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.

You might recognize “Banjo Boy” from the homepage of my website, only now he’s a little over 4 years older (*sobs*) and his sister is no longer a baby (*sobs*) and Ruby the Dog is also somehow 4 years older (*sobs*). They are, however, still the best kids – hilarious, super smart, and raised on a steady diet of Garfield comic books. And not the new Garfield, either. We’re talking classic Garfield. You know, the good stuff. They also use Mr. Sketch scented markers (22 scents now!) and had a good time taking off the caps, having me smell the markers, and guess the scent. They play Badminton, which I used to play all the time as a kid. It’s like they’re living a delightfully early 90s childhood with no devices (except Duolingo, which is a favorite – and when it was discovered that I also use Duolingo, I gained a lot of street cred with the boy who then firmly moved me into the “cool” category). Kinda want to move in with them. Scratch that – definitely want to move in with them. You can find me in their backyard on the hammock reading their collection of Garfield comics.

Always a great joy and privilege to photograph the next generation of cat lovers in the United States. I’ve known Melissa and Jackson for quite some time (we photographed their weddings several years ago and Melissa was my very first sale at Familiar Dolls back in 2020!). We keep in touch by talking about cats and running into each other at Target. Our cats are super important to us and so it’s with great joy that I see Melissa and Jackson imparting their love of the feline community onto their daughter. In typical cat fashion, Pluto and Toffee joined us for a lot of this shoot by watching whatever I was doing from 10 feet away, and in typical almost-toddler fashion, their daughter crawled excitedly toward them whenever she could (because they’re CUTE). When we weren’t admiring cats, we were busy admiring ducks or herons, books, bubbles, water tables, and plants on walks. Happy to spend a morning with this beautiful family!

When I was little, there was no better summer day that one that was spent in the water and ended in pizza. It was fun to relieve those times with Taylor and Emily and their kids a few weekends ago. Lots of water guns, a kid who unfortunately knows full well how to work the most extreme setting of the garden hose, and a mom not afraid to dump the entire bucket of water on said kid. Oh, and cute dogs. All culminating in eating pizza cut with scissors in diapers at the dining room table. Good vibes all around on a summer evening. Happy to be there to capture it for them.