Family get togethers, special events, capturing the candids!

Family and Friendly FUN - how can we remember?

Parties, gatherings for the holidays, birthdays, barbecues...we have SO many fun reasons to celebrate or to just have fun gatherings with friends and family!  While you may not have a need/desire to document every detail of every gathering, many times these parties would create some amazing memories if captured on camera!  A lot of people remember after the fact and wish that they had taken more pictures!

I LOVE photographing events!  If you find yourself doing this, paying attention to the little behind the scenes details is as much fun to capture as main moments of the event!  This little frame and pot were set out for guests to drop their cards to the graduate!  The details provide so much frame work for your compilation of images that you will create!

The food is always fun to get creative with when showcasing what was on the menu!  You don't need to have a full picture of the entire spread when a close up detail of the arrangement might be more powerful!  Also see the beautiful cakes that were made for the 2 guests of honor at this graduation party!!

Catching the hostess and one of the graduates putting together some last minute touches on things makes for a really fun candid!  Shooting from across the room let me be more of a fly on the wall and the subject didn't even know I was grabbing a picture!  I love how this shot shows Maysie intently working on a project and you can see other elements of the space where she was...the light fixtures, balloons, cakes, flowers...

Once people start to arrive, it's so fun to get the first reactions and interactions of the guests! These are some of my favorite times to grab the candids!  People are totally lost in the moment and don't notice me even for a second!

It's always important to get a couple of set up shots of the main attraction, if there is one!  In this case, the graduation party was for Farron and Maysie and this was the perfect spot to photograph them, in front of the table where their pictures from baby-hood were proudly displayed!  Catching grandma and graduate looking over the images was a neat moment to have on camera as well!!

At this celebration, we had a selfie station set up for the guests to do fun selfies or pose for a group shot.  I found myself enjoying taking posed pictures of groups in addition to catching people taking pictures of themselves!  SO fun!!

Candids are my all time favorite types of photos to look back on!  Talk about something that really captures the feeling of a moment and can transport you back to the day...the candid is where it's at!  Seeing these sisters that my daughter has known since she was literally a few months old, lined up together at a table and appreciating all the photos of her childhood and writing a personal note to her...there is feeling in this picture that just doesn't happen in a posed shot!  

The table full of family and friends just chatting and enjoying the day...all SUCH good stuff!!

Granted when you are the designated photographer you get a little less time to mingle but I can assure you that it's completely doable to collect really cool images AND get to participate in the party!!  One VERY important tip as well, if you are the DP (designated photog...) be sure you let someone turn the camera on you too!  I can't tell you how many parties and celebrations that I attended when my kids were younger and I'm nowhere to be seen in these memories.  It's super important to be remembered as well!!!

Enjoy these special events in your lives and whether you have hired someone to take the shots, or you just do it yourself, you can get a wonderful collection of images to look back on and bring a smile to your face!!