THE FAMILY RESOURCE GUIDE
Family Photo Ideas
That Aren’t Just
Standing in a Field
You do not have to stand in a field at sunset and smile at a stranger with a camera to have beautiful family photos.
You can make pancakes. Wash the dog. Run through the sprinkler. Go get ice cream. Build a blanket fort. Let your toddler wear the rain boots they refuse to take off.
The best family photo ideas usually aren’t really photo ideas at all.
They’re things your family would actually have fun doing together.
And that’s where your story starts.
BEFORE YOU PICK A PLACE
Start with your family. Not the location.
When you're planning family photos, it's easy to start by looking for a pretty location.
A field. A park. A studio.
Somewhere with the “right” background.
I like to start somewhere else.
What does your family
actually love doing together?
Maybe Saturday mornings mean pancakes and cartoons. Maybe your kids could spend six hours throwing rocks into a creek. Maybe Dad is always working on something in the garage with a tiny helper following behind.
Maybe you have a garden everyone helps with, a favorite taco place, a neighborhood you walk every evening, or a kid currently obsessed with dinosaurs.
That's the good stuff.
Your session doesn't need an elaborate theme. It just needs somewhere to begin.
01
STAY HOME
Make breakfast
together.
Pancakes. Cinnamon rolls. Waffles. Eggs with way too much cheese.
Let everybody pile into the kitchen and make the thing your family actually eats.
Little kids can pour, stir, and steal berries off the counter. Someone will probably spill something. Dad may burn a pancake. The dog will absolutely be waiting underneath.
Perfect.
A kitchen gives us something to do, which means nobody has to wonder where to put their hands or how they're supposed to smile.
And someday, that kitchen may look completely different.
That's part of why it's worth remembering.
02
GO OUT
Go get
ice cream.
This might be one of the easiest family photo ideas on the planet.
Pick your favorite ice cream shop and let everyone order.
Walk around the block. Trade bites. Clean melted chocolate off somebody's face. Let the kids inspect everyone else's cone to determine who made the superior choice.
There's no complicated plan required.
It's just your family going for ice cream — with someone there to remember it.
03
STAY CLOSE
Spend the morning
in your backyard.
You don't even have to leave home.
Pull out the hose. Pick tomatoes from the garden. Draw with sidewalk chalk. Push somebody on the swing. Dig in the dirt. Bring out the bubbles. Eat popsicles on the porch.
Your backyard doesn't have to be landscaped or enormous.
It just has to be yours.
And if your children spend their childhood there, there's already a story worth photographing.
04
GET A LITTLE MESSY
Go to
the creek.
Take off your shoes.
That's basically the entire plan.
Let the kids splash. Skip rocks. Hunt for minnows. Climb over fallen trees. Collect approximately 700 “special” rocks that you will apparently be bringing home.
Creek sessions are especially good for kids who need room to move, explore, and forget there's a camera around.
Nobody has to stay clean.
Nobody has to stay still.
Nobody has to look at me unless they feel like it.
05
STAY IN
Have a slow morning
at home.
You do not need to clean your entire house first.
Really.
Stay in pajamas. Make coffee. Jump on the bed. Read books. Build something on the living-room floor. Snuggle on the couch. Give the baby a bath.
An in-home family session lets the place where your life is actually happening become part of the photographs.
The tiny bed they'll outgrow. The stuffed animal that currently goes everywhere. The couch everybody piles onto. The fingerprints on the back door.
Your home doesn't need to look like a magazine. It needs to look like home.
06
GO WHERE YOU ALREADY GO
Take me somewhere
you go all the time.
Instead of asking:
“Where should we take pictures?”
Try asking:
“Where do we always end up?”
The coffee shop where everybody knows your order. The Saturday farmers market. Your neighborhood park. The library. The taco truck. The little downtown strip where you always wander after dinner.
These places might not feel special while you're living in them.
But ordinary places become incredibly important when they're attached to a season of your family's life.
07
FOLLOW THEIR LEAD
Turn their current obsession
into the adventure.
This is where family photos can get really fun.
If your child is obsessed with dinosaurs, let's go hunting for dinosaurs.
Space? Let's build a tiny astronaut adventure. Bikes? Bring them. Horses? Absolutely. Kites? Let's find some wind.
Your kid carries a red balloon everywhere for reasons known only to them?
Bring the balloon.
You don't have to choose something that looks like a traditional family photo session.
Choose something that makes your kid think:
“Wait... THIS is family pictures?!”
08
MAKE THE ORDINARY THE STORY
Do a chore
together.
Hear me out.
Wash the dog. Water the garden. Work on the old truck. Bake bread. Feed the chickens.
Fold laundry with a toddler who is actively making the pile worse.
These are the things that can feel far too ordinary to photograph right now.
That's exactly why they're worth photographing.
Someday the dog won't need a bath in that backyard. The little hands helping in the garden won't be so little. And you might actually get to fold an entire basket of laundry without someone immediately unfolding it.
It doesn't have to be magical. It just has to belong to this version of your family.
09
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Go somewhere new
together.
Your photos don't have to document something you already do.
They can document the day you tried something new.
Go strawberry picking. Rent a canoe. Visit a little carnival. Take the kids fishing. Fly kites. Explore a new town. Find a swimming hole.
Give everyone five dollars at a thrift store and see what they find.
Pick something you've been meaning to do together and make a day out of it.
Now your family session isn't an appointment everybody has to survive. It's an adventure you get to remember.
10
GIVE THEM A SAY
Let the kids
make the plan.
This one can get dangerous.
I highly recommend it.
Ask your kids:
“If we could do anything for family pictures, what would you want to do?”
You might get ice cream. You might get puddle jumping. You might get dinosaurs, a playground, and a very specific request involving a cape.
We don't have to use every idea.
But somewhere inside their completely unreasonable proposal is usually something wonderful.
Because kids don't plan family photos based on what
will look impressive.
They choose what sounds fun.
THE PART I WANT YOU TO KNOW
Your family doesn’t need to
perform for the camera.
You don’t have to be good at family photos.
Your kids don’t need to listen perfectly.
Your toddler doesn’t need to smile on command.
Nobody needs to know what to do with their hands.
And you definitely do not need to spend an hour pretending to casually walk through a field while repeatedly looking at each other and laughing.
You need something to do
and people you love doing it with.
I’ll take care of the rest.