Surviving Family Photo Day

family photo day

Family Photo Day. You know the feeling. Stress mixed with dread. I am a family photographer by trade (http://vivaportraitstudio.com) and yet I could not escape from these feelings! I have a five year old who can pay attention for a photo for a nanosecond and a 20 month old who is pretty much a blur running around the house all day. she is either running or sleeping there’s no in between. Throw in a less than thrilled husband and that’s what I had to work with.

Of course, as kids like to do the night before something is planned, my girls were up on and off through the night and woke up grumpy as ever. My 20 month old literally screamed 90% of the day leading up to the photo session.

I looked at our photo wall in the dining room that hadn’t been updated since my youngest was a newborn (shame on me!!). We needed to do this. I took several deep breaths and loaded everyone in the car when it was time to go.pittsburgh family photo day
The first half of the photo session was pretty stressful with my kids running around and causing a raucous (they are at my studio a lot so they feel comfortable there). It wasn’t until I called a time-out and said to everyone including my husband and my awesome associate photographer Sara who was taking our photos– “We all need to calm down. All I want is the four of us in the same frame, interacting as a family. I don’t need the “everyone is looking and smiling” photo. That is not our reality right now! I just want us to hang out and be ourselves!! Whatever photos we end up getting I will be happy!” that everything fell into place. Kids can tell when the pressure is off! They are repelled by stress. As soon as you chill, you will get those photos that you want. It’s not easy to chill though, trust me I know!!!

We got about 20 minutes of calm time to take photos ( in the eye of the storm i guess) and then all hell broke loose again when my youngest tripped and gave herself a big bloody fat lip 🙁

family photo day

So I guess my point is, even though we dread it, and it can be scary and dotted with tantrums (ours and theirs) it is sooo worth it. My heart jumps when I look at our photos and I know in 10 years or so I won’t remember the stress only the snuggles.