Retelling Real Life

Retelling Real Life


Seattle Photographer

Here’s the deal: if you just want pretty pictures, I’m not your photographer. Because life is messy, and unexpected, and so much more than just pretty.

I document in ways that other photographers don’t, so you’ll have photos most others won’t. Photos that capture your life just like you remember it. Those rad moments of honesty and intimacy with the love of your life, or your family, or the bad bitch in the mirror.

As a Seattle photographer who also travels for families, elopements and intimate weddings, I spent the first two decades of my life learning every single rule of photography. And then spent the last decade breaking those rules in order to capture people in their most human moments. No overly-posed photos. No artificial vibes. No awkwardness. Just pictures they can look back on and say, “I remember that.”

And that’s what I want to do for you.

A bride and groom pose for a Seattle photographer in a garden.

PICTURES THAT FEEL LIKE SMOKING A CIGARETTE ON A NY ROOFTOP AS THE SUN SETS WATCHING A RAINSTORM FROM YOUR COVERED PORCH DRIVING WITH THE WINDOWS DOWN ON A WARM SUMMER DAY LAUGHING UNTIL YOUR STOMACH HURTS A 100TH KISS THAT STILL FEELS LIKE A FIRST KISS YELLING EVERY WORD OF YOUR FAVORITE RAP SONG WHILE DRIVING ALONE IN YOUR CAR TWIRLING THE CORD ON THE PHONE WHILE TALKING TO YOUR BESTFRIEND THE PERFECT CUP OF COFFEE SITTING ON YOUR DAD’S LAP DRIVING AS A LITTLE KID

It’s Always Been Photography


In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, my uncle Tony traveled the world working as a freelance photographer for snowboarding magazines. I thought he was the coolest person on the fucking planet, and I spent a good amount of my childhood waiting by the mailbox for postcards, pictures and 35mm film cameras he’d send during his travels.


A Seattle wedding photographer as a child wearing white sunglasses.
A child rolls across a grassy lawn.

In 6th grade, I was asked to do a report on a career I was interested in. It was a no-brainer for me–I picked up my pen and paper and started writing about freelance photography. 


A child sits on a wooden walkway through a Washington forest.

Fast forward to 2009–I was working an accounts payable job where the IT guy doubled as the photographer. We were cool, so I asked if I could borrow his digital camera from time to time and, to my surprise, he said yes. This moment is what I consider the real beginning of Sara Welch Photography.


I spent the next five years learning every single thing I could about photography–every button, every setting, every light–and in 2014 I finally quit my job and decided to become a Seattle photographer full-time. 


In 2015 my dad died unexpectedly. It was fucking hard. What was harder was the realization that in my 26 years of life, I had only taken five pictures with my dad. It was heartbreaking, but it also put my work into perspective. This work I was doing was so much more important than just snapping a few pictures–it was about giving families the ability to revisit moments long after they’re over–and revisit people long after they’re gone.


A Seattle photographer poses with her husband in front of a cave on a Washington beach.

Right after losing my dad I found out I was pregnant. I decided then and there that I was going to do this right. I did more weddings that year than ever in my life. I took more classes and really set myself up to be a successful Seattle photographer.


A mother, father, and son take a series of silly selfies.

My son was born in 2016 and I knew I didn’t want to miss a single second of it. That’s why I love working with families. Because I know the kind of stuff that’s actually worth remembering. I know that what matters aren’t the poses or the perfectly polished outfits. That feeling of wanting to capture authentic moments that I got when I lost my dad? It was amplified by a million when my son was born.


Today, I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings and thousands of families. But I no longer consider what I do photography. I consider it art. Because it’s more than just holding a camera and hitting a button. It’s getting to know people–their stories and their lives–and finding ways to tell those stories with fashion, and locations, and movement, and vibes.  That is what being a Seattle photographer - an artist - is about for me.

SEATTLE BRIDE

BRIDES

VOGUE LIFESTYLE

MARTHA STEWART WEDDINGS

SEATTLE BRIDE BRIDES VOGUE LIFESTYLE MARTHA STEWART WEDDINGS

YOU MAY HAVE
SEEN ME IN

A Seattle photographer with thick framed glasses stares directly into the camera.

From the Queen
of Candid Moments

A NOTE

I learned a long time ago that the real magic of photography is not about capturing the right pose for the perfect picture. It’s about telling a life’s worth of inside jokes and stories in a single frame–truthfully and authentically–so that you can revisit them over and over and over again. Photography is about trust, and comfort and empathy. And, as your Seattle photographer, I bring that with me. Every session, every click.

Stay groovy,

- Sara

-Mikayla

“There were photos I didn’t even remember taking. We felt so comfortable and we felt so good seeing ourselves in these photos.”

-Kaili

“I felt like you were everywhere at once. You vibed so well with us, all of our family and especially our friends.”