MILESTONE PHOTOGRAPHY: WHEN TO DO FAMILY PHOTOS (AND HERE'S LUCAS AGAIN!)

One question I get asked a lot is “How often do others do their family photos?”

My answer? “It depends!” (Sorry, not too helpful!)

But it DOES depend, and I find it depends mostly on the age of the children.

It’s great to photograph little ones more frequently while they change quickly. For babies, the ideal times are at newborn (5-15 days old), at 3-4 months when they love tummy time and can raise their heads to looks at you, at 6-8 months once they can sit, and at 1 year when they can stand, they might be able to walk, and they can put on great faces for their first taste of birthday cake! After that, 18 months, 2 years, then annually after that.

Once the youngest child of the family hits age 8 or 9, many families begin to transition from shooting annually to every other year. If you can keep up the pace - do. Your kids will treasure the resulting photos when they are older, even if they might not completely love the process of having them taken (some do, some don’t).

Even when families are ‘fully grown’, it’s important to keep up the tradition of photos every couple of years. It doesn’t necessarily mark great physical and appearance changes when you’re all older, but there are ever-changing aspects to your relationship and emotions that should be captured and documented.

Most importantly though, if you’ve never done family photos before - it’s NEVER too late. Jump when you can and capture what you’ve got when you’ve got it. You never know what tomorrow will bring and, waiting for the perfection of losing 15 pounds, getting braces off, finding the perfect pair of shoes, squeezing time into the schedule might leave you waiting forever.