I have photographed families on the beaches of Long Island, in the gardens of Nassau County, and on the streets of New York City. But nothing quite prepared me for the first time I stood at the Trocadero in Paris with a camera in my hand making girl mom photos and the Eiffel Tower filling the frame behind a beautiful family.

This past spring I visited Paris for the first time. It was everything people say it is and then some. I knew that I wanted to have a Paris session in my portfolio so I asked around and found a Canadian family living in Paris. We connected and planned a sweet mom daughters session.

This post is about that session, what it felt like to photograph a girl mom and her daughters in one of the most iconic cities in the world, and what this whole experience reminded me about the extraordinary city I get to call home.

“Standing at the Trocadero watching this mother with her girls, I kept thinking: this is what it looks like when a family fully inhabits the extraordinary life they have built.”

The 16th arrondissement is one of Paris’s most elegant neighborhoods. Wide, tree-lined boulevards. Grand Haussmann architecture. A quieter, more residential energy than the tourist-heavy center of the city. And right at its heart, the Trocadero gardens, with their fountains, their terraces, and that unmistakable view of the Eiffel Tower framed perfectly across the Seine.

For a family photo session, there is almost nowhere on earth that compares. The Trocadero offers grand wide-angle shots with the tower as an anchor, intimate garden moments between the flower beds and the fountains, and the particular quality of Parisian spring light that falls soft and golden through the chestnut trees in a way that photographers genuinely dream about.

There is something about a mother with her daughters in Paris that feels like it belongs in a film. The way they walk together. The way the girls look up at their mother in a city this grand and feel safe because she is there. The way a mom holds it all together, the logistics of a life abroad, the raising of children in a foreign language, the daily miracle of building a family in a place far from where you started, and still finds room for joy and beauty and an afternoon in the Trocadero gardens.

These girl mom photos were not just pretty portraits against a famous landmark. They were a real document of a specific and remarkable chapter of this family’s life. The daughters growing up bilingual, growing up Parisian, growing up with the Eiffel Tower as their neighborhood backdrop. The mother who made that life happen. All of it visible in the images if you know how to look.

As a destination photographer, these are exactly the sessions I live for. The ones with a story already written that I am simply there to capture.

Here is the thing about spending time in Paris as a photographer: it makes you see your own city differently when you come home.

I live close to one of the most iconic, most visited, most photographed cities in the entire world. New York City draws families from every country, every continent, every corner of the globe. They come for the skyline, for the energy, for the experience of being in a place that exists nowhere else on earth. And many of them, like my Canadian family in Paris, are here not just as tourists but as people building real lives in an extraordinary place.

Families visiting or living in New York City also want to capture the excitement and joy of travel. Whether it’s a first time visit or practically a second home, I can help you capture the magic. The Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the High Line, the Manhattan skyline at golden hour, these are not just backdrops. They are the settings of real family stories happening right now. And I can be the photographer who captures them.

“Paris reminded me that iconic cities deserve more than tourist snapshots. They deserve a photographer who sees the family first and the landmark second.”

Whether you are a family visiting New York City from another country and want photos that capture your time in one of the world’s great cities, or you are planning a trip and want to add a family session to the experience, I would love to work with you as your destination photographer.

I bring the same intentional, natural, heartfelt approach to destination sessions that I bring to every family I photograph on Long Island and in New York City. The location changes. The way I work does not. Real moments, genuine connection, images that tell the true story of your family in a place that matters.

As a New York City family photographer with roots on Long Island, I know this city and its light the way that Canadian family knows their corner of Paris. I know where to stand, when to arrive, how to find the pocket of quiet in a busy landmark location, and how to make a family forget they are standing in front of one of the most photographed skylines in the world.

• Visiting New York City and want a family session during your trip? I would love to hear from you. Contact me here.
• Living in or relocating to the New York area and need a photographer who knows the city? Let’s talk
• Planning a destination trip and want a photographer who travels? Reach out and let’s see what we can create

Paris gave me one of my favorite sessions ever. New York City is waiting to do the same for your family.