The most common thing Marin parents say before booking a family session: I’m a little worried about how the kids will do.
Not about the location. Not about what to wear. About whether everyone will be in the right headspace: whether their child will feel comfortable, whether there will be big feelings, whether it will all come together.
Here’s what actually happens when a kid isn’t feeling it.
They get time.
When a child arrives and makes it clear they’re not interested in being photographed, I don’t push. I don’t try to coax them into games they haven’t agreed to, and I don’t pretend the resistance isn’t there.
I keep shooting (the parents, the siblings, the dog) and let the reluctant kid watch from the sidelines until they decide to join on their own terms. They almost always do.
They get a job.
Some kids don’t want to be in the photos. They want to be in charge of the photos. I’ve handed sessions over to seven-year-olds who decided they were the directors. I’ve taken direction on where everyone should stand. I’ve said yes to ideas I hadn’t thought of myself.
A happy, cooperative kid matters more than any plan I walked in with. So I say yes to their ideas, and that’s usually when the good stuff starts happening.
The parents stop trying to manage it.
One of the first things I tell families before we start: we’re a team. I have experience, I can adapt, I’ll follow your lead, and you don’t have to solve anything on your own.
That tends to land. Most parents arrive a little tense, already rehearsing what they’ll say to their kid if things go sideways. When I make it clear I’m not expecting perfection (that I’ve worked with a lot of moods and know how to move with them), the parent relaxes. When the parent relaxes, the kid usually does too.
It’s a little dance. But it almost always works out.
If you have a particularly shy child, this post on helping a shy five-year-old through a session has more on what actually helps in those moments.
A note on timing.
One practical thing that makes the biggest difference for families with young kids: morning sessions over evening ones.
By late afternoon (especially after school, activities, or a full day of being a person), kids are running on fumes. Hunger and tiredness tend to show up in the photos in ways nobody wants. A morning session, when everyone’s rested and the Marin light is still soft, changes the energy completely.
When you’re thinking about where to shoot, it’s also worth factoring in your family’s natural rhythm. Some locations (the San Rafael open space trails, Old Mill Park in Mill Valley) feel entirely different in morning light than they do at golden hour. I’ll help you think through the timing and location together when you get in touch.
Even this (a real moment from a real session) turned into a photograph worth keeping.
What you don’t have to do.
You don’t have to prep your kids with a speech. You don’t have to bribe them in advance. You don’t have to apologize at the start for how they might behave.
The sessions that produce the best photos are almost never the ones where everyone behaved perfectly. They’re the ones where something real happened: a laugh that got out of hand, a kid who took over and turned out to be right, a moment nobody planned.
At the end of almost every family session, there’s a high five. Because it takes the whole group to make the magic.
If you’re ready to book, check session details and pricing or reach out directly. I keep a limited number of openings each month. You can also read more about what mini sessions look like in Marin County, get a sense of what it costs, or browse what to wear before you book. Or meet me first, either works.