It’s family photo time. 🍂
The leaves are beginning to turn, there’s finally a little fall in the air, and families everywhere are starting to book photographers for that annual snapshot that isn’t taken with an iPhone.
But this year, I want you to think beyond the Christmas card.
After 16 years of photographing families of all shapes, sizes, and seasons of life, I’ve learned that the photographs people treasure most aren’t necessarily the ones with the perfect outfits or the perfect smiles.
They’re the ones that mean something.
So whether you take family photos every year or you haven’t stepped in front of a professional camera in years, consider doing at least one of these five things during your next family portrait session.
1. Bring Your Fur Babies 🐾
If your dog is part of your family, bring them.
They may make your session a little more chaotic. They probably won’t look at the camera exactly when we want them to. And yes, we may have to work around a few treats, leashes, and unexpected distractions.
Bring them anyway. I've even put together a list of 10 TIPS TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL SESSION WITH YOUR PET.
You are their entire world, and they are part of this chapter of your family's story.
Years from now, you'll be incredibly grateful you have photographs that include them—not just the hundreds of pictures of them sitting in your camera roll.
2. INVITE THE GRANDPARENTS 🤎
This is one I wish I had done more myself.
We tend to think of family portraits as parents and children, but your family's story extends far beyond the people living under your roof.
Invite Grandma and Grandpa.
Take the big group photograph, but don't stop there. Photograph grandparents with their grandchildren. Get your children individually with them. And make sure you get a photograph with your own parents, too.
One day, those may become some of the most important photographs you own.
3. BRING SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO YOUR FAMILY
A quilt. A piece of jewelry. An old photograph. A chair from your grandmother's house. Something handmade by someone you loved.
It doesn't have to be elaborate or even particularly valuable.
It just needs to mean something to you.
I often incorporate a quilt made by my great-great-grandmother into photographs. It's a simple object, but when I use it, I'm connecting generations of my family within one image.
Imagine your children—or their children—having that photograph someday.
That's when a portrait becomes more than something pretty hanging on a wall. It becomes part of your family's history.
4. GO SOMEWHERE YOU'VE NEVER TAKEN PHOTOS BEFORE 🌾
If you've photographed your family in the same field every October for the past five years, let's change it up.
Go downtown. Find an incredible old building. Photograph your family at home. Head to the lake. Choose somewhere colorful, architectural, unexpected, or meaningful to your family.
Variety really is the spice of life.
Your family changes every year. Your photographs can change with you.
Instead of recreating last year's session with slightly taller children, create something that represents who your family is right now.
I believe this so much that I offer a HUGE vareity of mini sessions from urban to country from Nashville to Columbia. Take a sec to browse this years Mini Session offerings.
5. LET GO OF PERFECT
This may actually be the most important one.
Your children don't have to behave perfectly.
Everyone doesn't need to look at the camera in every photograph.
Your outfits don't need to match.
And Mom—you don't need to lose ten pounds first.
Let your kids laugh. Let them be ridiculous. Hold hands. Snuggle your teenager even if they pretend they hate it. Look at each other instead of always looking at the camera.
Because you're not really photographing what your family looks like.
You're photographing what being part of your family feels like.
MAKE THIS YEAR'S PHOTOS MEAN SOMETHING
Many of you take family portraits almost every year. Some of you may have never had professional family photographs taken.
Wherever you fall, after 15 years behind the camera, here's what I want you to remember:
These photographs become more valuable with time.
The kids get taller. Dogs grow older. Grandparents aren't here forever. Homes change. Families evolve. And the season you're living in right now eventually becomes a memory.
So this year, don't just take a pretty picture for your Christmas card.
Bring the dog.
Invite Grandma.
Pull that old quilt out of the closet.
Go somewhere you've never been.
And let your family be exactly who they are.
Adding even one of these things can turn your annual family portrait into something far more meaningful—a genuine snapshot of this chapter of your life.
And someday, I think you'll be really glad you did. 🤎
