I don’t know who started the family holiday portrait trend, but I honestly think it’s here to stay. I love the holiday season on social media, because my timeline is filled with my friends and family showcasing their holiday spirit through their photos.
It’s even better when I open up my mailbox and a friend has thought enough of my family to send us a holiday photo.
My family hasn’t taken professional family portraits in almost 3 years. I think being a blogger makes me sometimes think I’m a photographer because I have hundreds of photos of my family in my phone.
My husband reminded me, “We need new family pictures!” as if my family selfies don’t qualify.
I couldn’t have been more excited to partner with Portrait Innovations for our 2017 holiday and family pictures. They were prepared for our family’s session and we were done in under 1 hour.
Here are 4 Tips for a Great Family Holiday Photo Session:
- Decide if you want to do a family theme. Even though your pictures may be for Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas or the New Year, you should decide if your family is going to dress for the occasion or is it a free for all. Are you going to match, look similar in color and style, or grab whatever is in your closet. Whatever you choose, you want everyone to be comfortable.
- Get prepared a day early. We’ve never dressed alike, but we’ve always had a theme or similar color palette. Once we decided that we were going for a cute casual look this year, we got everyone’s clothes out the day before to try things on (make sure they still fit), iron clothes, wash and style hair, etc. It’s also important to get a good nights sleep. If you’re tired, it will show in the pictures.
- Decide where are you going to take your pictures. We’ve taken pictures in the park, in a community center, and a portrait center. You decide what works best for your family depending on the look you’re going for this year. We took our holiday photos at Portrait Innovations this year because they had multiple holiday backgrounds.
- Pick the best time for your children. Although many photographers are skilled to work with children, you can make their job (and your experience) easier if you plan your photo shoot when your children are the happiest and most alert. Our appointment was at 9:20am. They were wide awake, fed and ready to smile big for the camera.
Portrait Innovations has locations all over the nation, so I’m giving away the same package my family had:
· Six (6) pose collection with 2 sheets of each pose
· Two (2) 10×13 special effects Decorator Portraits
· One (1) high resolution CD of all of your portrait images
Thanks for entering the contest! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope you’re able to relax and enjoy your family. Which one is your favorite picture?
