Smile!

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Ouiam Charkani El Hassan offers seven tips on getting the perfect family photo shoot.

One of the best ways to document each and every season in your family’s life is by taking beautiful candid pictures, to savour and cherish these sweet memories. While daily pictures are beautiful enough, family photo shoots are always a winner! However, with younger or multiple kids, the task can be way harder than you imagine.

To make life simpler for you and your family follow these tips to achieve the best session you could hope for!

Plan the whole family’s outfits about a week in advance
There is nothing worse than reaching the night before photos and suddenly realising you don’t have everyone’s outfits together. The key is, GET ORGANISED. Have everyone try on everything. See what works and what doesn’t, and go from there.

Keep it short
Thirty minutes is all you need. If you’re not getting good shots in 30 minutes, you’re certainly not getting good ones in an hour. Short and sweet is best.

Let kids be kids
Your job is to smile and (pretend to) enjoy the moment, not be glancing down at the kids, saying “Stop it now and smile, if you want ice cream later” out of the side of your mouth. This will ruin any cool candid pictures your photographer may be trying to grab! Let them get the kids’ attention, and you worry about smiling and doing your thing. It will almost always come together. Keep your cool if no one is cooperating. Take a snack break, don’t freak out and try again in a moment. The worst thing to do is get angry and yell at your child – you want everyone to try their best to remain happy and calm.

Bring treats
Treats work – bribe those kids! But really, little surprises are awesome. A couple of things to keep in mind though – nothing that will stain and nothing they will be chomping on as you’re trying to take pictures.

Get your partner on board
I know it can be hard to convince your partner to get on board. What I would suggest is to tell them this is a gift for you. It’s hard to get Mum in the photos all the time. In fact, mums are probably the ones taking most of the pictures! Tell your partner this is a GIFT for you and it’s really important. I bet they’re willing to come around when it’s framed like that.

Don’t expect perfection
All these photos are a moment in time, capturing a season of your life. The candid ones are almost always the favourites. Remember, this photo session is what it is, and it will absolutely not go as planned or produce the 50 perfect images you have been dreaming of! But, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a few good gems…and really, that’s all you need.

Finally, tell your photographer what you are hoping for
Emphasise your preferences, your favourite poses and your requests. Maybe you would like to have a kids photo, a Mum and kids photo and a Dad and kids photo. Be direct with your photographer and let them know if you have something in mind. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know!

And relax, smile, and enjoy your photo-shoot!

Chanelmama