A lifestyle photographer offers gentle guidance and prompts, then allows space for your family’s personal interpretation to play out, making each family’s pictures unique to them. No longer do you have to worry about perfection, instead you get to have fun and spend an hour with the people you love most.

Now that you have done the work of gathering everyone in the same place at the same time for your extended family session, you may be wondering how to make the most of your time together. It can be difficult to get everyone on the same page, let alone all smiling for the camera in unison.

Read on for simple tips and things to keep in mind to ensure you leave with beautiful and meaningful photographs.

Isn’t capturing our relationships with our parents and siblings equally as important as with our children? And even more, documenting our children with their grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins a valuable way to tell our family story, providing us with imagery that our family will cherish for years to come?