Family Photographer in Scituate | Motherhood Mini Session

When I decided to offer a limited number of Motherhood Mini Sessions to take place around Mother’s Day I had a vision of what it should look like. These beautiful pictures of Kelly and her children are basically EXACTLY what I had envisioned! As a family photographer in Scituate, I love finding beautiful locations to take my clients to! In the springtime, I schedule sessions with toddlers and babies in the morning. This is because toddlers and babies are just happier in the morning usually! To have the best lighting, I schedule my sessions within three hours of sunrise. Scroll through to see a few of my favorites from this gorgeous session.

How to Sign Up for My Mini Sessions

As a family photographer in Scituate, I offer a few limited mini sessions throughout the year. If you would like to be alerted to my special mini sessions, you can always check by heading here!

Sessions with Babies and Toddlers

Preparing Your Children for a Session With a Family Photographer in Scituate

As a family photographer in Scituate, I have a LOT of experience working with toddlers and babies! Firstly, I will just mention that I am vaccinated! That is something that can’t go without saying in this day and age! Secondly, here are are my tips on having a session with babies and/or toddlers! I suggest spending literal WEEKS preparing your toddlers if they can understand what you are saying. I had my own family photos done this fall. Every night at bedtime, I would tell my son Callan that soon we were going to have pictures taken by “Miss Lisa.” I would tell him how much fun we were going to have! I would tell him we were going to play games and give hugs and snuggle! And I would tell him “Miss Lisa is sooooo nice!” Even though I had never met her LOL.

Well, let me tell you. We met Lisa for our one hour picture session. (She was, of course, so nice! Haha.) But to this day, Callan STILL talks about Miss Lisa and how much fun we had. He even sometimes asks if she can come visit us. I can promise you that the reason for this is *mostly* to do with my brainwashing technique haha!

Changing (not lowering!) Your Expectations

For a session with toddlers and babies, my personal opinion is that you should throw any expectation of having an “everyone smiling looking at the camera” picture right out the window! As a family photographer in Scituate, I do try my best to get one of these shots right away. But for me personally, I actually tell any photographer taking my family photos that I specifically do not care about having a picture of us all looking at the camera. This is because I don’t want her to waste any more than a few minutes focusing on achieving that goal!

When you are having a photo session with toddlers or babies involved, don’t worry about looking at the camera or having them look at the camera! As a family photographer in Scituate, I have plenty of experience in getting kids to look at the camera and give natural smiles! Expect many of your photos to be beautiful candid moments of you being present with your children when they are this age.

Getting Your Spouse on Board

The session pictured here is a “Motherhood Mini Session,” a session meant for only mothers and children! But if you are planning a photo session with you spouse, as a family photographer in Scituate I have a few tricks up my sleeve! I also have a few tips for how to prepare your husband. Husbands might not always be THRILLED to take professional photos. On my way to a session for my own family session, I will tell my husband a few instructions. I always tell him to NEVER stop smiling no matter what. Then, I instruct him to play with the kids and try to get them to laugh. Additionally, I also tell him not to look at the camera unless the photographer tells him to. These are all the things I tell my clients also!

Another thing I do is to make sure I pick out clothing for my husband. If you are unsure what your husband should wear, you will be happy to have my Style Guide! This is a guide I give to my clients to prepare them for their session. It gives all sorts of tips and tricks on what your family should wear for you session, based on my experience as a family photographer in Scituate.

Should I Schedule a Full Session or Mini Session with a Family Photographer in Scituate?

A question I often get is whether I do mini sessions. The answer to that question is yes, but I typically only offer mini sessions about two times per year. Additionally, I only offer mini sessions to my past clients first. If I have extra spots, I will then open it up to the public. Mini sessions can be great if you just need a few cute images for a Christmas card. Full sessions are perfect if you need art for you walls and want to make sure you have some truly gorgeous candid moments captured. Mini sessions can sometimes be a bit of a gamble. This is because they are so short! Sometimes the perfect moment that *would* have been captured doesn’t have time to happen!

What are the differences?

