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.

Melanie+Ryan+Scarlett+Raven // Halloween Family Session

Halloween is quite near and dear to our hearts. My birthday is in October, and I’ve usurped Halloween as my own personal holiday since I was born. Then Geoff and I were married on the 23rd with a Halloween-themed wedding, and basically Halloween all year, Halloween all the time, Halloween Halloween Halloween. We met Melanie and Ryan some time ago, and they are ALSO Halloween Halloween Halloween in ALL THE BEST WAYS! We were unfortunately unavailable to photograph their wedding but they’ve returned to us now with their sweet daughters Scarlett and Raven and booked us for a Halloween family session and we were SO EXCITED!! Their decorations are quite impressive, and we’ve learned we need to up our outdoor game a bit. They also have the most fabulous and wonderful collection of tiny little Halloween houses that light up and have moving ghosts and they’re all very elaborate and spooky. We had Christmas houses like this when we were little, but had I known Halloween houses existed, my parents would’ve been in trouble.

So we hung out with this Halloweeny crew at their place, checking out their decorations and running around the house playing! Scarlett is a brave and strong girl, who doesn’t flinch when her dad turns the corner wearing a terrifying clown mask, but instead attempts to block him with a Wonder Woman arm maneuver while still trying to hold onto some M&Ms. Raven loves the Zombie Man in the yard, and the giant inflatable spider down the street at a neighbor’s. She also adores the Chucky dolls upstairs in their attic, but isn’t quite okay with the terrifying clown mask yet (we’re working on it). Both children love their Halloween balloons, candy-dispensing mummy head, and the giant rubber rat sitting on top of their play kitchen. They also enjoy telling Alexa to play “This is Halloween” but forget the Danny Elfman part so Alexa plays the Marilyn Manson version and the kids hide. Melanie and Ryan enjoy horror movies (surprise!), getting their pictures taken with Robert Englund, collecting wonderful horror movie art, and being our heroes. Cheers to this spooktacular family of ghouls and ghoulettes! We are so happy to have been a little part of your boooootiful Halloween season.

Cat+Mitchell+Cameron // Lifestyle Family Photos in Greensboro

It’s our pleasure to welcome the always wonderful Cat+Mitchell into the CSP 4-Timers Club, and their son Cameron into the 2-Timers Club! Somehow Cameron has gone from infant-wearing-headphones to toddler-wearing-headphones practically overnight, and in that span of time Cat and Mitchell have really upped their A-game on the glasses front with Mitchell now sporting a mint green and Cat wearing ones with gold glitter. When Cat and Mitchell aren’t being great parents, they’re out being great friends to us. They’ve picked up obscure Coheed records for us on Record Store Day, and bought us tiny little striped toy cats from Ikea, and have always gone above and beyond on the friend front. We love and appreciate them very much, and are so happy to take photos of them and Cameron.

There were many wonderful little family moments during this session: bed jumping, book reading, Cameron texting while operating a feet-motorized vehicle, eating ice cream, finding and identifying every canine within a 10-block radius and shouting “DOOG” in its general direction, and splashing around in the city waterpark. But the best moment (at least for me personally) was Cameron getting onto their bed and seeing a little framed photo we took of Cat and Mitchell at their wedding. And he pointed to it and said, “Momma! Dada!” and took the frame down and held it and pointed to it and looked happy. >> insert sentimental Carolyn monologue here >> I have always operated under the assumption that someday our photos will be passed down to kids or family friends or whoever. Who doesn’t love looking at pictures of their parents on their wedding day? They were younger, more awake, well-dressed in their wedding clothes, and somehow you didn’t exist when the photo was taken. It’s hard to imagine your parents without you, so I think wedding photos always carry with them a sort of strange mystique and awe to kids of all ages everywhere. It is a great feeling knowing that Geoff and I are the ones who took those pictures. We’re enabling the kids to get a glimpse into their parents at a different time of life. I love imagining kids looking at these pictures later, and it was so so so so SO great seeing Cameron do that in front of me. >> ends sentimental Carolyn monologue, wipes away tear. >>

So anyway – we love these three guys and Biscuit the dog and June the cat and are so happy to have them in our lives as friends and clients.

Laurin+Tim+Tyler // Lifestyle Family Session

Guys! Tyler has now gone from a baby to a toddler. How does that happen? Science, I guess, and time. And now that he’s older, he’s starting to show some preferences and affinities that I hope he carries with him through the rest of his life. Namely: his love of cats and his overuse of sprinkles while making cookies. When I say cats, I mean their two pet cats Bongo and Max who stare at us from the top step and then run, and also his orange stuffed cat named Tom who does not leave Tyler’s side. And when I say overuse of sprinkles, I mean that 99% of that cookie is comprised of sprinkles, and I’m really not sure how you’d eat it, but I support it.

Tyler also likes painting his parents, running through bubbles, and looking aggravated while sitting on top of a gnome stool. He also likes making Super Target stores out of sand in his sand box (he is going to be such a catch). We are told that he wants to be a “big fat morning dove” when he grows up, and he enjoys riding his tricycle, identifying dogs on walks, and feeding ducks when they are at the pond. Laurin and Tim enjoy really wonderful art, really wonderful wallpaper, Game of Thrones, and keeping up with Tyler. The best part of taking photos of repeat clients is seeing how they got a large print made of Tyler looking aggravated while sitting on top of a gnome stool. We absolutely adore this family.