hit it off right away. They were a ton of fun to work with and their kids were super sweet. Little brother loves Home Alone (only called me a filthy animal once) and Mario and Luigi. Big sister loves Animal Crossing and crochet. They both love playing rock, paper, scissors but are the first kids I’ve seen to develop the advanced RPS technique of slowing way down before throwing their choice in hopes of buying themselves a millisecond to see what their sibling threw down first. Unfortunately, they both do this at the exact same time, and therefore it ends in extreme slow-mo and nobody wins. Thankfully they’re great at being redirected. Loved every second photographing this fun and adorable crew of four!

Alex and Danielle welcomed a new baby girl to their family in December, so I was overjoyed to update their family photos with her, their son, and their 16 year-old dachshund Honeybee. Their baby girl is so sweet and looks so much like her brother did at that age! Big brother is enamored with her, and talks nonstop about his sister and also Honeybee, both of which he loves hugging and kissing on the forehead. He also loves cameras (!) and was a great assistant during the shoot, taking additional pictures and making sure my bag was properly packed. This family of kind creatives warms my heart and it was a great way to start off my family photos of 2026!

This family never ceases to amaze me and entertain me. Allison and Nathaniel are wonderful people and parents, and their kids are full of love and joy and really specific technological knowledge. I’m always greeted in the driveway by now at least 3 boys grabbing my hands to pull me in various directions to show me various new things. This year they have a new brother (!), a Christmas tree, chickens, and soccer tricks – all of which they wanted to show me immediately. They asked which ornament was my favorite and were disappointed when I picked the teddy bear wearing a sweater but they got over it. Then they launched into asking me riddles that I had a very difficult time solving. Despite me not being able to answer the riddles, I was indeed still permitted to photograph on the premises. And while it was a cold and dreary late afternoon, we still managed some outside time and some silly family portraits, which has become the boys’ unspoken tradition (I do not pose them – they’re just amazing and consistently stellar at generating award-winning silly poses). These folks are near and dear to my heart. The relationships I build in this line of work mean so much to me and these boys always light up my day, no matter how cloudy the weather!