A Beautiful Summer Night at NCMA

Another family lifestyle session at sunset at the Raleigh NCMA for a family of young kids is in the books. Although our school starts on August 23rd, some schools in the area have already gone back. This family was getting ready to send their first born daughter to Kindergarten when we took these photographs a few weeks ago. Her mom wanted to mark this transition of life with a Mommy + Me session at sunset. I thought it was such a sweet idea to mark this special season a life with some photographs to look back on for a lifetime.

I am getting ready to send my daughter, Penelope to Kindergarten in a couple of weeks and I totally feel all the feelings about it right now. Excited, sad, worried, and bittersweet. She’s growing up and I can’t slow it down. If you follow me on Instagram, I just posted in my stories the other night a picture of Penelope sleeping in her Aurora costume when I checked on her before I went to bed. She had changed into the costume sometime after I had tucked her in. It was a moment when I remembered how innocent she is and how when she goes to elementary school that will slowly start to change as she is exposed to new kids and new experiences. I’m not ready for her to leave this bubble, but I am ready and excited for her at the same time. It’s very confusing. It is definitely bittersweet time for moms of Kindergartners. If you know one feel free to ask them how they are holding up. Don’t worry- I’ll be fine. I’ll just be over here crying in my wine. 😭

If you are interested in doing a family session with me get in touch here to begin the booking process.

How to Prepare Your Family for a Sunset Session

Many parents are hesitant to schedule an evening family photo session. Believe me, I get it. It’s hard wrangling little ones when they are used to dinner, bath, bed at that exact time. It’s called the witching hour for a reason! It’s stressful to think about how it might not go well, and how bad the meltdowns could be. But, in my experience children usually rise to the occasion! I have photographed a lot of children in the evening and I swear I never have had a bad situation. In general I’m not that worried about how kids behave when I have a session. I try to get the kids to play and have fun. But to set your mind at ease I have some tips to help a sunset session go smoothly.

1. Let go of your expectations. Trust that I will lead the session and your kids will be allowed to explore and have fun. Show up ready to play, snuggle and let your kids do their thing. We won’t ask them to just stand in place and smile. That will be too hard for them to do for a long period of time and I’m not interested in stiff, posed images anyway! Kids feed off the energy of their parents, so as parents try to stay calm and relaxed and most likely your kids will follow suit. But if they start to get a little wild, it’s ok, we’ll just go with it!

2. Have a low key day. If you can, schedule your session on a day that you don’t have to work, and you and the kids can just lay low. If you can at least have the afternoon at home it will help in having plenty of time to get ready and not stress and rush around. Just to reiterate what I mean about laying low: please don’t have your kids attend a party on the day of the session. Take it from me, kids tend to be tired and grumpy when forced to do something they think isn’t fun after a fun event like a birthday party!

3. Prepare your family in advance. Let everyone know in advance that they’ll be getting pictures taken but it will be fun experience and they will get to play! Explain to your husband that it is a lifestyle session so it’s not going to be as stressful as a session where everyone is expected to look and smile at the camera for a long period of time. That causes a lot of stress because everyone knows getting kids to look at a camera is stressful! Also, ask him to help get the kid(s) ready so you have more time to get yourself ready! Leave plenty of time to get the session on time so you aren’t stressed driving over to the location.

4. Play fun music on the way there. Keep the mood light. Remind everyone that it will be fun. Try to keep the vibe happy, but also like it’s not a big deal? Cause it’s not. It will be fine!

5. Have an early dinner and surprise kids with a treat after! It’s our tendency to think as adults, to think we’ll have dinner when it’s over, but trust me you’ll want everyones bellies full before so no one gets hangry. Also, this can be controversial, but I recommend not bribing with ice cream or another treat after. I’ve seen that go badly when the kids are way too focused on the treat after and just want the session to end. Instead, assure to the kids beforehand that they are on their way to do something fun and just make it seem like the experience is the treat! Definitely treat them after the session is over, but as a surprise!
   
   If you are interested in scheduling a sunset session with me. Contact me here.

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