Why we schedule annual family photos

It’s busy season for photographers everywhere which means it’s probably annual family photo session for you! Or maybe… you’re watching you’re friends post their family photos online and you are wondering if you should schedule some!

This is my cue to tell you… YES MAMA, YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD, BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS YOU ARE THINKING!

It’s easy to get caught up in the everyone is doing it so we should too mentally! Trust me, I’ve been there! As a photographer, I struggle every year with this. I’m shooting all these gorgeous families and yet I have hardly any photos with me in them. In this age where we live in the online world and everyone can see what everyone is doing at all times, it is soo easy to feel like we need to “keep up”. But this is NOT the reason to schedule family photos. That will leave you frustrated, grumpy, overwhelmed and unhappy! It will also lead you to most likely book the wrong photographer and probably leave those images stuck on the computer somewhere never to be seen again.

But friend, you 100% need to schedule those photos and here are 3 reasons why!

YOUR BABIES ARE GROWING!

If there is one thing I know painfully well right now is that babies don’t keep and those chubby little cheeks and squishy little bellies will soon turn in to big kid faces and six packs. It is incredibly amazing to have time frozen into something you can actually physically touch and hold that marks your family’s growth! I am so thankful for the albums I have and the printed photos I have of my own kiddo so I can look back and laugh and not just remember him as that sweet silly baby but SEE him as that squishy toddler again any time I want to. Also, how cool is it to see that transition from baby to big kid? We see our kids every day and while we know they are getting taller and bigger and more mature, sometimes it surprises us out of nowhere! Annual family photos help to remind us that it is gradual and helps us to see all the wonderful family traits that start to show up more and more each day!

YOU CAN’T GET THIS TIME BACK!

Time is a funny thing: it drags on when we want it to speed up and yet it flies by when we need it slow down! One thing is for sure and constant is that we can never get it back! I think the most beautiful thing about a photograph is how it’s the closest thing to cheating time and going backwards as you can get! Photography has a way of taking a moment, freezing it and simply holding everything right then and there… the emotions, the people, the love, the magic of it all so that it stays that way for eternity! We may not stop our kids from growing up but we can take the beauty of how our family is in this moment right now and hold on to this magic that we’ve created this year and say let’s keep it! Let this stay just like it is…. forever just for right now before we start moving forward again!

This is the reason I only shoot family’s. Life is incredibly short and these days we are scheduled like crazy. There are so many “to do’s” put on our lists every week that we barely have time to just hang out and play together as a family. I mean goodness, I’m a family of just three and thanks to gymnastics and school, I barely see my one kiddo! I truly believe that your family photo session should be a time where you get to have a “play date” with your family! There’s no pressure or stress to be “on” or preform. It’s just ya’ll and your connection with each other! A time and space for you to be YOU and enjoy one another and play and be silly and be together! And when that happens, the result is beautiful, joyful, authentic images that you are proud to display in your home and remind you everyday and for years to come just how amazing you are! That is my ultimate promise to you and I deliver!

YOU WILL HAVE BEAUTIFUL LEGACY PIECES TO PASS ON

If you are shooting with me, you aren’t going to walk away with just a digital gallery and that’s it! I truly believe that if you are investing not only your money in having a family session but your time; you absolutely NEED to have a beautiful physical product of your images! Let’s truly think about this for a minute: You just spent all this time and effort (not to mention your hard earned money) picking the right photographer, finding a location, curating the perfect outfits, and making sure everyone was showered and ready! This is all before the session even begins… all for those beautiful images to sit in a black hole on your computer never to be seen again?! NO WAY MONET!

This is something I feel in my bones and am strongly passionate about so hear me out on this one. It’s why I saved it for last!

There will come a time when we won’t be here and the photos and videos and hand written notes will be all that our children have left of us. I don’t want my son to have to go searching for pictures of us together. I want him to know he has albums and framed images of the three of us in abundance! I want him to be able to roll his eyes at me and think “mom used to make us take photos all the time” and laugh but be so thankful because he knows he can see me any time he needs even though I might not be here anymore!

Even in my own images that I have, I can see how my son (who looks likes my husband) also looks like my own dad when he was younger! It’s wild putting their photos side by side and I love that I am able to do that. I love how I have prints of my mom, me and Linc when he was around 3 years old framed in my room and Linc still loves to look at it and point out how “Gigi and I” have the same smile as him and then he makes fun of us in person when we are all together!

Prints, albums, canvas whatever it is that you choose help us to show our kids that they matter, our family matters and we want to tell our story!

Family Photo Shoots are so important and I hope if you are thinking about scheduling one you stop thinking and you just do it! You will never ever regret the photos you take! You will never ever regret the time spent with your family! When the toys are all picked up, the homework is finished and no one needs you to drive them anywhere… you will settle into the couch and look back at the beautiful life you have created and all that will be left is the memories!

So book your session and go make some beautiful memories!