Family: Brackett at Napa Valley
If you look below and we look familiar - that’s because this is my whole family! I often get told how much my sisters and I look alike. What do you think? Every other year we spend Christmas together going on family vacation somewhere. We are spread out across the country and don’t live close to each other so it’s always a fun and wild time when we do get together. Since Travis and I are moving to South America next month we decided to meet up in Napa Valley to celebrate Christmas early and spend some quality time together.
ANNNND since I am a photographer you know I am all about taking updated family portraits. This year I reached out to many different photographers and everyone was booked - it is the most busy time of the year for photos - so I decided to take them myself. We took these portraits on the property of our Airbnb in Napa Valley with only 20 minutes to get as many photos as possible due to lighting and dinner reservations. We even got one family photo with me thanks to the babysitter that came over to watch my niece and nephew before our evening out in Napa.
If you have ever taken family photos you know it can be stressful - I feel like anytime you have to wrangle more than four people it is always chaos. I thought it would be fun to have every separate little family pick a color from the rainbow and coordinate to those colors so I gave no color or outfit coordination this year.
“I wanted to make this photo session as easy as possible and wanted everyone to just wear what they wanted, because to me it was more about just getting the photos captured than having the perfect look! ”
My younger sister got engaged this year and we are so excited to have David in our family! I know my dad is super excited to have another male join the crew. So these family photos were extra special this year. Thankfully, Travis has become quite the photo expert so I was able to jump in a photo of all the ladies and have Travis take it. I think it’s so important to get different photos broken down by family, ladies, gentleman, kids, and of course grandma and grandpa! We only had 20 minutes for this photo session before we had big dinner plans so we had to move fast to get as many quality photos as possible.
I’ll never get tired of photographing my parents. I love how they nailed the outfit coordination all on their own here and they look so happy. You can tell they enjoy having the whole family together in one place!
My nephew is obsessed with his grandpa so we had to make sure we got a photo of these two together. My niece wanted nothing to do with the dress my sister picked out for her or family photos. However, with the help of Travis we were able to get her outside the house for a few quick photos and even told her she could wear her TJ PJ’S. “You do you, Josie”. I think this is honestly the most adorable family portrait ever because this is what Josie loves right now and it truly captures who she is at this age!
“Josie wanted nothing to do with photos this year, so I didn’t push her to take them, but I also didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to be a part of the photos we take every year as a gift for my parents. When Josie was willing to to come outside for just a couple photos I let her wear whatever she wanted, because I was excited to have her join the family photos. I know as a mom it can be super stressful and you want everything to be perfect, but Miranda has taught me how when it comes to family photos you just have to go with the flow, because kids are going to be kids! ”
Of course I had to get some portraits of my sister with her fiance! I am so excited for these two and their future together. Welcome to our wild family, David!