Over Thanksgiving holiday, my parents, 3 brothers, and our families all met up at a beach house near Port Aransas, Texas. It’s so fun to all be together, and the weather was so lovely! Probably 70-80 degrees, so our kids got to play in the water and enjoy it, too. I’m the designated family picture taker, so I suggested the color scheme of red, yellow, and blue, and it turned out great! I brought my tripod, set it up, and for the first shot above, asked a kind lady who was reading a book to come push the button about 50 times. I still had to do 4 head swaps for the image above. If you want ideas on how to work an dressing for an extended family photo shoot, I did a post on that a while ago, HERE.
For the shot with the trucks below, I took a bunch without my hubby and me, then left the tripod in the same spot (so it would be easier to match up in photoshop later) and then someone took a few with my hubby and I hugging to the side. I actually did a quick match up here, and am going to have to re do it! My brothers had trucks to match our colors, so I thought it would be fun to have them in a shot (funny enough, my mom has a yellow car, but it was 4 hours away).
Below, we were trying to mimmick a shot of the 4 of us at my brother’s wedding (them holding me) and I told them to laugh–they went for the exuberant laughter….which made me laugh for real.
All of these images were taken with my 35mm lens or my 85mm lens. 35mm for big family shot and 85mm for small family shots. LOVE them both!
I found the 18 inch beach balls HERE and the 12 inch beach balls HERE.
Kristen Duke
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lovely!!!
Those look amazing!! I love the colors! I always love big group shots……I think because it reminds me of fun times I’ve had when my whole family is together!
So nice to see you all enjoying one another! Wouldn’t have been my personal first choice for colors – we’ve all got our own tastes, right?- but I love the truck and beach ball photos!
I hope you put a super size print of your whole family up for all to see. It came out beautifully and makes me smile!
Great extended family photos! Fun, bright, colour scheme this year and the beach balls and trucks made for some fun pictures. I love that first shot where you are all standing in your bare feet in the wet sand – as well as the handsome people, I also like the reflections in the foreground.
Oh my goodness! So fun! I love the colors. It looks like everyone is actually having a good time.
Love it! Love the colors!
How fun! I love the bright colors and all the beach balls-great idea!!
Awesome photos! How fun to have the whole family together!
I love the last photo with all the balls! What a cool color scheme! Not usually something you see with family photos.
I love these! The colors are perfect, and it looks so fun to be in your family!
I love these photos. I have three brothers too so I love the ones of the 4 of you.
Fun, ellen! I do love my bros;)
Super cute! Love all the bright colors! Looks like you weren’t scarred for life having 3 brothers- gives me hope that my soon to be girl will turn out ok!
thank you, and congrats on expecting a girl! Yes, it was great, though I’m not gonna lie, it’s a bummer to hear my girlfriends talk about their sisters…
Those are great! Love the color scheme! The one of you all throwing the beach balls is really fun!
I took some pics of my family (not as many people – 5 adults, 1 special needs child, and 4 dogs!) by putting the camera on the tripod, setting everyone up, leaving a spot for me, then setting the timer and running into the picture. I had to do it multiple times to get a good one. Boy was that tiring!
Yes, it is tiring, and I’ve done that quite a bunch as well, just grabbed a stranger this time since that was an option.
Love it! Such a fun seizes of shots! My kids are already asking to do the same kind of pictures.
The beach balls do make a fun element to pictures, but they also distracted the kids quite a bit, and hid faces at times. It was fun though!
Love Love Love these! SO flipping fun!
These are so incredibly fun!! And the color choices are so bright and happy! Love them!
These are so fun! Love the color choices too.
Kristen,
These are my favorite family pictures ever! Love the colors, the group shoots, the background, the action, the well everything…
Thank you for the inspiration, I’m just learning and so I watch your every move. Thank you again.
Wanda Ann @ Memories by the Mile
I’m so glad you enjoy them, Wanda Ann! I’d love to help you with more tips, so let me know if you have specific questions and I’ll answer them on blog posts!
Thank you again, Kristen. I would love for you to link up to my party going on now over at memoriesbythemile.com
Wanda Ann
I’m the designated family photographer too (both on hubby’s side and mine) and while everyone loves the finished product of our photoshoots, no one has much patience for multiple poses and shots. (the adults are worse than the kids in my family!!) I am just curious as to how long your photoshoot lasted.
I love the beach ball idea and may have to try that sometime. My family might do better with the added distraction!!
I loved looking at every single picture…such a lovely family and the photo ideas are awesome! {love all the color as well!}
I love that you have such a big family an you get to have photos with them…and I LOVE that you wore color – so many people wear neutrals when they are at the beach/lake/etc, for family portraits. Truly spectacular!
I do love me some color!
Such fun photos! I love the beach balls!
These came out so great!! I love the colorful choices and the action shots with the beach balls!!
Love all the colour! Thanks for sharing! We found you via Sumo’s sweet stuff – market yourself Monday.
Wow great pics! Thanks so much for linking up last week!
Kim
Okay, love the idea, love the colors, and LOVE the pictures!!!
thanks, friend!!!
LOVE this! I just pinned it!