Family Photography Tips

Meet Kaylan Buteyn Kaylan is a wedding & family photographer, blogger and creative. She spends her days with her two year old son, Finley, and her husband, enjoying the outdoors, working in their garden, or turning their 150 year old house into their dream home. They recently moved from NY to TN and are loving the warmer weather! Kaylan is obsessed with living as locally as possible, with as much thought and purpose as she can, and always strives to keep things creative and handmade. 

1 Pause Before You Shoot Step back and decide what you want to capture before you start shooting. Is it the excitement on your child's face, or the way they are dwarfed by an impressive landscape? Keep the intended focus in mind with each shutter click.

Don’t Forget the Candids! 2 Don’t Forget the Candids! Sometimes it’s the moments where nothing seems to be happening that are the most special. Like my little guy snoozing on the roads of Iceland while mountains go by out the window? Yeah, I'm so glad I captured that. 

Forget the “Perfect Photo” 3 Forget the “Perfect Photo” Don’t pressure yourself to take the “perfect photo” – instead, aim to capture meaningful moments. From the photos below, I remember when my son held onto a penny through hours of naptime and walking through Paris. Subtle moments like hand-holding, my husband picking my son up to see something, an interaction with a local – these will all be things you'll want to remember...perfect photo or not. 

Photograph your meal times 4 Photograph your meal times I know that meal times can be chaotic, but one of the joys of traveling is trying new foods, dining with friends, and visiting local restaurants. Capture a few of those things in photos so you have a visual memory of that meal, the new foods your kids tried, or your favorite restaurant that you discovered on your trip. You won’t regret it.

Pay attention to lighting 5 Pay attention to lighting If the sun is high in the sky, get your subjects in the shade. If the sun is lower to the ground and has that glowing quality to it, feel free to have your subjects stand with the light facing them. I chose a bench in the shade for this shot of our family because the sun was pretty bright (as you can see behind us in the pic) and we would have been washed out and squinting standing in the sun. 

6 Get in the Photos! Don't be the parent that only ever takes photos of your kid. Adults should always be included in family memories. Your kids will want their parents in photos years from now. 

6 Hand off the Camera Hand off your camera to your spouse so you can get in the photos. Because I shoot on manual with a dSLR, I typically expose and set up the shot before I hand it off to my husband. Though I'm probably present in our photos the least of anyone, the ones we have where I'm included I know I will cherish someday. 

8 Use Your Phone! If all else fails, use your phone! Lugging around a large camera might not seem worth it to some, though I would never regret taking the photos I do on trips for an instant with my dSLR. However, I still document a lot of our trips with my phone because it's quick, and I love having an account of our memories there.