Family Photography

This week my family was up in Cayucos, a small beach town on the Central Coast of California, for a family vacation. We hadn't all been together in about three years, so we were very excited to see each other and have a good, fun and relaxing time.
My sweet mother really wanted actual evidence that we were all in the same spot at the same time, and she wanted to hang this evidence in the house for all to see. No one really considers posing for family photos as fun or relaxing, but if we were going to do "Family Pictures" we might as well do them right. Instead of asking a passerby or relative to do the job, we started searching online for actual photographers. I remembered an old friend from Cal Poly who I heard was still in the photography business in the area - everyone liked his website, and he gave us a great deal, so we went with Jay C. Winter Photography.
Jay came over and okay-ed our outfits (similar colors but Not Matching!) We walked down to the beach and he helped us get comfortable and took a whole bunch of our whole family, just the kids, just the girls/boys, etc...
Our family has never had an expert take our pictures, and it was fun to know that we were going to get some good pictures for my parents to have for a long time to come.
Taking pictures is never the fun part - after our wedding the last thing I wanted to do was take pictures - I was envious of everyone else playing volleyball and horseshoes while eating cheese and drinking wine. But as fun as our wedding was, it's the pictures that help me remember, and it's the pictures that are hanging on our wall.
While it was hard to stop playing frisbee at beach, put down our cookies, get out of the jacuzzi and get ready for  pictures, I'm glad my mom motivated us to take a couple hours out of the day to capture the vacation as a whole! And we were so blessed to know someone nearby to take beautiful and creative photos.
Do you know someone interested and talented in photography? Next time the family is all together, give your photographer friend a chance to exercise their skills and capture your memories better than a local passer-by by might.
Here are some more friend photographers... who do you know and where are they located?
Lauren Ristow - Arizona
Jay Winter - Central Coast, California
Sissel Byington  - Southern Californa

Your Suggestions are Linked!

Jason Glenn - Texas
Daniel Beckham - Orange County, California
Allison Jean - Texas