Sharing Family Photos

I spent the long weekend making lots of family photos and struggling to find the proper place to post them. It reminded me of a recent post by Dave Lawrence:

"I look at other photographers’ family work, and lately it’s some of the best stuff I see. Many of my favorite photographers have no issue sharing photos of their family.

Since my daughter was born last year, and even before that, I’ve taken a ton of family photos – some of which I’m proud of. Should I share those as a larger sample of my photography? How do I read my own slight discomfort at sharing family stuff? Why do I feel that way in the first place? Why is Facebook okay, but my photo blog not okay?"

I think the reason we worry about this as photographers is that many of the subjects of family photos are children. These children usually don't consent to the photos and have no online presence they can or should control. We're giving them an online life they didn't ask for.

This is a bad enough conundrum on Facebook, we're you can untag people and close the pictures off to the world (sort of). The walled garden has a swinging gate, but at least there's a gate and wall. On the open web, you're giving a (theoretically) permanent online life to an unwilling participant.

I'm also sure we're overthinking things a bit. I doubt professional photographers give a second thought to posting any photo they create that meets their standards.