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.

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!

Lauren+Jacob+Jane+Oscar // Raleigh Family Photographer

Lauren and Jacob live in a really rad house with a 2 month-ish baby named Oscar and a vivacious 2 year-oldish toddler named Jane. They all share, together, a really great blue fireplace and and several awesome vintage chairs. But most importantly (to me, anyway), they share all of Lauren and Jacob’s meticulously cared for childhood toys. We’re talking everything I loved and used to have as a child, and then some. It was awesome! Plus, they didn’t seem weirded out when I got out my phone and started sending pictures of the toys to family. My old Care Bear purse was there, in ridiculously pristine condition and complete with original tiny change purse that I’m sure I lost about 2 days after receiving it! My old My Pet Monster was there (technically my sister’s BUT MINE IN MY HEART), in almost brand-new like condition, complete with original plastic handcuffs (!!)! And my old, purple Popple was there! It was my dearest childhood toy that I really couldn’t be parted with… but that I also threw in the local lake (then burst into tears and made my dad swim in and retrieve it). Lauren and Jacob also have a lot of Cabbage Patch Kids, which were also, obviously, an 80s-kid favorite.

It made my day to see all this stuff again, and in such great condition! Quite impressive. But even more impressive is that they also have in their possession a vintage Michael Jackson doll that kinda looks like a Ken Doll except it’s Michael Jackson in his American Music Awards circa 1984 outfit, complete with visible white socks. The 100% best thing about this is that Lauren holds up this doll and goes “hee-hee!” and thus has taught Jane to also say, “hee-hee!” when she picks up the doll (definitely click on that link). I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed and delighted in all my years of photography. Hee-hee!

Anyway – besides their vintage toys, they are also pretty great all on their own. Oscar sleeps a lot because he is a baby, but he does smile charmingly and is quite adorable. Jane took a strong liking to Geoff and wouldn’t go anywhere in the house or outside without him. “Geoff!” she’d say, and then point upstairs. “Geoff!” she’d say, and then point downstairs. There was a lot of ordering him around, but also handing him babydolls. She took a lot of delight into forcing him inside her playhouse and then repeatedly ringing the doorbell like a bad prank situation (Jane is really great). She also likes eating lunch (me too!) and cats (YES!) and when she sees a cat outside makes an immediate beeline for it with squealing delight (THIS IS ALSO ME!). They are a cute-as-a-button-on-a-vintage-Michael-Jackson-American-Music-Awards-jacket family and we’re happy to have photographed them.