How Often Should You Take Family Photos?

by Kristin Vacca | Sep 29, 2026 | Children, Families, Milestone

How often should you take family photos?

Every year? Every other year? Only when your children are little? When you realize the family portrait hanging in your living room is missing your youngest child?

There isn’t one perfect answer for every family.

But I will tell you this: your family is changing much faster than you think.

When you’re living in the middle of it, between the school drop-offs and sports practices, the bedtime routines, the endless snacks, the laundry, the holidays, the ordinary Tuesday nights, it can feel like life will look this way forever.

And then somehow, it doesn’t.

The baby curls disappear. The little hand that automatically reached for yours doesn’t anymore. Someone loses their two front teeth. Someone else suddenly towers over their sibling. The child who used to climb into your lap has long legs hanging over the side of the couch.

You don’t always notice these changes as they’re happening.

That’s one of the reasons photographs matter so much.

How Often Should CT Families Capture Professional Photos 

For families with babies and young children, I often recommend photographing your family about once a year. There is simply so much change packed into those early years.

As your children get older, you may decide that every year still feels right—or that every couple of years is enough.

But I don’t think family photographs need to follow a strict schedule.

Instead, think about the season you’re in.

Has your family changed since the last time you were photographed? Have your children entered a stage you know you’ll want to remember? Has someone joined your family? Is someone getting ready to leave the nest?

Or maybe nothing particularly momentous has happened.

Maybe this is simply what your family looks like right now.

And someday, that will be reason enough to treasure it.

You Don’t Need to Wait for a Milestone

Families tend to be very good at documenting the major milestones.

New babies. First birthdays. Graduations. Anniversaries.

But some of the photographs you’ll treasure most won’t necessarily represent a milestone.

They’ll remind you of how your daughter tucked herself into your side when she laughed. The way your son still had that mischievous little-boy grin. The way your children interacted with each other before they grew up and started lives of their own.

They’ll remind you of you, too.

Because if you’re the person who is usually behind the camera, your children may have thousands of photographs from their childhood, and surprisingly few that show you right there beside them.

You deserve to exist in your family’s visual history.

Not just in the selfies. Not just in the hurried snapshot someone remembered to take on vacation.

In the beautiful, tangible artwork that tells the story of the people you love most.

Family Portraits Aren’t Just for Right Now

When I photograph a family, I’m always thinking beyond the images we’re creating that day.

I’m thinking about where these photographs are going to live.

Maybe it’s a framed portrait you walk past every morning on the way downstairs. Maybe it’s an album your children will pull from the shelf years from now. Maybe it’s a collection of photographs that grows alongside your family, documenting one season after another.

That’s what I love about creating timeless artwork for my clients.

These photographs aren’t meant to disappear into a camera roll.

They’re meant to become part of your home and, eventually, part of your family’s history.

One day, your children may be the ones holding these photographs.

And what feels like everyday life to you right now will be their childhood.

How to Capture Family Photos Without Adding to Your Full Plate

As a mom myself, I know it takes a lot to get a family out the door.

Just the thought of planning family photos can bring up a dozen questions that I answer for clients all the time.

What are we going to wear? Where should we go? What if my children don’t cooperate? What am I supposed to do with the photographs afterward? How am I ever going to find the time to figure all of this out?

That’s exactly why my family portrait experience is full-service.

You don’t have to become the creative director, stylist, location scout, photographer, and artwork designer for your own session. I’m here to guide you through the process.

From planning your session to creating your portraits and deciding how you’d like to enjoy them in your home, you aren’t left with a gallery of digital files and another project to finish “someday.”

And if you’re welcoming a new baby, my Baby’s First Year Plan makes documenting that especially fast-changing season even easier. With three sessions already planned throughout your baby’s first year, you know those important milestones will be captured without having to remember to schedule another session every few months. Families choose between maternity, newborn, sitting up, and first birthday portraits. When you’re already juggling everything that comes with a new baby, that’s one less thing you have to think about, and you’ll come out of that whirlwind of a year with beautiful photographs that show just how much your baby changed.

The goal is to make this experience feel special, and not stressful. Because you already have enough on your plate.

Preserving your family’s story shouldn’t require adding a giant new to-do list to it.

Full Family Session or Mini Session?

We offer two ways to keep your family photographs current: full family portrait sessions and mini sessions. I have an entire article that helps you decide which one is right for you here. 

A full family portrait experience gives us the time and space to capture your family without feeling rushed. We can create a greater variety of images, let personalities and connections unfold naturally, and give children time to warm up to me and the camera. This can be especially valuable for families with younger children who may need a little time before they’re ready to smile, play, and show me who they really are. And because the experience is completely customized to your family, we can also create meaningful artwork that fits beautifully into your home.

But you may not need—or want—a full session every single year. That’s why I also offer select mini session experiences throughout the year. These shorter sessions can be a wonderful way to capture a quick update between full sessions, celebrate a particular season, or simply make sure another year doesn’t pass without getting everyone in front of the camera. They’re often a great fit for families whose children are already comfortable being photographed and can jump right into the experience, since we have less time together to warm up.

Cherry Blossom Sessions

Motherhood Sessions

Christmas Mini Sessions

Mini sessions are limited and announced throughout the year, so the best way to hear about upcoming opportunities is to join my email list.

The Best Time for Family Photos?

There isn’t a deadline for updating your family photos, and there certainly isn’t a rule that says you need to do it every twelve months. But if you find yourself looking at your children and wondering when they got so big, or realizing the portraits on your walls no longer look quite like the family sitting around your dinner table, that’s usually a pretty good sign that it’s time. The beauty of family photography is that it gives you something tangible from a season that otherwise keeps moving forward, whether that’s an album you pull out years from now or a portrait you pass every day in your home.

If it’s been a while since your last family portrait, you don’t need to wait for a milestone or have every detail figured out before you begin. A full family session gives us the time to intentionally document this chapter, while mini sessions offer another way to keep your family photographs current throughout the years. For some families, certain sessions even become an annual tradition. I have families who return for Christmas photos year after year, creating a collection that lets them look back and see just how much their children—and their family—have changed from one holiday season to the next.

You can join my email list to be the first to hear about upcoming session options, or if you’re ready to start planning a full family portrait experience, simply reach out. We’ll take it from there.