During the last holiday season, our family took this portrait while jumping on a trampoline. It seemed like a perfect setting and activity to portray the light-hearted way our family tries to approach life. Recently, it got me thinking about unique ways to document your family, and I rounded up some fun examples that you might be able to incorporate into your own photo sessions.
An unusual take on a family portrait can make your picture convey more than just an image. A different approach allows you to represent meaningful elements or a sense of your family's personality.
• Try an unusual activity: Here, we chose the trampoline. How about everyone playing miniature golf? Or a joint jump in the waves at the beach? Choose an activity that has meaning for your family or that represents your aesthetic. (Remarkably Domestic)
• Use unexpected props: I love this photo from Nina Matthews Photography. The rain initially seemed to pose a problem for the photo shoot, but then they decided to use it to their advantage. Not every family photo needs to feature faces; this one shows everyone's life stage while conveying a playful feeling.
• Try a different vantage point: Laurie Bailey from Laurie Bailey Photography takes amazing family portraits, and many of them use unique approaches. In this photo, the family on the beach isn't new, but we love how Laurie chose to take this photo at a distance, featuring more of the environment than the family. The result has much more emotional impact and a sense of atmosphere and represents the family as a single unit, instead of as a group of individuals.
• Choose a non-traditional venue: We love this photo from Karen Ard of a family inside their English, right-hand drive vintage Mini Cooper. Choosing a location that is unexpected yet has meaning for your family can make your photo more than just a record of what everyone looked like; it's a document of your family's history.
• Try a crazy pose: We've all taken group photos where you pose stoically and then the photographer says, "OK, everyone be crazy!" Often those crazy shots get relegated to the cutting room floor, so to speak, but with a little planning you can make your crazy shot the best one of the bunch. This photo from Kelsey J. Gibbs Photography makes a sweet statement that shows the parents as a couple as well as their fun-loving relationship with their kids.
• Focus on something other than a face: While the most traditional of the bunch, this photo of a family's feet offers another option for a portrait. We like that this one from Cherry Stem Photography skips the tired "bare feet on the bed" motif and shows the family in their shoes and out in the world. Consider featuring other body parts, too: hands, the back of heads, even a close up of eyes.
Have you taken any unique family portraits? Let us know your tips in the comments!
(Images: as linked above)
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These are all cute portraits, but maybe feature more with faces? Don't get me wrong, it'd be great to see that cute umbrella one in an edited roll of film from your photographer and print it for your own house, but nearly all of the portraits here are of people's feet or backsides - would you make that your yearly photo to your relatives that don't see you often? If I received that for an xmas card, I definitely wouldn't save it.
I love the last black and white one of just feet and the one on the beach.. for me most of the time family portraits come off so posed at times they look artificial.
I doubt there are very many people who look back and school pictures and like the way they looked. Usually those photos, and even yearbooks, end up in a box somewhere up in an attic, out of sight. Interesting photos can be displayed for years. And who are we kidding, even with these ideas.. you know they took photos with the family smiling appropriately.
Eh.....I find them pretty cheesy, but that's just me.
If I see that shot of the parents holding their kids upside down one more time, I'm going to scream.
Gotta love that fifth one!
These portraits are too self-conscious and obviously staged to pack any emotional impact.
Sorry.
(I like the feet, but would have to see the rest of the photos in the session... they don't quite stand alone...).
I like the feet shot the most. Really, though, any family photo where the people look happy and relaxed is a good shot. Just don't send it out to family and friends with a brag letter detailing travels and accomplishments. Please.
I'm sorry, these are all too cheesy for me. Anything too posed is a little over the top.
People are getting a little crazy with their photos. Vintage furniture in the middle of fields, all matching outfits, bizarre staged shoots, babies shoved into weird baskets.
Just hire a good photojournalist to come take photos of the family doing something that you love doing - a day at the beach, playing in the backyard, taking a walk through the park - and let them do their thing. Natural shots are way more interesting.
somehow i expected i would hate the comments, and i do, at least most of them.
I love these from BowerPower
http://www.bowerpowerblog.com/2012/01/from-our-redneck-family-to-yours/
i like the one in the car best. i would want a reflection of an important building or sign on the window shield.
The feet pic is cool! Although the mother could have worn nicer shoes. Of course similar could be said about the umbrella shot.
I have to say, as much as I prefer fun family portraits to the awkward Olan Mills studio shots of my childhood, that I'm an anti-fan of the family photocard holiday cards. "Happy Holidays" slapped over a summer vacation photo--sent without comment, with computer labels, obviously done in bulk--is not a holiday card. If you can't add a personal touch, winnow your list--your college friends probably won't notice not getting another picture of kids they've never met anyway. There's my "raised by old parents" flag flying.
Come on, ATers....for most of us plebs, these shots would be something to be proud of---a chance to showcase our beautiful families in a lovely way. Who cares if the concepts are "overdone" and unoriginal! Chances are you've hopped on a bandwagon or two in your day, so lighten up!
I like all the ideas for photos without faces (especially the umbrellas). We are about to become foster parents and I've been trying to get some ideas of how we could send out a Christmas card pic (as I traditionally do...with an individual note of course!) and not show faces...because we aren't allowed to.
And I personally LOVE getting picture cards at Christmas AND the cheesy letters. I enjoy seeing how people have changed through the years even if it is an overused corney pose. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for your comment, @Angel_Ahart. I really appreciate your perspective on the photos-- your situation with fostering is something I hadn't considered. Glad to know you enjoyed the post!
What's not to like about photo Christmas cards? I love them no matter how long it's been since I've seen the sender.
The umbrella picture is my favorite. I think these are all cute. I mean no, I wouldn't use a picture without faces as a Christmas card or something, but they're still fun. I would appreciate a post about fun/interesting/not cheesy poses that do show faces though.
My siblings and I, all 30 and older posed for a photo, standing in the open doorways of a long row of porta-johns (there are six of us). Yes, cheesy. But it was meant to be so. Now we all keep a copy in our bathrooms. We can remember the family every day, as we all now live far apart