THE WHYS – PARTNER PARTICIPATION

I received multiple responses about husbands not being interested in photoshoots but I also got a lot of “I hate having my picture taken.” responses from women. So I’m going to combine the two!

It is safe to say that the way to convince yourself or your partner to have professional family pictures done may require some manipulation! While you may hate the idea of a guilt trip now, you and your partner likely won’t feel regret in the future!

I have been doing this for a long time and I would say that generally speaking husbands tend to be a bit more reserved/uninterested in having their photograph taken. But I have yet to receive a post-shoot email or phone call stating that the husband regretted participating! Now, let me be very clear, the majority of my clients have two very willing participants, which I am grateful for!

Why do you want a family photo shoot? Do you have lots of nice pictures of the family? Will your kids one day have beautiful images of them with you to show their children?

It is so hard to get through our own mental blocks, trust me, I have been there and I happen to have one parent in particular that is far more stubborn about having their picture taken than the other (it’s totally my mom!).

The thing is no one is trying to make you look foolish or capture your flaws! A photographer wants to help you capture memories that you are directly involved in. Think of it this way. One day your kids will look back and think of a fun day they had, would you rather they say

“Remember that time we had a snowball fight and dad was taking pictures of us?”
OR
“Remember that time we had a snowball fight and you hit dad in the face with that big snowball!”
“Yeah! That was the best! Mom and dad started laughing so hard. I’m glad we have pictures of it!”

Family photography has evolved so much and I feel like a lot of people haven’t quite realized that yet. They think back to when they had stiff formal family pictures done at some studio that was too hot and too small and they had to wear the same thing as their sibling! I have been there, I know how you feel! Nowadays shoots are far more fluid. You get to move and interact with each other and to boot, you can wear whatever you want!

Don’t be one of those people who wishes they had participated more. Don’t let your kids wish they had more pictures with you! Hell, don’t let your partner wish that! If there is one thing I would love for you to take away from this post it’s this, pictures are so often more for those we love rather than for ourselves. No one is ever going to regret having pictures of you, but they will always regret not having more.