This shoot was an especially fun one for me because the clients are my own family! I grew up in Oregon, but all four of my siblings now live in Texas. Three of those siblings live in Houston, so we often go there for big family gatherings. During a recent family reunion, we knew it was time for a new photo of the entire family.

If you can believe it, before these pictures, we hadn’t taken a photo of our entire family in over THREE years! I know, how does a photographer let that happen?! One day, between nap times, lunch, and church, we snuck over to this little area next to a church parking lot to get a long-overdue family photo.

As you can see, our family is getting pretty big! Getting all the kids (and, let’s be honest, the adults) to smile and look at the camera at once was a bit of a challenge. But in my opinion, candid moments are one of the most fun parts of a family photo session. I love the pictures of the kids playing together. With a big family session, it’s nice to break the group up to get candid shots. It’s a fun way to capture the personalities of every family member at the time you took the photos. Another benefit of smaller group shots during a family photo session is it gives people a small break from posing and smiling. Wrangling loads of people and getting a genuine smile for every photo is hard but when you break up your large family it helps everybody relax just a little.

Who would have thought you can get a stunning family photo next to a church parking lot! We took these pictures right around noon, which is generally the harshest light of the day, but I think the trees and surroundings dulled the light perfectly. Big family schedules can be hard to work around, and sometimes you have no other option than to take family photos at an inconvenient time of day. But these photos prove that even an unexpected shoot locale can turn out really beautiful pictures!

I’m so happy I was able to use my photography skills for the benefit of my family! For years they’ve heard about my growing business, but it was great to actually show them what I love doing. My siblings were great sports and when it was all said and done my brothers were impressed with how painless I made the process. Haha! I’m always happy when my family is able to get together. I love that we now have these photos to look back on to help us remember special family time together.