5 Reasons Why You Should Try Family Photos At Home
It was August 2020. I had dragged my feet, just a bit, and not on purpose, on getting a family photo session scheduled with the photographer I wanted to work with. I had chosen a date 2 days before our family vacation to the beach, and not after said vacation, so that we didn’t have sunburned skin. (My skin. I didn’t want sunburned skin in our photos.) It was the only day available on her calendar before our vacation, so I picked it nervously, chose a location near our house, got our outfits planned out and ready, got the boy a haircut, convinced my husband that we really did want to do this, and waited. The forecast was iffy for our day but we plowed ahead, helpless to change the weather and determined not to get post-vacation family photos that looked like we’d summered on the sun.
And then it rained. Hard. Kate (our beloved photographer) and I texted back and forth all day, refreshing the radar forecast and silently pleading with the only One who can control the weather, to please give us 30 minutes of sunshine.
Kate let me make the call, and an hour before we were supposed to meet her, I said yes. We scrambled to get ready, piled into the car amongst tiny raindrops that sparkled like tiny diamonds on the sunny windshield, and drove over to our local park.
Kate is an amazing photographer, but the conditions that day were less than ideal for even the best of us. 2 year old Asa was not into it, and kept running away. 11 month old Mira refused to smile at the camera. Neither of them understood what we were really doing, walking around the park and talking to this stranger who had just walked up to us from the parking lot. I frantically pawed down my hair in the humidity between photos, wondering why I even bothered to try.
Oh, and we all got completely demolished by insatiable mosquitos the size of small eagles. 🦅 (Now I wonder if Asa was actually running away from the mosquitos…)
It was a stressful day. We got gorgeous photos that I immediately hung in my house, but I don’t think any of us wanted to relive that experience the following year.
So now, we have Kate come to our house for our family photos. And I have five reasons why you should have me come to your house for your family photos.
Your family is most comfortable at home.
It’s your safe place, your familiar spot. The kids, nervous at first, open like flowers after a few minutes of me being there. Snacks and bathrooms are within easy reach. No stress about “what if the potty trainer needs to potty” or “what if the baby poops” during the session. You don’t have to run to the car and change them in the way-back. No dragging a diaper bag with snacks, wipes, toys, diapers, ETC, through the park, setting it down every few feet to take a photo. You’re surrounded by your comforts and necessities and everything is in easy reach.
Your time is valuable.
How much time do we spend just getting ready for the session? Picking (or agreeing to) the perfect location. Getting ready. Loading everyone into the car, then unloading everyone, going potty, and then loading them back into the car, just a little more disheveled and frustrated than you were. Driving to the session, unloading, getting acclimated to the location and the person with the camera, before finding your rhythm as a family and enjoying your time together.
Picture this instead (pun intended): A lazy morning at home, kids maybe even still in pjs when I show up. No driving, no packing, no thinking ahead of what to bring or what time to leave in order to get somewhere on time. Just an hour of hanging out at home.
[Perfectly coordinated] clothing is completely optional.
Did you know you could skip coordinated clothing for your family photos? And being at home, you can dress as comfortably as you want. Fuzzy socks accepted. Your kids wandering around in diapers, or changing from pjs to clothes to dress-up clothes and back again. It’s one less thing you have to do ahead of time.
No weather-related stress.
No peering into the 10 day forecast wondering if you chose the right day, hoping that everything lines up perfectly so you don’t have to convince your partner to agree to a different date in your already-packed calendar. If it rains, it rains, and you don’t care, because you’re cozy, at home with your people.
Also, no mosquitos trying to drain your baby of all her blood while you stand in a field.
There’s so much we can do.
Reading on the couch. Helping the kids play dress-up. Baking together in the kitchen. Building something out of Legos. Letting the kids show me their rooms and all their favorite parts of their most sacred places. Or scrapping all of that, and instead working through your usual morning routine, on a slower time table.
How’s this: Helping the kids get dressed, drinking coffee with them at the breakfast table. Letting them watch you do your hair and makeup before brushing their teeth. Watching them pick out and put on their shoes (on the wrong feet, of course). Breastfeeding the baby one last time while the toddler plays at your feet before you head out. Then sitting as a family for one posed photo to round out our hour together.
Connect the memories you have of your daily life with a visual reminder that you were there, too. Your daily life is blurry and beautiful. Let’s pause it and bring it into focus.
If you’re just not sure about whether a Home or Park location would be best for you, I have a quiz you can take (multiple choice! no wrong answers!) to help you choose. Pop on over here to check it out.
