How Often? and My Biggest “mom” regret.
I often get asked how often should I have a new family portrait taken? Which isn’t necessarily the right question to ask! It often can heap on some major mom guilt. (Onto me personally, but also onto the person who asks because they often have regrets in this area!) But being a momma for over 23 years I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way. I will happily share my wisdom with the new and not so new momma’s out there in Pittsburgh!
Let’s dive into the “family photo record” in this and the next post and of course I will answer the age old question of “how often”!
The Iliff Family portraits over the years! (Only professional images included!)
In my opinion, especially when your children are young you should be taking regular candids of them monthly!
Heidi Iliff (became a mother in 2021 with her daughter Hali!)
If you don’t have a high resolution digital camera (other than your phone) you should pop in to local photographers “mini sessions” and grab a few candid shots of your kids growing up a couple times a year! I’ll talk all about my Winter/ Spring Mini Session’s coming up in the next few months in the next post.
Formal family portraits are a luxury. However, I believe it is 100% necessary to capture your kids as they grow up. I recommend getting formal portraits done at the very least every two years! My biggest regret is not having portraits of our whole family (when my oldest kids were babies) from the years: 2004 to 2008!
As a professional photographer it seems salesy to say. BUT as a Mother, it’s my biggest regret!
But let’s look back on my life before I was in the business! I can say that I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life. But a few I do have are years that go by without any professional images! Larger Than Life Family Photography’s hope is for the people in our community to have the beautiful captured portrait of their families every year, so that all the young mommas won’t have the same regrets as I do!
I’ve made this super easy by keeping The Sewickley Studio! You can have a quick formal photo shoot right in the village any time of year! You don’t have to wait until summer or early fall to capture your family just as they are today!
Those four years when my birth children and my husband were a fresh little family, I had a cell phone camera and a film camera. As someone who studied photography & has been a decent photographer since I was a teenager I do have some nice images of my family during those years. AND I also had portrait images taken of each of my kids at the milestone times and many of those are in frames in my home.
I’m the photographer of my family! Even though you may not be a professional photographer you are probably the photographer of yours! (otherwise it was unlikely you probably otherwise it was unlikely you have read this post this far!) Every family has one of these people who really wants to capture their lives through photographs. My oldest daughter Hali has this desire as well and it’s great documenting and keeping her digital photographs printed, shared and organized.
So who is that one person in your family who keeps the photographic record?! Is it you?
Let’s go back to one of the only regrets I have. Back when I was taking all of these candid photos and especially the years where I just got a cell phone and started taking lots of pictures with that cell phone. Do you remember those days? Those photos are very “pixely” and they also have almost no memory and it is very difficult to tell what is going on in them because they are such small files! Most of them are grainy & deteriorated as well because we did not know how to take care of that kind of image! Those are the years I cherish the professional images I had taken (even if it was just in the JC Penny’s photo studio!)
Don’t have regrets! Schedule portraits!
Full sessions are great for Family portraiture every other year! My “mom opinion” is that you need to have full and “short’ professional portraits taken to capture your whole family together as well as each individual member in a creative or beautiful place. Candid’s which are perfectly captured in Short Session’s at the Sewickley Studio freeze your children’s expressions, development & essence! Family Portrait Sessions capture your connection and love as a family and show things like your heigh changes & your children’s relationships with you and their siblings as they grow up.
At Larger than Life Photography I have made it super easy for people to have quick fun portrait sessions with me outdoors and around Pittsburgh during the good weather months and in my studio during the volatile winter months. My studio is open every day of the year anytime of day! And that’s always sunny and 70°.
I use lighting & creative prompting & directing to “pose” your family and children in ways that feel like exploring and playing! We move quickly and most families are finished with the “look and smile for grandma” photo (that you very likely will use as your holiday card & print and hang on your wall) in the first 20 minutes!
