Portrait of a Family | Boston Family Photographer | Amara Cohen Photography

I am noticing a trend this spring, as the graduations are approaching mothers are starting to realize that their babies are growing up. This time I am not talking about their babies turning one or two, but they will be starting high school in the fall or even heading out into the world after college graduation. It is always fun to photograph a family with grown children, you may think it would be easier but there are still challenges with older children. For sure I am not chasing anyone around, but I work just as hard to get everyone to relax and enjoy their time together so I can capture this for them. Once you hit a certain age, say 8 or 9 years old, standing in front of a camera and trying to relax, and smile at the same time is difficult. It is a fun switch to talk with the families about life in general instead of singing songs and being really silly. I cut back my silliness by about 20% (still want to get everyone relaxed) with families who have older kids. A few things to think about as you get ready for your family session:

Yes, your children don’t change as frequently as they did when they were babies, but they are still changing and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to capture those memories.

Don’t worry if you don’t want to smile, you will all still look beautiful and handsome as you are, in your most comfortable state.

Be yourselves in the photos – if you all love hanging out in bare feet all summer, capture that – if you feel more like a family dressed for an evening out, capture that – if it is a mix of everything, you definitely want to capture that!

Your pets are part of your family too, bring them along for the photos.

Even if you have missed the big graduation day with family photos, you still have time before they run off to high school, college, or their first new apartment, to get a family session done!

And with those tips, a few photos from a family session in their beautiful backyard. It was fun to get the boys to laugh, and they were much better at getting each other to laugh than I was!