Family Session with Cousins and Grandparents | Beach Family Photos

I have been photographing quite a few extended family sessions lately. These sessions are super energetic and fun. Most of the time, these sessions are scheduled as a gift for grandparents to commemorate a special occasion. I can’t think of a better gift to give to a grandparent because it is one that not only the grandparent will cherish, but you will too.

One of my former clients contacted me early in the summer about an extended family session. After seeing her family photos from last Summer, her in laws decided that it would be a great idea to plan and gift a session for their mother. This particular session included five young children and nine adults, so there were a lot of images to capture during this session. Many of the men in the family are members of FDNY and being that my husband is also FDNY, it made the session even more special.

I love photographing extended families, but they do require a bit of strategic planning and time management. When there are very young children involved, I include at least 75 minutes for the session, which allows for breaks for the children and provides me an opportunity to photograph the various groupings that most people want to capture during a session. Believe it or not, that one formal group all eyes on camera portrait that most people want to capture during a session can take as long as 20 minutes to capture when there are little ones involved. I never rush to capture this image and my goal is to make the experience as stress free for the parents and family member as possible.

It was a sunny, but windy and chilly evening on the night of this session; however, this family persevered and I had a lot of laughs with them. Despite the less than ideal weather conditions, I was able to capture some gorgeous images off this family and the gorgeous golden glow of the sunset made the chilly weather worth it.

I am now booking family sessions for the Spring and Summer months. My sunset sessions do tend to book up months in advance, especially for weekend dates. If you are interested in a session, feel free to contact me for more information. Here are some images to show what an extended family session gallery might look like.

If you are interested in scheduling an extended family session, contact me. My sunset sessions tend to book up a few months in advance.