Devin Desjarlais Photography

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Raleigh, NC
Devin Desjarlais Photography

Devin Desjarlais is a Raleigh-based family, maternity, and newborn photographer. Here are two facts about me: I love people and I'm incredibly nostalgic.

I'm also a Raleigh, NC family, maternity, and newborn photographer with 15+ years of experience documenting the joy in people's lives. Working together, I promise to capture your family the way I’d capture my own: in all of their beautiful, messy, chaotic, wonderful glory. I will help guide you through poses but I’ll also look for those tiny, real moments that are uniquely yours. Every session inc

ludes a fully edited, hi-res gallery of images that are yours to download and print at your leisure. I can’t wait to meet you!

09/02/2026

When I photograph blended families, I’m reminded in the best ways that family is so much more than biology.

Sometimes family is the one you’re born into, and sometimes it’s the one you build.

I photographed this family last year, but this was my first time getting all five of them together in front of my camera (six if you include grandma). And I loved getting to watch the girls love on each other, make each other laugh, and just be sisters. They’re sisters who adore each other. There are no halves or steps or qualifiers needed.

That’s what I want your family photos to hold onto. Not just what everyone looked like at this point in your lives, but who you were to each other and the way it felt to be together. . . . . A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange  ✨🫶✨  Welcome to the Finding He(art) Workshop loop! We are a group of alumni + artists inspired by photographing in a variety of locations, using a variety of lighting conditions and creating in alignment with our artistic inspiration.  Follow along and be inspired! Next up: Ashley Kaplan Photography

Chapel Hill Family Photographer, Raleigh Family Photographer, Durham Family Photographer, Raleigh Moms, Chapel Hill Moms, Durham Moms

08/31/2026

My dad was the youngest of seven, and all of his siblings had multiple kids. There are dozens of us.

Every Thanksgiving, we’d converge on my aunt’s house for a feast. My dad would cook two turkeys. I’d steal cranberry sauce off my cousin’s plate. My politician uncle would wear my grandma’s goose-print apron.

Over the years, we moved away and started our own families. Those big Thanksgivings stopped happening. I miss them. I miss the tiny, ridiculous, completely ordinary moments that somehow became core memories.

That's why I care so much about photographing families the way I do.

For this extended family session in Chapel Hill, everyone didn’t live in the same city, or even the same state. But for their mom’s birthday, they made a point to come together. Grandma was there. They played Yahtzee. They ate popsicles. They piled onto the couch and spent time together.

There was nothing elaborate about it. The important thing was just that they were all there.

08/21/2026

📣 2026 Raleigh fall mini photo sessions are HERE 📣

If you’ve been waiting for an easy way to get gorgeous, love-filled photos for your family holiday card, boy do I have a treat for you: Three dates. Three locations. Probably bubbles involved. Click here to snag your spot: https://www.devindesjarlais.com/raleigh-nc-fall-mini-sessions

Here's more info:

1. EARLY FALL MINIS
Oct. 17 @ Historic Oak View County Park
You bet your butt I already secured the permit.

2. PEAK FALL MINIS
Nov. 8 @ North Carolina Museum of Art
Rich fall colors across 164 acres, say less queen.

3. CHRISTMAS TREE MINIS
Nov. 15 @ Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm
A festive little moment amongst the evergreens? Swoon.

Each session is 20 minutes for $225 + tax and includes 5 edited images, with the option to purchase more (because choosing only five will be the hardest part).

Some spots are already taken, so if one of these has your name on it, grab it quick.

Love you mean it,
Devin

08/14/2026

I've got a booth at the Children with Disabilities Resource Fair in Wendell tomorrow!

Creating a space where families with medically complex and neurodivergent kids can show up exactly as they are is something I care deeply about, both in my work and in the world.

If you're coming, please stop by, say hi, and see some of the photos I've created for families just like yours! I'll have bubbles for the kids and I'll be giving away a Signature Family Photography Session to one family. I would love to see some of you there. ❤️

08/12/2026

One of my favorite things about this job is getting to see the same families grow.

