Let’s start with the part nobody really needs sugar-coated.
Organising extended family photos can be a pain in the arse.
Someone works weekends.
Someone else is away.
One family has sport.
Another has a baby who naps at exactly the wrong time.
Grandparents have plans.
Someone forgets to reply in the group chat for six days.
And eventually somebody says:
“What about the 14th?”
And somehow, miraculously, everyone is free.
Honestly, getting the family into the same place at the same time is usually the hardest part.
Once you’ve managed that, the actual photography session is much easier than people expect.
I Don’t Photograph the Whole Family All at Once for Two Hours
When there are lots of people involved, I work through a fairly predictable mental checklist.
I’ll usually start with the youngest child in one family.
Then their siblings.
Then the siblings together.
Then the kids with their parents.
Then the parents together.
Once I’ve finished that smaller family, I move onto the next one and start with the littlest again.
After I’ve photographed each individual household, we’ll usually move onto the bigger combinations:
The whole extended family.
Grandparents with the grandchildren.
Grandparents with their adult children.
Siblings together.
And then anything else that matters to you.
Maybe you want the cousins together.
Maybe there’s a particular relationship you really want photographed.
Maybe there’s an aunt who is basically a second mum.
Maybe Grandma wants a photograph with all of her daughters and granddaughters.
I have my usual flow, but I’ll always ask if there are other combinations you want.
Because I know what I would photograph automatically.
I don’t know which relationships matter most to your family unless you tell me.
The Littlest Kids Usually Go First
If there are toddlers, babies or young children involved, I generally try to get through their important photographs early.
They have the shortest attention spans.
They’re also the least interested in the fact that nineteen adults have coordinated diaries for the first time since 2017.
They do not care.
So I don’t expect them to patiently wait around while we photograph every adult combination first.
With a large extended family, I’m also not spending twenty minutes creating endless variations for every individual household.
We move fairly quickly.
I get the photographs we need.
Then the kids can run around, play, have a snack and come back when I need them again.
Which is one reason I often recommend making the portraits part of something bigger.
Make It a BBQ. Or a Picnic. Or an Actual Family Day.
If you’re already getting everyone together, make a day of it.
Bring a picnic.
Have a BBQ.
Let the kids run around.
Bring food and drinks.
Make it feel like the family gathering happens to include some photographs, rather than everyone standing around staring at me while they wait for their turn.
Yes, there is some risk involved in allowing small children near food while they’re wearing the clothes you carefully chose for photographs.
But honestly?
I’ve never met a tomato sauce stain on a white shirt that Photoshop couldn’t fix.
I would much rather the kids have something to do and everyone relaxes than have twenty people standing around in increasingly bad moods trying to preserve pristine clothing.
Coordinated Is Better Than Matching
Clothing can become a surprisingly large group project when there are several households involved.
Please don’t make it harder than it needs to be.
I normally recommend choosing two or three colours everyone can work from and letting each family dress themselves within that.
You do not all need matching shirts.
You definitely do not need every man in a white shirt and every woman in beige.
Choose a simple colour palette, send it to the family group chat, and let everyone find something they already feel comfortable wearing.
The goal is for everyone to look like they belong in the same photograph.
Not like you’ve formed a very polite cult.
We’ll Plan Around Whoever Needs the Most Support
If somebody uses a wheelchair, struggles to walk long distances or simply needs easy access, that absolutely affects where I suggest we photograph.
The location needs to work for the person with the least mobility.
Around Launceston, places like City Park and Hollybank can work really well because we can create plenty of variety without asking someone to hike into the wilderness.
That doesn’t really change how I photograph the family.
It just means we choose somewhere that makes the session practical for everyone.
The same goes for seating, rest breaks or anything else someone needs.
There is no point choosing a beautiful location if getting there makes half the family miserable before I’ve taken the first photograph.
Yes, Grandma Will Want the Looking-at-the-Camera Photo
And Grandma is getting it.
I am not anti-everyone-looking-at-the-camera.
There is a place for that photograph.
Particularly with extended families, I know someone is going to want the traditional picture where everyone is together, looking towards me and hopefully not blinking.
That does not mean the entire session needs to have school-picture-day energy.
We can get the photograph Grandma wants and then move on.
The smaller family groups can still feel relaxed.
Kids can move.
People can laugh.
Couples can actually look at each other.
Grandparents can cuddle their grandchildren.
