Lessons Learned from My Family Photos | Tips from DC Family Photographer

This winter, I made sure to practice what I preach, and we planned our own family photo session. We hired the incredible Natasha of NPS Photography to capture a lifestyle session in our home. She’s so talented and an in-home lifestyle guru, if you ask me. So, it was special to have her come and work with us! We planned these photos as my birthday present and I’m so happy that we did!! Natasha’s eye is incredible, and she captures the joyful chaos of parenthood so well. I will treasure these images forever. I also want to share about our experience, because, despite being a family photographer myself, there were a few things I learned being on the other side of the camera this go around! 

Top 5 Lessons Learned from My Family Photos

Prepare ahead.

This is always a stressful part of planning family portraits: the prep work. So, I tried to plan ahead. I started by dressing myself first. Despite the options in my client closet, I couldn’t find one that felt like “me”. I finally found a dress…. Two days before our session. It was definitely stressful to dress everyone else as I waited for that to arrive. My daughter’s dress proved to be difficult too. I had pulled options for her, but none fit. We finally found an option that she loved – in fact, she didn’t want to change out of it later! She and I had hair appointments and a mani/pedi so we felt our best. I will definitely recommend that! 

Sickness and reschedules happen.

The day before our session, my son woke up with a red face. He’d had a runny nose and wiped it overnight, making his face blotchy. It looked awful! We wound up rescheduling because Natasha agreed that happy kids are better than sick kids. The day of our reschedule wound up being really dark and cloudy… so we rescheduled again. We all crossed our fingers that the third time would be the charm! Honestly, I was just ready to have them done! Without fresh hair or a new mani, we went for it. In the end, all we needed was each other for beautiful photos. 

Have your hair and makeup done.

As a busy mom, I 10/10 recommend having someone come do your hair and makeup before your photos! I loved working with Victoria from Bridal Glow with Victoria. She glammed me up! It was one less thing for me to stress about and helped me feel my best before our photos. You can tell why she’s one of my preferred vendors!!

Talk with your photographer ahead of time.

Before our session, Natasha sent a questionnaire to learn more about us. This is something I do with my families too! The point is to get to know what everyone likes (or doesn’t) so that your session can go a bit more smoothly. In our questionnaire, I let her know my daughter is a huge ham – and likes things to be about her first. Natasha was amazing with her and helped to make sure she could shine during our session. My son was a bit shy, but Natasha was also prepared and found ways to incorporate things he likes (like cars… or NYPD vans, who knows anymore?) into our photos so he could be fully involved. Even Rocco was enjoying himself – and loved the sneak peeks when all was said and done! 

Enjoy the Gallery Reveal

Natasha offers client slideshows (like I do!) and this might have been the best part of our experience. I couldn’t wait to look at the images on our theater room screen! We projected my computer and watched it together. I had to have all of the images – I can’t ever choose! Within a few days, I also decided I wanted an album and Natasha put that together for me, too. I’m SO happy that we were able to view the photos together and create these tangible heirlooms for our family, too. 

Natasha, thank you so much for making this mama’s dreams a reality! I loved working with you and all the moments you captured so beautifully for us! To my clients, I hope you can use these lessons learned – and also feel confident knowing that I 100% get you – on both sides of the camera!