Not just because I get to see them again (although I genuinely love that), but because it's incredibly meaningful when a family chooses me to keep telling their story. There are so many talented family photographers in Raleigh, and every time someone comes back, I know they could have chosen anyone.

Instead, they trusted my eyes, my perspective, and the way I see the soul of their family enough to ask me to do it again and again and again.

Over time, these galleries become this beautiful record of their kids growing up and their family changing right in front of us. Getting to be the person behind the camera for all of it is something I don't think I'll ever get over.

So this is my love letter to the families who keep coming back: thank you for trusting me with your stories. It means more than you know.

07/30/2026

Sometimes my job is to hide in bushes. And WHAT. A. THRILL. I don't often get to wear my engagement photographer hat, but when I do, I get a front-row seat to one of the most joyful moments two people will ever experience.

Ty wanted to create a proposal Makayla would never forget, and I was honored to play a small role in bringing it to life at the Raleigh Rose Garden alongside Raleigh Picnic Co. They transformed a small, sunlit patch of grass into a beautiful luxury picnic experience that reflected just how much thought and intention Ty put into asking one simple question.

Congratulations, Ty & Makayla. ❤️ Thank you for trusting me with a memory that'll live in your hearts forever

07/25/2026

Your kid already has plenty of posed school photos. This one's about their personality.

Bring them to the photo studio to roar like a dinosaur, teach me about Pokémon, hang upside down like Spider-Man, and make fart jokes. I'm here for all of it.

Personality Minis are next Saturday. Book your spot here: https://hello.devindesjarlais.com/public/6a3454b723ebbd253b453d94

07/22/2026

I've been thinking a lot about trust lately. Specifically, the kind of trust it takes to invite a stranger into your life.

As a family photographer, it still surprises me how quickly that trust can grow. Sometimes it happens after just a few emails.

That's a responsibility I'll never take for granted.

I recently photographed a family who trusted me with one of the most intimate chapters of their lives, and their love for one another will stay with me for years.

Sessions like this remind me that my job isn't just to make beautiful photographs. It's to witness people as they are, to preserve this chapter of their lives with intention, and to create something they'll return to again and again for years to come.

Every family I photograph leaves something with me.

Every now and then, though, I meet one that quietly reshapes the way I see the world.

This was one of those families.

07/18/2026

Your family photos don't have to be a big production. Yes, Raleigh has some beautiful locations. Lord knows I love the NC Museum of Art and Yates Mill.

But I also love your front yard. The place where your kids race their scooters, pick dandelions, and wait for the school bus.

I love seeing Mom's favorite sandals by the front door. The ones she throws on because they're the shoes meant for playing chase.

Because someday, those sandals will tell a story, too.

07/15/2026

How will you be remembered 100 years from now? I'm not talking about your legacy. I mean literally. How will people know what you looked like?

As a Raleigh family photographer, it's something I think about a lot.

I know what my great-grandparents looked like in their youth because someone took those family photos. I know how they smiled (or didn't, my great-grandfather wasn't known for his outward joy). I know what they wore. I even have glimpses of the home where they raised seven kids because someone decided those ordinary moments were worth preserving.

Today, we all have 11K+ photos on our phones. But if they stay there, what's the plan? How will our own great-grandchildren know how we lived? Or loved?

One of my favorite things about photographing Katie's family is that every session captures a completely different version of their daughter.

When she was a newborn, they wanted to remember all the tiny pieces of her. Later, they wanted to remember the little personality starting to peek through. Now? It's running everywhere, kicking a soccer ball, and melting down over the world's greatest bubble wand... something she'd only owned for 14 seconds.

None of those moments felt historic while they were happening. But that's the funny thing about family history.

You don't know you're making it until years later.

Address

Raleigh, NC

Website

http://www.devindesjarlais.com/

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