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
Here`s the framework I share with every family I work with:
The location is the canvas. Your family is the subject. Your clothing is the paint.
Get the paint right, and everything comes together. Rush it, and even a beautiful Tallahassee evening can fall a little flat in the final images.
That doesn`t mean you need a stylist or a big budget. It means you need a plan and a few principles that actually hold up in real life - with real kids and real closets.
Start with a neutral base. Creams, tans, soft whites, warm grays. These anchor your palette and keep the focus on faces and connection, which is the whole point.
From there, bring in color intentionally. Neutrals with soft blues. Neutrals with blush or sage. Warmer tones in fall - mauve, khaki, olive - especially at a location like Alford Park, where the foliage does a lot of work for you.
Add texture wherever you can. A knit next to a satin blouse. A linen shirt next to a tweed jacket. Texture creates visual depth in a way that flat, solid fabrics just don`t. It`s one of those things that reads beautifully in prints and most families don`t hear about until someone tells them.
Keep patterns small if you use them at all. A delicate floral, a fine stripe, a subtle check - all great. Large, bold patterns pull focus away from faces, and that`s never what we`re going for.
Outfit planning is one of the highest-leverage things you can do before your session. I promise it`s worth the attention.
Earlier this week, I had the honor to speak to a room full of moms about friendship. Later this week, I was in a living room with a brand new baby. 🤍
Here’s what I told that group of moms: I’m not a friendship expert. But I’ve spent years walking into homes with families I’ve never met, and I’ve learned that the best moments happen when they don’t feel like they have to perform.
For great photos, a mama doesn’t need a perfect house, perfect hair, or a perfectly behaved toddler. She needs to feel safe. So we talk, we laugh, we find common ground, and somewhere along the way she lets her guard down, relaxes a bit and just gets to be herself with her baby.
Friendship works the same way. Find something in common. Say “me too.” Listen. Let someone see your real life.
So mama, whether you’re in the newborn fog or the toddler chaos: you don’t have to have it all together to belong. Text the mom you just met. Say, “Want to get together?” Small deposits over time build the kind of friendship that can hold you when life gets hard.
@eproctorsutton it was an honor to photograph you precious family with your newest little miracle. 🩵
#momco #newbornphotographer #tallahasseephotographer #momsupportingmoms #christianmotherhood
I used ChatGPT to help me plan out our landscaping this week and I feel like an absolute genius.
The AI rendered a version of what our yard could look like and honestly, even if we only get halfway there, I will be thrilled. Genuinely hopeful. This is not a drill.
Anyway. Back to photography. But also - technology is wild right now and I am here for it.
I`m speaking at MomCo this morning for the first time, and I`ll be honest - I`m a little nervous.
The topic is fostering adult friendships, which feels both very important and very personal to me. Because I was part of this group during a season of my life when I really needed it. The fellowship I found there meant more than I can put into words.
Adult friendship is one of those things that doesn`t get talked about enough. It takes more intention than it did when we were younger. It doesn`t just happen. And when you find it, it holds you in ways you didn`t expect.
I`m excited to dive into that conversation with a room full of women who already get it.
Photo by Mary Katherine Fulkerson Photography
I recently read about the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney met.
John was performing at a church function with his high school band. Paul happened to be in the audience. A mutual friend introduced them afterward, and the rest is history.
What gets me is that there`s a photo of it. John`s classmate had just gotten a camera for his birthday and snapped one during the performance. Nobody in that room knew what they were watching. It was just an ordinary afternoon.
That photo turned out to be a diamond in the rough.
I think about that a lot in my work. The sessions I remember most aren`t always the milestone ones. Sometimes it`s an in-between moment - a Tuesday afternoon, a candid laugh, a kid doing something totally unremarkable - that ends up being the one a family treasures most.
You don`t always know which moments will matter until later. But if you keep capturing them, you`ll have a record when you do.
Do you have a photo like that? One that didn`t seem like anything at the time but turned out to mean a lot? I`d genuinely love to hear about it.
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) 328-3258
located in tallahassee, florida
