Behind the Scenes of a Family Photo Shoot: Fun and Laughs with Your Loved Ones
It’s always an experience when we get together for a family photo shoot. We laugh, try different hilarious poses, and generally strive to make it through the minutes scheduled to achieve a decent amount of retakes. But what you don’t see is the amount of work that makes these shots look natural and effortless. This blog post will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos behind the scenes of a family photo shoot with young children. From the initial planning to the final product, taking pictures with young children has its ups and downs, and a photo enthuse like me who gathers the family twice a year for pictures, I have had my fair share of experience dealing with the high and lows.
Don’t be fooled behind the scenes of every perfect family photo touted on social media or those cute Christmas cards are most definitely stressed-out parents working hard to entice their young kids into cooperating with the photographer for one more smile and into pleading for no more funny faces or blink more than necessary.
As with most things in life, preparation is vital. Most photoshoot planning could be narrowed down into three main things:
- Location
- Outfits
- Poses
Location: I usually prefer a park in the fall since there are many great backgrounds and plenty of room for kids to run around if needed. For outdoor pictures, the weather is your greatest enemy, I once planned a fall photoshoot picking a date that shows clear skies and planning outfits to suit the weather, only for the day’s forecast to switch to frigid temperatures and my two-year-old was freezing and crying for the duration of the shoot. The sun is not any better; this past fall, almost 80% of our pictures had the boys squinting as the sun was right in their eyes. It is wise to arrive early to get everyone set up and comfortable for an outdoor shoot. When sessions are paid for by the hour, you don’t want to start scrambling to get ready with a photographer glaring at you. It sets a bad start for the shoot. I must say photoshoots in our home are the easiest to navigate, but I love being adventurous by trying new places.
Outfit: Pick out coordinating outfits ahead of time- nothing too matchy-matchy, but complementary colours or patterns work well. I usually go shopping and start finding just one thing I like for one of the boys. When I find that, I proceed to find complementary colours that would work well for the rest of the family Photo Shoot. Outfits can be tricky because sometimes it’s hard to coordinate everyone’s clothing but typically, we’ll all wear something similar in colour or style so that it pops in the photo.
Poses: Poses are probably the essential part of a photoshoot. You want to make sure you have variety and that everyone is looking their best. We like to do some fun poses right off the bat to get everyone laughing and loosen up. Then we move into more traditional family portraits. If you have any specific ideas or shots you would like captured, let your photographer know in advance so they are not alarmed when you keep interrupting to get your vision achieved. Too many toys for kids between 3 and 5 is more of a distraction than a help. My boys have spent one of our photoshoot sessions fighting on who gets to hold one toy or ride the horse, and it was pretty distraught prying it from their hands.
Try not to fret; let perfection be the farthest thing on your mind. You can’t control how things will go, but you can control your attitude and how much fun you have. Some of my favourite shots were not planned at all, like a picture where Theo lying on the ground took a huge bite of his birthday cake when my back was turned or when Chris playfully jumped up a huge rock with his hands in the air while I was scrambling to get changed for our next round of pictures. I was so happy the photographer got shots in these poses.
Despite the challenges, it’s always so worth it to have photos of your loved ones that you can cherish for a lifetime. these sessions are always full of laughs and memories. I just love looking back at them and remembering all the chaos we had while taking them!
