I recently shot an extended family photography session in Milford, MI. When Mallory contacted me a few months ago about this session, she had a couple of different requests, that took this shoot from the average extended family session, to a very unique family photography session.

Her first request was easy enough: capture photos of the entire family together, as they didn’t seem to have any photos of all of them, and it was very important to them to have some. I love when a client shares my thoughts and feelings on the importance of photography in our lives! It really is so necessary to have photos with your loved ones, and updating them regularly is a good idea too. It’s not very often that I take multiple “everyone smile at the camera” type shots, but this was so important to this family, and I actually really love how they turned out. 

Anyway, on to the unique part of this session. Mallory wanted me to photograph the entire family’s reaction to some very exciting news: her and her husband, Tim, are expecting their first child! Mallory and I had worked out all of the details before hand. I was going to tell everyone to say “cheese” on the count of 3, but after saying 2 they would announce it and take everyone by surprise. It went off without a hitch! 

Being on the other end of this, watching everyone through the viewfinder of my camera was seriously magical. I loved the look of nervous excitement and sheer happiness on Mallory’s face right before they announced, and then after hearing the amazing news, I love how everyone came together to celebrate. It was such a beautiful announcement, and really, such a beautiful session.