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.

June 22, 2023

Deidre+Eric+Braelyn+Braedyn // Cary Family Photographer

I got the chance to photograph this wonderful family several years ago when Braelyn was only 1, and now she’s pushing her mom on a swing, riding a big girl bike, and driving go karts around her living room (!!). She loves stickers and bubbles and choosing her shoes. She also is a great older sister to little brother Braedyn, and even let him choose multiple stickers out of her much valued sticker book. Braedyn himself is one of the sweetest little toddlers I’ve ever met. Super easy-going and very kind, he gave me several stickers from said sticker book, as well as offered me a bite of every single snack he ate. He is such a loving little kid and liked to grab my hand and run across the house to show me things. Together they had a great time putting together Legos and wrestling with Dad, and then riding go karts and bikes with Mom. And let me just say that the go karts are really something fantastic. The kids can steer and drive them themselves, or they can be remote controlled (!) by the parents so that your kids aren’t constantly running into your furniture or other people. They also light up and play carnival music and I definitely want one for myself and/or my cats. We had the first nice day of the summer for this shoot and it was worth all the rainy reschedules we had to photograph this great crew once again!

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June 16, 2023

Abbi+Olivia+Arlo // North Carolina Family Photographer

Abbi and Olivia! It had been a little over 5 years since I saw these two last! I photographed their engagement session and then they got married and then there was a pandemic and then they had a magnificent child named Arlo! They also adopted Basil, a second German Shepherd to be friends with Maizee (but really Basil is Arlo’s bff and buddy. Also Maizee’s bff and buddy. Also your bff and buddy and everyone’s bff and buddy). Arlo loves smiling and watching his Mama and Mom act like dinosaurs, which they do frequently and with great gusto. It’s really incredible to watch. The roars are intense. Arlo loves it. Arlo loves building with blocks and watching Basil swim in the pool. Arlo also loves playing with video game controllers and with his (badass) toy staple gun. Yes, it makes staple gun noises. Yes, it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. And yes, I grabbed it and pretended to staple my clients because that’s what you do with a toy staple gun.

But what Arlo really, really loves is being turned upside down. I think he would’ve let us keep him upside down forever except that’s probably not safe so we made him take breaks but wow. He really loves being upside down when he’s not stapling things. He is heckin’ cute. He’s even more heckin’ cute when we goes swimming but we didn’t put him in a swim diaper so his diaper grew 3 sizes that day and he had a giant baby butt and we just love Arlo. Maizee, the black German Shepherd, is a polite lady who enjoys eating snacks and hanging around with all her friends. Basil is a high-energy ball of barking who is obsessed with tiny balls of reflected light that come from watches, rings, and cameras. She also enjoys swimming and fetching and protecting Arlo and responding to the word “squirrel” with lots of enthusiasm! I’m so happy for this family of 5. They’re so sweet and so kind and I’m glad to know them. I’m also glad that they introduced me to toy staple guns.

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May 23, 2023

Christie+Ty+Oscar+Vera // Family Photographer in Durham, NC

THESE GUYS! We have become fast friends with this family through our mutual love of horror movies and rock music and cats and fun clothes and cheese and skeletons and 28 Days Later. We love them very much. Their children are A TOTAL BALL OF ENERGETIC FUN that could probably power a small country if someone could figure out a way to plug them into the power grid. They’re fast. They’re wild. They like Andrew WK dance parties and they’re obsessed with the movie Labyrinth. There has never been anyone in my entire life that’s ever been more excited to see me than Oz. Spoiler alert to my own self-esteem: I think maybe Oz is excited to see everyone, but I’m going to keep pretending that he likes me the most.

Both Vera and Oz launch straight into 10 minute overlapping monologues when I see them, and then once I’ve been whirlwind updated and usually assigned a pair of sunglasses or a specific spot that they’d like me to sit, they will usually take turns sitting with me and telling me about Pokemon or Peppa the Pig until they go to bed. They are absolute sweethearts and totally wild and I hope they never change. The entire family, like myself, loves what Christie calls “aggressively patterned” colorful clothes, and I think this is the best description ever. There are also 2 cats: Eggroll, who is my best friend forever orange boy, and Jayne, who is a beautiful white cat who also likes me but really also loves her sleeping spot in the closet. There are also 2 dogs: Butters and Klaus, both Corgis, both love eating hot dogs that Vera accidentally drops on the floor. I love them all and want to scoop up this entire family and give them a giant hug or live with them forever in a bounce house.

Siblings during at home family portraits in durham sit on couch

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