I've been wanting to write about the benefits of booking an extended family session for awhile, and I had these three awesome extended family shoots due to be blogged. I decided to combine the two and share a few thoughts along with the highlights from these three sessions.
Extended family sessions are great for so many reasons. First of all, if you are able to get everyone in one place at the same time looking even mildly put together, that is a huge accomplishment that simply must be documented. ;) In all seriousness though, as families grow and kids' activities begin taking over everyone's schedules, it becomes trickier to gather as a complete group. There's something so special about capturing grandparents with their grandchildren and seeing cousins run and play together. Setting aside an hour or two for photos during your next family gathering will ensure that you have photos to look back on and remember these special moments and relationships.
These sessions make a great group gift for grandparents who already have everything, and as a bonus, the kids paying for it get something out of it, too. We always do mini family sessions for each individual family in addition to capture all of the large group combinations. Are you wanting a handful of updated family shots, a few individuals of your kids and a couple photo that's a bit more recent than your wedding photos, but you don't want to invest in a full family session just for your little crew? An extended family shoot gives you all of that in addition to photos of you with your adult siblings and their spouses, your parents, and everyone together.
Often after extended family sessions, everyone heads off to a big group meal and makes a family day of it. Life can be so busy, why not slow down a bit, capture some memories before all the kids are grown, and then do what families do best - eat all the delicious food (bonus: you're all already dressed to impress.)
Here are some favourites from the last handful of extended family sessions I had the pleasure of photographing in 2016. Enjoy! :)
