The Real Reason Extended Family Photos Require an Early Start

Extended family photos are one of the most requested sessions I photograph, and also one of the most postponed. Everyone wants them. Almost nobody starts planning them early enough. If you’ve got a gathering on the horizon and you’re trying to figure out how to actually make a session happen, here’s the honest truth: the session itself is the easy part. Getting four or five families to agree on a date is where most people underestimate the timeline.

What makes extended family photos different to plan? Coordinating multiple households across different schedules, travel plans, and family dynamics — not the session itself. The earlier that conversation starts, the more flexibility everyone has. Once a date is actually set, the photos are the straightforward part. Getting four or five families to agree on that date is where the real work happens.

The largest extended family session I’ve ever photographed was for a 90th birthday celebration — four generations, a lot of love, and a lot of moving parts. What I’ve learned from sessions like that one is that the planning phase matters just as much as session day itself, and it’s something I talk through with every extended family client from the very first conversation.

Why Do Extended Family Sessions Require a Different Kind of Planning?

Coordinating one family of four is straightforward. Add in grandparents, adult siblings, and their own kids, and the number of variables multiplies fast — schedules, travel windows, nap times, outfit coordination across multiple households. Most families don’t realize how much that adds up until they’re already in the middle of trying to sort it out.

Here’s something I’ve noticed after photographing a lot of these sessions: having a date set is genuinely one of the hardest parts. My best advice is to already have a date in mind that works for everyone before you reach out to me. Once that date exists, everything else falls into place much more easily.

I’m also usually only in direct contact with one family member throughout this whole process — and that person ends up carrying a lot of weight. It works best when that person really steps into the planner role and takes ownership of communicating the vision to the rest of the family. And that vision matters: my process is about capturing genuine memories together, not just a row of smiling faces. We’ll build in an activity — a family game day, a picnic, whatever fits — and spend real time capturing hugs, laughter, and candid moments, which are especially sweet when grandparents are involved. But if someone in the group spends the whole session saying “Look at the camera! Smile!”, it works against everything we’re trying to create. That’s why it’s so important the point person shares this vision with everyone else ahead of time.

Pro tip: Before you reach out, get everyone roughly aligned on a date. That single step solves more of the “extended family photo” problem than anything else.

Which Life Events Are Worth Anchoring Extended Family Photos Around?

Milestone events are some of the best reasons to plan an extended family session, because the gathering is already happening and the coordination is already underway. Think landmark birthdays (75th, 80th, 90th), big anniversaries, graduations, or reunions that only happen every few years.

The 90th birthday celebration I mentioned earlier is still the session I think about most. With four generations together in one place, we started with the big group photo — everyone together, smiling at the camera — then moved through smaller groupings, and spent the rest of our time capturing candid moments. Those in-between shots, grandparents looking at each other, grandkids laughing with aunts and uncles, ended up meaning more to that family than the posed shot ever could.

You don’t need a milestone occasion to justify a session, either. Plenty of families reach out simply because they want everyone together while they still can. That reason is just as valid. Everyone won’t be together forever, and there’s real value in capturing that now.

Can a Family Vacation Double as Your Extended Family Session?

Sometimes it’s the opposite of a destination trip — families travel into Louisville to be together for a week or a weekend, and you can feel how much everyone wants to soak up that limited time together. If that’s your family, an extended session built around that visit is a wonderful way to make the most of it.

If your extended family is staying at a Louisville vacation rental, I’m absolutely happy to shoot there — it can make for a really fun, relaxed session. My standard travel policy applies: no travel fee within about 60 miles of Louisville, and a travel fee beyond that radius.

Whether you’re traveling in or gathering somewhere nearby, my advice is the same as always: reach out as soon as your dates are set, so we can build the session into the flow of your time together instead of squeezing it in last minute.

What Time of Year Works Best for Extended Family Photos?

Honestly, any season can be beautiful — that’s the beauty of shooting in-home. But summer is my personal favorite when a family also wants to spend some time outdoors. A picnic, a backyard BBQ, a pool party, or everyone playing in the sprinkler together is so much fun to photograph in a big group, and it’s when real personalities come out.

