Tips for Taking Annual Photos of Your Family
/Taking annual photos of your family makes a fun tradition!
But they are not easy.
I’m talking about when the same people are posed in the same location once a year for many years.
Why? It’s is a great way to honor your family, and to see how the family grows over time.
Here are five tips for taking annual photos of your family!
look how she copies her dad’s pose when she was 3 - Adorable!
1. Pick a day of the year most likely to have the necessary people in attendance for your annual family photo.
birthday
holiday
annual vacation
first day of school
Chinese dad Hua Yunqing posed with his one-year-old daughter at a lake, way back in 1980. He liked the photo so much that he and little Huahua posed at the exact same spot each year on his holiday from work. For 35 years! Amazing!
See all the photos, and read the touching commentary in this nice article by Martha Cliff for the Daily Mail.
Not a real family, but here they are in 1991…
and here they are in 2011. Who is that girl?
2. Decide on the rules for your annual photo of your family, and decide if the rules for the annual picture are flexible.
Can girlfriends be in the photo?
Can the day of the year change if necessary? The location?
Do the people in the photo always stand in the same order?
3. Have a consistent place to store the photos.
Where is the photo of you and your first car? Physical photos tend to be shoved in boxes, or cut up and put in albums.
Photos on your phone tend to stay on your phone, lost among thousands of other photos.
Photos in a cloud storage system are hard to find unless you are consistent in tagging and filing them.
“Our sixth birthday”
4. Have something consistent or uniform when taking a picture every year.
a sign
a landmark
a color of clothing
Watch this incredible video! Still photos of triplets, every year on their birthday.
5. Some years someone wont want to be in the annual family photo. Have an ally who can help you convince them.
toddlers can be squirmy
teens can be moody
family members can get in arguments
Have someone on your side, someone who agrees that the history and tradition of the annual family photo is more important than the temporary mood of one of the participants.
Suck it up, and smile for the camera!
Sometimes, we need outside help. We need support in our parenting journey.
If you are experiencing a family member with ADHD or Autism, we can help!