Folks, its that time of year again. Time to bust out your best outfits and practice your most genuine (but not cheesy) smiles for your family portrait/Christmas card! Coming from personal experience, pictures can either exceed all expectations or leave you wishing for more. The mom in me wants to run for the hills every time September rolls around, but the photographer in me gets practical and wants to share how to make this year’s family session as painless (and beautiful) as possible! I recently wrote a blog over on TeaCaH Studios with some helpful tips for your family portraits this Autumn! To view it in its entirety, click on the previous link, or just keep on reading here for some of my favorite words of wisdom (if you can even call it that)!
- First things first: The photographer. This may sound like the most obvious, but trust me, it is VERY important. Please, please, please do your research and pick a photographer that fits your family – your personality, your budget, your style, your vision – and book them asap. Communication is the key here, so pick the photographer and make sure you are on the same page with expectations.
- Next, throw all expectations (other than quality photos) out the window. If you picked a photographer that you trust, then you have nothing to worry about! Plus, you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself into an idea or vision that may not yield the results you are hoping for. When dealing with kids for sessions (especially young ones) you never know what you are going to get on the day of. So give up the perfect image you have created in your head because chances are it won’t happen. Focus on being a family, sharing your bond and love, and I promise there will be more gems than you ever imagined.
- Wardrobe. This is a BIG one, folks. Please, for the love of all things good in the world, pick a great wardrobe for your family. And no, this does NOT mean that everyone should wear white shirts and blue jeans. You want your family portraits to capture your family how you are at this moment in time. Are you a cookie cutter family? I think not, so why should your wardrobe be? DO pick a color palette and stick to it. For example, everyone will stay in the blue, green, white family of colors, that way you don’t have yellow, orange and pink calico clashing with each other. Oh…and prints? No gingham or small plaid, please. It produces a terrible effect in photos and I am positive you will regret the decision later.
- Pick THE MOST AWESOME location and do not be afraid to get creative here. You would be surprised how awesome family pictures at a rusted and falling down barn can be. Pinky promise. Trust me. No, really…trust me!
- Enjoy your time!!!!! I speak from experience when I say that I let the stress of getting everyone ready get to me, and the thought of having to stand on the other side of the camera makes me want to pee my pants, but I get over it. And twirl my kids in the air to hear their belly laughs. And do silly jumping shots because they make me smile. You know what? When I take myself out of my comfort zone, I always like the results. No, I love them!
This year I had this grand vision of a cozy blanket, cute winter clothes, DIY banners and sipping on hot chocolate. The pictures in my head belong in a magazine. In reality, my son spilled his hot chocolate down the front of his sweater in the first two minutes of our shoot. People, these things happen. While I may have been super perturbed about it, at least we’ll have a funny story to tell one day!
Have fun with your portraits this season and be sure to share them with us! And if you are looking for some fun and helpful photography tips, be sure to check out TeaCaH Studios!
Photography Credit: Heather Liebler Photography