A mini session is a very quick session (around 15 minutes) where I try to quickly squeeze in as many poses as possible! Usually, you will get about 15 edited photos in your post-session gallery when you do a mini session. A full session is at least an hour long, and even longer if things are going really well and all children and spouses are still happy! You will get many, many more photos in your gallery from a full session. In addition, you will get MUCH more variety in backgrounds, lighting, and poses. As a family photographer in Scituate, I always recommend scheduling a full session for your family. Then, if you LOVE photos, schedule a mini session at a different time of year! You can NEVER have too many beautiful photos of your family!

What to Wear to a Session with a Family Photographer in Scituate

Christina Runnals Photography Style Guide

This is another very common question I get about family sessions! As I mentioned before, I do provide my clients with a Style Guide with all sorts of outfit suggestions. Along with my Style Guide, I also provide an entire list of pictures and LINKS to all of my absolute favorite dresses for photoshoots for moms! Every dress on my list I KNOW will photograph beautifully during your session. On top of all this, I also have a Client Closet! My Client Closet is an ever-growing selection of carefully curated dresses, skirts, tops and accessories. All of the items in my Client Closet are perfect for a photoshoot! I do not provide outfits for children or spouses in my Client Closet, but I can always assist you with what to dress them in!

Colors that Photograph Well

As a family photographer in Scituate, I have very particular colors that I favor! My favorite colors to suggest to clients are soft neutrals, pastels, and jewel tones. It is best if you do not all try to match, but pick a “palate” to go off of. Everyone’s outfits should tie into the palate you chose. I always suggest that mom pick her outfit FIRST. Then, pick the rest of your family’s outfits accordingly. As you can see by the images on my website and on this blog post, I favor light, natural looking photos. This is why I prefer light, neutral clothing choices for my clients. They compliment the natural beauty of your surroundings. You can’t go wrong with light and neutral colors!

Styles That Photograph Well

My absolute favorite thing to recommend to moms is a long, flowy skirt or dress for you session. Firstly, long flowy skirts are extremely flattering on everyone! Secondly, long flowy skirts can provide for beautiful texture in your photos. If there is wind, then they are absolutely STUNNING!! Another item I recommend for moms is a cute hat!! It sounds strange, but hats photograph SO beautifully. Not only do hats photograph beautifully, they can also keep your hair in place on a windy day! I love felt fedoras like the ones Gigi Pip sells. I also have two cute felt hats in my client closet available for my clients to wear!

What Not to Wear!

There are a few clothing items I always advise my clients to absolutely NOT to wear! My first no-no is shorts for men. Men should completely avoid shorts! They are just not very flattering in pictures! Even though shorts can look great in real life, they look a bit child-like in photos. Women should avoid short dresses or skirts because it can be hard to sit down with the kids or play with them and squat next to them. If you have older children, a shorter skirt or dress is fine! Another thing to avoid is neon colors. Neon will distract from the point of focus which should be you and your family! As a family photographer in Scituate, most of my sessions take place in fields or at the beach. Neon colors just don’t fit in with these gorgeous natural surroundings!

Client Love

One of the very best parts of my job as a family photographer in Scituate is hearing what my clients have to say about their experience! Kelly said: “Christina is the BEST photographer. Her photos are always absolutely gorgeous! She makes everyone feel comfortable and relaxed so they look their best. I’ve used Christina multiple times for different occasions and every time I’m so impressed with the photos. Every single shot is frame-worthy.” Oh my goodness, words like this literally MAKE my day!

Booking a Session with a Family Photographer in Scituate

If you would like to book your own full session with Christina Runnals Photography, I would be honored! First, go to my website to find out all the details! You can find out about my packages and pricing as well. Then, go to my family booking page to easily book your session. If a date you are hoping for is not available, just select “other” and write in the date you would like. I may be able to squeeze you in!

For your family session, do keep in mind that it’s always best to contact me as soon as possible to schedule! My calendar for the year does usually fill up by mid-summer.

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Christina Runnals is a nationally published, award-winning family photographer in Scituate who specializes in taking portraits that are light-filled, glowy, and full of joy! She has photographed families all over New England and it is one of her absolute favorite parts of her job.   If you are ready to book a family photographer in Scituate, she is always so excited to be considered!  Please check out her family page for more information on pricing and booking! I can’t wait to hear from you!