How to get the Best Family Photos

I’m writing this during a time that most photographers would call their busiest of the year. This time just before and after Thanksgiving is fall photos, Christmas card photos, and extended family portrait season. Some super photographers offer mini sessions and can organize up to 30+ family sessions in just 2-3 days of shooting. I’m always amazed and baffled by the amount of organizing and planning that it takes to pull off an event like this off. I’m so impressed when photographers have such success with this method of portraiture. This, however, is not my preferred method of family portraiture. This mad dash approach just kicks off the mad dash of a stressful holiday season. Family photos happen year-round, make time for good photos and good photos you will receive. Just my two cents :-)

So in this crazy season of the year where nothing is slow or lingering, I thought I’d share with you some tips for how to get the family photos that you long for.

Connection. The first tip is to ensure that you have a connection with your photographer. A lot of people are not used to being in front of a camera and feel awkward or uncomfortable. Having a good personal connection with your photographer will help put everyone at ease. This also helps with your little ones. Kids especially the young ones, have a natural “stranger danger” demeanor. If you find a photographer that can interact and play with your kids to make them comfortable you will have a lot better success with getting them to open up in front of a camera.

Own the beautiful mess. This is probably the biggest advice I could offer any family when planning their family session. We are bombarded with imagery from every screen, book, magazine in our life. Each of these paint an unrealistic picture of what family photos should look like. Do yourself a favor and be true to who your family is on the day-to-day. If your family isn’t perfectly dressed and well behaved 365 days of the year chances are they won’t be on their photo day. Kids are messy, disheveled, wild, and joyous. Let them be who they are and better yet, encourage them to do so. Playing with your kids makes the best authentic and beautiful moments, ideal for your family photos. Laugh with them, play with them, tickle them, play chase, toss them up in the air, walk with them. These are all great ways to evoke natural emotion and joy that everyone loves to see in your photos.

Time. With kids, time is your best friend. I think this is why I just find the mini-session approach to be stressful for everyone involved. This is a two-factor tip because I mention “time” from two different perspectives. The first is that most kids are on a schedule, no matter how young or how old they are. It is always a great idea to consider their schedules when planning your session. Plan around snack time, feeding time, and naps. You know your kids best so the extra consideration will make a huge difference in their demeanor during your session.

The other thing to consider, especially if you are still in the process of building your connection with your photographer, is the time allotted for your session. Sometimes kids take time to warm up to being around a new photographer. They also have big emotions and there is no better cure to big emotions than time and patience. That is why I encourage my families to carve out a minimum of an hour for their session, 2-hour sessions are even better. Sometimes kids have meltdowns and that’s ok. We owe it to them to let them express themselves and reach a compromise together. No one should have to suffer through this experience. It’s meant to be fun. For me to capture memories, we have to create them. :-)

Wrangler. Nope, not the denim kind. Wranglers come in handy in any family session. A good wrangler is a close family member or friend whom your kids adore. The ones they are always excited to see and the ones who can be just as silly as they are. Wranglers are not afraid to act silly around “kids” (adults) their own age. These people are valuable assets to your family photos. Wranglers also come in clutch when including dogs in your family session.

A word of advice, when picking your wrangler we are not looking for someone to fix hair, or outfits, or be back seat drivers for your “posing”. Their sole purpose is to entertain and help make this fun for your littles.

I think one of my favorite uses of wranglers is when they borrow the kids/ dogs for a second so that we can snap a few photos of just the two of you, the first two members of your family. While Mom, and Dad are big roles that you may fill, you are also a spouse, and sometimes with day-to-day life, it is easily pushed to the back burner. It’s important that you are able to just be with your person for a few minutes and a good photographer and wrangler can help you document that.

The biggest thing to remember when planning your family portrait session is to have fun! Stuffy, photos of perfect-looking families staring at the camera were so 2019. We have all bore witness to the chaos of the past few years. Shouldn’t we create joy and hold on to that instead of the unrealistic standards of someone's definition of perfection. You are doing GREAT just as you are. You have everything you need to have a meaningful and successful family photoshoot.

I hope this helps you in your family photo planning endeavors. Until next time friends!

I would be remiss if I shared all these amazing photos with you and didn’t say a big thank you to all of my repeat clients over the years. It is the greatest pleasure of my career to don the title of YOUR family photographer. It’s the biggest honor and I’m so grateful to each of you. See you at your next family session <3