Why We Keep Putting Off Family Photos (And Why It's Worth Stopping)
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
A condensed version of these tips was first shared in Roadside Reflections, my monthly newsletter where I share stories from behind the lens, tips from the road, and a little of what is coming up next. If this felt like your kind of thing, I would love to have you along for the ride. You can sign up here. New issues arrive to your inbox the second Thursday of every month.
You have thousands of photos on your phone. Screenshots, blurry action shots from the sidelines, a hundred almost-identical pictures of your kid mid-laugh because you couldn't pick just one. And in that scroll, you realize you can't remember the last time you were actually in one of them.
Every summer I hear some version of the same handful of excuses for why this year isn't quite the year. I get it. None of them are wrong exactly. They're just not as true as they feel in the moment. Here's what I want you to know about each one.
"We're so awkward in pictures."
So is almost every family I've ever photographed, at the start. There's this window, usually the first five minutes, where everyone is stiff and self-conscious, dad's arms are planted like he's posing for a mugshot, and somebody mutters "we're just not photo people" under their breath.
Then somebody laughs at something real, your kiddo does something unexpected, or the dog wanders into frame at exactly the wrong moment (but perhaps it's the right moment?!) and somehow becomes the best part of the day. The vibe shifts, every single time.
My job isn't to wait for you to relax on your own. It's to get you there. That means giving you something to actually do with your hands instead of "just stand naturally" (the worst instruction ever given to a human being, because no one naturally stands there tyring to look like a noodle). It means finding the joke that gets your teenager to drop the too-cool face for three seconds. You don't need to arrive camera-ready or naturally knowing what to do with your hands. That part is on me.
"I want to wait until I lose weight."
This is the one I hear more than almost anything else, and I always want to say the same thing back: please don't wait.
How you look in portraits has so much more to do with how you're dressed and how you're posed than it does with a number on a scale. Clothes that fit well and flatter your shape, combined with a little direction on how to stand, will have you looking and feeling like yourself in a photo. Not a filtered version. Not a "someday" version. You, right now. With the ones you love.
Here's the harder truth underneath that one. The version of you that's waiting to feel ready enough to be photographed is a version your family will never get to look back on, because that day may not come, and your kids are growing up on the calendar regardless of whether you feel camera-ready. You deserve to be in these pictures. Today. Exactly as you are.
"We're waiting for a bigger reason."
A new baby. An anniversary. The year everyone will finally be tall enough, or old enough, or schedules settle enough to make it worth doing.
I understand the instinct. It feels responsible, like you're saving the "big" session for a moment that deserves it. But this logic has a way of pushing the actual photo further and further out, because there's always a bigger milestone technically coming next year too. Meanwhile this year, exactly as your family looks and lives right now, is happening once. Your kid is this age for the last time. Your family, in this configuration, is only ever going to look like this in a photo you actually have.
You don't need a milestone to justify a session. This ordinary season of life IS the milestone.
"I don't know where we would have our photos taken."
I hear this one a lot, and it usually comes with a little bit of decision paralysis attached.
Here's the thing I promise you: I am not looking for a Pinterest-perfect location. I'm looking for light, and a little bit of texture to work with.
And bonus points if the location has meaning to you! A gravel driveway. The tree in your side yard that's a little overgrown. The porch steps you've been meaning to repaint. All of it works, because none of it is actually what makes the photo. Light is the storyteller in every session I shoot, and light doesn't care whether your landscaping is finished. If you want a deeper dive on what actually makes a good location, I wrote about that here, but the short version is this: the place you already are is very likely the place we should shoot.
"We're waiting to figure out everyone's schedules."
Start with a season, not a date. Once you have a general window in mind, a specific date gets a whole lot easier to land on. Summer is one of the best windows there is: long evenings, golden hour that stretches past 8pm, and kids who are actually around instead of buried in a school schedule.
Pick the season, put a pin in it, and work backward from there. I'm here to help you find it. The right time is almost always closer than it feels once you stop trying to solve the whole calendar at once.
The session you keep putting off is almost always the one you end up being most glad you did. If any of this sounds like your family's version of "we'll do it next year," let's change that story. 💛 Schedule a complimentary consultation.
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