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.

Anne+Brian+Wyatt.

Anne and Brian are near and dear to our hearts. I’ve photographed Anne as a bridesmaid and a fiancee, as well as her bridal portraits AND her wedding, so I believe this is my 5th time photographing her if my very basic math skills are correct. ;) And this time she is a mother! She and Brian are the proud parents of the most adorable kid to hate hats this side of the sun. His name is Wyatt, and he is full of energy, inquisitive looks, and I believe I mentioned hatred of hats but it’s worth repeating. This kid hates hats. And much in the spirit of his feline brother Pippin (and cats everywhere), he didn’t want to do something simply for the fact that he got the sense that we wanted him to do it. This was evident by the small smirk on his face each time he plucked the hat off his head and threw it on the ground. Somewhere in the background I believe we heard the soft refrain of “I ain’t gonna be part of this system.”

In between sessions of throwing his hat on the ground, he walked around the arboretum and the sunflower field with his two loving parents and was freaking adorable. Look at that hair! Those overalls! He’s a peach. So, obviously, are Anne and Brian who are such sweet and loving parents! Can’t say I’m surprised as they’ve always been sweet and loving to everyone, but they have such a bond with this little guy. A bond strong enough to repeatedly try to put a hat on his head despite his thwarting them at every turn. And if that isn’t unconditional parental love, I don’t know what is. So happy and thrilled to be a part of this family’s continued photo history!

“I ain’t gonna be part of this system.”

Kathy+Andrew // Raleigh Family Portraits

Kathy and Andrew are beloved previous wedding clients of ours from way back in 2012 where their wedding culminated in a fierce game of competitive ping pong. We’ve since followed their many adventures living in Chicago, and now their current adventures back in the Triangle. Most of these adventures involve Andrew decorating his beard in some way, or pictures of their adorable cats Brewer (tabby!) and Addy (calico!). Now they’ve embarked on the brand new adventures of both homeownership and parenthood, and kindly asked us to capture a bit of both. Their newest addition’s name is Alden, and his favorite activities involve staring into your soul with intense, prolonged eye contact the likes of which I’ve never seen in a baby, and hanging out with his mom and dad (in between staring into their souls as well). And when I mean he stares into your soul, I mean HE STARES INTO YOUR SOUL. It’s the type of eye contact where you’re like, woah! I feel like this person knows literally everything about me right now, and I’m a bit uncomfortable, even though it’s a baby. He definitely is 100% probably clairvoyant. If I photograph him as a toddler or a teenager, I may make Kathy and Andrew sign a nondisclosure agreement depending on how discreet he is with his release of information.

When he’s not finding out literally everything about you via telepathy, he makes cute faces and has adorable cheeks and hangs out in his rad house. The cats aren’t troubled by him (probably because he’s able to communicate with them mentally somehow) and allowed us to give them some belly rubs while we were there! We did not give belly rubs to Kathy or Andrew despite them also being adorable, but I might have pat Kathy on the head once or twice because I like her haircut. We are quite happy to see our clients doing fab things years later, and we loved meeting the littlest members of Kathy and Andrew’s home!

Tori+Josh+Atticus+Lorelai+Mia.

I love these people! They have a lot of art, and I want all of it. They have some matching Nikki McClure art to ours, as well as a John Stamos-style “Have Mercy” print in their daughter’s nursery. Scattered about they also have pirate artwork, as well as an entire wall with old-timey style art about how loose lips sink ships. In addition, they also have a vintage fireplace screen that I’m coveting even though I have a gas fireplace that’s already covered in glass. In short – we like them and their house and can easily talk to them about Twin Peaks.

BUT THEN THERE’S THEIR CHILDREN. Atticus is 3 and was super shy at first, but once we started talking to him about Richard Scarry cats and their various employment occupations, he was pretty excited. Then he turned into FULL ATTICUS and ran around at a great speed. He read books about pigs! He attacked his mom and his dad and his little sister (in a nice way)! He ate Cheerios! He cooked in his kitchen! He put on a tutu WHILE wielding a sword! He dug stuff up in the yard! He was unstoppable and adorable. His little sister is almost-1-year-old Lorelai who is so freaking cute I can hardly stand it. Her personality so far seems quite adaptable, happy-go-lucky, and along for the ride. She’s easily amused and cute in 100% of situations. Also, clearly has an epic romper wardrobe. Their little dog Mia enjoys sitting near Lorelai during snack time to try and help clean up anything that might fall on the floor.

We had a great time getting to meet and document this crew. Plus it’s really great to know more people who can alert me when fabulous items are placed on Craigslist. Thank you, Tori+Josh!