My Own Family | Holiday Pictures | Do it Yourself Style

Hello everyone!
The weather is cooling quickly here in Washington and the sun is setting very early.  I've been planning our holiday card photo for a long time now and most of the details came together easily.  For the many fans I have on Pinterest, we have been pinning Christmas tree photos left and right!  Some with snow, some clearly taken in September (short sleeve outfits and a warm golden glow!), some that are heavy with props, some that are simple and just the family.  Now I love a fun prop-heavy portrait session, but I became a photographer specifically to benefit my children.  Most children don't like a stressed out mom, or coming to an unfamiliar environment filled with cool things they are told not to touch.  And mine are no different.  So for my family photos my own motto is to keep it simple. 

I let them wear clothes they already know.  I knew my daughter would wear pink, and I helped her choose and black.  I knew we all owned coats that are partly black or grey or both.  A local Christmas tree farm agreed to allow me to take photos.  We happened to also get a dog that week and they were okay with that too!

I set my camera up and took a LOT of test shots without me in them.  The kids are used to looking, but they often make silly faces, which I won't see until I get home to edit.  So it was imperative that I take a lot, try and get some good faces so that I would have some to swap out with the silly faces they would make later.  As you can see (the bottom right) he enjoys making faces! 

My husband David was great at gathering them around getting them to smile for me.  I set the camera's timer and gave myself 10 seconds to get from my tripod to the set up.  It worked out pretty good.  It's not as good as it would be for a client.  Nothing replaces having a person be able to make last second adjustments! 

Some of my daughter's pictures looked better in black and white (middle right) so I tried out some snow overlays to try and play up the frost that was on the ground.  Just something for fun.

And at last, a new picture with just David and I!  Every couple needs a new photo every year! 

 

 

So thank you for visiting with my family! 

For more information on family portraits please visit www.ndrobbs.com or leave a comment here.