What to Expect on the Day of Your Family Photoshoot

Getting started

Whether you're a family with toddlers, young children, teenagers, or 'adult children' our approach is the same - we want to help you to get as relaxed as possible right from the start. When we meet we'll spend some time having an informal chat, so we get to know each other better. We even do this with young children too - as soon as they feel happy talking to us we'll talk to them as 'people', not as children - that way they feel just as important as you do.

We'll start with a few simple poses to get you all relaxed whilst looking at the camera. Then very quickly, before you realise, we'll be getting some great photos of you all. At this stage we'll show you some of the photos on the back of the camera, so you can start to trust us when we tell you that you look really great. This will help you feel more comfortable, which will start to make you look more relaxed.

We'll also ask if there are any particular photos you'd like - many families just say "no, just a range of us all together", which is fine, while others might have something specific in mind. For example, one family with teenager 'children' wanted to re-create two photos they had at home which were taken when their 'children' were aged around 5 years old, so that's what we did. The only thing is that the size and weight of an 18-year old is slightly different to that of a 5-year old, so trying to recreate those original poses of a very young family proved to be a great laugh that we all enjoyed.

There's no such thing as a typical family

You know this already - your family is like no other family, so we never treat all families in the same way - we adapt how we work with families. Depending on the age of your children, the energy they have, how they're feeling on the day and how interested (or not) they are in having their photos taken will dictate how much they get involved as well as the pace of the photoshoot. We'll go at your speed - sometimes that can mean we stay in the same spot for all the photos, other times it can mean we'll move around. But either way we'll work with all of you to make sure you get a lovely variety of photos, while at the same time feeling like you all enjoyed the experience. It's better you feel relaxed, rather than spending the whole time doing 'crowd control' with your family. With younger children we'll often spend a few minutes taking photos of them, then let them run around to let off steam while we work with others in the family - that way they have a good time and aren't continually being told what to do by us adults.

How we work with you

We'll start off by giving all of you lots of direction and telling you how we want you to pose - we've a lot of experience in helping people look their best in front of a camera, so we're very happy to help you in this way as well. However, after a while we sometimes find families really get into the spirit of the photoshoot as they become more confident and happier in front of the camera. We're then very happy exploring some ideas any of you might have - we're often surprised about how good a child's ideas can be (though don't worry, even if an idea isn't quite as good as you'd like we might still do it, as it helps them increase their confidence and enjoyment - leading to you also being more relaxed).

We'll have a range of poses that we can try, so that we don't run out of ideas. We'll often bring along a few example pictures to show you, to help you get a feel for what's possible and to see what else you might like to try. This also helps children visualise what we're trying to do - "oh I get it, so you mean like this..." is often what we'll often hear from the children.

Towards the end of the photoshoot we'll ask you if there are any other photos you wanted that we hadn't yet covered - sometimes people will just say "no, we've done lots and have covered all the ones we wanted", whereas other times people might ask "can we just try this...?", so we'll make the time to try out any remaining ideas you have before we finish.

Before you realise it's happened, you'll find the whole family has started to relax and is getting into the spirit of having their photos taken. We encourage as much larking around and laughter as possible - so if you're after a super formal thing, then you've come to the wrong place. We're here to make you look as natural as possible and to create a day that you'll remember fondly.

If you'd like to find out more about how we work with children, you can take a look at this blog post - How do we work with children on a photoshoot?

Finding out more

Read more of our helpful tips about preparing for your photoshoot.