Holiday Family Photos

There's no doubt about it.  The holidays are upon us now.  And as I mentioned in a previous post, our family is really trying harder these days to capture family photos whenever we are all together.  We have also learned a few things pretty quickly about photographing our group, especially around the holidays.

First of all, think of the scene on Thanksgiving Day after your big family dinner.  The kitchen and dining room is a wreck and everyone is laying around on the couch watching football.  Hardly what I would call a photo opportunity.  Same with Christmas morning- gifts strewn about, wrappings and boxes littering the floor.  Now, I'm not complaining, that's what the holidays are all about.  But how many of those "not-so-nice" pictures do you have in your archive?  I will be the first to fess up that we have more than a few.  And we always will.  I'm not saying not to take those pictures, but just think of what other pictures you can come up with to supplement those.

So we figured last Thanksgiving that the best photos we would get would be outdoors, and they were! These photos were taken literally in our own backyard   Daddy had let the leaves pile up for the kiddos to play in, and we let them have at it while we clicked away, capturing lots of candid shots. For the more organized group shots, we used Daddy's old truck as a "prop" and all climbed in the back for a bit of a different shot.

Emma played happily on a blanket in the yard...

While the bigger kids got to the business of making a huge pile of leaves.  Yes, I was one of the bigger kids, but Charlotte stole the show with her leaf raking abilities.

 Time out for a photo of the Harris Sisters!

And then, game on!  

The kiddos played in those leaves all afternoon, until we had to finally drag them back inside. 

And for the "organized" group photos, we grouped the kids in this shot. 

And then Daddy, with all his girls, and all his grandkids together in this shot. 

The one good shot that I got that day that was not taken outside was a very random and candid shot that I might never be able to duplicate, and it's a goody.  Daddy was in his chair reading a book to the kids, and somehow, he managed to capture the attention of all of them at once.  

Not surprising really though.  Daddy has been known to spin a good yarn in his day.  :)

I loved these Thanksgiving photos from last year, and now it seems like the effort of putting a little time and thought into them is nothing compared to the priceless photos we have from that day.    I hope this gives you an idea or two of your own, and if you have other fabulous ideas for holiday photos, please leave them in the comments section because we are always looking for new ideas. Heck, we may even put them to the test and blog about them later.  ;)