Anytime Is The Right Time | My Family Portraits

Last year, my friend Deb Schwedhelm wrote a blog post and posed the following question: Is there ever a perfect time to have photographs taken of your family?

I strongly encourage you to read her entire post, but in short, the answer is no. There is no perfect time. I know Deb would agree that anytime is the right time. We've both heard clients say, I'm too fat or I'm growing my hair out or I'm waiting for my son to get his braces off…and a whole slew of other reasons why NOT to have your family portraits taken. 

Life is precious. Every single moment. And you never know what's around the corner so take all those reasons and excuses and throw them out the window. RIGHT. THIS. SECOND.

Twenty, thirty, even forty years from now the last thing your kids and grandkids will say when they look at your family photos is, "Wow, I really wish Mom would have lost some weight before this picture was taken". They'll just be happy to have them. And so will you.

I'm guilty of it. I hate being in front of the camera. I'm way more comfortable behind it, but for my kids' sake I've got to hand it over now and then.

Last summer after a session I handed the camera over to the makeup artist and had her snap this shot of me.

Was it a little scary? Maybe even a little uncomfortable? Yes. But did I survive? Yes. And I even loved the shot.

A few years ago my best friend Misty Bull and I shot each other's families. It was a super quick session – just enough for a shot for a holiday card but Misty got this amazing image that we printed as a 24×36 on canvas for our living room and we simply adore it.  

Same thing when my fabulous friend Monica McAtee and I shot each other's families at a carnival in 2009.

It was disorganized chaos (at best) and we barely pulled off a few shots of our families and our kids. While I love those images like crazy, I realized the last time we had an actual family session was in 2006 when the amazing Laura Siebert and I traded sessions. I wish I had those images handy because I'd love to share a few. Can you say waaaay too many hard drives?

So, this past November I enlisted my dear friend and fabulous photographer Tracy Routh to shoot our family and I couldn't be happier with the results. Now that I've (finally) sent out my new years cards I can actually share the whole session. 

Ahhh…my peeps! I love them so.

Being the photographer I have hardly any photos of myself with my girls so these are especially dear to me. 

I love that Tracy captured those missing teeth. There's just nothing cuter than a toothless grin.

I'm pretty sure this one will be a HUGE print in our bedroom. I just love it!

This was probably my favorite family image. It made the front of our card.

But I love these, too…

And this is SOOOOO Rilee – always cracking herself up in such a dramatic way.

We couldn't leave Frankie out of the action. Silly little weiner dog.

Quite possibly one of my all time favorites of our girls!

Thank you, Tracy, for the amazing gift of our family photos. We love them and we're forever grateful for your talent and friendship. 

I've made a promise to myself to not let another year go by without doing a full family session. 

So, what are you waiting for? There's no time like the present! In fact, call me during the month of February to schedule your 2011 family session and receive a $100 print credit. 913.722.3046

Until next time, keep smiling!

H