Welcome
Welcome to Emily Chappell Photography, a Columbia, SC-based photography blog featuring family, children, senior, and maternity photography. Browse the portfolio, read the blog archive, or get in touch to ask about sessions.
On the blog
Past entries include notes on pregnancy, birth stories, breastfeeding basics, marriage, holiday traditions, and small daily moments with a growing family. Archives are organized by month and year, going back to 2012.
Pages on this site
A photography blog centered on family life often doubles as a quiet visual diary, capturing the small shifts that mark each season. From the earliest weeks of pregnancy to the wobbly first steps of toddlerhood, these images become a way of holding onto moments that move faster than memory can keep up with. Posting regularly turns the archive itself into a keepsake, one that a family can scroll through years later and see how everyone has grown and changed. The blog format also invites visitors into a more personal side of the photographer, beyond the polished portfolio images, by sharing the stories and context behind the camera.
Children grow at a pace that almost defies photography to keep up, which is why many parents begin planning sessions around the milestones that matter most to them. A fresh newborn shoot in those first sleepy days, a cake-smash celebration for a first birthday, or an annual portrait to mark another year of school all become waypoints in a family timeline. The relaxed pace of a familiar outdoor setting or a favorite room at home tends to put little ones at ease, and that comfort often shows up in the resulting images as genuine expressions rather than posed smiles.
Senior portrait sessions have a different energy entirely, focused on marking the close of one chapter and the anticipation of the next. Graduates often arrive with ideas about locations, outfits, and props that reflect their interests, from sports gear and instruments to books and vintage jackets. Working with a photographer who is willing to mix those personal details with classic portraiture tends to produce a set of images that feel both polished and personal. The resulting gallery can serve as a graduation announcement, a yearbook keepsake, or simply a record of who a young person was at that exact moment in time.
Maternity photography has grown into a beloved tradition for many expecting parents, offering a chance to celebrate a body and a household in the middle of transformation. Sessions are often scheduled in the later weeks of pregnancy, when the shape of the coming arrival is unmistakable and energy levels still allow for a relaxed shoot. Soft natural light, simple wardrobe choices, and quiet settings all help keep the focus on the connection between partners and the anticipation of meeting a new person. Many families return to the same photographer again and again as their story expands, creating a visual thread that ties each stage together.
Blog archives organized by month and year offer a surprisingly rewarding way to look back through years of family-focused writing and photography. Scrolling from early posts to the most recent entries can reveal how a household has changed, which seasons seemed to inspire the most writing, and which themes keep returning again and again. Topics like holiday traditions, marriage, the early days of parenting, and the small daily rhythms of life with children tend to resurface throughout such archives. The simple structure of a monthly index keeps everything easy to browse without needing a search bar or a complicated tagging system.
A photography portfolio does its best work when it is updated often, because even a strong body of work begins to feel dated after a season or two. Fresh images signal that the photographer is still shooting, still learning, and still engaged with the kinds of families and moments that define the business. Many photographers also find that rotating the portfolio helps past clients return to the site to relive their own sessions. A regularly refreshed gallery paired with an active blog tends to give visitors many reasons to come back, rather than a single quick look before moving on to another site.
Working with a local photographer often means more than just convenience, because familiarity with the area shows up in the resulting images. A photographer who knows the local parks, the soft light of certain streets, and the quiet indoor spaces that work well for sessions can help families feel more relaxed from the start. Local knowledge also tends to translate into practical advice about timing, weather, and what to wear, all of which contribute to a smoother experience on the day of the shoot. For families who value continuity, returning to the same photographer across multiple sessions builds a comfortable rhythm.
Photography blogs tend to thrive when they balance image-heavy posts with thoughtful writing, giving readers a reason to linger rather than just scroll past. A few paragraphs of context, a small personal reflection, or a brief story behind a favorite image can turn a simple gallery into something that feels like a visit with a friend. Readers often appreciate honesty about the messy middle parts of family life alongside the polished highlights, since that mixture feels more real. Over time, the writing becomes its own quiet record, complementing the images and giving the archive a warmth that pure photography alone rarely achieves.