The date is set and getting closer, and now you may be wondering, how do I prepare my partner and kids for someone coming over to take pictures of us doing our normal daily life. Here are a couple tips!
Prepping your Partner
Maybe it was a struggle to convince your partner to get on board with your dream of this photojournalistic family session. As the day approaches, you’re worried they’re going to hate it. One of the best things you can do is remind them that this is about your family. It’s about capturing the beauty of the life you have and having those memories preserved. This session is designed to capture the natural interaction between all of you instead of having to get dressed up and go somewhere to smile at the camera.
Another important thing to remember is that we have families too. There is no judgment when we walk through the door. Every family is different but we have lots of commonalities. Our goal is to show you the beautiful moments that make up your family’s life. So just do you.
Prepping your kid(s)
We all know how resilient children are. In many ways, they adapt faster than we do as adults! Younger children especially. They can only be themselves it seems. One thing to talk through is the idea that someone is coming to take pictures, but they don’t have to smile for the camera. How many times have you said “say cheese” and been rewarded with a fake smile? Letting them know that they don’t have to look at the camera or smile is a huge relief for them. It may not prevent the more hammy ones from goofing off, but these sessions are designed to allow the hammy-ness to wear off and capture the genuine moments.
For older children, remind them that they’re part of the family and you care about them enough to capture this time in their life. They don’t have to acknowledge us or be polite around us. They can be themselves and we want to see that. We work very hard to show each family member their dignity and beauty through our lens. That includes them.
Prepping your home
While we don’t want you to feel the need to deep clean the house and erase all signs of life, like this poor person, we do want to point out a few things that will help eliminate distractions in your photos. Take some time to do a tidy up of the house. Put unneeded things in a closet, clear off counters and other flat surfaces of any clutter, start the day with an empty sink. During the course of the session, if things get pulled out or glasses accumulate on the counter again, don’t worry! We just wanted to encourage you to start with a clean slate. And rest assured that, just like we will photograph you beautifully, we’ll capture your house beautifully too.
Prepping yourself!
In the anticipation of your session, don’t forget about yourself! When we arrive, we’re there to capture you as well. So, after a polite hello, don’t worry about us. You don’t have to feed us, you don’t need to make sure there’s something for us to capture, and you definitely don’t have to open the door to a sparkling clean house. Again, there is no judgment from us when we walk inside to document your family. We will make the best use of every creative tool in our arsenal to show you the beauty and magic of your daily life.
So, don’t worry. As we said earlier, you do you. We’ll make sure to capture the best of it!
xo Rachel
Rachel is a photographer who loves capturing families, both at the start and throughout their lives together. She has two beautiful and wild children, Ayden & Atticus, and their adventures together with her husband Peter are what sparked her mission to capture the beauty of daily life.
