Ten Years Later – One Family, One Studio, and a Portrait Worth Updating

Some family photographs become more important with time.

Nearly ten years ago, we photographed a large family group in our Aberdeen studio. It was one of those portraits designed to bring everyone together in a single image – parents, children and different generations of the same family.

The family loved it, displayed it and lived with it for almost a decade.

Then life did what life does. The family grew.

New partners joined. Children arrived. The photograph was still part of the family, but the family itself had changed.

And so, almost ten years later, Fiona contacted us again.

Good morning.
We had a large family group photo taken nearly 10 years ago with you which we all love. We have added to the family since then with new partners and children and would love to book an update with you. There would be 20 of us (12 adults 8 kids) and we would prefer it to be around 20/12/25 or between Christmas and New Year as one family will be home from Dubai over Christmas. Is this something you could accommodate for us?
Thanks in advance
Fiona

Twenty People, One Family Portrait

Photographing twenty people together is very different from simply placing twenty people in front of a camera.

It requires enough studio space, careful posing and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to make adults and children feel comfortable enough for the photograph to look like a family rather than a formal line-up.

For this session we photographed 20 family members – 12 adults and eight children – together in our Aberdeen studio.

The main portrait brought everybody together, but that was only part of the sitting.

One of the benefits of a large family portrait session is that, while everybody is together, we can create many different photographs from the same occasion: individual households, grandparents with grandchildren, siblings, couples, children together and smaller family groups.

Our sitting fee includes these different combinations without any obligation to purchase them afterwards. Each part of the family can then choose the photographs that mean the most to them.

For Fiona’s family, individual family members were able to select and purchase their own favourite photographs, while her father chose the portrait that brought everyone together.

And he chose it big.

A 50-Inch Family Portrait

The final group photograph was produced as a 50-inch canvas.

At that size, a family portrait is no longer simply another photograph on the wall. It becomes part of the room and, more importantly, part of the family’s home.

After receiving it, Fiona sent us another message:

Hi Neil

I wanted to say that my dad is very pleased with his canvas.

Thank you
Fiona

Choosing the right size for a finished portrait can be difficult when looking at dimensions on paper or on a computer screen. A 20-inch, 40-inch or 50-inch picture can be surprisingly difficult to visualise until you see it at the correct scale.

That is why clients can send us a photograph of the wall where they are considering displaying their portrait. We can show how different sizes and arrangements will look in their own room and present them on our 100-inch studio screen.

We can display finished photographs at their actual physical size up to 60 inches, making it much easier to judge what will suit the space before ordering.

More Than One Photograph

Not every family wants one very large statement portrait.

Our newer portrait collection options are designed for families who would rather combine several photographs – perhaps the whole family alongside smaller groups, children, couples or different generations – into a coordinated wall display.

For a session like this one, that opens up many possibilities.

The large family photograph can remain the centrepiece, while smaller portraits tell the individual stories within it.

And because all of those combinations can be photographed during the same sitting, families do not need to decide beforehand exactly which photographs they will eventually want on their walls.

The Photograph Changes Because the Family Changes

There is something particularly special about photographing the same family again almost a decade later.

The first portrait has not become less valuable because the family grew. Quite the opposite. It now records who they were at that moment.

The new portrait continues the story.

New partners are there. Children who did not exist when the first photograph was taken are now sitting alongside parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

That is one of the reasons we believe professionally made family portraits become more valuable with time rather than less.

You are not only creating something for the wall today. You are preserving a version of your family that will never exist in quite the same way again.

After the session, Fiona also wrote:

“Hi Neil, You have done a great job and you made the experience easy and relaxed.
Everyone is very pleased with the portraits and the selection process. Thank you.”

Fiona

Christmas May Feel a Long Way Away. For Family Portraits, It Isn’t.

August may seem early to start thinking about Christmas, but for larger families it is often exactly the right time to begin planning.

Getting several generations together can be the hardest part of the whole process, particularly when children have grown up, families live in different places or – as in Fiona’s case – relatives are travelling home from overseas.

Christmas and New Year are often one of the rare occasions when everybody is in the same place at the same time.

A family portrait session can therefore become part of that reunion rather than simply another appointment.

And the finished photographs can become Christmas presents in their own right: portraits for grandparents, parents and individual family members, framed photographs, canvases or wall collections that will remain long after the Christmas decorations have been packed away.

Your Family Will Never Be Exactly This Age Again

That may sound sentimental, but it is also simply true.

Children grow. Families expand. People move away and return. Ten years can pass remarkably quickly.

Fiona’s family came back because the portrait we created for them nearly a decade earlier still mattered enough that they wanted to create the next one.

For us, that is probably the best reason there is to photograph a family.

If you are thinking about bringing your family together for a portrait – whether there are four of you or twenty – now is a good time to start planning, particularly if you would like to arrange a session around Christmas or when family members are travelling back to Aberdeen.

Contact AberdeenPhoto.com to talk to us about your family, the combinations you would like photographed and the finished portraits you have in mind. We can help you plan the session, photograph everyone together and create something your family can enjoy now – and still value many years from today.