Here are my best advice to make it run as smooth as possible.
- Stress less. Don’t book anything else on the day of your family session. This is not the day to visit the park, and go to gymnastics, and cook all the meals for the week. Make sure you have clothes already picked out, sizes are correct, all a few days before the shoot.
- Connect more. Instead of stressing, use the day of to connect with your family. For the kids, read a book, paint or do an activity together. Let them know that today will be so much fun! The pro tip however is to connect with your partner. Family sessions and photoshoots can stress the most organized person out, and then all the sudden you have to hold your partner and look lovingly in to their eyes, but if you feel that you just have been too busy to see each other for the last few days it might be.. a bit stiff. Especially when you do it in-front of a camera. Connecting ahead is a great way to feel more comfortable and relaxed together for your family session.
- Don’t tell your kids they have to smile, or make them practice smiles. Instead, tell them today we are going to have so much fun, and our friend Linnea will be there, taking photos of us having all that fun. Pepping kids about having fun will make them excited. Prepping them about what they have to do to make this photoshoot a success, might make them feel nervous and pressured. We don’t want fake smiles anyway. We want real belly laughters and its my job to make it happen.
- Don’t skip the essentials. Meaning don’t skip a meal, don’t skip a nap. And if you do miss a nap, don’t stress about it.
- Bribes sometimes work great, and sometimes not at all. If it all becomes about the jellybeans, and we can’t do anything without them, then maybe skip it. And if we do bring bribes, please make sure its non messy, non colorful so we don’t have blue teeth and tongues.
- Picking clothes that are not going to show sweat. Ugh I know. Unfortunately, we live in GA, and as soon as we get outside the humidity just takes over. So, skip the grey or pink T-shirts, the blue shirts etc. Go with something that is more allowing.
- Make sure you hire the right photographer. This might sound like “duh”. But really, look at their portfolio, look at their instagram, make sure that you hire someone that is the best fit for you and your family. Do you want portraits, or do you want documentary? Just because your best friend likes this photographer, make sure you do so as well. No photographer feels like they need to be loved by everyone, but instead we just want to work for clients who trust us and who can relax knowing that we will take the photos they want.
This is a great blogpost about what you can do with your fresh prints.
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