Fall means family photo time
It just hit me last night that I better start planning a family photo session sometime soon. We always send out a photo card for our holiday greetings. This is something that my husband has always felt strongly about and I have to say I’m grateful to him for making me get myself in a family photo each year. There have been several times I tried to convince him that we could just use a picture of the kids and he wouldn’t have it. He is absolutely right on this and now it’s time again to try and get over my excuses and make this happen. Of course, it’s a little trickier now that my daughter and her husband live a few hundred miles away from us. We do see them regularly though so I really don’t have an excuse.
I’m not going to share all of our family photos from past years, but I thought it would be fun to include a few of my favorites with some tips.
This one was taken in 2017 by a friend who is a professional photographer who has since retired from doing photo shoots. I’m happy with the greens and blues we used for our clothing and I like that we didn’t stress too much about what to wear. Outdoor photos are my favorite and I feel like they are the most flattering all around. I did forget to bring my son’s glasses that don’t have transition lenses. It’s not the first time I’ve made this mistake!
Photo by Nicolette Photography 2017
The next photo was taken in 2014 by another friend who was a professional photographer but who has also since closed her photography business. The weather was a little dicey this day so it was more difficult to get the perfect shot. We had a hard time finding one where all 4 of us had the right smiles, but I do love seeing us all together at this moment in time.
Haylee McGuire Photography 2014
This one might be one of my all time favorites because it is fun and unique. We had an outdoor photo session scheduled with yet another professional photographer friend and the wind was so terrible that we had to duck into a little restaurant for awhile. She had the great idea for us to order hot chocolate and pose for some photos with our cups. We had a great time and the pictures turned out great! A little side note about Alex - he can’t stand hot cocoa or whipped cream so we didn’t make him even pretend to drink it.
Rachel Hood Photography 2011
I don’t have many earlier photos to share for this post because we don’t have digital copies of the professional portraits we had taken. I need to figure out how to get these. We also had many years where we didn’t have any professional or official pictures taken. There have been several years where I put together a photo collage or simply used a snapshot that somebody took - or even a picture done with the timer feature on a camera.
I highly recommend getting a professional to take your fall family portrait if at all possible. Or at the very least, have a friend help you out. You will be so grateful in the years to come!
Here are a few resources to help you prep for your own photo sessions: