Family Photos Are More than Baby Photos

Strangers often confide in me when I tell them I’m a family photographer. Usually it’s a combination of “oh, I need to do that” and “we haven’t done that in ___ (amount of time) because ___” and I become an impromptu therapist for them, nodding empathetically as they explain why they haven’t scheduled. “I mean, I guess we haven’t done family photos in years because we don’t have anything big happening.”

Here’s where you lose me, though. Life isn’t made of big moments - I mean, yes, it is, but no it isn’t. There are the big events, the ones that made you a family, like your wedding, births, and adoptions. Milestone birthdays and holidays that happen annually. Graduations from high school. But what about all the in-between? There are a lot of days between “your wedding” and “your child’s graduation,” and most of them aren’t big days. They’re small days. As in, lots of small, daily activities, that stream together to form a day. And lots of those small days add up to form a life that is worth remembering.

“Yes,” you say, “and I will remember them with my phone camera. There’s no need to hire a professional to follow us around for an hour.”

If you haven’t done professional family photos before, or your only experience with them is with a newborn photography session, you might have trouble visualizing how this would work. Let’s do an exercise:

Think about your own childhood, and a fun activity that you liked to do with your family as you were growing up. Think about doing that thing with your parents, your siblings, your grandparents. Picture one specific activity in your head. You’re laughing, playing, maybe baking cookies in the kitchen (and then taste-testing them), maybe building a fort or reading a book together on the couch. Think about that memory and how sweet it is, and then think about what it would be like to have a photo of that activity. Not just a photo of yourself cheesing at the camera while your mom takes your picture, but a real, immersive photo of you with your mom, interacting together, ignoring the camera. What would it be like if the photo matched your memory? What if it gave you tangible evidence of your life with your parents, helped you see your mom as a person who played with you and spent time with you as you grew up, and not just someone who documented your life from the other side of the camera?

What if you had photos like that for every year you were a kid? Your activities together changed, your interests grew and the things you did together became more mature, and you could see that, visually, in photos.

What if you had all of those photos framed, in your room, as you grew up? What if your kids could have that now?

Don’t let the newborn photography be the last professional photos you have made for your family. Put a reminder on your calendar to have family photos made every year. Make it repeatable, annually, from here until forever. Family photos don’t have to mean stiffly sitting in front of a background or standing in a field. They can be fun ways to document your family as you grow, in comfortable and familiar environments, showing off who you all are as people, and how you connect as a family. Click here to see how other families have chosen to document their small days with me.