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.

It’s always a treat to see this family – not only because I’ve been photographing Erika and Emmanuel for so long, and not only because their kid is the perfect combination of the two of them and is SO funny and adorable, and not only because there are always extremely cute animals involved (shout out to Beans and Habanero who made appearances this year) – but because someone is always wearing a bowtie and because we embrace whatever life throws at us, including a very rainy day. Halloween is also usually involved in some manner – this year we showcased our seasonal spirit by donning a grim reaper costume while holding a black cat, pretending to have a pumpkin head, showing off a skeleton friend, drawing a large Halloween mural, and of COURSE pretending to be a family full of the friendliest, cutest zombies (which was a throwback to Erika and Emmanuel’s wedding photos, which their kid saw and wanted to replicate, which is even cuter). No one knows how to have fun and seize the day quite like them and I’m just happy to be a part of it.

Another glorious family photography session with Bread Boy, his brothers, and his parents! I meet a lot of kids, and usually they’re extremely energetic or extremely cooperative, but they’re rarely both (I say this with love). All four of these boys actually are both, and they’re truly some of my absolute favorite wild yet cooperative subjects. I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly posed them – they just pose for me. All of them – including the one year old. They were all just born knowing how to pose. All four brothers will pose themselves and smile directly into the camera for 2 minutes, and then scamper off into various directions to cause mayhem and mischief, and then suddenly all end up in a different spot, arms around each other, smiling delightfully into the camera again. It’s truly wild. They are hilarious and full of life and LOVING life. They just spent some time in France and when I asked them how their time was, they replied, “Je suis une pizza,” which just means “I am a pizza.” They then put on fake mustaches, sat on the couch, put their arms around each other, and smiled for the camera.

I always love photographing self-professed “nerds” because I am also a nerd and usually we can talk about nerdy things together. Kelsie loves musicals, Neal loves board games, they both love ridiculous movies, and so naturally several recommendations were passed between all of us for a bunch of nerdy stuff (everyone – go watch Solarbabies if you want to see something truly amazing and ridiculous). Just felt like being home photographing these folks. Their house is adorable and they have two beautiful and majestic doggos, Tonks and Granger, who became my best friends. Their son, who is a JOY, was quite the smiley and happy photography subject, especially when it came to eating sliced cucumbers, which are his favorite. Loved working with all of these guys and having a photography party in their amazingly wallpapered bathroom.