Who hires a professional photographer to document their family reunion? Our daughter, Kirsten, hired a photographer for our first family reunion eight years ago in Santa Barbara, California, and it was a great success.
We all received the collection of gorgeous photos taken by the photographer – including this humorous one of Beth’s brothers.
These photos were the best gift from our reunion eight years ago.
With the upcoming family reunion on Sanibel Island, Florida, Beth’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Barbara, hired a professional photographer to take family photos during our stay as their Christmas present to all of us.
On the last night of our reunion, 15 of us gathered at the beach for the photo session an hour before dusk. Julie, the photographer, started with group shots in many different configurations: families placed near each other, tallest to shortest, walking down the beach holding hands….
When she started taking photos of the 4 grandchildren, Joe took his own snaps using his iPhone.
When Julie, the professional photographer, asked them to jump in the air, Joe stepped to the side and snapped the image as well. We love the joy on their faces!
She asked the next generation (40 year olds) if they wanted to try jumping for a few photos. Our son, Joshua, surprised us by jumping right out of the frame.
We suspect the photo of Julie taking a portrait of Tom and Barbara might be more interesting than the professional portrait itself.
Julie finished right before sunset and said her goodbyes. Most of us weren’t in a hurry to leave the beach. We wanted to see the sun collapse into the Gulf of Mexico.
There was just enough light and still more photos to take before the sun disappeared.
During this family reunion when we were with our family, we wanted to enjoy being with them. We rarely took out our cameras. It just seemed a distraction. So, having a professional photographer capture sweet and joyous photos of everyone was a welcome way to remember our reunion. We’ll have more than Sanibel shells to document this reunion.
December 2018
simpletravelourway 
Great idea – everyone gets to be in the pics
I had a great time watching your family fun – no doubt, with the photos, you’ll have that same pleasure over the years 😉
Making and capturing more memories to relive over and over. It looks like the family reunion was a happy event and the gift of beautiful professional photos was well worth it. (Hey, and Joe took some good pics too!) 😁 Anita
We had a great visit. The wonders of hiring a professional is how seriously everyone took her requests. If we’d asked our kids (ages 40+) to jump in the air for photo – I’m sure they would have not been as sweetly cooperative!
What a brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing the experience.
It never would have occurred to us – but thanks to our savvy daughter for coming up with the idea and hiring the perfect person to start us off right.
Such special memories for you all.
What a wonderful experience! I can’t wait to hear the boys’ stories and see shells this weekend! B
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It’s the perfect place to take kids for a vacation in our opinion and less pressure on the adults for finding activities to entertain them.
At sunset, did you see the green flash as the sun disappeared into the ocean? I’vs read about it but never seen it.
—RobRob
We looked for the green flash as someone mentioned we should – but, alas, no one saw it. Guess that was the only disappointment of the week!