Family Photography in Peoria Illinois |Jonae Cheger Photography
Family sessions are a lot of fun for me. I like to think families enjoy them too. I know leading up to your session is a bit stressful when deciding on what to wear, but once you are out laughing and walking these beautiful parks or downtown areas you forget a little. At least I hope you do. I also love it when families receive their galleries packed full of images they didn't even know I captured. I overshare and I am not ashamed to say so. I have such a hard time narrowing down images from photography sessions. I have tried and tried over the years to give myself less to edit, but I gave up. Ultimately, I felt it was best to give you 60 images and not 15. I mean that amount always varies and there is a minimum of 30 always in the galleries. That is only because sometimes you have a 2 year old who just hates pictures, but most of the time its magic like below. Or at least I am just as stubborn as your 2 year old and determined to come away with a bunch of images I trick your 2 year old into giving me. I work it and have fun doing so.
This beautiful family has been back to me several times and I could not believe their baby is now 2. She has a lot of opinion, but is super cute bossing us around. When she was smiling her brother was being silly and when he was smiling she was being silly. So this made for a lot of fun reality images mixed in with some poses we stole when it was possible. I am sure Mom and Dad were tired afterward, but it was fun. Now they get to look at a gallery chalk full of memories to enjoy forever. Its worth it in my opinion.
Location, Location, Location and time of day. Yes, it makes a difference. Your littles are running around and as we push them into certain locations to capture their silliness and smiles, it helps to have a location that works well for this. I love locations for little children that are not too overcrowded. They get distracted. I also loved this spot because the boardwalk bridges are surrounded with forest and underbrush. So it pushes the littles to stay within the location I want to shoot without stressing them out to do so. The time of day is really important for happy children as well as focusing on having the best light to play in. I can shoot images all day, but certain times will limit where I shoot. If we start early in the morning or the last couple hours of sunlight in the day, then we have this beautiful open light that I can move around in and use most of the areas at a location we want.
