Family Photography - 3 More Poses

Welcome Reader! If you’re here because you’ve read my previous post on posing families then welcome and I hope this gives you a few more tips. If you’re just here for the first time - Woohoo! I hope you like this guide and find it useful.

Either way, at a guess I would say that you’re here because you’re curious about family photography - whether because you want to be the subject or the photographer so lets get started.

I think that it’s very important to understand that I value connection in my photos over perfection. I would much rather send a photo that isn’t ‘technically correct’ but shows love and connection than a photo that is technically perfect but everyone seems stiff and awkward.

When you value connection over perfection - you can release the need for the session to go prefectly. The kids don’t HAVE to behave themselves the whole time. They can be a little bit crazy, they are allowed to get bored and want a break, and we can turn what could be a stressful session into having fun and mucking around with our loved ones.

You don’t need perfection - you just need love.

It’s very easy to go into a family session with heaps of ideas in mind and then not managing to do most of them, so I really recommend just having three or four main poses or prompts and then letting the session flow naturally from there.

and then Make a new plan!

So, now that we’ve talked a little bit about setting our expectations for the session, lets dive in! I would recommend getting the Money Shot first as that way it’s out of the way, and you can relax that you don’t have to think about it anymore. It’s also the photo that everyone is most used to - everyone knows the standing smiling at the camera. We’ve all taken that photo and had that photo taken of us before. It is a really important photo to take, even though it’s not a “Fun / Exciting Pose” it is absoutely important to get that photo because sometimes, that is all the clients were really after. It’s usually the photo that their family is after as well. Nanna loves having this photo to display at home, so definitely make sure to get it.

This was their “Money Shot / Grandma Shot”. The kids did their best during this session, they had a lot of energy and weren’t wild about getting their photos taken, so this was the first photo / pose of the session because I could tell straight away that we’d probably only get one shot, right at the start of all them.

For this shot, I got bub on Mums’ hip, and then the next youngest in between the parents. I did ask the little girl if she could give Mum a hug, but she didn’t feel like it at first and thats okay.

Moving on, once I was happy that we had this shot down, I asked everyone to get a little more squishy! We popped the two little boys on parents hips and got the snap below.

Prompt: everyone look at each other, and think about who is the person most likely to sleep in!

Prompt: give someone a big squeeze

For example, in this photo everyone was struggling to relax in front of the camera, which is COMMON - so I asked them to give someone next to them a big hug. Yes, some of the kids faces aren’t in view but thats okay. You can still see that everyone is there, and more importantly - you can see that connection. This isn’t a stiff photo when it otherwise might have been. It draws your eye around to the different people to see what is happening in all those little interactions.

After this, we gave the kids a little bit of a break to get some engagement shots of Mum and Dad. A few minutes later, once the kids had finished their snack, we went in this pose - which you might remember from my previous post. We get Mum to lay down with her head on Dads’ lap and then pop the kids everywhere.
One of the kids didn’t want to be in this photo, and I could tell that Mum was feeling stressed so I just said “no its’ okay - he can just sit there I’ll change angle so that he can still be in the shot."
And while they didn’t work out perfectly, we did have a low stress session. I instead asked their daughter to give Mum a kiss and captured this lovely moment.

Prompt: Can you give mum a kiss?

By this time, one of the little ones was totally finished with photos, so we decided it was time for a race! The kids were totally up for this (so much so that they did it at least 5 times!)

Now I know this is a few more than three poses, so we’ll call this one the BONUS PROMPT for today.
So, when the kids have too much energy and can’t sit still - it’s time for some fun. I gave the kids the task to race to Mum and Dad and give them a really big hug when they got there!

Which I think worked out with some fun for everyone!


I hope you found this guide useful and informative! You’re welcome to send me any questions you may have. Best of luck with your future family session!
If you’re interested in booking a session with me - click the button below and submit an inquiry and we can have a chat!