Our own Family photos! Man, every year that we take family pictures I learn more and more about how my clients feel and what I can adjust to make it an even better experience for them! Getting family pictures is hard. It’s never perfect. Someone would always rather not be there. When it comes down to it though, and you look at the pictures, you don’t think about all the things that you were distracted by or how you were worried about running late etc. You just remember how everyone was feeling in that picture. If I can get you there and calm and smiling that is my goal. You don’t have to remember the stress of getting there besides that it was totally worth it. I, out of anyone, KNOW it’s worth it and I still struggle the day of getting ready, getting to our location, all of it. But when our perfectly imperfect pictures are edited and hung on our wall in the living room I can relax and smile. Maybe not right now, but some day my little squirmy kids will be so thankful I did this hard thing each year as they got older.
My biggest suggestion to people who want to be consistent with annual family pictures is pick a season and stick to it. Some people like easter time and they all get new dress clothes for Easter Sunday and wear those. Some people like the beginning of the school year for their kids because it’s starting to cool off and it marks a new chapter for them, while some prefer the end of the school year so if they have graduating Kindergarteners or High School or College Seniors they don’t have to pay for a separate session and they can use the individual shots we get then.
Our family loves End of October beginning of November. It’s before the holiday season gets to hectic but the weather has cooled off. We can update grandparents on photos since they usually just recently got new photos from school age grandchildren but it’s also not so early in the year that the little kids won’t look significantly different if we also use these pictures for Christmas cards (which we do). We get new photos up in our house as part of our Christmas decorations and that time of year just seems to flow really well for us! Whatever works for you stick to it! I know in the past I’ve thought “this year is rough I’ll just wait till spring, but it never happens. Pick a season and stick to it every year! If you haven’t started now is the time! Come and get some family minis with me at Desert Garden Market Dec 9-10! Follow me on Instagram at @alyssahawsphotography for more details, as it gets closer!
We had to fill Sage’s Pockets with Pretzels for her to do this. It’s really important to me that after I force my kids to wear clothes I pick and rush them off to a location where they aren’t allowed to then play in the dirt that they have some genuine smiles. So my last suggestion is to get creative. Yeah you can see the pretzels in some, but it was either that or a bunch of pictures of her screaming, haha.
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