5 Things to do the Morning of your Family Photoshoot
When you book a family portrait experience, it takes a little more preparation than simply rolling out of bed in the morning. Especially when children are involved, there are a few things you should do the morning of the big day to make things as easy and smooth as possible for everyone involved.
In this Blog post, I will go over the 5 things to check off your to-do list the morning of your portrait session!
1. Get enough sleep
While this actually starts the night before your portrait session, it’s important to not wake up too early. Make sure you don’t schedule your session for a time that’s unrealistic for your family. If nobody is up before 8am, it doesn’t make sense for you to show up at the Studio at 8:30am. I don’t have set start times for sessions, which means the start time is completely custom and determined entirely by your family’s preferences! I’ve had sessions start as early as 7:30am, and as late as 2pm. So think about your family’s perfect morning wake up time, figure out how long you realistically need to get ready, and go from there!
2. Drink lots of water
The first thing we should all be doing after waking up is drinking a large glass of water. After spending a full night in bed, our bodies tend to be dehydrated and lacking this very essential substance. But even after that first glass, be sure to keep drinking throughout the morning! Having enough water in your system will make your skin look better, give you energy, and will make the overall experience a lot more enjoyable!
3. Eat a good breakfast
This should go without saying, but there are lots of people who don’t actually eat breakfast in the morning. The day of your session is different though! It’s not the same as going into the office and sitting at a desk or driving around doing some errands while you wait for your body to get hungry. Having a nutritious and nourishing breakfast is absolutely essential in order to have the energy that will last throughout the photoshoot. It doesn’t have to be a BIG meal, but you do have to eat something. If you need to bring snacks with you, please do. But under no circumstance, should you arrive hungry and not having eaten (trust me on this one!).
4. Go with the flow
We all have a tendency to want things to go according to plan: a pre-determined perfect morning we have in our head that is supposed to manifest into reality because we want it to. While I would certainly love it if things went according to plan on ANY of my mornings, if you have children, a spouse, and are trying trying to make it out of the house at a predetermined time, things WILL go wrong. Children will be whiny. Someone will spill maple syrup all over themselves. Johnny will all of a sudden have to poop right this minute. So here’s my suggestion… don’t worry about everything going perfectly. Don’t even worry if it’s quite honestly a complete disaster (which, btw, it certainly could be). Your job is to accept the mayhem as part of the process. Your job is to stay calm. To let go of trying to control the situation. To try and not yell at your spouse or the children. And to simply do your best with the reality of what happens.
5. Breathe
When we get stressed out, our breathing becomes shallow and faster-paced. We often don’t notice this. We go through our day with our bodies getting hurried breaths, which exacerbates the problem. So it’s very important, especially on the morning of your family’s portrait session, to purposefully take slower, deeper breaths. If someone is annoying you, breathe in. If nobody is listening, take a deep breath. If you seriously just can’t believe how long it’s taking everyone to get out of the house… pause, fill your lungs with air, and breathe it out slowly and purposefully. If you’ve ever done yoga or meditation, those deep breathing skills are going to be really useful right about now. It might seem silly to think that simple breathing can change our stress level, but it can! So use it to your advantage!
How you arrive to your portrait session can very well determine the outcome of our time together. Staying calm and composed, preparing ahead of time, and knowing what to expect are all really important! I hope you found the 5 tips above helpful.
