7 Reasons to Get the Whole Family in One Frame This Summer
My wife has six siblings. When her side of the family gets together, it’s not a small gathering, it’s the whole crew, parents, spouses, kids, cousins, all in one place instead of scattered across phone calls and holiday cards. If you’re already getting everyone together, get the photo while you’re at it.
One family session is enough coordination. An extended one adds more schedules, more outfits, and more personalities to manage. It looks like too much work. It isn’t. Here’s why it’s worth doing anyway.
1. Grandparents
Count how many photos you have of your parents. Then count how many have you in them. Not phone pics. Not a blurry shot from a recital. A real portrait, printed, that outlives whatever phone you’re using right now.
I send a questionnaire before every one of these sessions: names, ages, who belongs to who. I need the groupings that matter to you locked in before the shutter fires. You don’t get a second shot once fifteen people are standing in a field and patience is running out.
2. A photo of you and your spouse
At a regular family session, that shot happens in the last two minutes, if the kids allow it. At an extended session, you’ve got aunts, uncles, and cousins around to grab your kids for sixty seconds. Use them.
3. Life changes
Kids get born. Kids leave home. People pass. A group photo is the only record that shows exactly who was there and who wasn’t, at that exact point. My own kids look at old photos and point out who hadn’t been born yet.
My wife’s dad passed less than a year ago. Every group photo we have from before hits different now. The ones with him in it are the ones that matter most. That’s the whole case for doing this before you think you need to.
4. Cousins
Cousin relationships run different than friendships. Same blood, different pull. An extended session gets you individual shots of your own kids plus the cousin chaos you can’t recreate any other way.
5. Gifts, handled
One session covers a year of gifts. Framed prints for the grandparents, magnets for the fridge, the Christmas cards. Cheaper and faster than shopping for people who already have everything.
6. It’s not miserable
There will be a toddler who won’t cooperate and someone complaining about standing in the sun. There’s also your sister making a fool of herself trying to get a two-year-old to smile, and siblings standing shoulder to shoulder for the first time in years. Both are part of it.
7. You can see what got passed down
Line up three generations and the resemblances show up fast. Same build, same eyes, same laugh. You don’t notice it day to day. You notice it when everyone’s standing in one frame. Do this every few years and you’re tracking it, not just catching it once.
This is the Generations Shoot on my site. Normally starts at$1295, right now it’s $695 as I am building out the portfolio for this service, covers up to eight people, $75 per person after that. 60-100 edited images. Book it before everyone scatters back home, not after.