Family Portraits and their Importance

We live in an era where stopping by the store on your 6 pm commute home to buy your morning's caffeine is more of a priority than gathering the family together for a meal, much less a portrait. We're so busy and consumed with everyday life (as we should be!) that documenting it is an after-thought.

Fortunately for me, my clients keep me busy enough to assume that they know the importance of taking professional images of their family life. What is often times forgotten (and make no mistake, I am terribly at fault for this), is including extended family members and grandparents in these precious photos.

I have been photographing Crawford since he was 4 months old. I see him so often that I know all of the things he loves (dogs, daddy, flying in the air) and all of the things he "dis-loves" (luvies, who knew?)....

When Crawford's mom asked me to take a few portraits of Crawford with his extended family, I gave her a huge pat on the back for her good planning and told her my first availability. When we got together for our session, I saw and witnessed the love they all had for this very special boy and knew how important these memories would be for him one day.

When Crawford looks back at these images many years from now, he will be reminded of what an integral part his family (near and far) played in his life. He will pass these heirloom portraits down to the next generation of little Crawfords, and the family memories will come with them.

I encourage everyone to plan your hectic schedules around taking photos. The younger generations will thank you for this, I promise.