Do you do family portraits?

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

**I have to admit that while we have TONS of pictures of Lily ( I LOVE my digital camera), we have never had a formal portrait done or even have many pics of us as a family. Just wondering how many of you actually get family portraits done…

Also, if you do, how often? Are families with multiple children more likely to get professional pics?

I guess if Lily had been an “easy” baby we would have had at least one done by now… everyone seems to do the Christmas shots…I’d probably do it in the summer time.**

 

[os_justi]

Growing up, I think we got family portraits maybe 3-4 times (this is up until I turned 17, and with just one other sibling). Usually we did that when it was time for church directory photos, and just killed two birds with one stone.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

We did a couple but they were pains. I got a nice duo of the girls from the Old Parish when they did directory photos. Mine was not so great.I hate to have my photo taken, for anything. It takes all my courage to get a driver’s license renewed.

 

[SMHW]

We had a few done of children when I was growing up.

We did have one formal portrait of my parents’ family but it wasn’t until two of us were married and the youngest was about 16. Actually we had two portraits done. One was just of parents and children; the other included spouses and grandchildren. The photographer said that parents and children would stay the same. Spouses and grandchildren would come and (unfortunately) go and that proved to be the case (for the spouses.)

For my own family we have just done the church directory portraits. Other family pictures were either as a result of weddings or done with our own cameras.

 

[funnyyetsavvy]

I hate the way I look at the weight I am right now, so I don’t want my picture taken so I havent’ done a family portrait in years…

 

[Just_wondering]

When I was a child, we had family portraits done four times, I believe. Once when there were just two of us kids, once when there were three, once when my younger sister was just a baby, and then once more when she was about three years old. After that our next family portrait was when my brother was getting his wedding photos taken, and it wasn’t the same type of portrait at all.

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

I hate the way I look at the weight I am right now, so I don’t want my picture taken so I havent’ done a family portrait in years…

**
Please please don’t let how you feel about yourself dictate family pics. It’s sad. You may not be where you want to be, but you’re the one your kids love NOW. They will remember you as mom no matter what your outer appearance is. And it is nice to have pictures when they are older, grown up, or for the time when you are no longer here…**

 

[kage_ar]

My situation growing up does not count - were in the music business, so, there were updated family “promotional” photos done each year.

Now, DH DS and I have done it once, Parish directory, and we did not buy any extras.

My extended family (mom & dad, brother, sisters, spouses, kids) have done a few big group photos. They are SUCH a pain, we gave them up and now just do a group photo at Thanksgiving each year.

With digital cameras everywhere, it is easy to stage your own family photos and make them look great.

 

[SDMom]

**I have to admit that while we have TONS of pictures of Lily ( I LOVE my digital camera), we have never had a formal portrait done or even have many pics of us as a family. Just wondering how many of you actually get family portraits done…

Also, if you do, how often? Are families with multiple children more likely to get professional pics?

I guess if Lily had been an “easy” baby we would have had at least one done by now… everyone seems to do the Christmas shots…I’d probably do it in the summer time.**

Hi Malia!

This is an interesting question and a great topic for a thread, IMO. With our first son, DH and I rarely took family photos – professional or not. It wasn’t until our second son was born and we were at a family get-together, and my Uncle had said something to me along the lines of, “Why don’t you guys take a photo as a family? All of you get in there!” And I just shrugged! Because – as a Mom – of course you know we have TONS of photos of our kiddies … but how easy is it for everyone in the family to sit still and get a decent photo? Yeah, right … not that easy!

We are lucky because my cousins (2 of them) are really into photography. They actually set up lights and umbrellas (I’m not sure of the technical name for those!) and all this fancy photography equipment when we get together for a special occasion at my Aunt’s/their house. They also have the fancy cameras and lenses that cost tons of $$$$ … So we get plenty of pretty close to professional looking photos together as a family from them! They’re awesome!

I took my two boys to take professional photos for Father’s Day last year. That was their gift to Daddy. It was a lot of work, but sooo worth it!

I also decided to take a professional family photo with my Grandmother when I knew that she would be leaving to go back to her home country (and she currently has no intentions on returning). She raised me and my cousins. We were very close. When we took the photo, DS1 was about 3 years old and DS2 was about 6 months. It took a lot of work, but my parents, DH, and my grandma were all there. I love, love, love the photo and am so glad we took it.

I just think the kids grow up so fast and it’s a nice way to cherish them being so young, and also to have a photo with them!

Hopefully you will get to take some nice family photos this Christmas when your DH returns.

Hugs and blessings to you!

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I used to do professional pics of the kids (not with DH and Myself) twice a year, once at Christmas,once around their birthday…but it’s been 2 or 3years, because it was getting expensive.

