I loved spending time with this fun-loving extended family for their woodsy session in the Westminster Ponds conservation area back in 2019. My favourite with these sessions is always documenting cousins playing and grandparents loving on their grandchildren. Lucky me, each of these individual families has since gone on to book family and newborn sessions, and I’ve had the joy of staying in touch and continuing to document their growing families.
Extended Family sessions tend to come with a list of important groupings and must-haves - after all, how often does everyone get together in coordinated outfits with the sole purpose of documenting family memories? We make it count and get every combination that is meaningful, including individual photos of the kiddos and mini family sessions for each individual unit in addition to the large family groupings. The challenge can sometimes be to find those playful, affectionate, candid moments throughout the session as we go down the list of must-have photos (it’s a bit more structured and regimented than an individual family session where we go with the flow more), but this family came to have fun. I absolutely LOVE the playful, hilarious photos we captured as they not only ran in the water together, but pushed each other in. It was a survival of the fittest situation, and it was so.much.fun. Let’s be honest, family sessions can be stressful (outfits, hair, getting there on time, kids arguing, weather uncertainty, all that pressure to get the photos you’ve been planning (and sometimes saving) for), but this session shows how amazing it can be when you let fun memories, too. Scroll to the end for the FUN! :)
It feels like a million years ago since I first met and photographed Nadia, and I have since had the pleasure of documenting her growing family here and there during her visits to Canada from Egypt, where she lives with her sweet little crew. During one of these visits last year, we choose an in-between spot for us to meet for a session, which just so happened to be the gorgeous little town of Stratford, ON (aka one of my favourite places to shoot!). The sun was shining and the kids were full of energy. We had a blast walking around and letting the little ones be silly and playful and snuggly, just capturing them as they were. I loved looking back through this session while putting this blog post together, and hopefully I’ll be able to see this gorgeous bunch again soon!
I love this family. I say it every time I have the pleasure of photographing them, and every time I blog their sessions. They've been with me since my very early days as a photographer and lucky me, they keep coming back! This session is from 2016 - not my most recent session with them (I have a lot of blogging to do) - but one of the most memorable. We headed to the beach in Port Stanley on a chilly Fall day for something different. They played, laughed and snuggled, and I just tried to keep up - documenting all of those candid moments that I love so much. Here are some favourites from this playful lifestyle beach shoot.
