A behind the scenes look at our snow and cocoa photo shoot!
(Here from the Huffington Post? The step by step details are about 1/2 way down this post)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…Halloween isn’t here yet but already we are scheduling family photo shoots for upcoming holiday cards. Getting that perfect photo for your family Christmas card can be highly stressful and daunting. Below are a few tips for making it more fun and memorable. I’m also sharing a behind the scenes look at what I did for one of my cards and how to create fun familyness in the process!
How to love your holiday card familyness:
*Waiting til the last minute will create problems like these:
Get your shoot planned now. The sooner the better. When you plan ahead you have much less stress and more opportunity to get the images you love.
When you wait until the last minute you’re setting up yourself for disappointment and making everyone else miserable. You’ll run around shopping for clothes that no one wants to wear, a child who already had something planned, a husband who hates that you have to do this every year, and a child who decides they are not going to cooperate.
*How to feel happy on your photo shoot day:
If a photo shoot you’ve planned well in advance for (with your family) doesn’t work out as planned you always have another opportunity. Planning ahead relieves the stress of this moment having to be perfect and helps you to feel less like it’s do or die (or you’ll have no good pictures when little Tommy decides that he wants nothing to do with pictures today).Planning ahead also makes the process more fun for everyone. It doesn’t just relieve the pressure for you as the one photographing, it also relieves the pressure for everyone else. How you’re feeling as the photographer is definitely felt by everyone else.
*What works for your family?
Try not to fall into what you think everyone is expecting you to put together for a family photo. Consider creating a card that shows the personality of your family or each of your kids rather than what you envision the perfect card looking like. Have fun and you’ll have a better experience and make happier memories in the process of creating your holiday card.
*Think about your family.
Consider what your family would love for this photo shoot. I know that you may have something super awesome in your mind but if you don’t have your family on board it’s going to be miserable for everyone. Do they like to get dressed up to the nines? Do they prefer something casual? Do they think that wearing matching shirts is silly? Do they love being outdoors or do they complain every time you go out into nature? Are they silly, crazy, reserved, thoughtful, outspoken, bold?
When you take their personalities and likes and dislikes into consideration they will have more fun with the shoot and feel more excitement and investment in what you’re creating together.
*How to be creative
Involve your family in the process of picking something fun as your theme or as your location. Is there a place you always love to go as a family? Something to do that always puts everyone in a great mood?
Doing something that everyone has already had a great experience with will make your chances for a great photograph that much better. When your family is actually doing something they would normally do they are much easier to photograph. Also, creating something they think will be fun creates great photographic moments.
Brainstorm some ideas with your kids. Would it be fun to make snowflakes? Drink hot chocolate? Jump in crunchy leaves? Take a little road trip? Play in a pumpkin field? Taking a walk? Decorate a Christmas tree? Make gingerbread cookies? Create holiday decorations? Decide on an activity that sounds irresistibly fun to your family and make that your photo shoot. (Make sure to photograph the flour covered face or messy frosting fingers).
*Do you have to send a holiday card right now?
Definitely not! If creating a holiday card in the next few weeks is just too much to ask with Halloween and Thanksgiving right around the corner give yourself some grace and don’t send one out. If it breaks your heart not to connect with all of the people you love and keep in contact with every year consider sending out a Happy New Year or Valentine’s Day card. There are lots of options for fun cards to send at times of the year other than December. Your card will be a welcome and happy surprise when received unexpectedly in January or February!
What if the weather is terrible?
If you’d like to create something, that doesn’t depend on the weather, set up a background in your garage.
Plan to photograph with your garage door open at a time of day when the light that comes into it is soft and beautiful. Using my garage is how I did this super fun snow & cocoa photo shoot with my kids.
We brainstormed together about what a fun photo shoot would look like and decided that snowflakes would be super festive. I set up a blue roll of seamless paper (but you could also set up with a white or colorful flat sheet that’s been ironed and tacked to your garage wall). We made hot cocoa by stuffing paper towels down inside the cups and spraying whipped cream on top (so we wouldn’t keep spilling the hot cocoa everywhere). Prior to the shoot we all worked tirelessly to cut out snowflakes and cut up strips of paper in our paper shredder.
