Tips on Taking Family Photos
/So….it’s September 2021 and I’ve started to plan our family photos for this fall and realized I never did a blog post with our photos from last year! Whoops! I wanted to put these up, even if they are a year later because I love looking on pinterest for ideas and love how ours turned out last year. I also wanted to share a few tips for you and your family as you plan your photos for your holiday cards. And really just tips when taking photos with your family any time of year! I’ll also talk about planning the color scheme, time to shoot and more!
Book your session sooner than you’d think. I like to get these done and out of the way before the holidays approach and suddenly you feel like a lot is going on. We tend to take them in October before Halloween and then just save them for our holiday cards. It’s nice to have them on hand and check one thing off your list. Also photographers book out so quick these days so make sure to get a date set. You could also just have a family member shoot for you. I take so many photos practically every day for my job so it’s a special treat to have someone ELSE take our pictures for once. I really love it!
2. Deciding on a theme.
Let’s talk color scheme and overall vibe you want to achieve. Now I always want our holiday photos to be able to display year round. The year prior we did reds and blacks and I felt like I couldn’t have those out all the time. So now I like everything to be more on the neutral side. These photos are literally all around our house now and they just match with everything. I also wanted them to be very warm in tone. I always pick what I’m going to wear first (because that is always the hardest for me to find) and then I build from there. I found this dress from Free People and then started look for the girls’ dresses. I wanted them to be in different dresses but keep them cohesive. I found both at Target and loved how they looked together. It’s funny though because I originally bought 4 different dresses from Target just to see which 2 would look best together and I was planning on Violet wearing one that was a pink and cream floral and then June mustard yellow one. But She loved this pale blue floral so we went with that! Then I thought an olive tee would look cute on Owen and got a cute brownish taupe button up for Andrew from Gap. I had shoes for Owen which came a little late and were waaaay too big for him so he ended up barefoot.
Also if you live where it doesn’t get cool until basically November like us, you’ll most likely be sweating when shooting your photos. Last year I had Owen in a beanie and we were all in sweaters and it was so hot that day!! For these photos we dressed a little more for fall rather than winter and it felt more “us”. Even the bare feet!
3. Expect things to not go according to plan.
If you are taking photos with kids just KNOW that things will be hectic, a little stressful and may involve tears. Violet ended up cutting her lip 1 or 2 days before we shot these and I remember I was trying not to make it a big deal because I didn’t want her to feel self conscious of it. Now looking back we will always remember that!
On our way to take these, we put in the wrong address and ended up being somewhere that was 30 minutes from the place we were supposed to be. The sun was setting and my eyes started to well up because I couldn’t believe it. Andrew was like “oh well, we’ll have to reschedule…” and I was like “no!! our whole family is dressed and ready to go, I don’t care if we shoot these in the dark!”
When we arrived the sun was really in the perfect spot and the lighting was absolutely beautiful. So give yourself a little extra time when driving to your location or maybe know where it is better than I did…
Oh ya AND Owen had no shoes, and we were all walking in poking, spiky twigs and brush for all of these. The pretty “meadow and field shots” aren’t a piece of cake to shoot!!
4. Just keep on smiling!
Like I said, everyone had twigs and dirt all over them as we were taking these but you just have to keep on smiling and laughing the whole time because you never know how they will turn out. And you don’t want your kids to be smiling and you aren’t! Try to make it fun for your kids and tickle them, make jokes and make it into an adventure. In the photo above (which is the one we ended up using for our Christmas cards) Owen was actually crying. He was DONE and I just kept saying everyone smile! And you’d never know he wasn’t smiling too!!
5. Take shots with all the kids and individuals.
Especially if you have twins, make sure to take separate photos of each. So many of our photos of them are the two of them, so I really try to get some individual shots! I also like having a few with each child and some with Andrew. These can be hard to remember to take especially if you are all tired from taking all the group shots, so just make sure to get some before you leave! You’ll be happy to have them and it gives everyone a little break while the photographer is taking them.
6. Tell your photographer what you want. I love getting a few shots of all of us looking at the camera but I also love candids. I always say I like shots further back to get the scenery and some of us walking, etc. Also find photos online you like to give your photographer and idea of what you are going for.
When taking your photos, move around! Don’t just smile at the camera the whole time, smily at your husband and your kids. Give them hugs, kisses and move. Movement will pick up really nicely on camera and bring your photos to LIFE.
PHOTOS SHOT BY GIANNA SENNET
DRESS FREE PEOPLE
