Disclaimer: This shoot was done last year so no masks were needed at the time.

Alright here is the deal with family photoshoots…. THEY ARE NOT EASY.  Here’s why: You’re juggling many people in one image, you’re making sure lighting is where you need it, all eyes are looking at you, everyone is positioned right, there’s not a random tree branch sticking out behind someone’s head, and you have very little opportunity to get your shots when you have little ones running around.  I always like to say that a photographer cannot control two things- the weather and children.  Sometimes husbands…. but that’s a different conversation 😉

1. The Weather.  As much as we would love to be able to turn the sun up and down like a light bulb, we can’t.  Sometimes the weather just doesn’t want us to go out and take photos so we have to do our best and make the best with what we have.
2. Children.  The reality of it is kids are unpredictable and sometimes just not in the mood to take photos.  I get it- there are days where the idea of being in front of a camera just isn’t happening.  However, kids make it very well known sometimes and that’s ok!  Again, we make the best of it and sometimes those crying photos are actually pretty great.

 

My point is that family photos can be challenging but this one was not that at all!  The Escobar family were such a joy to work with- especially Penelope.  I’m reticent to say that she was the best behaved child I’ve ever worked with, but that’s a pretty accurate statement.  She was all smiles during this session which ultimately made the entire shoot easy and so much fun.

I always have a couple tricks up my sleeve for photographing children when they start to get fussy, but I only had to pull out one of them.  For my fellow photographers who don’t have kids of their own: If a child is getting anxious and just wants to be put down a simple trick is to give them something to play with.  Not a toy or something they are used to- give them something new that they’ve never seen before.  Is it distraction?  Yes.  Does it work?  Yes.  I gave Penelope a little flower to play with and she thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Location: The Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, Texas