Ready for Some Family Fun?

Family sessions are a lot like children sessions in the fact that many people choose to put off children or family portraits because they think their children are too little to cooperate, or they will personally put their New Year’s resolution in effect NEXT year and lose those few extra pounds for a future session. Anyone can make a new excuse on a daily basis… I will tell you to take family pictures NOW and take them OFTEN! On location shoots are best for family portraits and definitely help put everyone at ease to make you look most natural. I love capturing your “real” family dynamic and try to keep sessions fun and energetic. Sometimes the best portraits are not formally posed, they are the ones where the parents are interacting with the kiddos, and yes, even with goofy grins.

What to Expect

Expect a variety of groupings in a 1-2 hour session. All family, mom and dad together, individual children portraits. We try to get it all during these sessions. Be ready for a little adventure and walking depending on the location of your choice to get a variety of backdrops and to find the best natural light. On location sessions are best done with non-direct natural light. This means shading from early morning or early evening light is best to give you even lighting across your faces and it will not create harsh unpleasant shadowing. You will receive 20-30 edited images in your online gallery.

Preparing for your Session

Probably the most asked question for children and family sessions is “What should we wear?” It’s ok to coordinate, but I would highly suggest not matching exactly. It has a tendency to make families look more stiff and too formal. Leave your sweat pants at home, but the more comfortable you are, the more comfortable and natural you will be during your session. Try to stick to solid coordinating colors or very minimal patterns or logos. You don’t want anything distracting from your beautiful faces! And most families I photograph come in jeans or varying lengths of pants/capris/shorts, or longer dresses. You can easily dress up jeans and they look fantastic in portraits. Try to stay away from sleeveless shirts or tank tops if you're more conscious about your arms, skin tight shirts, and super short shorts.

For small children, bring their favorite toys, a small snack, and be prepared to play with them a little bit. They sometimes can have such a short attention span or a quick meltdown, and that it is ok! If we need to take a short pause and regroup the troops, we will, just stay as relaxed as possible!

Bring any extra accessories you may want in your shots. We can always do some with and some without. A lot of times, I may bring personal props and accessories for the kids, but some great ideas are:

- Headbands, bows, neckties

- Tutus

- Fluffy boots for girls or cowboy boots for boys

- Scarves or fun hats or accessories that can easily be added or taken away

- Any fun props you may have that are neat or important to your family

View all session pricing and information here.