Photo Series: 5 tips for taking family photos.

Pregnancy announcement photo shoot 2015.

Hi guys!

Oh yes, professional family photos. How often do you take them with your family? Once a year? once a month? Special occasion? I know for The Carr family we tend to take them maybe twice a year. We usually take them at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. It’s amazing to see how much my husband and I have changed and how much our girls have grown. People often ask me how do we make family photos work so well for us? So as we gear up to take our next family photos in a few months I thought it was a good idea to give away 5 tips we use for taking family photos.

1. Pick a outfit: Rather your family is into being matchy-matchy, coordinating colors or patterns. Or just simply into wearing whatever is comfortable. Make sure you all agree on a outfit. For us we like to match colors. I always choose our outfits for family photos. Usually the girls match and my husband and I just coordinate colors.

First family photo with Aria in 2016.

2. Location:  When we take family photos the location is very important. We want to make sure we go somewhere the lighting is nice, but also a place where the kids wont get distracted. Typically a field is good. Or a empty park is a great location. That way there’s no distractions for the kids and they can play afterwards as a reward for doing so well during the photos.

3. Little/no posing: It was only recently I found out that less is more. We did a photo shoot a while back (see it here) where photographer did not ask us to pose. Just to talk, play, just to be ourselves. Needless to say the no posing rule was amazing and our photos came out great. Thank you Alexis 🙂

Latest family photos from earlier this year.

4. Naps: Kids are hard to take family photos with especially toddlers. I have found that when our kids nap prior to our photos they are more happy and willing to participate. Having them nap at least a hour or two before pictures is a must.

5. Just go with it: At the end of the day you can plan and plan and plan again. But no matter how hard you plan your photos wont always come out picture perfect. Your kids will cry, your husband will complain, your feet might hurt from those cute but not so comfy shoes. And strangers might walk by and stare as you take your photos.. just go with it. They’re your family photos make them fun and make them your own.

End of the year photo shoot 2017.