Family Photos
All clothing + shoes linked below
Family photos can be a challenge and feel like an uphill battle from the word go, and if you're not sweating buckets by the time they start, then the vibe feels off, do you not agree? I distinctly remember as a kid that family photos were a royal pain in the a*s for my mom. I have two older brothers who despised the word picture and the three of us smashed together usually did not depict cooperation in our younger years. But my mom consistently prevailed and has quite a bit of documentation of the three of us considering we did not grow up with hand held cameras and video recorders. I will say she was a genius, as she typically planned each photo shoot after church on a random Sunday, because a.) we were usually dressed in the nicest clothes we owned and b.) it was about the only 2 hours of the week that none of us kids had activities, so therefore it was the default time. But with that said, there was a lot of complaining, a lot of sweating, and a lot of "why do I have to stand by him/her" and "you want me to put my around him/her," etc. You get my drift - it was stressful at best and at the time questionable if it was even worth the effort. But the bottom lines is, it's always worth it, because you cannot put a price on consistent documentation of growing children and growing families. As awkward as I looked in middle school, I'm still glad I have those photos to giggle at and show my kids!
Now, my childhood was a long time ago and I do think people in general have gotten a bit smarter and a bit more efficient with how they capture photos, etc. I mean, the iPhone/smartphones in general have changed how we document our lives and capture unique moments. Really there is not a moment that goes undocumented, in my opinion - especially in the blogging biz. But with all that said, we had an impromptu photo shoot this past weekend and I have to say, it was the least stressful, sweat inducing, anxiety producing photo shoot TO DATE! And let me tell you why:
As I said, it was fairly impromptu! My friend Katie from Katie Dunn Photography (who has also done my blog photo shoots), proposed this idea a week in advance, and we jumped at the opportunity. There was zero time to really stress and even acquire all these silly outfit schemes. Andy and I wore things we already owned, and my mom had bought Matilda a dress while she was here in September, so I literally built our color scheme around that dress in roughly one day. Sometimes, last minute, impromptu decisions are the way to go.
It was easy! The location of the photos was easy to get to, Katie is so easy to work with, and our motto with everything with the kids is: "if it doesn't work, we'll pack up our show and abort mission!" That relieves some pressure and sets some expectations, which overall makes experiences like family photos a little easier to conquer.
Two words: MINI.SESSION! Our photo session lasted all of 45 minutes - and we shot two families. Katie shot my family and then she lined up her camera just right and Andy and I snapped photos of her cute little fam bam. In my opinion, there is not a baby, toddler, child or teenager that can withstand a photo shoot much longer than 30 minutes, so I'm confident I will never pay for more than a mini session....probably until my kids' senior pictures, but I cannot think about that! :(. But in all seriousness, I think doing a mini session is the key to all success when you're trying to wrangle kids of any age!
Timing! We literally pulled into Boulder, CO at 8:40am. That's early if you consider we had all showered, looked our very best AND drove 40 minutes to the location. But our kids are happiest in the morning and if you look at these photos, the lighting was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Timing is everything, huh?
The moral of the story is, family photos can be tough, but having those professionally captured moments is worth all the hassle. You will look back in a handful of months/years and be so thankful you have the pictures, I promise. And if you need any motivation/strategy around preparing for family photo day, try referencing these tips. They worked for us, so they just may work for you too. You never know!