A couple of years ago my kids and I decided it would be fun to create something together for a card. We had gotten a box of goodies from my parents a few months earlier and it had been packed with shredded paper. The kids had so much fun pretending that the paper was snow that I knew having the chance to make a royal mess like that again would be one they would not be able to resist. We got to talking about that box of awesome snow and decided that this snow and cocoa shoot would be super fun.
Here’s how we brought it all together and made it work:
1-Get everything together BEFORE the photo shoot.
Gather coats, scarves, gloves, boots, etc. Pull together supplies like mugs and whipped cream and umbrella stands and poles. Here is our list:
- paper and scissors for snowflakes
- coats, gloves, scarves, boots, hats
- invisible thread
- tape/white washi tape
- 2 umbrella stands
- 2 six foot poles
- shredded paper (save it from your office or ask friends for their shredded paper)
- seamless paper for the background (or 2-4 white/colorful sheets)
- background set-up for seamless paper or tacks to hang sheets
2-Cut out snowflakes.
Simple instructions can be found here. You just need plain white paper and scissors. They can be addicting because it’s a little surprise every time you open one up and see the design you created!
3-Remind everyone that setting up will take time.
It’s all part of the fun! make sure to plan for getting everything set up for your shoot. If great light happens in your garage at 3pm don’t wait until 3pm to start setting up. You’ll miss all of the perfect light! Begin setting up 1-2 hours ahead of your photo shoot time so everyone is not stressed when your beautiful light begins to wane.
4-Hang or set up your background.
Locate where the light is best. This usually needs to be soft north light coming into your garage. If you wait until the sun is shining bright and hard into your garage you’ll have people squinting along with harsh shadows on all the faces. You want to make sure that there’s just light bouncing into your garage, no direct light (unless that’s the look you want).
5-Set up umbrella stands and poles.
Place them a few feet to the front of your background paper but leaving plenty of room in front of the umbrella stands for your kids to ply and goof around while still keeping the background paper behind them. This may take some shifting while looking though your lens and having one of your kids be the guinea pig to make sure all of the placement is accurate.
6-Hang invisible thread between the umbrella stands.
Wrap the thread around each pole several times. Tie the thread to itself and then gently pull the umbrella stand apart until the thread is tight enough not to break. Stick a tack below the thread to keep the thread from sliding down the pole.
7-Attach differing lengths of invisible thread to the snowflakes.
Use frosted tape (or white washi tape) to keep the tape attach snowflake to thread. Hang snowflakes at differing lengths to the thread between the poles.
8-Bring the shredded paper and cocoa mugs near the set.
That way they are within reach when you’re ready for them.
9-Have everyone get dressed in their winter coats, scarves, boots, and hats.
It always works best when everyone has a say in what they get to wear. They will feel more comfortable and have some ownership in how the shoot turns out.
10-Have fun!
Invite each person to throw some snow, ‘drink’ some hot chocolate, say a funny joke, be silly, and make snow angels.
Creating a memorable and fun experience for your family while doing your family’s holiday card makes a much happier card. It becomes part of your family’s awesome stories instead of a time to never speak of again. You don’t have to create a snow and cocoa shoot to make great familyness! It can be as simple as photographing while you bake cookies or the next time you go to your favorite park and swing on the swings. Keep it simple and focused on a usual daily family routine or create something new and fun together. There are so many possibilities for familyness this year!
Some free things for you:
Download a free version of this holiday card here.
(PS-In the meantime, make sure to sign up for my free ebook here for more familyness photo tips!)
Davina Fear is a Familyness Adventurer. Sometimes it gets a little crazy around at her house with backpacks spread all over, people talking all at once, and intense discussions thrown in here and there.
She blogs at davinafear.com and loves living in the tiny town of Clover (the town with LOVE in the middle).
2 Comments
Thank you Davina, it’s amazing how you show us your family. I’ll try to do something like this (I hope!).
Choni, I’d love to see what you do! Make sure to share a link if you put it up online! 🙂