Family portraits at the family ranch

If you’ve ever driven out to Utah Lake, then there’s a good chance you’ve passed this place. Right where the new river delta drops into the lake, that’s where this place is located. It’s the ranch where, as a kid, Andrew went after school to work, and the place where he spent most of his summer days, helping his grandfather. It’s got a lot of meaning and memories for him and when it came time for family pictures, the ranch wasn’t just about a pretty location, it was about a place that held so much of his family history. 

I think that’s just fantastic and I’m all for it. When you show up at a place like that, the pictures become less about posing and more about presence, and that sort of thing, that approach, that’s right up my alley. 

Is there a "best" time for family pictures?

Here’s the Frandsen family who I’ve known since these no longer little kids were, well, little. Christine told me she’s wanted to get family pictures for years, but one thing or another  caused her to put it off. But this will be the last year all four kids will be living under the same roof so it seemed like a pretty good time to schedule something. 

When I look at this first image of all of them together, I don’t just see a well-dressed, happy family (though there’s that, for sure). I see a mom who finally said, “This is the time for getting a family picture.” And in that resolution, a little bit of calm before the next chapter — before kids move out and life starts to take a uncharted direction. 

And now she has these pictures to remember it all and to remember this exact feeling. She’s got these picture to remember not just how everyone looked — but how it felt to be together.

Family studio portrait

I’m not sure how other family portrait photographers run things, but around here, we invite people to come to the studio to view their images a couple weeks after the pictures have been taken. We put them up on a big screen so the client can see the images big, in all their glory, instead of looking at them on a tiny screen. We offer digital files, books, and prints, and we really focus on the value of a tangible, printed piece that will last for generations.

When Brett and Beth hired me to photograph their family, they weren’t entirely sold on the print idea and mostly just wanted digital files. Well, they came back to the studio to view their family pictures and I sometimes say my goal is open weeping for people looking at their pictures. I’ll just say, that goal was achieved that day and the ended up getting a good amounts of prints including a big honker for their wall.

There’s just something about a printed photograph.

My approach and philosophy for family portraits

I’ve always loved this quote from Peter London in his book “No More Secondhand Art”, he says, “It is not beauty we are after, but meaning. Big, deep, wide meaning.” That strikes a chord. While I sure appreciate aesthetically pleasing moments with family pictures, my primary aim is to capture authenticity and something that is true, and I value that over an idealized version that might not actually exist in real life. So, I look for genuine, unscripted connections that not only look amazing, but are real. And heartfelt. So, if you are looking for a family portrait that gets at the depth of your family’s story, let’s chat. — All that said, I just got some film back from my time with Shay and Ryan and I think this image gets at the heart of what I’m talking about.