Creating Beautiful Family Photos With a Large Family

As families grow and change, I have the opportunity to photograph many moments in their lives. This is part of what I love most about being a photographer and I’m always honored when a family calls me for another session.

Karl and Melonie have done holiday photos with me for the last two years and just recently added their sixth child, Felix, to the family. Felix is only the second boy of the six children; the oldest siblings are a pair of boy-girl twins. When Karl and Melonie contacted me about their newborn session, we planned for pictures of Felix, but also how to incorporate their entire family into some of the photos.

The focus of this session was on the adorable Felix and we included bears in the photos to go along with the theme of his nursery. Melonie purchased the bear hat and stuffed bear set along with the large bear blanket to take photos on. I love an opportunity to incorporate a handcrafted crochet hat by the fabulous KatTastic Krochet, which is run by a local, hardworking mom of three out of Walnut Creek.

With five other children, the two oldest being first graders, that is quite a few personalities and little bodies to get to sit still, but I knew we could get gorgeous photos of this beautiful family. Karl and Melonie were concerned about their school-age children being able to be in the photos because they’re in school all day, but I informed them that my preference is actually that they remain in school for the majority of our 3-hours session. This way, older children can maintain their usual schedule and then come in at the end for a few photos after all the posing of the newborn is done. Saving family photos until the end of the session is usually an effective way to take all of the photos that we want while keeping each family member as happy as possible.

I love sessions like this where we focus on the baby, his parents, and then the whole family. These lifestyle family newborn photos will capture not only Felix at this point in time, but the family as well.