Our Family Portraits
As photographers we live our lives capturing other families milestones and memories we often forget about our own. So we've recently updated our family portraits, they were taken by the wonderful family photographer and a longtime family friend Trish Taylor from Imaging Studios. We've just moved back home and we decided that we wanted our family portraits in the midst of the H-town action, primarily photographing on Texas and Main in downtown Houston. The last time we had family portraits was in Los Angeles and Jack was 8 months old - one of the best ages for family photographs in my opinion. This time, with a toddler now 18 months old, was a game changer. He is now very energetic, wanting to run around and in awe of every new thing. Nevertheless, we got beautiful images of our family at this milestone in our lives.
Styling For Our Session
Not only did having a professional photographer taking our portraits lessen our stress but Natalie had professional styling and great local boutiques to shop at for Jack. Color coordinating for family portraits is very important. It can make or break a great photo. Patterns and bright colors can be too distracting, and being too matchy-matchy can date your photos turning you away from displaying a family photo, which is why you went to a professional photographer in the first place. For more information on color coordinating read our blog post on styling.
Natalie worked with professional wardrobe stylist, Ashley Kahn, to set the base of the color scheme. Ashley mostly worked with Natalie for this shoot since we wanted her to stand out and the mom is most important anyway. Natalie discussed with Ashley that we wanted our images to be fun and casual, and that we wanted to wear neutral tones. Ashley was great in that she listened to Natalie's personal style preferences and taking into account her body type, curvy and petite. She put together a color scheme for us to follow, created a virtual closet of clothing combinations, accessories, shoes and preferred shops to shop at for her body type. It was so helpful to just have a couple of outfits to choose from and to know which stores to go to. Pretty much all Natalie had to do was go to the store to make sure the clothes fit. Natalie's blush pink top and white ankle pants are from Ann Taylor, who has a great petite section by the way. Her tassel sandals are from Elaine Turner and bracelet from Kendra Scott. With Natalie's wardrobe set we then worked on Jacob's clothing.
Jacob loves his monochrome white leather converse shoes, so those were a must-have. Plus they go with everything and also add a nice casual feel. Then we paired his gray pants with a nice blue button up from Banana Republic to complete our look.
Styling For Jack
We like to keep up with different children's boutiques in Houston so we can find cute outfits for Jack and to recommend places to our clients where they can find photo ready clothing. For Jack, we found that Itsybitsy Boutique had lots of cute options and we fell in love with an outfit by Rachel Riley - The Heritage Collection and boots by Manuela de Juan, beautifully handcrafted leather shoes that added an adorable touch to his outfit. After our family photo session I discovered Prince George was dressed in the same outfit for one of the royal family's portrait sessions. Not bad style company if you ask me. This timeless blue and white outfit tied together me and Jacob's outfit perfectly.
Now the next family task to tackle is Holiday portraits... oh and laundry.
Don't Stress
We know first hand getting guidance on styling from professionals can really take the stress out of getting your family portrait taken. At The Shelby Studio we want to make the portrait process fun and memorable. We strive to take all the stress out of the photoshoot process by providing a professional stylist, considering your goals and style for the shoot and naturally capturing your family. At our Heights photography studio, we can comfortably accommodate you and your family and while staying out of the Houston humidity and heat.