If you’re reading this, chances are you either know me or Jo, or you’ve worked with us and know that we focus on wedding and engagement photography. Saying that, though, is like saying that still-life painters only paint fruit or architects only design buildings: we dabble. When your passion is in something creative, you don’t usually limit yourself to one thing, and in our case, romance isn’t all we’re about. (It’s a lot of it, and we adore it, don’t get us wrong! There’s more to life than romance, though, and photography helps us capture life with all its ups and downs.)
I guess you could probably say that while family photo shoots aren’t about romance, they ARE about love. Family has always been important to Jo and I, but now that we have kids, we’ve begun to understand the true importance of a family shoot: children grow so fast! It feels like you only have a day or two to get snapshots of your infant before they’re walking and talking (and, uh… making messes…?), so keeping memories for them to see and you to look back on has become a huge thing in our lives.
My very first family photo shoot happened recently. Wrangling the kids was a bit of a task, but I wouldn’t change it for the world! It was an amazing way to kick off the holiday mini-session we had: people we know and love and hold dear energizing us before multiple sessions in a row. We’d never done so many photo shoots in one day, not with such a short time frame. (Thank goodness for coffee.)
I don’t think we’re the only people that love our families. I mean, we’re obviously not, that’s a silly thought, but it’s one thing to live it and another thing to see it. The energy was high thanks to us being so busy and staying upbeat, but when we showed previews of each photo to our clients, their faces lit up like kids on Christmas. Except, well, they were looking at photos of their own kids. It’s like we were Santa Clauses giving these parents exactly what they wanted, only not in gift wrap. That metaphor got a little weird, but you get my drift!
I think another fun thing about family shoots like this is that they’re great Christmas card pieces. Not every family does those, but if you’re part of one that loves Christmas cards, doing a photo shoot is one way to make sure that your photos won’t just go in an album for looking at later; you get to share that holiday joy with your extended family and friends.
I mentioned wrangling kids up above, but that went through the entire day. I’ve never had more respect for sheep herding dogs! Little tykes will do whatever they want, whether you tell them differently or ask what they want. From crying infants (how else can they communicate?) to rowdy toddlers and more, the parents in these photos put in plenty of work of their own. I like to think that, since Jo and I have young children of our own, we act as extra help for the parents. ”All hands on deck” isn’t just for boats: it’s pretty applicable to raising children, too.
All I know is that I can’t wait for the next mini session. Happy holidays, everyone!
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