Last year we had a friend and photographer take our family portraits and they were beautiful. This year we decided to be ambitious and try to free-hand it ourselves. It worked pretty well! Our kids are VERY used to getting their pictures taken by now and as long as we let them play between shots, they will sit and smile for us. I think they know it will be over much quicker if they just cooperate.

Look how beautiful our children are!!

 

 

I had a bit of a hard time deciding the look I wanted for the shoot. Originally, I was wanting a late-in-the-day, late summer shot on a dock at the lake wearing plaid, denim, boat shoes, etc. But August passed us by and then September also. So then I decided to do bare aspen grove and neutral colors for a cool, wintery look but then I just couldn’t resist the sharp yellow of the leaves during October. I gathered all the clothes we had and tried to coordinate grays and browns (so the background would be the main color), but it just wasn’t coming together. It wasn’t in the budget to buy everyone new everything, so I ended up just going with what we had which was gray, black, and red. I figured it would work, especially since I knew we wouldn’t get around to editing these until Christmastime anyway. And I was right!

We drove up to Sundance and found this special spot with a wonderful wooden swing, a creek, and perfect fall colors.
We had a lot of fun playing and posing.

 

Next we went to Vivian Park where we found this great red pavilion and piles and piles of leaves. We had a lot of fun here, too.

 

We know how hard it is to get everything and everyone coordinated for family pictures. We know it can be stressful. But it is so worth it! We tried to make this more of a family outing rather than a portrait session. It’s more fun that way and you get better smiles.

I will always look back on these shots and remember how my kids act at this age. I will remember playing in the leaves. I will see their little smiles and hear their joyful laughs. I will feel love for them.