My passion for photography began when I was in the darkroom of my high school film photography class. I loved learning about all the details that make a camera and film work. When my husband and I got engaged, he purchased our first digital camera from a co-worker for $50 and the cost of a lunch salad.
When my oldest daughter was born, I picked that passion back up and started photographing her at home. In 2009, a friend from my college photography class was the first client to hire me to take pictures of his wife expecting their first son. That was the launch of all of this.
I live and love in Tallahassee, Florida, my home state and where my husband and I are raising our family. I am mama to four little ones who are growing at the speed of light. My family is my passion.
Alongside my photography business, I also work for the Florida House of Representatives as a staff photographer, where I capture official headshots and photograph legislative sessions from the House Chamber. It's taught me a lot about working calmly under pressure and capturing genuine moments in high-stakes, fast-moving environments — skills that show up in every session I shoot, especially headshots and events.
Sarah-your photographer-Hey there! I'm- I'm a teacher by trade and graduated from Flagler College with a degree in Elementary Education.
- I am a creative person through and through and feel trapped if I don't have a creative outlet.
- Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I push the pause button on everything and enjoy it as a day of rest.
- I think I have a the best job in the world, getting to photograph families welcoming new babies into their homes.
- Having a baby in 2020 was a wild time but also the best possible quarantine distraction. If someday, your kiddos are older and you still feel that tug to have another baby, go for it. It will bring such joy to watch your older children love a baby sibling. 100%, I recommend it.
favorites Things
My favorite motherhood quote
“She says I shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing.
Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worth all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother's heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!”
-Elizabeth Prentiss, "Stepping Heavenward," published 1869
My photography is designed for living room walls and photo albums. It's my deepest hope that you'll print the beautiful images that we create and will enjoy them every day of your life. I love what I do and I would be honored for the opportunity to share it with you.
my family
myhusband
Sundays
Beat the heat, caught the light, captured the love. Another beautiful morning at Dorothy B. Oven Park. ☀️📸
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#portraitphotography #portraiture #simplyportraits #portraitoftheday #portraitphotographer #portraitsmag #portraitshoot #photographerofinstagram #photographyofinstagram #photographerlife #instaphotography #justgoshoot #photographylover #baby #familyphotography #tallahasseebabyphotographer #ihearttally #tallahassee #tallahasseephotographer #850 #floridanewbornphotographer #themotherhoodanthology #tma #lifestylelighting
250 years from now, someone in your family will find a photograph.
They won`t know about the chaos of this season — the packed schedules, the grocery runs, the ordinary Tuesdays. But they`ll see a face. Your child`s face. And they`ll know exactly who they were.
That`s what an heirloom portrait does.
This summer — the year America turns 250 — I`m creating Heirloom Portraits for a small number of families. Timeless, simple, and made to last generations. I`m even having them made of my own four
kids for exactly this reason.
Because this season of your child`s life deserves more than a photo on your phone.
July 12th. A few spots remain. Details in bio.
There`s a version of this summer that lives only in your memory.
The age your youngest is right now. The way your kids are with each other this particular year. The trip where everyone finally made it to the same place at the same time.
I`m not saying that to add pressure. I`m saying it because I think you already feel it, and sometimes it helps to hear someone else say it out loud.
These seasons are worth more than a blurry phone shot taken between sunscreen and dinner reservations.
If you`ve been sitting on the fence about booking a vacation session - or about Heirloom Portraits for your kids this summer - I want you to know that the planning is simpler than it probably feels right now.
Reach out. I`ll walk you through everything.
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#portraitphotography #portraiture #simplyportraits #portraitoftheday #portraitphotographer #portraitsmag #portraitshoot #photographerofinstagram #photographyofinstagram #photographerlife #instaphotography #justgoshoot #photographylover #baby #familyphotography #tallahasseebabyphotographer #ihearttally #tallahassee #tallahasseephotographer #850 #floridanewbornphotographer #themotherhoodanthology #tma #lifestylelighting #forgottencoast #StTheresa
Our country turns 250 this year. I was in the middle of editing a gallery when that number actually stopped me.
I have four kids - 6, 11, 15, and 17. And I have spent years telling other families that childhood is fleeting, that these seasons pass before you`re ready, that photographs are one of the most meaningful ways you hold onto them.
I`ve said it hundreds of times.
And then I sat there and realized I needed to take my own advice.
So this summer, I`m photographing all four of my kids in what I`m calling Heirloom Portraits. Not elaborate. Not trendy. Just simple, timeless portraits that show exactly who they are right now, in the year America turned 250.
Because someday I want them to be able to show these to their own kids and say, `This is who I was that year.`
That thought made the decision easy.
I opened up a small number of spots for other families to do the same. Details are linked in my bio if this is something you`ve been quietly wanting.
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#TallahasseePhotographer #TallahasseeFamily #TallahasseeChildrensPhotographer #HeirloomPortraits #HeirloomPhotography #TimelessPortraits #ChildhoodUnplugged #PrintYourPhotos #ChildhoodPortraits #FamilyLegacy #MemoryKeeper #NorthFloridaPhotographer #FloridaFamilyPhotographer #DocumentYourDays #250thAmerica
A family vacation checklist as I understand it:
Pack sunscreen. Forget to pack enough sunscreen. Buy more sunscreen at the gas station.
Wrangle the toddler.
Realize the cousins haven`t all been in the same place since last summer and someone should really get some photos.
Spend three days saying `we should really get some photos.`
Go home. Look at seventeen slightly-blurry phone shots taken at dinner.
I`m not judging. I`m just saying there`s a better version of this story available to you, and it doesn`t require much more planning than you`re already doing.
A vacation session works exactly because everything is already set up. The people are there. The place is special. All you need is someone to actually capture it.
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#ForgottenCoast #30A #StTeresa #ForgottenCoastPhotographer #FamilyPhotographer #VacationSessionPhotographer #FamilyPhotography #BeachFamilyPhotos #GulfCoastPhotographer #FloridaBeachPhotographer #FamilyLegacy #PrintYourPhotos #MemoryKeeper #FamilySessionPhotographer #TravelingPhotographer
Memberships and Affiliations
Sarah Gray creates timeless and joyful images that are designed for living room walls and photo albums. A tallahassee photographer, Sarah Gray also serves Thomasville, Crawfordville, St. Marks, Gainesville and throughout the Forgotten Coast and panhandle of north Florida and south Georgia.
email us | sarah@sarahgray.com
telephone (850) 321-0208
located in tallahassee, florida
