24 person family session? No problem! I LOVE doing extended family sessions, and this one was no exception!? I previously photographed one of the families during this session a few months back for the holidays at Princeton, NJ with their mom included. Fast forward, they reached out once again to schedule another session and this time, with dad’s entire family as well! We got to planning our session and looked into a few different locations until we decided on Cheesequake park in Matawan, NJ, which is basically in Old Bridge where grandma and grandpa live! I was a bit unfamiliar with locations close to Old Bridge so when doing research, this looked to be a perfect spot that would be close by, but also looked to have some nice photo areas.
Fast forward to the day of our session, we were honestly in such luck to have amazing weather! When it comes to extended family sessions, it can definitely be tricky having to reschedule these sessions since you’ll need to make sure the date works on everybody’s end (which is usually tricky). We met one another at the parking lot and got started with photos.
We started taking photos of the individual families first, and then we gathered everyone up to do a large group shot, a photo of grandparents with grandkids, all of the cousins, and then a few of just grandma with grandpa. We took these at this field spot which had a little bit of a view of the water in the background and the sun in the background. This was the perfect spot to have some space and make sure we can fit everyone in the photos!
We then decided to take a quick walk to another spot where we captured a few more individual families and more specific groupings. We did one more large family shot here with everyone nice and cozy next to one another in this tight little bridge area.
Lastly, we finished up doing one more large family shot in a pathway area full of greenery. This was great to give us some variety and a different look to the backdrop compared to our previous two spots. Given that the priority was a great extended family shot, I wanted to make sure we definitely had a few to choose from. Like I started this blog post off, I love extended family sessions. I always have a great time getting to meet new families, but we also get to capture a ton of photos such as the smaller families, just the kids, everyone, etc. It truly is always full of a fun and a great experience for all.
Take a look at just a few of my favorite shots from this extended family session!
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