OK.  So, I want to talk about family photoshoots, specifically with young children.  If you have small children and you’ve had family photos taken before, you know that it does not always go smoothly!  I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a family session before that at one point did not have a kid crying, running away, making silly faces instead of smiling, or just full on not cooperating!  It happens because, ya know… kids.  That’s just how they are.  You can’t really expect them to sit and smile because they don’t care about your nice family photos (stay tuned to the end and you’ll read about three boys that prove this).  They want to go run across the field or climb the tree or jump over the waves at the beach.  I mean, can you blame them?  Not really.  But none of that bothers me as a photographer!  I know between all the fits and crying and running around, we’re going to get some good shots.  But when all this happens, it’s usually the mamas (myself included) that start to stress out and tense up because we think there’s no way we’re getting our perfect photos now.  But that’s not true! 

When we think about family photos, what should we really be trying to achieve?  A photo should tell a story.  It should show you personality.  It should spark joy.  It should also bring a smile to your face just thinking of the memory behind that photo.  You can have a beautiful photo that everyone loves, but if every time you look at it, you think about how stressful it was to get all the kids to smile and how you were so frustrated and tense during that shoot, you’re not going to love that beautiful photo.  The best memories are going to come from a session that you have FUN with.  Let your kids play.  Let them laugh and be crazy and silly and BE THEMSELVES!  It will bring a smile to your face, you will have fun, and that’s when we’ll get the best photos.  So many times, I’ve had moms that are so tense for their shoot because they want everything to go so perfect and it ends up making everyone else tense, and ITS VISIBLE in the photos.  And I mean, I get it.  It’s hard.  I’m guilty of it myself.  I tell my kids “just one photo of all of us smiling please just sit still for one second…” you know that whole song and dance.  It usually ends up going the opposite way and everyone gets tired of taking pictures and no ones having fun anymore.

Here’s some things I like to do with my clients instead.  Let’s have a tickle fight.  Let’s play ring-around-the-rosie.  Let’s all give a big hug and squish together as tight as we can!  Those are sure fire winners that get those real, genuine smiles.  And then maybe, you wont stress about the next time you have a family shoot because you’ll remember it was a good time.

Story time.  I was asked to assist with some family shots for a benefit once.  There was one single mom that came through with three boys.  To call these boys wild, would be an understatement.  I can tell you, if this was me in this mom’s shoes, I would’ve given up within the first three photos and said screw it, I’m done!  But, oh my goodness, you guys.  This mom was my hero.  And I will share her photos below.  Her boys did Not. Stop. Moving. Ever.  They did not sit and smile for me.  They did not stand where she told them to.  They just wanted to run around and have fun.  But this mom, she didn’t lose it once!  She laughed it off and just said “that’s my boys” and “this is what they do”.  It was SO REFRESHING.  And at the time (it was early in my photography career), I didn’t think I was going to walk away with any good shots!  But I look at them now, and I see so much personality in these boys and you can almost HEAR them laughing through these photos.  And one day years and years from now, their great, great, great grandkids are going to see these photos and know exactly what their great, great, great grandpas were like. 

At the end of it all, all that will be left are photos.  Those photos should be a genuine representation of us.  Otherwise, how will anyone truly remember you?  My advice: embrace the crazy.  Don’t go into the shoot wanting to make sure everything goes perfectly, because it won’t.  Just go and have fun, and let me capture it.  I promise you, we’ll get the posed smiling ones, but we’ll be sure to get so much more too!  Your family is perfect in all it’s imperfections, and it will show in the best way.

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