St. Louis Family Photography | What to Expect during a family session

Are you curious about what to expect during a family session with me? Curious whether you should hire me to photograph your family? My hope is this post will give you a bit more information about what a session with me looks like. I hope you connect with what you read. If so, I would love to chat with you about a session with your family!

Have Fun

I know, I know, it sounds so cliche, but having fun during the session is my ultimate goal for the families I photograph. My photography style is centered around capturing joy and in order to capture joy, families need to be having fun.

Having fun looks different at each session. Some sessions I tell jokes (probably pretty bad ones). Other sessions I make silly noises (I am sure you can guess a few of the noises I make). I will dance and sing to get people to laugh. Basically, I will do almost anything to help achieve my goal of having fun.

In addition to making a fool out of myself, I will ask my clients to get involved in creating their own fun. I might ask you to sing to/with your kids. Dancing is also a fun way to incorporate movement which helps loosen everyone up and gets people laughing. Nothing is funnier than your parents dancing!

I will work very hard to make sure you have fun and more importantly, your kiddos have fun. Fun = great family photos!

Minimal Direction

Are you scared yet? Minimal direction… are you crazy? I don’t know what to do when a camera is pointed in my direction. Aren’t you supposed to tell me what to do?

Please don’t let the fact that I give minimal direction scare you. What I mean by that is that I am not going to spend 10 minutes making sure everyone is in the perfect position with Dad’s head at a perfect 15 degree angle to Mom’s head… you have all had those photos taken. I will absolutely tell you whether I want you to sit or stand and where to do that but I will allow for some of the grouping to happen organically.

If your young daughter is always hugging your leg, I want her to do that so I can capture that. If your baby will only let you hold him on your hip and won’t sit in your lap, that’s fine with me.

Once you are in your “grouping” I will ask you to look at the camera and smile for that one photo of everyone for the Christmas Card. After that I will ask you to play, sing, dance, tickle, etc. so that I can photograph your family’s joy. So, no need to worry that I give only minimal direction!

Flexibility

Family sessions rarely work out exactly as I plan. Photographers who photograph families have to be very flexible. We need to adjust when kiddos just aren’t feeling like getting their photos taken or when they don’t want to sit still. I will do my best to go with the flow and follow your children’s leads to make the session work so we get the best photos we can while respecting everyone and their needs.

If you child needs their favorite toy in the photos, no problem. If your child wants to sit on Dad’s shoulders for some shots, that’s cool. The worst thing I could do is force a child to follow my plan – that only leads to disaster!

Last Few Words

I hope you can see that I work very hard to make my family sessions a pleasant experience for everyone. Typically Mom & Dad are a bit stressed because they want the photos to be beautiful. I want the same thing. The best way to accomplish that is to go with the flow, try to have fun, and lastly – trust your photographer to make the beautiful moments happen. I hope this helps you know what to expect with me as your photographer.