The One Thing Your Family Photo Session Should Be, Above All Else - Waterloo Family Lifestyle Photographer
When you book a family photo session, what are you looking for? What is your goal? What do you want to come away with?
You might think that the answer is obvious: you’re looking for photos, of course! But stay with me here.
Situation A: You have your photo session, and you spend it trying to get your kids and your husband to stay still and smile nicely for the camera. It’s a bit of a sweaty mess, but you come away with a selection of photos of everyone looking at the camera, some smiling more naturally, others smiling in a slightly more forced way. You hang the photo in your hallway, where you walk past it every day, and it reminds you of the way everyone looked at that moment in time. Later, you think about how much bigger your kids have gotten, and you wonder how the time could possibly have gone so quickly.
Situation B: You have your photo session, and you spend it doing something you enjoy. You even forget after a few minutes that you’re having your photo taken! You get some dedicated family time where you just focus on having fun together. You come away with several favourite photos to choose from, all of them full of light and personality, and you use a few of them to create a gallery display in your hallway. You walk past it every day, and the images bring a smile to your face every time. Later, you happily recall the sound of your child’s laughter, the way they behaved at that stage, and what you enjoyed about that moment in your life as a family.
If Situation B sounds more appealing to you, you’ve found the same truth in photographs as I have: their main job isn’t to record your physical appearance at a given moment. The thing that all of my favourite photographs have in common is the way they overflow with the personality of the person in them. They take me right back to the moment they were taken, and they make me feel the way I did in that moment, whether I’m in the photograph or behind the lens.
That’s why your photo session should be fun above all else.
You’ll come away with images that make you feel, that transport you (even years later) back to the moment they were taken. You’ll enjoy the session, worry-free. No need to make sure that kids behave or stay still; no need to keep Dad from getting grumpy. You’ll look great because you’re relaxed and happy!
A fun photo session means you enjoy the time spent together. When you look at your images from the session, you love them, because you had a great time making them! If you’re booking a photo session, you’ve decided to make preserving your memories a priority. It doesn’t have to be a chore, or something you have to drag your family out to do. Treat yourself to a photo session you’ll all enjoy, and you’ll have beautiful images to make you smile for years to come!
