So you’re thinking of doing a family session? (yay!) Well what an amazing experience it will be for you and your family, and one that you’ll definitely cherish for years to come when you look back at all the photos.

So here’s the scoop.

It ain’t easy, especially if you have kiddos under the age of 10 (as i’m sure you’re probably already aware of). First off you probably have dad thinking “why are we doing this?” then you have the kiddo’s acting like Doug from the Pixar movie Up — '“BALL!” “SQUIRREL!” aka, their attention won’t be where you want it.

Well, we’re here today to hopefully give you some tips on how you can make your family session run as smooth as butter.

1) BRIBE THEM!!

Momma this is NOT the time to hold back on their sugar intake or toy obsession. You bring whatever you think will get your kiddos to play along.

An hour is a long time for kids to keep their attention spans in check, and if they’re already having an off day you’re bound to get some temper tantrums happening at the most inopportune time (your family session).

This is when you break out the big guns and bribe them with all the things that’ll get their attention to focus.

YOU DO NOT WANT AN UNHAPPY CHILD! Believe us, crying kiddos is not a good look - even if they calm down, they’re likely to have boogers running down their faces and red puffy eyes. Keep those bb’s as happy as can be that day!

We know you’ll pay for it later, but we promise it’s worth it! Crying fits last 5 minutes but pictures last a lifetime!

2) PLAY DEM TUNES!

Okay I don’t know about you, but Baby Shark is the jam and if it makes your kiddo happy PLAY IT ON REPEAT!

You know your kids best, so we recommend setting up a playlist of their favourite songs to play at your family session. We typically bring a speaker with us so you provide the playlist we’ll provide the speaker. Even if you’re going with some other photographer for the shoot please keep this in mind! Bring your own speaker and have it going. I promise it will help!

I once listened to Baby Shark on repeat for the whole hour and the pictures turned out amazingggg.

3) Don’t have huge expectations

I know that sounds weird to say, but don’t have huge expectations for your kids. It’s really hard to keep the attention spans of kids and babies, and if you go into the day thinking it’s going to be some beautiful hallmark shoot you - will - be - let - down.

Not saying you won’t get those magical photos after the fact, but if you go in thinking you’re kids are going to cooperate and you’re going to have a nice calm atmosphere you will be extremely frustrated. At the end of the day, the point of having family shoots is to document how you and your family are in - this- moment.

Sometimes the messy, goofy, playful photos are the best ones. Sometimes the photoshoot may go SO wrong, but you know what? At the end of the day not only do you walk way with photos but you walk away with stories. Stories you can tell your kids and future grandchildren about when looking back on that exact gallery.

✨ Oh p.s. if you haven’t ready this article yet on “what to wear to your engagement session” we definitely recommend checking that out. EVEN though you want a family session, the outfit suggestions totally still apply!

✨ p.s.s. you can also check out our Pinterest page here that has some outfit ideas we love!