Clothes are such a stress for family pictures! Check out My extended family picture colors~Red and black and gray
Over the Christmas holidays, I got to spend a week with my parents and siblings in Houston. Whenever this happens, it’s a known thing that I bring my camera and tripod for an extended family picture. This time around, my mom and sister in laws were actually planning outfits waaay before we got there….I was so overloaded with that color scheme question, that I just said, “tell me what to wear.” When it came back as black, grey, and red…I knew just the splash of red;)
Here is what I consider to be the best shot:
As a cohesive whole, it is just fine. It’s not really my personal preference to be in charge and be in the picture, one of the other is enough for me. But I’ve done this for enough years to know the drill…I don’t get to pick a location, we use any field that is close (If I planned ahead, I could, but see comment above about being worn out) or time of day, we go to what is easiest and convenient. This shot was at HIGH noon. Literally 12:30 p.m. on a very sunny day. We are on a path that circles a lake by my brothers house. The lake is about 5 feet to the right of my husband and 5 feet to the left of my brother on the other side is a thick forest of trees. Luckily, that thick forest of trees created a diffusion of light at just this exact spot (we’d walked around the path til I saw it) enough for our big group not to get crazy speckled light on our heads. In the top/middle where the sun is bright is actually a house, so I am pretty happy that that didn’t show up in the image! This time around, I got lucky that my sis in law’s mom was there to snap, snap, snap a bunch of pics when I had everything set up on the tripod. I didn’t have to use my remote…or run back and forth with the remote being out of range. I have several comments about the overall look and its imperfections, but sometimes imperfections are what make it perfect–you know? I love my family, and I’m grateful to be able to give this gift to my mom each year, as it’s all she really wants.
Here are a few other shots of individual families:
Then we gotta do a silly group shot:
And lastly, grandparents with grandkids:
