This shoot is at one of my favorite summer locations. This session was the first time I met this family and I could not have been happier to get to know them a little. Boy, did they nail the wardrobe as well! It’s normal and expected that we have some discussions about the feel you’re going for with your images, but this mama needed no guidance dressing everyone beautifully.
I think sometimes families with young kids hesitate to book family portraits, especially high end ones, for a variety of reasons. They think that their kids won’t behave, that they are at difficult ages (what age isn’t, am I right? ha), that they won’t look at the camera or that the timing of summer shoots is too hard (evening) or that the whole thing sounds too stressful. Maybe you don’t like how you look in photos right now, you gained 10lbs, or 100, or you think maybe NEXT summer you will have things more together, and you’ll do it then. We have this idea of what family photos were like when we were kids, or maybe your in laws did some years ago and you’re still traumatized from being dressed like a matching softball team.
Let me tell you something.
Your kids don’t care.
They don’t have to look at the camera and smile in every photo, far from it. My favorite images, both from this session and all sessions are the ones drenched in emotion. The big hugs and too-forceful preschool kisses, the running through fields and the “give your sibling a hug” shots where someone ends up screaming.
Twenty years from now they won’t care if you could fit in your wedding garb. But they will remember how much they were loved, your smile, the feel of being carried on your shoulders, or swung from your arms. And twenty years from now, when these photos mean the most, I’m pretty sure you won’t remember either <3
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