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.

Mah frieeendssss! Love this little group of 5! They were a little group of 4 (yes, I am 100% including Margie the dog), but this year they added a new member and I just ADORE her. Tyler’s on the Durham Dirtbags baseball team with Geoff so I get to hang out a lot with his family at games, and this little lady has fit immediately right in – smiling at everyone, having the time of her life bundled up in a little carrier and being a little ham. She’s still a baby, but I am pretty confident that she’s an extrovert. She smiles at me constantly, unless I’m taking her picture, and then it’s 50/50, obviously. Her brother, also an adorable ham, has been perfecting his baseball skills at the games and at home, but also his mad skateboarding skills. He literally goes to skateparks. He was Tony Hawk for Halloween. I saw him do an ollie in his living room but also jump off his couch onto the skateboard. And yes, he wears the checkered Vans. I’m obsessed. I also love their parents and their dog and their house and everything about all of them. So glad to have these magical people in our lives!

This was my first time working with James and Emily, their dog Frankie, and their adorable little daughter! They warned me that she might be slightly shy at first, and while she did take some convincing at first, by the end of the session she insisted on sitting on my lap and making me read to her, rendering me completely unable to do my job but happy to have gained the approval of yet another toddler. She also was quite enamored with my stuffed vampire cat keychain, who makes an appearance in most of the photos, much to my (and her) delight. Frankie, their dog, was a very good model, loyally barking at any dog that we came across in a way that suggested that he’s much bigger than he is, and he kept us all very safe. I clicked with this whole family immediately. We bonded over horror movies and our mutual love of Chapel Chill Ice Cream and Oscar Isaac. I’m so happy I got to photograph this special time in their lives for them, moving to a new city (welcome!) and enjoying the company of this spunky little dog and sweet little girl. Thank you, James and Emily!

Love these folks! I’ve been photographing them for years and it’s truly such a privilege to be close enough with a client that you feel right at ease and at home with them, and they don’t look at you sideways when you explain that you drove away from the house with your husband’s work laptop mistakenly in the car and now he has to come to their house to retrieve it while you’re doing the shoot. Aleigh and Joe are great. Their kid is great. I love them. Their kid decided he loved me even more and promptly asked if I could be his babysitter when I left. Rest assured this was because I gave him temporary tattoos and I let him jump on the bed – which he enthusiastically did until his parents decided he needed a safety/water break. We made muffins. We delivered letters to neighbors. We read books. Just a wholesome morning with this dino loving miniature dude and his rad parents.