Why you need a photographer at your next family event!

Family get together? You need a photographer!

This past weekend on Mother's Day I got to spend part of my day with a returning client and her family. I had taken her son's senior portraits last Fall and he is the kind of guy who doesn't smile, but the pictures came out amazing! So when Beki wanted to get family portraits done with her entire family she didn't hesitate in reaching out to me again. Beki and her son were so much fun during his senior session that I just HAD to meet the rest of the family.

No gathering is too small

As everyone knows, it is nearly impossible to get all of your adult siblings and their children together as a family unless there is something important going on like a wedding or big anniversary. So Beki used Mother's Day as the perfect opportunity to have everyone come to their mom's house and have some family portraits done. Because really, who is going to say no to coming to their mom's house on Mother's Day? There were 12 people total plus 3 chickens, which was a great number to work with!

So. Much. Fun.

Once everyone arrived (1 brother went to the wrong house) and they were done teasing him, we jumped right in. Beki had told me that they wanted to get some "redneck/hillbilly" pictures in addition to the nice formal ones and I was totally down for that. There was the expected push back from the pre-teen girls about being in the sprinkling rain and the male teens who are by nature "to cool" to smile, but a little joking paired with sarcasm & they were smiling before they even knew it. After the formal group & family portraits were done we headed out to the pond. The portraits started out somewhat normal and ended with the adult siblings wanting to re-create a picture from when they were all little. They couldn't remember a specific image so they just decided to pick the youngest brother up and hold him horizontally as a group. (see image below) Logistically it took them almost a minute to get him up off the ground and then everyone started laughing about how hard it was to hold him up, which in turn made it that much harder to hold him up. I was laughing hysterically at the scene in front of me. They were all laughing and yelling at each other while trying not to drop him and dad kept shouting "Did you get it yet?!" "Are we done yet?" As soon as I said "Got it, you can put him down now" they about dropped the poor guy on the wet ground and then more laughter ensued. I love when standard family portraits turn into controlled chaos and everyone ends up laughing uncontrollably. For our redneck/hillbilly picture we headed over to the old Class A RV (The big kind you can drive & looks like a bus). While Beki and I joked about what should be in the picture her son comes around the corner with a giant pitchfork then her boyfriend follows him with a bunch of empty beer cans that he then spreads all over the ground. And then her mom and niece come around the corner holding chickens. I couldn't have come up with better props for this photo if I had tried. This photo idea ended with everyone doubled over in laughter and trying to figure out how we could have made it even more redneck. It was so hilarious!

Memories that will last forever

The best part about Beki's Mother's Day family session was that NONE of the images we took that day were planned or staged (other than the traditional poses) and no one had to sacrifice not being in the picture so that the picture could get taken. All of the picture ideas came out organically through the family laughing and making jokes to each other and me being totally willing to try anything that they came up with. I am also willing to bet that if a photographer hadn't been there the gathering wouldn't have lasted very long and probably less than 5 pictures would have been taken. But because they all agreed to visit Mom on Mother's Day and Beki was thinking ahead and hired a photographer, they will now have these priceless and beautiful images that will last a lifetime. I urge everyone reading this to hire a photographer for your next family get together. It doesn't have to be a major holiday or a big event like a wedding. It doesn't matter if there are 20 people coming or 10. Whether you have the photographer there for 20 minutes or an hour. You will end up with beautiful images that you can cherish forever. Images that you can look at and instantly remember the weather, what your were feeling or what happened right before/after that particular photo was taken, no matter how long ago it was.