Most family photos don't get printed. And the ones that do get printed don't get displayed. They end up in a drawer or a folder on a computer and nobody quite knows why they don't love them.
I know why. The family is posing.
Not posing badly necessarily. Just posing. Standing in their assigned spots, smiling at the camera, waiting for it to be over. Everyone is technically in the frame and technically smiling and technically present. But they're not actually doing anything together. They're performing togetherness instead of just being together. And the camera, which is a merciless truth teller in this particular way, captures exactly that.
The photos feel like evidence of a family rather than a portrait of one.
The family photos people actually print and display and tear up over years later are almost always caught in the middle of something. The dad swinging the little one while everyone else watches and laughs. The mom covering her face because something got genuinely funny. The kids running to the parents from a distance, completely unposed, completely themselves. The grandparents watching the grandkids do something ridiculous with that specific expression that only grandparents make.
Those photos happen when the family is doing something. Not posing.
As a photographer, my job during a family session is less about directing positions and more about creating situations. I want the kids interacting with the parents in a way that's real. I want the couple to have a moment that isn't manufactured. I want the whole group to forget for thirty seconds that there's a camera pointed at them.
Some of my moves. Have the parents close their eyes and tell the kids to sneak up and surprise them. The kids think it's hilarious, the parents react genuinely, and the whole thing takes about forty-five seconds and produces some of the best photos of the session. Have the family walk together and talk about something real. Where are you going on vacation this year. What's the funniest thing that happened this week. What would the kids do if they were in charge for a day. The conversation is real, the laughter is real, the photos are real.
For parents booking family sessions, here's the most useful advice I can give you. Don't stress your kids out before the session about behaving and smiling and standing still. Kids who are told to perform deliver a performance. Kids who are allowed to be kids, with a photographer who knows how to work with that, give you something you'll actually want on your wall.
The drawer is full of photos of families standing still and smiling. Your wall deserves something better than that.
Family sessions in the Fort Worth, Springtown, and Azle area are one of my favorite things to do. If you're ready for photos that actually look like your family, let's talk.
