Hello! I thought I’d send you a little check list for your upcoming family beach portrait along with a few tips on how to get the best photos possible out of your session.

What to Wear:

There are some families that have a long tradition of wearing white and khaki or for their beach photos and if that’s your family, well then you can skip to the next section.

However, if that’s not your thing, here’s what I recommend…It’s nice to coordinate within the family. You may choose to all wear blue/green tones or perhaps the women wear color and the guys wear white shirts. It’s almost easier for me to tell you what not to wear and show you a few images of what works.

• It’s ok if one person wears a bold pattern, but if everyone does, then it’s a bit overwhelming. You could always use the colors out of one piece of clothing and everyone else where’s something that coordinated with that.

• Stay away from logos and text on shirts.

• Don’t worry about shoes, I’d say that 99% of people do not wear them in their beach photos.

• Jeans on the beach in August might send you into a heat stroke in Charleston. Save that for the winter.

You don’t have to be afraid of color!

What to Bring for Kids:

This checklist depends partly on how old your children or grandchildren are, so pick and choose to your liking.

• Wipes for runny noses, spit up, sand and the like.

• Baby powder. This is new to the list as I’ve learned it helps get sand off of babies and kiddos like magic.

• Diaper bag with diapers just in case…

• Any special toy that you might want included in the photos

• Other fun options that allow for some great candids (though their not necessary) are bubbles, kites to fly, sand toys or other games or activities to keep the kids (and adults!) busy and unaware of the camera.

What Do We Do?:

I usually like to start with getting a group shot of everyone. It’s a great way to get the photo shoot started and check one of the most important photos off our list! Next, I usually take photos of various combinations of people. If there are multiple families involved, I get shots of each of the families or groupings of the kids. Other great combos are shots of each parent with the kids, grandparents with their grandkids, just the kids, etc. I like to let these flow as they will so that no one gets burned out.

Kids need room to run and play in between and I’ll grab candid shots of them while we prepare for the next group. I like to give them the space to do their thing without being instructed to “smile” or “look at the camera”. Often the best expressions come naturally and without cajoling. This is where having bubbles or kites or a ball to kick around come in handy.

One other thought… If you want to , feel free to bring the kids (and your?!) bathing suit and we can do a few photos of them in the water at the end of the session. Kids always end up in there anyway, so you might want to take advantage of it.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Leigh@LeighWebber.com