I’ve been photographing the Harris family for a few years now and I love seeing the kids get bigger year over year! We did their family pictures in Barrhaven, right around the corner from where they live. In past years we waited a little too far into the season and didn’t have great foliage. This year, not only were the fall leaves perfect but it was really warm out! Hooray for being able to wear short sleeves at the end of October!

These kids are full of energy and that hasn’t changed in the last few years. Though they are getting better at posing. Part of what I love about family photography is the challenge of photographing young children! Parents are usually mildly terrified that their kids won’t stay still for a long period of time, and that’s completely normal. They likely won’t! But I move fast and we change up the poses often.

We also do some silly pictures, which these guys are pros at! This year we learned that their dad can cross one eye but not the other. He didn’t even know he could do it! Sometimes I show kids the back of the camera to regain their enthusiasm or really bring out the silly in them. Timing is everything, of course – we can’t get too silly early on or we’ll never recover. But once the “safe” shots are out of the way, bring on the silly!

Thank you again Harrises for asking me to document your family again this year. I hope the kids like the images… and aspire to their dad’s mastery of the crazy face!

The kids really brought the silly face here…. took the parents longer to get into it!