A woman rang me about eighteen months ago and I have not forgotten the conversation.
Her mother had died. Her daughter had been born eleven weeks earlier, and the two of them had met, and the only photograph of it was a blurry phone image taken in a hospital corridor by a cousin, with a food trolley in the background.
She was not ringing to book anything. She was ringing, I think, to say out loud to somebody that she would have paid any amount of money for one good photograph of that afternoon.
I think about that call every time a family tells me they will organise the extended family portrait next year.
Why this one gets left the longest
Everyone agrees it should be done. Almost nobody does it.
The reason is logistics, and the logistics really are difficult. There are three or four households involved, at least one of which is not local. There is an elderly person who does not travel easily. Someone works weekends. The baby sleeps at unpredictable times. Getting eleven people into one room on one morning requires a level of coordination that nobody wants to be responsible for.
So it gets deferred to Christmas, and at Christmas everyone is busy, and it gets deferred again.
The other reason, which is less often said, is that booking a four generation portrait requires acknowledging out loud why it is urgent. That is uncomfortable, so families talk about it as a nice idea instead of a timed one.
I would rather be direct. If you have a grandparent or great grandparent in their eighties, the window is now, and next year is not a guaranteed thing.
Doing it while there is a new baby in the family
Here is the practical part, and it is genuinely good news. A new baby is the best possible reason to organise this.
Everyone is already motivated to come and meet the baby. The relatives who do not usually travel will travel for a new grandchild. The people you would otherwise have to cajole are already asking when they can visit. All you are doing is attaching a photographer to a gathering that is going to happen anyway.
So the timing that works best is the first three months, while visits are frequent and the enthusiasm is high. It also gets the baby photographed in a stage that will not last, and it means the portrait exists before life resumes and everyone scatters again.
If you are already planning a newborn session, the simplest approach is to extend it. We do the extended family frames in the first half hour while everyone is fresh, release the wider family, and then continue with the newborn session as normal.
How I actually structure a large group
Backwards, from the most fragile person in the room.
The first principle is that the oldest person is photographed first and is seated throughout. Not at the end, when they are tired and have been standing in a hallway for forty minutes. First, while they are at their best, in a chair, comfortable, with the baby brought to them.
From there I work outwards in layers. Great grandmother with the baby. Then the four generation frame, which is usually the whole point of the day. Then grandparents with all their grandchildren. Then each individual family unit. Then the full group, which I often leave until later because it is the one everybody can manage.
By the time we reach the big group shot, the person who needed the most care has already been photographed several times and can sit down again if they need to.
The other thing I will say about large groups is that we do not need everyone looking at the camera in every frame. The best multigenerational photographs are rarely the arranged ones. They are the frame where a great grandfather is looking at the baby instead of at me, and everyone else is looking at him.
Location, and why home often wins
Three good options, in rough order of how often they are the right answer.
A family home. Usually a grandparent’s. There is no travel for the person who travels least well, there are chairs, a bathroom and a kettle, and there is meaning in the room. A portrait taken in the house where you grew up carries something a studio cannot manufacture.
A park or garden. Lovely in good weather, and better for very large groups. The consideration is ground surface and distance from the car. A soft lawn and a fifty metre walk is fine. A sandy beach and a set of stairs is not, if someone is using a walking frame.
The studio. Controlled light, no weather risk, and a clean formal look that suits a portrait meant to be printed large and hung. Best for groups of up to about eight.
Whichever we choose, mid morning is the right time. Older relatives are generally at their strongest earlier in the day, and so are babies.
What everyone should wear, kept simple
The rule for large groups is a narrow palette rather than a uniform.
Pick two or three soft colours and let everyone choose within them. Creams, oatmeal, soft greys, muted blues, olive. Send the palette around a fortnight beforehand, not the night before, because someone will need to buy something.
Avoid logos, bold stripes and anything with strong pattern, because in a group of eleven one loud shirt becomes the subject of the photograph. And ask people to avoid pure white if the session is outdoors in bright light.
For older relatives, comfort outranks everything. If your grandfather has worn the same cardigan every day for six years, photograph him in the cardigan. That cardigan is part of what the photograph is of.
Keeping it short
An extended family session should be forty five minutes to an hour. Not more.
Every additional minute costs you something in patience, and the currency is spent first by the two groups you can least afford to lose, which are the very young and the very old. I would rather work briskly and finish with everyone still cheerful than chase a perfect frame into a second hour.
What that requires is a running order agreed beforehand. Send me the names and the groupings in advance, and I will have a sequence in my head so there is no standing around while people work out who is next. That preparation is most of the difference between a session that feels lovely and one that feels like a chore.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the best time to do a multigenerational portrait with a new baby?
Within the first three months, while family visits are frequent and everyone is motivated to gather. It can be added to the start of a newborn session, which is the least demanding way to organise it.
How many people can be in one session?
I have photographed groups well into the teens. Above about eight, an outdoor location or a large room works better than a studio. Whatever the size, a running order agreed in advance keeps it efficient.
What if a grandparent cannot stand for long or uses a wheelchair?
Then they are seated for the entire session and everyone else is arranged around them, which often produces a better composition anyway. I photograph the eldest family member first, while they are freshest, and choose a location with short distances and easy access.
How long does an extended family session take?
Around forty five minutes to an hour. Longer than that and the youngest and oldest members both start to struggle, so I would rather work efficiently through a planned sequence and finish while everyone is still enjoying it.
Can we combine it with a newborn or family session?
Yes, and it is the arrangement I most often recommend. We complete the extended family frames in the first thirty minutes, the wider family leaves, and the session continues with just the immediate family and the baby.
Let me get everyone in one room
The photograph your family will most wish it had is the one with the oldest person in it. That is true in every family I have ever worked with, without exception.
It is not an easy thing to arrange and it will take a few phone calls. But there is a baby in the family right now, which means everyone is coming anyway, and that will not be true again for a long time.
If you would like to organise one, please get in touch and tell me roughly how many people and how old the baby is. I will help you work out the rest.
Sincerely yours, Anastasia
