My 2023 Family Photos

Even as a photographer, I only ask my husband to join us for official family photos once a year. He isn't big into having photos done but every year we manage to pull it off.

Being the model AND the photographer is a very difficult task and I learn more and more every year. Also, thanks to Scott for also being a photographer during our family photos so that I can have more photos with my kids. This year I thought I would take a bit of stress off my plate by doing my children's' portraits in advance. One day after picking them up from school, we went to Sparrow Grass Field & Flower in Armstrong, which is always open to the public, and also the home of the Bloom Sunflower Festival, and we did these photos.

The session only lasted 15 minutes until Apollo ended up filthy and we had to go home 😆 but we got a surprising amount of edits out of those few minutes. On the day of our family photos, I went to Charlotte to get my hair done, and when I asked Scott if he had any requests for this year's photos, he said he doesn't like doing multiple locations. Normally we do around 3 locations, over an entire day, so this time we did one location, and around an hour and fifteen minutes of shooting. I didn't have the right connection to use my shutter remote with my new camera, so we had to use my phone and a timer, which was less than ideal. It means we didn't get as many group photos as I would have liked, but I still love them all. And now I have the right cord so next year it will be even better!

Every year since we've had our dog, Boss, I also have a tradition of re-creating a 2018 portrait of Gypsy and Boss. This is our 2023 portrait.

And this is all of the years together 😭 I've had the 2018 portrait hanging in a large print, framed on my wall for years, and these photos mean more to me as time passes. I love these so much. Why can't dogs live longer 😭😭😭

While we were doing this portrait, I also grabbed some snaps of just Gypsy being Gypsy, which I also love so much.

I never feel like I am taking my camera out often enough and capturing photos of my own life, but I am so happy for these moments when I do. Picking out which photos to print and display in my home every year, is a core memory for me, and my children love seeing our photos everyday. It reinstates their importance in our family and reminds them of the love that surrounds them. My favorite tradition. Photos are so important.