FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY
Why Mums and Dads Need to Be in the Family Photos Too
Have a look through your phone. Who is missing? Most parents have hundreds of photographs of their children. There are days out, birthdays, school uniforms, holidays and plenty of ordinary phone pictures. But when you look properly, one person is often missing because they were the one holding the camera. Getting parents in family photos matters, not because every picture needs to be perfect, but because your children deserve photographs that show you were there with them too.
The family camera roll usually has a photographer
In most families, one person naturally becomes the one who remembers to take the photographs. They organise everybody, find the light and make sure the children are in the frame. The result is a brilliant record of family life with a fairly important person hardly appearing in it.
Sometimes it is mum who is missing. Sometimes it is dad. Often there are plenty of photographs with one parent and very few with everyone together.
A family photoshoot is a chance to fix that for a while. Nobody needs to keep passing the phone across or hoping a stranger manages one useful picture. You can all be in it.
Your children will not judge the things you notice
Parents can be very hard on themselves in photographs. You might be thinking about your weight, your hair or the outfit you nearly changed at the last minute. Your children will not study those things in the same way.
They will see the parent who carried them when they were tired, sat beside them on the log and knew exactly how to make them smile. They will see what you looked like when they were small enough to fit under your arm.
Please do not wait until you feel completely ready. Family life will keep moving while you wait, and the photograph can matter even if you would have chosen a different jumper.
You do not need to feel confident before we begin
Being the adult does not mean you automatically know what to do when a camera appears. Plenty of parents tell me they only want photographs of the children because they feel uncomfortable being photographed themselves.
That is completely normal. I will give you enough direction to take away the guesswork, but I will also give you something more useful to concentrate on: your own family. Walk with them, speak to them and stay close. You do not have to perform for the camera.
Once the attention is on the children rather than on how you think you look, it usually becomes much easier.
The ordinary connection is worth keeping
When I photograph a family, I am not only looking for a photograph where every person faces the camera. I am also looking at how your child reaches for your hand, where they stand when they are unsure and how naturally they lean into you.
Those things feel completely normal because you see them every day. That is exactly why they are worth photographing. Children grow, the way they fit beside you changes and the ordinary routines do not stay ordinary forever.
As a parent myself, I know how quickly one stage is replaced by the next. You rarely notice the final time something happens until it has already passed.
Your children need photographs with both of you
A good set of family photographs should include everyone together, but it should also include smaller combinations. Mum with the children. Dad with the children. Each parent with each child when time allows.
These do not have to be formal portraits. A walk, a cuddle or sitting together can say far more about the relationship than lining everyone up and asking for the same expression.
It also means each parent leaves with photographs that show their own connection with the children, instead of only having pictures they took themselves.
Print at least one where everybody is there
Digital galleries are brilliant for sharing, but choose at least one photograph where the whole family is present and put it somewhere you will see it. It does not need to be the most polished picture in the gallery. It needs to feel like your family.
Years from now, the children will not be asking why you did not wait for a better haircut or a quieter month. They will simply be glad that you stepped into the photograph with them.
This time, make sure you are in the photographs.
You spend enough time taking pictures of everybody else. Let me take care of the camera while you spend some proper time with your family.
Explore my family photography, or get in touch to talk about your plans.
