Large Family Photo Shoot: Christmas Fun

Family pictures.  We love looking at them.  Taking them is stressful!  Thankfully, Bryan is a really good photographer.  And he has some nice equipment.

Several years ago, when we were a two income family, Bryan was able to purchase backdrops, lights, stands and a remote picture taker thingy (like that technical term???)  That means we have a portable photo studio.  It has saved a lot of money on portraits over the years!

It's been a while since we pulled it all out, but with Christmas coming, we knew it was time.  We like to try and send out Christmas cards at least once in a while, and we had some serious picture taking to do.  Instead of pre-made photo cards, we use Photoshop to design and finalize our cards.  Then we get them printed as prints.  It's cheaper this way, since prints typically cost less than cards.  And we get to personalize it more.  Win-win!

We picked a day when we had nothing else major planned. Since Bryan has a four day weekend surrounding Thanksgiving, we knew this was the weekend to shoot for. We put a fun movie (Wreck it Ralph) on for the kids, and set to work.

Getting all of the lights and backgrounds set up took about an hour.  After everything was set up, we moved the stairs out from the boys' bunkbed.  Our first prop.  We also used our dining room bench.  Use what you have instead of paying lots of money for things.

Instead of jumping right into family pictures, we had the kids just play on the set for a while.  Bryan got some awesome shots during this time!  The kids were comfortable, and it worked well.

Once everyone was used to the camera, we began more directed posing and positioning.  Our goal was to take at least one wall quality shot of each of our six kids, take a good group photo of them together, and get a good picture of Bryan and I.  We succeeded!

Here are a few of the keepers...

Jayme Rebekah (age 11)

Owen Elijah (age 7)

Jeffrey James (age 5)

Ellie Elisabeth (age 3)

Sydney Damaris (age 2)

Simon Andrew (age 3 months)--he's in one of the drawers!  A pillow covered with a blanket made this a great positioner for a baby! 

Oldest 5

Our keeper group shot--all 6 of our blessings!

Mom and Dad--still loving each other after all these years! 

I'm so thankful to have a new batch of pictures to work with.  Bryan tackles the majority of the photo editing using Lightroom and/or Photoshop.  He's really good at making the colors  pop and covering up blemishes.  It's nice having a talented hubby!

Now to order prints.  Thankfully Snapfish has a great sale going this weekend!  We are planning on making another photo collage out of all of the pics from this large family photo shoot.  I'll plan on posting the final copy of our Christmas card after I get them mailed.  Don't want any spoilers :)....