Relish the natural, real life family action shots and make special family moments into photos oozing with love and memories.

Your kids have more fun and don’t have to sit still and parents can relax!  

Somethings are just best delegated! There are activities you do with your children that can just be stressful and sometimes taking photographs can be one of them, and that’s coming from a mum who is also a photographer!  

Children can be a fickle bunch who may not follow direction when asked, or may stick out a cheeky tongue at the wrong moment, but get a non-family member to step in to prompt and suggestions can be a huge hit. Parents’ stress levels go down, everyone appears in the photos rather than someone having to take the photos - an enjoyable experience all round. 

They show real life and brim with personality and character! 

That’s right, we don’t live Instagram lives, our kids do get cake mixture on their faces as they lick out the bowl, have messy hair when they wake up and have muddy knees after playing in the garden. But it’s life and it’s our family life which is what makes it all the more special to photograph. The house may not be super neat with lots of children’s paintings stuck to the fridge, but there is laughter filling the rooms as you cuddle on the sofa and play trains on the floor.  These are the moments I treasure as a parent and want to have them to keep and look back on.   

Who knows what might be captured?! Expect the unexpected! 

With this style of photography, you just don’t know what might be captured. You may organise activities and a beautiful backdrop but children are full of surprises! A paddle in the sea may turn into a water fight, a group of cartwheeling children may end up in a heap of giggling and the book at bed time turn into a sleeping babe in your arms.  

You can weave in what you like doing as a family at that point in time.  

I much prefer the family photograph where everyone is together and enjoying the experience of sharing an activity together. How you socialise as a family will evolve over time as your children’s tastes and abilities develop. Personally, I find the early years of childhood whizz past and so recording what you like to do as a family provides a really precious memory.  

Chat in advance with your family photographer and describe what you enjoy doing together, then discuss how that could be incorporated into the shoot to make photographs jam-packed with personality.  

There will always a place for the family group shot with everyone looking into the lens. But take a moment to think what else you would enjoy to look at, not just tomorrow but in ten, twenty years’ time when your children are grown. What will you have forgotten and want to be reminded of? What will help trigger those precious memories?  

Relish the natural, real life family action shots. Make special family moments into photos oozing with love and memories.