A family poses together during a joint. senior and family portrait session with Nicole Hawkins Photography #seniorportraits #familyportraits #veronanj #westfieldnj #nicolehawkinsphotography #newjerseyphotographer #portraitphotography #heirloomphoto

It was such a treat to take this family’s first portrait since little Winter was added to the family. Mom is a busy doctor who is about to send her oldest daughter, Chloe, off to college. They hadn’t done family portraits since Chloe was a preteen. Mom felt there was a lack of planning when they did their NYC session, so they were thrilled to come to the studio and discuss image priorities and location options, flip through album samples, and plan out a session that would lead to images and artwork they loved.

I was especially glad that I asked about the siblings during the pre-session consult. Mom let me know that Chloe and Winter don’t often get along and that she would be thrilled if I could create a beautiful photo of the two of them that showed the sweeter side of their relationship. Knowing this ahead of time was so helpful because I was able to plan fun activities for them to do together, and I created exactly what mom was hoping for.

This beautiful family recently moved from Hoboken to Westfield and has a lot of empty walls they wanted to adorn with beautiful family memories. They didn't have any framed family photos to hang up because they didn't have any that included 2-year-old Winter. Now that Chloe was a high school senior and about to leave home, it was really important to mom to have some nice family portraits that could be the focus of their new home and that she could look at every day. She also loved the idea of an album, and I am currently designing a beautiful 30+ image album of this gorgeous family. For the wall, we decided to create a statement piece for the family room with a favorite black and white family image.

We chose an outdoor location in Verona, New Jersey so that toddler Winter could run around and enjoy herself during our session. I also chose a park that had a lot of variety when it comes to backgrounds and locations since I knew we would be making a story-telling album. I wanted semi-formal portraits that would look beautiful on any wall, but also very playful images in the field that showed their personalities and relationships. We had a great time, and the light was absolutely magical at the end of the session. In the end, we created some stunning photographs to fill the walls of their new home and the pages of their family album.