I absolutely love photographing families. I am not a typical portrait photographer, I do try to get a few posed images where everyone is looking at the camera, but that's really not my style. My preference is to capture images of a family and who they really are, I want to capture their true personalities, so when they look back at the images they have fond memories of our time together. I know how difficult it can be to get children to want to cooperate for family photos, so I try to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.
Not to make this a sad and sappy post, but earlier this year, I lost my mother in law and while we were preparing for all of the arrangements, we were going through photos to have the funeral home prepare a slide show. There were SO many old family photos that my husbands family had held onto and as we went through them, they reminisced about all of those good times. It really got me thinking about how important it is to have family photos done. Not just so you have them for a slide show, but so those closest to you have something to look at and remember those good times.
I've always been one to stay on my side of the camera. I have SO many pictures of my husband and son together, because I'm always snapping away. Lately I'm trying to include myself in photos with my family (even if they're just cell phone pics). I've even started experimenting with my tripod and timer on my camera, to make sure that I'm included in some photos that my husband is in too (they don't always come out as I hoped, but at least we have them)! And I promised myself that after baby #2 arrives and is a little older, we'll schedule some family photos with another photographer, to make sure we have at least one good photo with all of us in it.
Whether your family is big, small, expanding, whatever - you should make time to get a good family picture at least once a year. I'm not saying you need to book a professional photographer every year (I'm here if you need me!), but make sure to take at least one picture, with all of your family members included every year and save that picture somewhere safe!
I remember being a kid and every now and then my mom would pull out her bins of photos and we would look through them... I honestly don't remember why we did it, maybe she was cleaning out the closet that the photos were stored in or maybe we just did it to have fun and look back at all of the fun times we had as a family... Either way, this is something I definitely hope to do with my own kids (only, we'll be gathered around a computer since everything is digital now). I like to think that my clients will do the same and one day look back at a picture that I took and remember something fun about our session :-)
If you need to book family photos this spring, now is the time to do it! I'll be taking clients through the end of May (maybe early June) before taking my leave for baby #2 to arrive and I'd love to capture some amazing memories for your family!
Thanks for stopping by!
~so~