Best Milestones To Update Your Family Portraits
Families change quickly. Sometimes without us noticing until we look back at an older photograph.
A new baby arrives. Toddlers become school children. Children become teenagers. Someone graduates. Grandparents get older. And before long, the family portrait on the wall no longer looks quite like the family today.
Since 2009, we’ve photographed families through many of these stages. Some return every year, while others choose the milestones that matter most to them.
Here are some of the family milestones families commonly choose to photograph.
Thinking it’s time to update yours?
See our Family Photoshoot packages, session details and what to expect.
Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year
Few stages of family life change as fast as pregnancy and your baby’s first year.
From a tiny newborn snug in your arms, to figuring out tummy time, sitting up on their own, standing and then taking those very first steps. Babies can look and behave like a completely different kid in just a few short months.
Families often want to capture several of these big milestones on camera, though some people just pick the ones that are most special to them.
Popular milestones include maternity, newborn, 1–2 months, 3–6 months when babies become more expressive and enjoy tummy time, and 7–11 months when many babies are sitting independently.
If you missed the newborn stage, a 1 or 2 month or 3 to 6 month photos can still be a lovely opportunity to get some images of your baby with the rest of the family. Particularly before the parents head back to work after parental leave.
What does photographing these milestones over time actually look like?
Watch one of our families grow through the different stages we’ve photographed together over the years.
The Early Childhood Years
Once the baby years pass, family photographs begin to capture more than physical milestones. Personalities become stronger, sibling relationships develop and occasions such as birthdays and kindergarten graduation give families natural reasons to update their portraits.
Birthday Celebrations
The first birthday may be the beginning, but birthdays remain an easy marker of how quickly children change.
Some families make it a tradition to update their family portraits around their child’s birthday each year. Ayako’s family started with Baby A’s first birthday and returned over the following years, creating a record of how both their child and family changed over time.
Siblings
When another child joins the family, the photographs begin to tell a different story.
Alongside individual portraits, families often choose photographs of the children together and an updated family portrait often capturing the relationship between siblings as it develops over the years.
Birthdays and festive periods can be natural opportunities to bring everyone back for another family photograph.
Kindergarten Graduation
Kindergarten graduation is often a child’s first graduation portrait. For parents, this is a visible reminder of just how quickly the preschool years have passed.
It can be photographed as a milestone on its own or together with parents and siblings, creating both a graduation portrait and an updated family photograph.
As the Family Grows
Family portraits don’t stop being relevant once children leave the preschool years. In many ways, the photographs become more interesting as children develop their own personalities, families become larger and everyone becomes a little harder to get together at the same time.
Extended & Multi-Generation Family
As children grow, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins often become an increasingly important part of the family story.
When several generations are together, families may choose to photograph the entire extended family as well as the individual households, grandparents with grandchildren, siblings and other smaller combinations.
If you’re bringing several generations together, see our Multi-Generation Family Photoshoot packages and group-size information.
Tweens & Teens
As children become tweens and teenagers, family photographs begin to look very different from the early childhood years.
Their personalities, interests and relationships with parents and siblings are more established. Before long, school, National Service, university or overseas studies can make getting everyone together more difficult.
The Reijngoudt family has grown in front of our cameras from tweens to teenagers and young adults, giving them a photographic record of how their family has changed over the years.
Read the Reijngoudt Family’s Growing With Us story.
Family Milestones Worth Coming Together For
As children become adults, families may photograph themselves less frequently. However, the occasions that bring everyone together can become more significant.
Graduation
Graduation isn’t only a portrait of the graduate. For many families, it’s an achievement everyone has contributed to and one of the occasions when parents, siblings and sometimes grandparents are already together.
It’s also often a transition point before National Service, work, university or further studies overseas.
That’s why many families use the graduation session to create both graduation portraits and an updated family portrait at the same time.
Planning a graduation photoshoot? See our Graduation Photoshoot packages, gown options and family combinations.
When Everyone Is Finally Together
As children grow up, the difficulty is often no longer deciding whether to take a family photograph. It’s finding a date when everyone is in the same country.
Adult children may be studying or working overseas, siblings may have their own families, and visits home can be short.
When everyone is finally back in Singapore, families often use the opportunity to update the family portrait before someone leaves again. If grandparents, adult siblings and several households are coming together, see our Multi-Generation Family Photoshoot Options.
Parents & Grandparents Getting Older
When the younger generation grows up, parents and grandparents are growing older too.
For many families, this is when updating the family portrait begins to feel more important. Particularly when the last photograph together was taken many years ago.
When older family members are joining, practical considerations matter too. Bambini’s studio has step-free access, large lifts and sheltered drop-off, making arrival easier for elderly family members and those with limited mobility.
….Our photographer, Mr Syafiq was such a pleasant guy and he was able to capture the attention of my 2 young granddaughters and my son’s three dogs. … The photos were very well-taken and we were pleased with how they had turned out. Thank you Syafiq and Bambini for the pleasant, stress-free experience. – Mdm Chew
Which Family Milestone Are You At?
There isn’t a single “right” time to update a family portrait.
For some families it’s the arrival of a baby. For others it’s a first birthday, graduation, everyone coming home or simply realising how much the family has changed since the last photograph.
Wherever your family is now, the photographs become a record of that particular stage before everyone moves on to the next one.
Planning to update your family portrait?
See our Family Photoshoot packages, session details and what to expect.
