Family photo sessions might be the last thing on your mind in your busy day-to-day life. I know it’s tough to just get out the door sometimes, much less feel “put together.” However, I want to share some reasons why it’s so important to prioritize getting a session done at least once a year (and then printing the photos too!).
For those of you who live near me in the Colorado Springs area, I’d love to chat about setting up your next session and I can’t think of a more beautiful place than where we live to make them happen!
Believe me, I know full well that being in front of the camera isn’t comfortable for everyone (hence why I prefer to be behind it) and just thinking about rallying everyone and actually looking “put together” might give you hives. But I can promise you that if it becomes part of your norm, you won’t be as stressed when it comes to the planning and execution… and you might even enjoy it!
I don’t have to tell you how fast children grow up. Especially in the early years, it feels like every month they’ve changed so much as they start to gain inches and knowledge and opinions and their personality starts to shine. One day you’ll be telling someone about how cute they were when their hair was still that bright blonde and curly before it grew out and you’ll go to find a photo to prove it – let’s hope you have one that captured that season!
There’s this weird and amazing thing about images when you’re the one in them – you actually remember how you FELT during that season of life that your family was in when you look at the photos. You won’t JUST look at it and think, ‘aww Charlie’s hair was still blonde and curly!’ like an onlooker/outsider will. You’ll remember the oh-so-worth-it ache in your arms from carrying him from room to room trying to get him to fall asleep; the feeling of his warm little head resting on your chest after he finally drifted off; the ‘there’s nothing better than this’ chill you used to get watching your spouse play with him on the living room floor.
I’m not one to pretend that everything is always easy so you might even feel the sadness of a certain rough season in your lives together, but often going through the valleys together make your bond that much stronger and that’s beautiful in a unique and deep way! I have a feeling you won’t want to forget even those challenging seasons that also shaped each of you into who you are today.
Think about it for a second. The family photos you take today are almost as much for future generations as they are for you! How often have you flipped back through the photos of your parents and grandparents, hearing the stories and learning about how much happened in the world to shape who you are today? This is one of the most critical reasons I encourage you to actually PRINT your family photos as well! In today’s digital world, we aren’t in the habit of getting our images off the screen and into our hands, but your grandchildren probably won’t stumble across your photos in a shoebox in the closet and be able to start asking all the questions you had the opportunity to share with the generations before you if you don’t prioritize it!
Your photographer should have an easy way to order high quality prints through the gallery they share with you – and don’t hesitate to ask them about it if not! Prints ordered through your photographer will be much more true to color than printing from somewhere Walmart or Walgreens and will be much higher quality – lasting longer to be able to share with your loved ones!
When I think about all the excuses we make (yep, I do it too with my own family) to avoid doing photo sessions, it makes sense that it takes such intentionality to make them happen. Let me just take a second to reframe a few of them to help overcome the challenges!
Your kiddos are still young and they don’t sit still or cooperate long enough
Try a mini session! Many photographers offer these and they are typically about 15-20 minute sessions at a pre-selected date & location where you just sign up for a time-slot. I personally photographed 40 mini sessions last year and they really seem to be perfect to capture a few memories without stressing anyone out or breaking the bank.
Want to be notified whenever I offer a mini session date?? Sign up for my email list HERE and you’ll be the first to know!
Your husband has absolutely no interest in photo sessions (sorry to stereotype!)
I’ve been there too. But there have been several times that my husband has been grumpy about having to take photos but then actually thanks me later for making him do it because he loves having the photos! My suggestion is not to spring a photo session on your guy – set expectations and talk about it early on in the year that you’d like to do a session (or 2 mini sessions if your kids are young enough to change a lot in 6 months) so that it doesn’t feel so out of the blue when you let him know you found a photographer you’d like to use and ask him about when would work for his schedule! You might even mention a little about your vision for the session when you mention it super early on so he isn’t taken aback that you want him to wear something other than jeans and a t-shirt 😉
“There are too many people’s schedules to work around“
I hear this one a lot, especially from people trying to schedule a session with their extended family. If everyone lives in the area, I’d suggest using a free resource called Doodle to get a feel for dates/times that might work for everyone instead of having to email or text back and forth 28 times! All you do is enter in a bunch of options that work for you and then when you share the link, everyone selects EACH option that works for them. Then you can see quickly what will work!
Instead of just one more thing on the to-do list, think of your family photo sessions as experiences – something meaningful for you all to get to do together. Make it extra special by creating traditions like getting to go out to eat for a treat afterwards! Not only will the sessions become something everyone looks forward to as your kids get to know your photographer, but the traditions can be used as a bribe for good behavior during the session that makes it go by more quickly!
Have more ideas for prioritizing and removing stress from family photo sessions? Comment below with your tips!
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