Park City, Utah attracts many family reunions every year because the summers are as perfect as is comes.  Trust me, as a Park City local for almost 25 years, I try not to travel June-August because every day feels magical. From bike riding, hiking or paddle boarding on the lake, we don't run out of things to do during our summer. So here are my tips for taking home portraits that become your most treasure Souvenirs and a list of essential portraits to capture during your family gathering.

3 Tips for creating the best family reunion portraits

#1- Pack the right clothes before you travel.  

Once you are at your vacation destination, it's hard to gather coordinating clothing and shoes if you didn't come prepared.  No one wants to spend their vacation gathering the essentials for family pictures - so do it before you come.  It's important to realize that dressing for a large family portrait is not the same as dressing for a solo portrait.  The focus of a great family portrait is the faces and the people, not on the clothing.  If the clothing is too busy the faces become over powered  and invisible, especially on little kids.  Because this is a special gathering you don't want your clothes to look like an accident. 

Have the conversation with the entire family about what to bring for pictures before you come. (I can help with this, if you want a little extra encouragement.)

#2 Put your cell phones away during your family portraits

When you hire a professional to create family memories, trust them to do it better than you could do with your phone.  Small kids get fatigued from cell phones capturing photos.  If you use all those cute smiles up on the cell phone, it makes it harder for the photographer to bring out the best expressions on the kids. Relax and enjoy your time together while the photographer works hard to capture professional portraits.

#3 Know the essential portraits you need to capture.

It's difficult to gather the whole family together, so that needs to be the most important image you capture.  Here's the list of portraits to create in order of importance

• Whole family together
• Grandma and Grandpa with the grandchildren
• Grandma & Grandpa together
• Grandkids together
• Individual groups of each family
• candids that might just happen magical

#4 (Bonus tip) Have your portraits at a location that shows off the beauty of Park City.

Park City has so many stunning locations.  From mountains, aspens, lakes, rivers, wildflowers, to the most picturesque main street (and snow in the winter), make sure your family portraits remind you of the good time you had in Park City as a family.