Way back on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of working with Rachel and her family. 

When Rachel had originally set up the session with me a month or so before the shoot, her and her family were thinking about doing the photos at a park. Ultimately, the family was able to find a church that would let us use their space, which was great considering Wednesday was pretty awful for doing anything outside. 

I think large group photos are some of the hardest photos to do, and Rachel's family was huge. I believe it was all of her siblings, their spouses, their kids, and her parents for a total of 30 some people. Anytime there are more than even four people, it's difficult to get a photo where everyone is looking, no one is blinking, and everyone can be seen, so the over 30 people was pretty challenging.

Overall, I thought the photos turned out well, and the family was great to work with.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot:

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In the first photo, you may have noticed the kid on the left is making a face. As I mentioned before, in photos like this where there are this many people it's hard to keep track of everyone and make sure everyone is smiling/looking/ready. In a situation like this where a kid is making a face instead of smiling, I decided a while ago that it wasn't really my place to tell a kid to smile or not. Some of the reasons why I don't think it's my place to tell a kid to smile are: the parents might not care, the parents might be offended by a complete stranger telling their child what to do, and, since I've likely never met the family or their child before, I don't know if the child has some type of disability. Ultimately, if the parents are upset about it, they can talk to their child about it. 

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