As a mom myself, I know how stressful it can be to plan for family photos and then hope that the kids cooperate during the session so you don’t walk away feeling defeated and stressed and mad. There were many years where my middle child would make a face in our photos. I even stopped doing head swaps on her because I felt like I was never going to win. I started putting her goofy-pouty face up on the wall. To be completely honest, I am glad we let her silly personality shine through and leave the photos as is……..as a giant 16×20 on the wall for everyone who came over to see.

It makes a world of a difference to have someone on the other side of the camera to interact with your family……we always went the tripod and remote route because I was too stressed about planning our outfits and location and posing and lighting to add “book a photographer” to my list. The funny thing is, I could have skipped planning the location and posing and lighting if I had booked one. Ha! No one was on the other side of the camera to talk my kids out of the pouty face that I couldn’t see from behind them.

I have seen A LOT of stressed parents at sessions. They are telling their kids to smile in half the pictures which leads to them being captured looking at the kids with an open mouth or with a look of frustration rather than looking at me with the smile they’d like their kids to have. With years of experience, I’ve learned that I need to better prepare the families I capture so they come to the session and know that I will do my very best to get the pouty kid to crack a smile so they don’t have to worry. But in the end, I promise you’ll end up loving that pouty face too if that is all we get. I know I do. I can honestly tell you that the photo above is one of my all time favorites. It was when we took it and it still is now.

As a photographer, it is my job to interact with your family and talk to the kids to get them comfortable with me so I can gain their trust and bring out those natural smiles. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that if parents are able to share something with me ahead of time that I can use to talk to their kids about, it really helps break the ice. If I can use something they love to talk about to get them to relax and be silly, I promise you will walk away with images you adore.

I want my clients to come to their session knowing that their job is to make sure everyone has a clean face & are ready to have fun. I never want you to walk away from your time with me feeling disappointed because things didn’t go as planned. I want you to have fun along with your kids & leave the work to me. Bring your smiles & maybe a non-messy snack and just be ready to have fun.