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The best way to create authentic family photos is to spend at least part of the session doing something fun. It doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy – just something you and your family like. Something unique to you that someday you’ll want to remember. It’s what allows me to create images that show who your family is, not just what they look like.
Sometimes it’s hard to think of what that specific activity is – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say they “aren’t that interesting” and maybe they should just go sit in the park and smile. Don’t default to boring! Take time to think it over – it’s worth the effort. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Bake cookies, or make pancakes together
- Splash around in your neighborhood pool
- Play in the snow – build snowmen, make snow angels, and go sledding
- Build a fort in your living room
- Mini golf
- Take the kids out for ice cream or cupcakes, and let them get messy
- Ride bikes through the neighborhood or the park
- Finger paint
- Enjoy a farmer’s market or festival together
- Kick a soccer ball around in the backyard
- Read a book to your kids, using every funny voice you’ve got to make them laugh
- Feed ducks in the park
- Wash the car on a hot day
- Let the kids help you garden, even if they just plant their toys
- Run through the sprinklers in the front yard
- Take the kids for a walk with the dogs
- Have an art contest in the driveway with sidewalk chalk
- Take everyone on a picnic
- Wander around the zoo
- Go to a baseball game
- Play at the playground – which means you get up there too!
- Jump on the trampoline, or even just the bed
- Go ice skating, or roller skating
- Take a trip apple or berry picking
- Fly kites
There are so many more things you could do – come up with something meaningful for you. Did you notice how letting the kids get messy keeps coming up? That’s because kids are naturally far messier than neat and well combed. So leave the formal outfits behind and let them be kids! It will mean so much more when you can see their little personalities glimmering through the images than those posey-posey matching-outfit shots ever will.
