Heather Neal Photography

What do you get when you take 2 grandparents, 6 adult children, 5 spouses, 21 grandchildren, a very hot, sticky morning with brutal and harsh sun and 1 photographer? Well, in this case, I would say some great family photos. When Abby contacted me to see if I was available short notice because her brother was going to be in home on leave from the military and they didn’t get very many opportunities to get photos of the whole family, of course I said I would be happy to help out. When she said her family was big (34 people big to be exact), I didn’t shy away at all. To me, the only thing different about doing sessions with very large families is the expectations. With small families I work hard making sure everyone is happy, looking at the camera and their eyes are open. We walk around capturing different backgrounds, maybe some candid shots. That’s what is expected. With large families like this one I take it minute by minute and let the session direct me instead of the other way around. With this many little people, there aren’t very many moments that everyone is happy at once so I look for those moments and take advantage of them. The sun was hot and bright and would cause hot, unhappy little bodies, shadows under eyes, squinty or closed eyes, and blown out (too bright) backgrounds so when I found a shady spot that fit the whole family I decided the best bet was to just stay there and rotate people in and out. There wasn’t a whole lot to work with to mix things up and get artistic shots which is hard for me to just let go of in a session, but again…the expectation was different. For this session it was to capture this big, beautiful family all together if only for a moment, and hopefully these images will bring back memories of all of their fun times during this visit together for many years to come.