5 lies about family photo sessions

OK LET’S DIVE INTO MY TOP 5 MYTHS FOR PHOTOS SESSIONS AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM WITH GRACE:

• Kids must be on their best behavior – Ok well good luck with that Susan. You are bringing you kids to spend time with someone they likely are meeting for the first time with a giant camera being pushed into their personal space. That is weird. KIDS ARE GOING TO BE KIDS (sorry I don’t mean to yell haha!) and they will act a dang fool 99% of the time, but if you have chosen the right photographer that will never show and most likely the photographer can handle it- you shouldn’t have to. You have permission to stop being a parent for an hour.

• Everyone must be looking at the camera at all time and for goodness sake you better be smiling kid! -Enter giant eye roll emoji here. You do not have to all be looking and smiling to create a family story through photos- if that is what you want then there are many photographers that do specialize in that type of portraiture but even still not every image is going to be perfect but truth is life is messy and chaotic but family photos should show the connection and love you have for one another even if you have to bribe your kid with ice cream in between clicks. Ha!

• You have to be photogenic – Perfection is a myth. Are you Jesus? Ok, now that we’ve cleared that up. You just THINK you are not photogenic. What does that mean even? You are human and you deserve images of yourself and with your family. No one will ever be perfect but your photographer can help you look wonderfully put together in terms of wardrobe with graceful chaos- or at least I know I can do that for people and it is so much fun. Photo sessions should be fun and full of experience.

• You think you’re awkward –I think that is part of life and also in due part to bad past experiences. Truth is you’re not… well if you are I promise it’s cool. I have had families say they felt so awkward going into a session with me but when we were all finished they tell me how easy it was and how much fun they had. You just have to embrace who you are as a family and run with it and make sure you trust the photographer you have chosen and make sure YOU and how YOU FEEL is the most important thing to them. I tell my clients when they are doing what they would feel is weird and I even mimic them to show them or heck I will show them the back of the camera and say let’s try to do this instead… and it works and we all laugh!

• There is too much Pressure- When I think about the amount of pressure I have put on my own family about photo sessions in the past; I truly believe that we put too much on ourselves and our families to portray “happy” or to just be something extra special for social media. Sure sharing our session photos on social media is so EXCITING so don’t get me wrong. Happy is not just a smile. Happy is not always a laugh. Happy is not your children staring at the photographer and smiling their biggest smile (but I sure hope they do get one of those for you) Happy at least to me can just simply be contentment. Contentment in who you are and who your family is along with all their wild + free selves. Photographs of your family is so much more that a profile photo, more than the Instagram likes and so much more than perfection. LET GO OF PERFECTION and be wild + free.

There really is just too much pressure guys… and it’s not cool and it does not have to be a thing. We need to take a deep breathe and truly think about what is important in life here and LET THE PRESSURE TO BE PERFECT GO! I was singing… not yelling haha! 

The pressure is off! Yay! Give yourself grace and go book your family photos and HAVE FUN!