As a portrait photographer, I do many family portrait photography, Spring and December and major holiday is the busiest time for me. Many families get together and when I say they come from all over the world, I am not bluffing. This is a very special time for them and they want to capture it. When families are so far away from each other, time takes the toll on the families. Many things happen and they start not coming as often or the prices of the tickets make things even more difficult.
So when families have a chance to get together, there is always this one special person who calls me. I usually call them “the trooper”, because it is not easy to arrange the entire family, in certain outfits, to be somewhere, in the certain time and they have to be on their best behavior! Every family just like in yearbooks has the most beautiful, the most successful, the clown and grumpy. I don’t mind the clowns or successful but boy, when grumpy doesn’t like the idea that they have to take extra photos, this is when the session is over.
The “the trooper” almost always feels bad and unappreciated, because they take the heat from the family, while the trooper always feels obligated to apologize for grumpy’s misbehavior. To which all I say, I really don’t mind. My job is to photograph all of the members while they are together and encourage them to enjoy this moment.
I will say, it gets sad to see that families now days don’t live close enough to each other, there is always the drifters in the family. I can always feel the mother’s bleeding heart that one of the children moved so far away, that it’s impossible for them to see each other as often as she wished to see.
Ending on this sad note, I will say one thing. Try to enjoy your family, they are your family for a reason. You didn’t pick them but they are there for a reason.
Now something a little positive! This beautiful family I took over the Easter weekend and boy they were fun to shoot. Even they are all successful people in their private lives but I definitely could tell, who was the clown and the grumpy in this family.
So if you have special people in your life that you want to capture, please call me or click on Contact and leave your information and let me know which is the best way to contact the trooper of your family.
