After years of putting off a family photoshoot, we finally bit the bullet and did it.  I’ve been wanting one for awhile now, especially since it’s so hard to get a family photo with all of us in it.  It was hard enough with one kid, but with two kids and both our hands full… it was nearly impossible!  Now that we are a family of four, I couldn’t think of a better time to do it.

I definitely wanted us to look coordinated and pulled together for the shoot without losing our sense of self, which meant our “look” still had to reflect who we were (comfy casual).  When I think of Autumn, I immediately think of deep reds, burnt oranges, fiery yellows, and rich browns.  I knew immediately that I wanted our look to center around a mustard yellow, so I tried to incorporate bits of yellow in each of our outfits.  We already owned a yellow sweatervest for Jaren, I had some yellow corduroys, and I stumbled upon the perfect dress for Noelle.  Even with these central pieces, I wasn’t sure I could pull off a coordinated look, so I created an inspiration board through Polyvore and went from there to fill in the gaps.

This was what I came up with:

This is where we ended up…

ADVERTISEMENT

One reason we held off on a photoshoot for so long was because my daughter is shy and introverted.  For the longest time, she would not smile on command and wanted nothing to do with strangers.  I could not imagine her hamming it up for some unknown photographer.  In the last 6 months, however, she has really blossomed and come out of her shell.  She still veers towards the shy side, but she’s definitely become a lot more fearless with others compared to before.  I’m glad I waited it out until she was ready for an event like this.  If you have a toddler like mine, these are some tips that worked for us:

1.  Wait – sometimes, the best course of action is to wait until your child is ready.  I don’t think our shoot would’ve been nearly as successful if we had done this shoot a year ago.  If I was going to pay for a photoshoot, I wanted to make sure that we were all going to be comfortable about it.

2.  Prep child in advance – we told Noelle that later that day, someone was going to come take our picture.  I told her the step by step process that “after your nap, a nice lady is going to come and take our picture.  We will get to dress up and play at the park!” I made it seem like a really special adventure, so she anticipated the event all day long.

3.  Bribery – I also told her that, “if she smiles a lot, then after the park we’ll go get ice cream!” When our photographer rang the doorbell, Noelle ran to the door, opened it, and the first thing out of her mouth was, “You’re going to take picture?  We’re getting ice cream after!  Can you come get ice cream with us?” It was really sweet.  During the shoot, whenever we wanted her to smile on command we kept reiterating, “If you smile, we’ll go get ice cream!!” or “Just a little longer and we’ll go get ice cream ok?” Worked like a charm.

4.  Less posing, more lifestyle – We did do some posing because we were trying to capture family pics of the four of us, but when she started to get restless, we started to goof off, make silly faces, and let her run wild and free while the photographer snapped away… we were able to capture some really cute moments that way!

All photographers will agree that the best time of day to shoot is the “golden hour” in the late afternoon when the lighting is optimal.  This is usually the perfect time for families too because it coincides with post-naptime.  However, don’t forget to consider the month of year and when the sun sets.  We had our shoot in November, so our days were starting to get dark around 4:30 pm.  Our shoot was scheduled for 3 pm to make the most of the remaining daylight.  As the day of the shoot got closer, I started to get nervous that I wouldn’t be able to squeeze in good naps and get us all ready in time.  Luckily, everything worked in our favor that day, but it is definitely something you want to keep in the back of your mind when you schedule your shoots.  Happy, well rested kids make all the difference!

I think we pulled it off, what do you think?

Photography by: Felicia Cheng Photography