I recently learned a GENIUS TRICK to take the stress out of family photo shoots. Why is this important? Because taking family photos is always a trigger for someone, right? I’m not sure what it is, but somebody always freaks out and starts a fight, which sets you up for some not-so-good pictures. Sometimes the entire shoot is a total loss.
I have my own story that proves this point. The person in our family who freaks out is this guy.
And you won’t even believe what he said to me the second before we got out of our car to meet the photographer during our last family photo session. The fact that this is a photo from that session and he still has all his teeth is saying something about my level of restraint.
We haven’t done a photo session since then and it’s been about 3 years so I was feeling guilty about being a bad mom who wasn’t documenting her kids’ lives as they were growing up (other than making fun of the silly things they do and say on my blog and putting lovely (but far from professional) shots of them on instagram all the time).
Sooooo, I started the search for a good local photog – someone who could capture the kinds of photos I wanted – which was documentary style. Personally, I hate posed photos almost as much as I hate “matching outfits.” (Yes, I’m poking at you, Gabe. If you missed this reference, go back and read the post from our first photo shoot).
I wanted someone who took beautiful photos, of course. That was my number one priority. They had to do this in a documentary style — and I wanted to move around a lot during our photos. I had 3 locations in mind. And then I needed someone who would click with us. Someone laid back who would help calm everybody’s (Gabe’s) nerves.
I got lots of recommendations from friends of photographers along the Gulf Coast. Lots. And many of them had impressive work but I just had a feeling about Kim at Nostalgia Studio. We even got together and chatted over coffee one morning just to talk about our ideas. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am opinionated. About everything. I was 100% sure I didn’t want the “usual” family photos and that I wanted the locations to reflect who we are and where we live (which is also a big part of who we are). I knew we were going to click when Kim, unsolicited, said, “Please don’t wear matching outfits.”
Inside, I secretly said “YES!” Nope, I said it out loud.
Kim and I were so in sync that we got in the car after getting caffeinated and drove to 2 of the 3 locations I had in mind so she could give me her thoughts. She loved all three choices and we set a date.
Things moved along nicely for a couple of weeks. That is to say, my husband did not start to panic about the photos because they were not imminent. A couple of days before our scheduled photo date, it started.
First, there was the trying-to-seem casual question about what we were going to wear. I said, “Whatever you feel good in.” (Which incidentally is the same thing I said 3 years ago but whatever). This time, however, I had Kim to back me up so I got to say, “KIM SAID to wear whatever makes you feel good and definitely not to match.”
On the day of the shoot (we went for late afternoon sun so we started at 5pm), he started getting snippy and nervous and I knew from experience what was going on inside of him so I texted Kim and asked her to please do whatever she could to make it calm and relaxed as soon as we arrived.
It was then that she gave me the MOST GENIUS TRICK I’ve ever heard of for taking the stress out of family photo shoots. This is what she said: “Bring a bottle of wine and some music you like. You and Gabe can chill, listen to music and have a glass of wine while I start with photos of the kids.”
The girl is a genius.
I immediately put together a little picnic basket with some wine, the acrylic wine glasses we use for outside fun and dropped in our little speaker system.
When Gabe came into the house and saw the basket, he peeked inside and I could see his shoulders relax immediately. Then I told him the kids were going to go first and his anxiety level went down to somewhere around 20% which is a VAST improvement over the 120% of our last photo shoot.
We arrived at Washington Square, a historic park in our neighborhood with a tree you wouldn’t believe. Well, you will, because you’re about to see it. Kim was sitting on a blanket on the ground ready to go. Her demeanor is just totally calm, totally in control in a relaxed kind of way and she immediately asked the kids to run over to the big tree and start playing.
Gabe (and I) let out a sigh of relief, opened the wine, put on some music and hung out, smiling while she took pics of our kids that were clearly going to be gorgeous. Eventually, she brought us into the shots. Not one person in the family ever felt posed, strange or uncomfortable. There was lots of tickling (amongst the family only. I thought of tickling her so she wouldn’t feel left out but that seemed inappropriate), nose-nuzzling (a specialty shot of Kim’s) and just laughing and smiling at each other. Very little looking at the camera unless it just naturally happened.
We finished up there and moved to our house. We live in a house that was built in 1868 and we adore the fact that generations of people have lived in this house since the mid 1800’s and that it’s now in our custodianship. We even like the fact that we have our own ghost. More on that in another post.
The front steps were our next destination.
Again, it was easy-peasy. People drifted in and out of the shot as Kim instructed and others (mainly adults – haha) had more wine.
Then we all moved to downtown Mobile. We live very near this area, it’s where we spend a ton of our leisure time and it’s the cultural center of the city. So we hit up Cathedral Square for more fun until the sun started to wane.
When we were done, I hadn’t heard a single complaint from a single person. Not my husband. Not my 8-year-old. Not my 4-year-old.
2 hours of having their picture taken and not one complaint. We were all feeling so great, we popped over to a restaurant and had some dinner before we headed home. Now how’s that for an ending to a family photo shoot?
All due to Kim’s skills and her genius trick for a stress-free photo shoot. I’m telling you, the wine, the music – and starting with photos of the kids first was everything.
Then of course, less than 2 weeks later, the end result. Wow. The pics came in just after we’d put the kids to bed one night and Gabe and I just sat there looking at them and going “WOW!” over and over again as we clicked through. There are so many beautiful shots I would break my blog if I tried to show them all to you so I’m just going to share a selection of my favs.
But before I go any further, here is Nostalgia Studio’s Facebook page so you can get in touch. Tell Kim I sent you. You can also email her at nostalgiaconnection@gmail.com. And visit her website too.
*Kim did this photo shoot for us for free but you better believe every single word of this review is for real. If you need pictures, I can’t give her a more ringing endorsement. I mean, RING, RING, RING, RING!
*post contains affiliate links
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That’s a really good idea to have a couple of locations in mind when taking family pictures. My family often takes pictures on the same location every few years and to be honest, it’s getting a little boring. I’ll have to talk to a photographer and see if we can go outside to different locations like you mentioned to keep things fun and interesting. Thanks for the awesome advice!