The fact that it’s an extended family session doesn’t mean everybody suddenly needs to stand in rigid rows for two hours.
And honestly, with a bigger family group, sometimes it feels like getting that shot of everyone looking at the camera and smiling at the same time is a feat in itself!
There’s Usually One Person Who Doesn’t Want to Be There
There just is.
Sometimes it’s a teenager.
Sometimes it’s someone’s husband.
Sometimes there is an uncle giving off a very strong sense that he would rather be literally anywhere else.
That’s fine.
I’m not trying to convert everybody into someone who loves having their photograph taken.
If you’re over it, I will make your part quick.
I’ll probably poke fun at you.
“That’s a good miserable face.”
“You are so over this already, aren’t you?”
And then we’ll get on with it.
The deal is basically:
Help me get the photographs I need and I can fuck off out of your face faster.
As long as someone isn’t deliberately pulling horrible faces in the one photograph the entire family needs, I don’t need enormous enthusiasm.
I just need cooperation for a few minutes.
Large Family Sessions Usually Take a Little Longer
A typical extended family session will usually take around 90 minutes to two hours.
There’s simply more to get through.
More households.
More combinations.
More people wandering off to eat sausages while I’m trying to find them.
But, as with all of my sessions, there isn’t a hard time limit.
I’m not watching the clock and suddenly announcing that our ninety minutes are up while we still haven’t photographed Grandma with the grandkids.
We keep going until we’re done.
That said, I do try to keep everything moving.
Nobody wants a four-hour portrait session.
Especially not me.
Ordering Doesn’t Have to Become One Person’s Problem Either
Another thing people sometimes worry about is what happens afterwards when several households all want different things.
The answer is: we make it work.
I encourage as many people as want to come to the viewing appointment to come along.
Each family can have their own separate order, so one person doesn’t suddenly become responsible for collecting money from all of their siblings, cousins and parents.
If everybody can’t attend at the same time, we can organise separate viewings.
Earlier this year I photographed an extended family who couldn’t find a viewing appointment that worked for everyone who wanted to attend, plus organise childcare for all the kids.
But they knew everyone would be together again a month later for a birthday.
So I packed up my samples, took my laptop to their house and connected it to their tv and we did the viewing there.
Is that my preferred way to do it?
Not really.
Can we make things work when we need to?
Absolutely.
The Hardest Part Is Usually Getting Everyone There
Once the session actually starts, there’s a structure to it.
I know who I need to photograph.
I know the combinations I’m looking for.
We work through them.
People take breaks.
Kids run around.
Somebody eats something.
Somebody disappears at exactly the moment I need them.
We find them.
It’s fine.
The chaos is manageable.
The organising beforehand is usually much worse.
And unfortunately I cannot personally make your brother reply to the family group chat.
That bit is on you.
And Yes, It Is Worth the Hassle
This is where I get slightly more sentimental than usual.
My Nana organised Christmas at her house for about five years in a row because every year was apparently going to be her last Christmas.
For years, it became a running family joke.
And then eventually it actually was.
And when it was, we were pretty glad we had kept turning up.
We were glad we had taken the photographs.
The first extended family photograph we took without her also became the last extended family photograph we have with my Pa.
You don’t really know which family gathering is going to end up meaning more than you realised at the time.
That doesn’t mean every family event needs to become a solemn exercise in documenting everybody before someone dies.
That sounds exhausting.
But it is one of the reasons I think extended family photographs are worth doing occasionally.
Families change.
Kids grow up.
People move.
Grandparents age.
New people arrive.
And yes, sometimes people aren’t there next time.
It Will Be a Hassle. Do It Anyway.
I am not going to pretend organising extended family portraits is effortless.
It won’t be.
You will probably send too many messages.
Someone will make choosing a date unnecessarily difficult.
Someone will ask what they’re supposed to wear three hours before the session.
There may be tomato sauce involved.
But once everybody is actually there, you don’t need to manage the photography.
That’s my job.
I’ll work through the different households.
I’ll keep things moving.
I’ll get Grandma her everyone-looking-at-the-camera photograph.
I’ll let the kids run around.
I’ll get the reluctant family member finished as quickly as I can.
And somewhere amongst all of that, we’ll make photographs of the people who make up your family right now.
It will 100% be a pain in the arse to organise.
And I still think it will be 1000000% worth doing.