I have been meaning to do this blog for so long now. It took a Pandemic for me to take the time to collate my favourite images of my daughter Lena, for the last 8 years of her life and 8 years of my life as a family portrait photographer. When I moved into family portrait studio in Ranelagh, Dublin. It had been my intention all along to photograph her every year. Of course I photographed her and her brother before then but I had a particular style in mind and tried to keep things as similar as possible so that I could capture her growing and transforming every year. Some portraits are more styled than others and some are just her, as she was on that day, unbrushed hair and all things that she didn’t care about when she was younger. And this is exactly whole point of having your kids professional photos taken throughout their childhood, it’s capturing that unique expression at that particular age at that moment in time. Take a look at her 8 portraits. The portraits begin when she was just 7 years old, up to her 14th birthday this year. You might notice the most recent portrait was taken in her bedroom as due to Covid, I have temporarily moved out of my studio.
It’s so easy nowadays with modern technology to capture lots of moments of our children’s lives and share to social media but when do we really stop and take the time to capture that special expression and display framed family portraits in our homes. The real goal of having your kids professional photos taken throughout their childhood is slowing down and capturing your child at that particular age and moment in their lives.
Research shows that having framed family portraits displayed in your home has a huge impact on children
- Displaying your children’s portraits can be an important part of how they develop their identity and self-image.
- As kids learn to socialise, seeing themselves lets them know that they are part of the family unit and most importantly, when they see portraits of their milestones at different ages displayed in your home, it makes them feel valued and makes them feel important.
Here’s a really good article on the subject.
Having your children's portraits taken regularly
There really are no rules on when and how frequently you should have your children’s portraits taken but when you begin your journey of growing your family, start by hiring a newborn photographer to photograph your newborn baby. These portraits are invaluable. I always recommend to my clients to come back when their baby is a year old, your child’s personality is developing and is discovering the world and again having baby portraits taken at this time is all part of documenting your child's life and after that this rest is up to you.
Hiring a professional family portrait photographer to capture your children’s uniques personality will pay dividends for generations to come. When you hang beautifully framed family portraits on your wall, it’s so much more than a social media post that can be scrolled past in seconds.
Your children will see their best selves and the best you see in them. It will help them figure out who they’ll become along the way.
They’ll learn the importance of showing pride in your family. When they grow up and have kids of their own, they’ll have portraits taken of their children, and the legacy of their keepsake portraits will be passed to a new generation.
I am so glad I took the time to photograph my daughter every year. Photographs are our legacy. If we didn’t have photographs, we would have nothing to look back on.