I’m sure I’ve failed terribly in many aspects of parenting and family life over the last 9 and a half years, but one area I often feel the worst about is the lack of an annual family photo shoot. Our last family photo shoot with a professional photographer was five years ago!
The saving grace to this situation is my obsession with old-time family photo studios. I first dragged my family into a studio during a day at the Six Flags Darien Lake theme park. We were there for a Dead and Company concert, (lawn seats, and yes – our 18-month-old and 4-year-old attended with us, and loved it!), and while moving from the amusement side of the park to the water area, I saw the sign. It was not a democratic decision – I just knew we needed old-time photos in our life, and so I dragged my crew inside, and we left with an adorable vacation souvenir AND annual family portrait. Two birds, one stone, one exceedingly happy mom.
We’ve since had old-time portraits taken from Keystone, South Dakota to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and as our wall collection grows, I’ve decided that I absolutely love the tradition and am so glad I dragged my family into that portrait studio at Darien Lake in 2018.
There’s so much pressure (for me, at least) in scheduling, planning, and executing family portraits. Those aspects of family life I continually fail at as mentioned above? Matching outfits is near the top of the list. I see all of these adorable family photos on social media and in the Christmas cards we get in the mail. That is not us, and so unless I am prepared to employ a family wardrobe stylist, I need to embrace my shortcomings. In an old-time photo shoot, the outfits are assigned. And everything matches in black and white!
My old-time photo wall now chronicles my family from 2018 – present, and while I wince at how fast my boys are growing up, I do look forward to seeing what our old-time family photo shoots will look like with pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults.
Old-time family photo shoots complete with in-law children and grandkids? Most definitely.
