What a real “Family Photoshoot” looks like

Lets be real for a few moments (and then we’ll get to the photos…)

This can be categorized as a “behind the scenes” type of entry.  Bear with me for a minute.  You can look at it as the outtakes of the movie; the shots you don’t ever get to see because your photographer weeds through and hands you a final product consisting of only the best of the best.  But with these photos you see the story, you get to know your clients, and you understand who they are just a little bit more.

I’ve had this conversation three times in the past two weeks.  I feel like I have to explain my preferred style way more than I hear other photographers doing so.  But my explanation is justified and prepares my clients for what they will receive at the end of the editing process; because its not what the typical client expects, even though they may have seen it before.

Photography is for documentation of reality.  We want to remember the moments and capture them to tell the stories years down the road when anyone ends up opening our photo albums… (those still exist, yes?).  It’s a difficult concept to grasp when we are trying to “document” every moment of our lives already, yet the details always end up vague and disheveled.  Its a difficult concept to grasp when the times we pull out the actual camera we are in our best dress, best setting, and are forced to wear the best smiles; but where is the story, what is there to remember, and doesn’t that create moments of tension, exhaustion and resentment rather than happiness and fondness?  I get it, we just want at least ONE photo to hang on the hallway and put in the Christmas letter (that still happens, yes?)  And that one shot with everyone looking at the camera, eyes open, smiles bright, and intentions true can be so precious and miraculous at times that we are amazed and ever so thankful it happened.

The client expects a “good” photographer to capture the moment as they’ve been hired to do.  As the hired photographer, we know (and are sometimes terrified to even consider) the moment may never happen; and should it be the case, we pack up our equipment and start heading home knowing we’ve already let you down and we haven’t even culled yet.

It’s intensely important to understand that moment is only going to happen IF it is normal for your family to have it.  The chaos that may ensue in your every day life won’t allow for a moment on the couch, next to the fire place with everyone believing they are The Clever Family.  That moment in most families is going to look more like an interaction, an experience: parent reading a book, son playing with a toy, other parent smiling, daughter trying to interrupt to ask a question.  That is real.  That is what we want to remember.  That is the moment that describes, defines, and summarizes that family in that moment (and in many moments of that phase in their life).   And that may be the moment they are the most calm all day long – but it was captured, in real time, and in a real fashion.  When someone looks at that photo they will believe it, they will understand it, they will want to know more about it.

As a photographer I want to document the time I am with you.  Sometimes it’s super easy and some times its not so super easy.  Sometimes the family photos are too many to count, other times the family photos end up in bits and pieces.

As a client, remind yourself of two things before, during, and after the shoot and finally when you’re looking at the final product and handing prints out to all of your most beloved: 1. it’s real and 2. it shows the beauty in the chaos.  I search for the beauty in the light, the color, the setting, the intensity, the serenity, the love, the laughter, and the reality of who you are as a client and I document it.  That is my job.  That is what I hope you look forward to receiving.

This family’s story is beautiful.  It got me a little teary eyed just editing this few photos and remembering those couple hours we spent together; and I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through the rest without doing the same.  But I was there, with them, and I found the beauty to capture from the very start.  This is a real family and these are their bits and pieces that make them whole.

Sometimes this is how a family photoshoot looks… real and beautiful, (or really beautiful; beautifully real).

Normally comfortable pastimes create smiles like this: smiles that count…

and proud moments such as this…

Group interactions bring sincerity and contentment.

And when at least two adults ask the kids to look and smile at the camera, sometimes they do as their told, but most of the time they won’t (and that’s okay)…

But most of the time, the best moments are captured when they’re not looking…

and maybe not even smiling…

   

Sometimes, when you least expect it, there will be a shot (believe it or not) that doesn’t look half bad…

      

And just when you think you can adjust and make the next shot a little better, most of the time something like this happens…

And after a while, all hope is completely lost…

until they just can’t take it anymore…

And because, after all of that, the family pets just wouldn’t sit still or stop barking you have to add them into the mix individually and at their happiest…

But the moments to document (and remember) continue, even when the shoot is over, it’s time to call it a wrap, and the camera is SUPPOSED to be turned off…

Because there are always times like this, when mom is not-so-slyly tricked into giving a piggy back ride the rest of the walk home, because walking became impossible after an old scratch on the leg was noticed…

And at the end of the real madness and the beautiful chaos, somehow your partner can still make you smile and make you remember that this beautiful insanity is real; real enough to be experienced and real enough to be captured.  Its so real, it deserves to be remembered forever and maybe even hung in a frame or sent in a Christmas letter.  Because after all this is your history, your legacy, and the footprint you leave for all who travel behind you to see, admire, learn from, and possibly to follow.