When Katie messaged me about scheduling a family portrait session, I could not have been more excited. In her email, she stated they loved my work so much, they were willing to drive over an hour away to have me photograph their family! I have to say, my smile was from ear to ear when I read that. Totally made my week!
Since Sam and Katie have a one-year-old, sitting in the car for over an hour probably wasn’t going to go over well with him. At least it wouldn’t have with my kids. So I suggested we meet half way somewhere and decided on Hagood Mill, a historic mill in the Pickens area.
I arrived a few minutes early, like I always try to do, when photographing at a new venue. I picked out a few places that would work and which poses would probably look the best at those places.
About ten minutes later, Sam and Katie pull in, right on time.
In my normal workflow, with families who have small children, I like to start by photographing the entire family in a few poses. This allows the kids to see that I’m not so scary and this picture taking thing can be kind of fun. It gives them the security of sitting or standing with mom and dad while getting used to this crazy lady pointing a camera in their face.
I will then move on to a few of the kids with each parent. We do a few natural poses where I just have the mom or dad talk with their child, maybe throw him up in the air, or tickle him. Just something playful and it helps the child to relax even more.
Once they’ve had a few more minutes to get accustomed to me, I’ll photograph just the child by themselves. If the child is small, I will usually place dad just out of the frame of the camera for support and I’ll have mom right behind me. The point is to have mom get the child’s attention by making silly faces or sounds, which typically leads to a smiling baby picture. Usually.
By this time, everyone is used to me and we move on to the next location to do more family pictures.
I’ll end the session by trying to get a few photos of just mom and dad, because if they are like most photos, they may not have a lot of pictures of just the two of them.
Clark did awesome during his camera time and took to it like a pro! I love how their family photos turned out!
Click the button below to watch their slideshow with all the images from their session.
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