Today I’m talking Family Photos and I’ve teamed up with my amazing friend and awesome photographer, Kathryn, of Kathryn Katz Photography, to chat about family photos. I know that if our family is getting professional pictures done, I typically have us scheduled for Fall so we can use them as an updated photo for our Christmas cards. I started writing this post and got sidetracked writing about Christmas cards ;) so I’m saving that for a later post!
Now I should make a disclaimer or preface the rest of this post by saying 1.) I know getting professional pictures taken once a year {or even every few years} is a big investment and a luxury for many. 2.) You don’t have to have professional photos taken in order to have amazing family photos on your walls or for your Christmas cards. We’ve used iPhone pictures for a few cards and I have quite a few pictures I have taken with either my camera or my phone on our walls {well not on our walls here just yet, but they will be as soon as I can get them up!}
But here’s why I love having our photos professionally taken: I’m not in many photos with my kids. I try to take pictures of me with them, but they are usually selfies that are cute snapshots but not necessarily ones I want blown up into a 12″x16″ canvas. I also am a huge record keeper of life and we’ve got way too many photos {that’s a whole other post and goal for the year that I can probably just go ahead now and roll over to next year’s goals} and it’s important to me to have some pretty pictures of the people I love most.
Getting family photos taken, even if you are getting your neighbor to take them in your back yard, is no easy task. There are outfits to coordinate, maybe hair cuts to schedule or at least a head {or 4} of hair to comb through, nap times to work around to make sure everyone’s fairly happy and not super tired and grumpy, and there’s usually bribery involved, at least on our end! And that’s not just the kiddos! We’re spending a lot of money, our time and our photographer’s time, and you want to make the most of it.
So, Kathryn and I rounded up some ideas that can help make a family photo session a bit more successful and make the most of those photos you worked so hard to get.
There are many options when actually printing out your photos: Large prints, canvases, etc., and if you’re hanging them up in your home, you want it to coordinate with your home’s decor and color schemes. Consider complimenting the colors you wear in your photos with colors in your home. You are less likely to put up a large print of your cute family in your home if the colors completely clash with what you have in your home. If you have more neutrals throughout your home, you may want to go with wearing neutrals or doing black and white prints.
Consider Different Poses and Materials
After all this hard work and all the adorable images captured, get those things printed and displayed in your home!!! Order from your photographer or if you have the rights to print {don’t forget those!} order archival quality products. CD’s and USB drives are not meant to last forever, and your great grandkids won’t be scrolling through your 26,000+ photos on your external hard drive. They are going to want to hold those photos in their hands.
Just writing this post, I looked through some old photo session pictures and there are so many amazing ones. They capture these little people and their personalities and what they love{d} and gosh, it is such a treasure! I have something like 26,000+ photos and videos on my computer. UGH, I know! Again, a whole other post, but there is so much story and love and life in all those. Well, maybe not all 26,000 of them, but you know what I mean. We must get the best ones printed and saved so we can look back on them. And although I love a great picture where we are all looking at the camera, the candids are so much more “us.”
As Kathryn says, most of us don’t like something about how we look, whether it’s we want to loose weight, our hair isn’t right, we are unhappy with our skin…But in the years to come this won’t matter to your kids or your family, {and chances are you’ll look back in 10 years and think, “dang, I looked way better than I thought I did. I wish I looked like that now,” am I right?!?} Get in your pictures and create those memories with the ones you love.
If you’re in the South Eastern part of Nebraska, and need an amazing family photographer, look up Kathryn Katz Photography. Can’t wait to get our photos taken with her this Fall.
And if you are in the San Diego area, our fabulous photographer, Kelsey from Kelsey Lauren Photography took all our family’s professional photos {and my Living Solutions project photos} and I couldn’t recommend her more!
*all photos with the exception of children’s clothes photo taken by Kelsey Lauren Photography
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Gina! Such a great post! We are getting ours taken this evening! And instead of scrambling around getting our outfits figured out I’m reading your post thinking I should have schedule Kole a haircut last week and shoot! My nails! Ha ha.. :) Love this (such good tips!) and especially loved seeing so many precious pics of your adorable family. Miss you all! xo
I’m sure they turned out beautifully like always! Can’t wait to see them :) xo