Christmas Portraits - there's still time!

What a busy week we've had working on portraits for Christmas. We had a wonderful weekend with a number of families in the studio for our Christmas Special and that has not stopped. Add in some location portraits and a lot of fun sports pictures and we've had a wonderful week! Saturday morning I had a visit from my associate photographer, Dennis and his family. We talked about the big loss for the Spartans football team the night before at Callaway. Dennis covers a lot of sports action for me and had followed Coach Ken and the Spartans again this season. Somehow, through all the fog Dennis came out with some great pictures of Spartan Football. Friday evening I'd been photographing some Spartan Swimmers. Anyway, we did take time photograph Dennis and his family for their Christmas Card- here they are for you to enjoy.

OK decoration procrastinators - I had a session early this week in a home completely decorated for Christmas - yep, trees, lights, wreaths, garland and more. How neat to be able to make the Christmas Card picture prior to Thanksgiving in front of your own decorations. You'd never know these three had made it through a whole day of school prior to this session - thanks guys, I had a great time working with you and everyone is going to love the pose your mother picked for the card.

Sometimes we need an excuse or just a "gentle shove" to get us into action on those family portraits. We all want them but they can be a challenge to coordinate on the scheduling end of the deal. I recently read an article about how a family's pictures are the most prized possessions in the house. How many times have you heard, or considered yourself, that if you had a fire the one thing you'd try to save would be pictures. They are indeed priceless. I think one reason that I encourage family portraits so much is the fact that in my growing up years my family did not have portraits made. I think that weddings were the only time we were all in a picture together - before I started insisting on portraits a Christmas. But by then I was grown and a photographer and everyone expected that. I'd give almost anything to have a picture of all six of us in my childhood family - but it doesn't exist! Sure it can be a challenge to get it scheduled and get everyone in the correct outfit - but you are not only recording the moment to enjoy today - you are creating a treasure for generations beyond today. Really, let's schedule your family for a portrait treasure - there's still time before Christmas!