For in-home sessions, I typically schedule around 10:00am for the best morning light. Weekend dates tend to book up fast, so if you want more flexibility, consider a weekday session instead. My honest advice: take the day off work, let the kids skip school, and make it feel like an event rather than a squeezed-in errand. You’ll enjoy the day so much more, and so will everyone else.

How Often Should Extended Family Photos Actually Happen?

There’s no single right answer here — it really depends on your family’s natural rhythm and life stage. What I can tell you is this: everyone always wants that one photo of the whole group smiling at the camera, and sometimes that’s the one that gets printed. But far more often, it’s the candid, emotional images that end up framed and hung on the wall — grandparents holding hands, multiple generations laughing together, the in-between moments nobody was posing for.

If this is your family’s first time doing an extended session and you’re not sure if it’ll become a tradition, here’s what I want you to know: the more fun you make the day, the more likely it is to become one. Watch your family grow through these sessions and enjoy the time together. You will never regret investing in it.

What Does Booking an Extended Family Session with Me Look Like?

When you reach out, it’s helpful to share your approximate group size, the occasion (if there is one), any dates you already have in mind, and whether you have a location in mind.

From there, I’ll send over a detailed questionnaire to help us plan and envision the session together — including questions like “What do you want to remember about this time in 20, 30, or 50 years?” I’ll also ask for a quick video walkthrough of the home so I can see the lighting, and we’ll hop on a pre-session planning call to talk through wardrobe, which rooms we’ll use, and the overall flow of the day. I’m a very hands-on communicator throughout this process — expect texts and voice notes to make things easy on you — but please don’t skip the planning conversation. It’s genuinely the most important part of making an extended session go smoothly.

On session day, I’ll lean on whoever I’ve been in contact with throughout planning to help me identify everyone and keep things moving. We’ll work through a pre-made list of groupings to get the “everyone smiling at the camera” shots out of the way first, then spend the rest of our time on the fun, candid stuff. I’ll guide you toward the best light and offer some posing direction, but the moments themselves are real — the most important thing is that everyone is enjoying being together. The bigger the group, the more we’ll likely lean into your yard or outdoor space to give everyone room to spread out, alongside time indoors.

For wardrobe, my top tip is to coordinate rather than match. Spreading a few complementary hues across a large group photographs so much better than everyone showing up in the same color (a sea of matching blue shirts, for example, rarely photographs as well as people expect). I offer a full wardrobe guide and we’ll work through it together on our planning call.

Gallery delivery is still about 3 weeks, even for a larger session, and there’s no strict time limit on session day itself — extended sessions typically run closer to 90 minutes, but I stay until I feel we’ve captured your story, and I won’t overstay once I know we’ve gotten it.

Already have a gathering on the calendar? 

Start the Conversation Early and Let the Coordination Take Care of Itself

Extended family photos aren’t complicated to pull off, but they do require someone to start the conversation before the window closes. The gathering is the hard part. If that’s already on the calendar, the session itself is the easy piece. These images don’t happen by accident — the families who plan ahead are the ones who actually get the session they pictured.

I’ll be honest: my own approach to these sessions has changed over time. I used to focus mostly on getting everyone smiling at the camera. Now I lean much more into the fun, candid moments, and my families thank me for it every time. It takes more intentional planning on both our parts, but it is so worth it.

What I’ve noticed, again and again, is that when the whole extended family is involved, those images are more likely to get printed and hung on a gallery wall or turned into an album than almost any other session type I photograph. I think that’s because everyone already knows how hard it is to get the whole family together — so once you have it, you want to savor it.

If you’re the family member who keeps bringing up extended family photos at every single gathering but hasn’t pulled the trigger yet, here’s what I’d say: you won’t regret it. The hardest part is getting everyone together, and if that’s already happening, the rest is simple. Set a date, and go from there.

I’d love to hear from you: what occasion is bringing your family together, or how long has it been since your last extended family session? Drop a comment below, or reach out directly to check availability for your gathering.

Frequently Asked Questions