THE FAMILY PHOTOS YOU MIGHT TREASURE MOST AREN’T THE POSED ONES
- Aug 17
- 4 min read
Meet Semi Circle Studio, the Hong Kong photographer capturing family life as it actually happens.
There are the photographs we know we're supposed to take: everyone looking at the camera, children vaguely cooperating, nobody with food on their clothes.
Then there are the photographs that take you straight back to what life actually felt like.
The way your baby rested against you after a feed. The toddler who insisted on carrying the same toy everywhere. The chaos of getting everyone out of the door. The corner of your Hong Kong flat where you somehow spent half of that first year.
They're ordinary moments when you're living them. A few years later, they're often the ones you'd give anything to see again. That's the idea behind Semi Circle Studio, the documentary family photography studio founded by photographer and former visual journalist Diana Jou.
Photographing Family Life Just As It Is
Diana's sessions aren't built around getting children to sit still and smile on cue.
Around 90% of a typical session is documentary photography: Diana observes, follows and photographs a family going about their time together. The remaining 10% is reserved for the traditional family portraits you might still want for the grandparents - or the wall.
That could mean photographing a newborn feed at home, breakfast with the kids, a walk through your neighbourhood or simply the particular rhythms that make up your family's life right now. Crying babies don't need to stop crying. Active children don't need to suddenly become compliant. Homes don't need to be enormous, immaculate or styled for a photoshoot.
Diana's background in photojournalism means she's used to working with what is actually happening in front of her - finding the light, noticing the small details and capturing a sense of place without trying to manufacture the moment - and in Hong Kong especially, that sense of place can become a pretty important part of the story.
The flat you brought your baby home to.
The streets you walked every morning.
The neighbourhood your children knew as home.
A Different Kind of Family Album
Semi Circle Studio offers three different ways to photograph your family, depending on how much - or how little - you want to direct the day.
Family Photography The classic option, but still very much in Diana's relaxed style.
These 60–70 minute sessions combine traditional portraits with candid photographs between locations and sittings.
They're suitable for pregnancy, newborns, toddlers, older children and extended family reunions.
60–70 minutes | 40+ digital images | HK$6,000
A printed photo book can be added for HK$800, including free Hong Kong delivery.
Documentary
This is perhaps the most distinctive Semi Circle experience.
Diana spends four hours with your family, photographing the routines, interactions and details of your everyday life. There's no need to plan an elaborate activity or make your day look particularly photogenic — that's rather the point. The result is a much bigger visual record of this particular chapter of family life: the funny bits, the quiet bits and the things that might feel completely mundane now but won't always be there.
Half day (4 hours) | 100+ digital images | HK$15,000
The session includes a 60-page printed photo book, valued at HK$3,000, with free delivery in Hong Kong.
Poem Sessions
For something completely different, Diana's 30-minute Poem Sessions take a more experimental approach.
Think editorial portraiture rather than a traditional family shoot, using film, digital double exposure and creative techniques to produce bold images designed to feel as at home on your wall as they do in a family album.
30 minutes | 15+ digital images | HK$3,000
A printed photo book can be added for HK$800.
Meet Diana
Semi Circle Studio began ten years ago, when Diana had her first child.
Born in Taiwan and raised in Los Angeles, Diana originally trained in studio art photography before working professionally as a video and photojournalist. She later started her own family in Hong Kong and is now a mother of two - plus, in her words, one round grey cat.
Becoming a parent changed what she wanted to photograph.
Rather than only recording the milestones, she became interested in the tiny details that make up family life between them: feeding, carrying, playing, comforting, getting ready, making a mess and simply being together.
Her journalistic background still sits at the heart of her work. Rather than creating a version of your family for the camera, she wants to document the one that's already there.
We talk a lot at BUMP&CO. about how quickly the different stages of parenthood pass.
When you're in the thick of newborn life, it's difficult to imagine that one day you might struggle to remember exactly how tiny they looked asleep on your chest.
The toddler habits that currently drive you mad disappear. Hong Kong homes change. Families move. Children grow.
There will always be a place for the beautiful family portrait where everyone is looking at the camera, but we love the idea of also having photographs that show your children what their childhood actually looked like - and remind you what it felt like to be there with them.
Semi Circle Studio sessions take place in clients' homes or on a custom route through Hong Kong 🇭🇰
Instagram: @semicirclestudio
