Door County's Crossroads at Big Creek | Winter Family Session for a Wedding Couple
Elianna and Andrew are from Chicago, and I’m the lucky photographer who’ll document their Landmark Resort wedding in September! They have three wonderful children, and the whole family came up for a mini-winter vacation and family photography session.
We were toying with three locations: on-site at The Landmark, at Frank Murphy Park, or downtown Egg Harbor at Harbor View Park. However, when I did location scouting last week, it was clear we needed a different plan. As you know it’s been a monstrous winter. We still have a ton of snow, and both Frank Murphy and Harbor View parks were completely unplowed. Can you imagine the kids trying to move around with snow up to their waists? It would have been miserable! At least The Landmark’s parking and frontside sidewalks were clear, but their backside walkways and patios (where I was hoping to photograph) were not.
You might have noticed that I shoot at Crossroads A LOT. Yes, it has a ton of natural beauty and variety within a short walking distance, but during winter it’s one of the only accessible spots in the county. Crossroads’ trails are well maintained for both hiking/skiing making it a joy year-round. Although our first three locations weren’t going to work out, Crossroads was the perfect back-up!
The keys to a successful family session are to have fun, get the children involved, and celebrate the group as well as each individual. As Andrew and Elianna prepared baby Aria in her stroller, I gave the kids my camera to take pictures of each other. It’s a simple act, but it broke the boundaries associated with a camera, and they were immediately receptive to having their photographs taken.
To get genuine expressions, I love asking questions and playing games during family sessions.
“Emma, what’s your favorite funny word. Diarrhea? Ok, everyone say diarrhea!”
“John, show me your best Fortnite dance!”
“Emma, do you want to swing on your parents’ arms? Get ready, John; you’re next!”
“Who’s the most ticklish?”
“Do you ever give each other piggyback rides? Who’s the best at it?”
“Let’s play tag. Who wants to be it?”
As our session was coming to an end and the kids had Al Johnson’s on the brain, we concluded with two minutes of adult-only time. When preparing, I sent Elianna one of my previous sessions as a stylistic model. After checking it out, she said, “I was reading what you typed about how they felt awkward doing couples shots, but the pictures don’t show that at all and are absolutely amazing! That's how Andrew and I feel. We get so nervous so we really don’t have any photographs of just us.”
If you ask me, they don’t look nervous at all!
Check out highlights from Elianna and Andrew’s family session below, and come back to see how their September wedding turns out :)
