First-Ever Family Photo Shoot

We have never done a "professional" family photo shoot before. I didn't realize what a process it can be. But in the end, we got some really great photos, so it was totally worth it.

There is so much planning involved. Location is a big thing. Fortunately, our photographer had a spot in mind on the ridge above the Bow River on the way to Cochrane. It's funny, I had noticed this spot recently and pulled off the road to check it out one time when we were coming home from Cochrane in September, because it looked like a really nice spot. When I heard that she wanted to shoot photos there, I was excited.

The real headache was deciding what to wear. It was getting late in the season, so the possibility of being cold was a concern, on top of everything else. I think I brought home two massive bags from the mall with anything and everything that seemed like a remote possibility. In the end I think we used 2 or 3 of these new items, sending everything else back. One of the big problems is that everyone has different ideas about clothes and colours. While trying on clothes. I give Scott a blue shirt with white dots on it to try.

S: I'm not wearing that shirt! That shirt is for girls! My friends don't wear shirts like that!
D: Check out these pants. They are bright orange.
S: Are those jeans?
D: Yes.
S: I like those. Let me try those on. My friend Noah has red jeans. He wears them sometimes.



He wears those bright orange pants all the time now, but he didn't wear them in the photo. I got a new sweater out of the deal, so that was a big plus.

On the big day when we were supposed to shoot, the weather was poor and there didn't seem to be much sun. That was going to be a problem because we wanted to get silhouettes at sunset. It's kind of funny to think that we were worried about what colours we were wearing, since we were hoping to just be black silhouettes in the final product. After considerable hand-wringing, we canceled the session... and then the sun came out.

The next day we saw a gap in the weather and we decided to try again. The temperature started to drop when the sun was going down, but the kids were real troopers and they did really well. We got so many great photos, and I am glad that we did it. We are especially happy to have the hand-in-hand silhouette picture hanging in our stairwell at home, where it can last for years and years to come.