your Family’s Privacy & Safety Come First
When you hire me as your photographer, you are welcoming me into your family, if only for an hour or two. In those few hours, the goal is ALWAYS to give you little pieces of today to have for forever. Some moments are more intimate than others, but in each session you’re trusting me with your reality, to find the parts you treasure most. It is an enormous honor, and one that I never take lightly.
But for the last few years, the world outside our cozy private family lives has shifted dramatically. With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, automated web scraping, and evolving digital landscape laws, the way we think about the internet and, our digital footprints there has changed.
A family photographer working so closely with parents should not make safeguarding their subjects an afterthought. For me, it’s a foundational promise. Here is why I’ve updated my online sharing policies and how I protect your family every step of the way.
Public Image Scraping Is a Real Concern
Raise your hand if you’ve ever posted a cute photo of your kiddo on social media without a second thought. 🙋♀️ (Including myself here!) For years, sharing milestones online was just another part of sharing parenthood.
Now, tech developments have completely rewritten the rules. AI models, facial recognition software, and automated data-scraping tools take public images from social media platforms and online on a massive scale. Public photos can be pulled, indexed, and repurposed without consent or knowledge.
As a parent and a professional, that reality rubs me the wrong way. Your children’s faces, their identity, belong to THEM—not to an algorithm, a data broker, or an AI training dataset.
I have also explored using various software programs to protect my images while still showing faces, however, AI programs are simultaneously being developed and used to undo the effects of those. Thinking that your images are safe online only to later become unprotected again, is not a gamble I want to take.
Default Policy Update - No More Kids’ Faces on Social Media
Because of these growing privacy and security concerns, I made a major professional decision: effective immediately, I no longer post identifiable images of children on my public social media channels by default.
Instead, I share images without faces visible or with them covered, turned away from me, etc. This is already updated and reflected in my client contracts and model releases.
I simply want to put the choice of whether or not to share their cute little faces in YOUR hands. You can still post them if you like!
My public portfolio will now no longer show children’s faces so my portfolio won’t really be up-to-date. New clients can reach out and request see more recent work.
Full Privacy by Request
While my default policy already protects children's identities online, some families require, or just want, an even higher level of discretion.
For a few of my clients, particularly military personnel, maintaining a strict zero-online-presence is a professional requirement or a matter of operational security.
If you request full privacy for your session, there is zero use of the images from your session online:
Zero Public Sharing: None of your images (adults or children) will ever be posted to social media, my website, or promotional materials.
Secured Galleries: Your private online gallery is delivered via secure, password-protected links.
Complete Peace of Mind: You can celebrate your family milestones professionally without ever worrying about compromising your security or personal privacy.
“Online privacy is incredibly important to our family because the nature of our profession prevents us from sharing identifiable photos publicly. Since many photographers rely on posting their work online to market their services, this significantly limits our options for capturing family memories.
When our daughter was born, Megan was incredibly understanding and flexible, happily keeping our images private. We’re so grateful to have found someone who respects our privacy while helping us preserve these precious memories.
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Memory Keeping Without Compromising Safety
A little reminder: Great family photography isn't about how many "likes" a post gets on Instagram; it's about the emotional connection and reaction you have to it. I’m still creating breathtaking, gallery-wall-worthy art for you to enjoy for DECADES to come.
This is definitely not “what’s best” for my business from a financial or marketing standpoint. A staple of my work is the unbridled joy children experience with their families during our sessions. Whether I’m hiding faces via editing or they simply aren’t facing the camera, that joy is absolutely stripped from the photographs I can post by this self-imposed standard.
I am hoping for laws and regulations to provide a solution to these issues in the future but they just aren’t there currently. And I would rather be on the side of caution than not.
Technology changes fast, but your family's right to privacy, safety, and peace of mind should never be compromised. You deserve a portrait experience that respects your boundaries, honors your trust, and makes it easy to .
Ready for a beautiful family photo session? Click here to start planning your custom session with me!