3 TIPS
Great Ways to Approach a Family Session with Maria Rosa Photography
Tip #1. Try and ENJOY your family time together during the portrait session.
This may be easier said than done sometimes. You might be nervous that your pictures won't turn out good if things aren't perfect, or may be feeling on edge that your kids are upset about one thing or another during portrait time. Try your best to lay back and enjoy this time that you've set aside to be together. Believe me, it will shine through in the images we'll capture.
During our hour together, a relaxed and happy YOU will come across in the images more than anything! I will do my best to figure out if we need to walk it off, take the next images running, jumping, playing. We can overcome a shy or upset child sometimes taking images with your kids in your arms or on a piggy back ride, or in a big bear hug. Maybe we'll play a game, or just photograph 5 minutes of quiet time. I don't need you or your kids to be "on" at all times to achieve your unique, beautiful session images!
Your family and children are already completely perfect, and I intend to capture that. If you have very small children who don't seem into it at the moment, we will work around THEM as much as possible! I am there intending to capture all of you and give your family all heart while working with you.
Having a wonderful photo in which you're able to see everyone's sweet faces is so important for me to give you during your session. I also enjoy capturing and creating art from life as it is with a documentary-like feeling. Often times, it's these images that are my clients favorites. There's a connection for me with images like this.
Your portrait session is a time we will try our best to encourage you to laugh, play, love on, hug and cuddle with your family!
Enjoy your family, go with the flow, and you will enjoy your images that much more!
Tip #2. What to bring
For smaller kids: I suggest bringing snacks such as gummy bears, crackers, water for everyone, bubbles, a favorite toy, a cool blanket for the ground if you'd like. It may be a good idea, anticipating a meltdown-y type of mood out of the kids, to bring a few little things they might like & snack goodies. Take them out as you need them, including a small toy or two they didn't think that came along for the ride. DO NOT bring food items that are too sticky or that will turn their mouths blue or red like frosting or lollipops. You don't want that.
I don't know about you, but I personally offer bribes for my kids sometimes. It gets their mind off the thing they don't want to do at the moment. It gets their minds more chilled out sometimes, allowing them to see the good in be happening now during the session. During photoshoot day, bribes can be helpful! This really might not be everyone's MO, but this is simply something that has personally worked for us in the past and that I've seen work for other parents. I personally get good results out of the: "If you do a great job and are a really nice boy or girl and hang out with mommy and daddy here for a little bit, then we can go get ice-cream after!" :)
Tip #3. Yearly Portraits
Dedicating a time 1-2 times a year or every other year for a portrait session for your family is one way to love and serve your family well. Providing an opportunity and dedicating a time to capture an hour of every year in a loving, special way, revolved only around your family. Preserving a piece your lives together together every year is a gift to your family and to yourself.
Having portraits taken once a year with Maria Pisano Photography - or more especially if your kids are younger - will ensure you won't really miss too many stages of your kids growing and changing! They tend to do that so quickly and somehow right before our eyes!
It will ensure a yearly reminder of some of what you loved about your family when your kids where only babies, or became big brothers or sisters, or turned into toddlers, or celebrated a birthday, or started preschool all of sudden - how could they be 4 already?, to creeping up on those preteen years where you can see the man or woman they are becoming!
You can push the pause button on your family's lives and we will mark them together with a session artfully & lovingly dedicated to your connections. Seeing your photographs on your wall later as you pass by will help you slow down for a minute and remind you what you really work so hard for...what's really most important.
Personally, I love looking back at our family photographs we have had taken over the years and seeing all the stages of our three kids and our connections in a photograph. The constants that hold strong, the changes in interactions, our relationships, how tall they are now compared to one another, their personality quirks and growth, and how they have changed in a million little ways over the years.
It's all so fleeting. If you have kids you know how changes happen too often to keep up with. A family photo shoot can keep some of that joy visible even after the seasons change, birthdays come and go, little lives grow. Love is always there. It remains and it keeps us together. I would love to capture that for you.