Last 2 Christmases I took the picture for the Christmas card. Last yea they refused to cooperate, so I took separate pis and put them on the cover of one card…(didn’t look too great)

I did have a family pic taken when DS was about 3 months old, we were at a wedding, and the wedding photographer photographed us, and we purchased the pics from him.

Maybe this year for DS first communion…

 

[whatevergirl]

We did when the kids were younger, and had their pics done professionally…but, now, I’d like to get some really nice candid black and white shots done of all of us…and some sitting shots. I think that is so dramatic looking, to hang throughout one’s house. I have a friend who has nothing but black and white prints of her and her hubby…the kids…all over the house…Just lovely.

Question for you Malia…I know you love to photograph Lily, and I remember seeing a black and white pic…do you have a lot of black and white throughout your house? I love that pic of Lily…(I love them all) but the black and white one was so elegant. She’ll appreciate these pics some day.

 

[Jennifer_J]

We’ve done family portraits, usually Sear or Penny’s since the beginning (ie when I was pregnant with #1), though recently it’s been once a year or so. It’s gotten expensive and our expereince with photographers has been less than stellar (no offense intended to any photographers ). When we come in with 6 children, I think they freak out. Our solution, try to take our own. It’s not always easy to get the best results so we caved recently when our parish redid our directory via Olan Mills. They were great with us and didn’t rush and we got some good pics. The kids also get school pics (though I refused to pay the prices last year, it was better this year) so I have the individuals to go with the family pics. I enjoy having them, displaying them and sending them to family. I wish I was better at doing it myself, though.

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

**So it seems like many of you who do pics are doing so to capture the children as they grow…please don’t forget that your children will be adults one day and, while I am sure they will love seeing pics of themselves/siblings, they will really appreciate seeing family pics and pics of mom/dad.

I know that looking through old photo albums I do like to see my old pics…especially now that I can compare the baby me to the baby Lily (so cool!) but my favorite are the ones of my mom and dad (and there aren’t nearly enough).

I am the amateur photographer in the house…so we have tons of Lily pics and a decent amount of Lily with daddy. But daddy isn’t much for taking pics (or even thinking to) so there aren’t a whole lot of me and Lily together. I am hoping that we can at least do one professional (or even semi-professional, lol) pic a year so that I can be in there too!!!**

 

[workingmomof3]

As a matter of fact, we had our family pictures done today. We have had them done every year around this time since our first child was born in 2000…

I NEVER like the way that I look in the pictures, but I tell myself that this isn’t about me, it’s about the kids…

And no, we do not buy a lot of pictures at each sitting - usually 1 8x10 of the family, and 5x7’s of each child… It’s neat to see how they have grown between pictures, and how my husband and i are aging oh, so gracefully (ha ha!)

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

I NEVER like the way that I look in the pictures, but I tell myself that this isn’t about me, it’s about the kids…

I am sure they will really appreciate it! I have to tell myself the same thing whenever the camera comes out

 

[mom_of_6]

I am the amateur photographer in the house…so we have tons of Lily pics and a decent amount of Lily with daddy. But daddy isn’t much for taking pics (or even thinking to) so there aren’t a whole lot of me and Lily together. I am hoping that we can at least do one professional (or even semi-professional, lol) pic a year so that I can be in there too!!!

It’s the same way in our house. My husband doesn’t take many pictures, so there aren’t too many with me in them. Now that my oldest is 9, and the second one is 8, they know how to use my digital camera, and I get a few pictures with me in them.

We have a family portrait done once a year when the Christmas special is going. It is hard to get my husband to stop working long enough to get all dressed up and go into town for a picture, so we do it on All Saints Day (being a Holy Day of Obligation, we don’t do any unnecessary work on that day). It works for us!

 

[Jude_Smith]

We had one family portrait done, about 15 years ago when we had 5 kids. We had portraits of the children done individually as babies, and group portraits of them from 2 children through 6. The “portraits” of all the 8 kids have been done at home, outside on a nice day. It just got too hard to transport them all: we don’t have a studio closer to our house than 25 miles away. Also, by the time our youngest was born, the oldest was 19 and out of the house. We try to have someone take a picture of all of us sometime each year, so we can include it in Christmas cards. These casual at-home pictures seem to work better for us: quicker and less stressful. It’s a real challenge, anyway, to get good shots of that many people in one picture. The photographer we went to that one time, 15 years ago, did a good job, but we can’t afford to go to him every year! The photographers at “studios” in stores, J.C. Penney or K-mart, didn’t seem to be up to the job even when there were 5 kids.