Family Vacation Photo Session in Puerto Rico

You should seriously consider a family vacation photo session!

Angela is an expert at documenting her family’s life. She knew that she wanted to capture her family vacation photo session while visiting her grandparents in Puerto Rico.

General family photo advice: don’t wait!

You do not need to change anything or “improve” anything about your appearance before getting family portraits. I can’t encourage you enough: do not put portraits or your life on hold to meet arbitrary cultural standards. Just check out my photography Instagram page. Do you notice people’s weight, hairstyle, or outfit choice or do you notice their joy and love for one another?

All that to say, you are lovely just as you are and deserve to remember all the joys of your life because life is happening and it’s happening fast. Blink and your baby is a toddler. Blink again and they’re in high school and you still haven’t gotten family portraits! In just a short time, you’ll look at your photos and be so grateful you captured that age, or that person who isn’t here anymore, or that special vacation. The memories are happening now. The good old days are happening now.

Angela and I connected for a family photo session via Facebook. I scouted out and picked a spot in the town of Arecibo near a gorgeous white stone plaza and a small lake.

However, this family vacation photo session happened in February, and “winter” is a pretty windy time of year in Puerto Rico. It makes for great surfing but is not great for family portraits. We quickly decided the wind was too much to continue the session in my initial location. Everyone felt like they were in a wind tunnel and just was not ideal.

I excused myself for 15 minutes to quickly find some new spots for photos. This is part of my job!! It’s my job to know how to photograph beautiful portraits in a flattering light, no matter what happens unexpectedly during a session. I am flexible and can work with almost lighting challenges. I quickly located nearby, colorful buildings (a common sight in Puerto Rico!) and some tiled stairs that met my lighting priorities and also protected everyone from the wind.

Extended Family Portraits

I am always happy to add additional family members to sessions. I think it’s important to get photos with grandparents and great-grandparents and aunts and cousins and everyone! It was a lot of fun to add Angela’s mother and grandparents to this session. It was an honor to capture four generations in these portraits.

Couples Portraits

My favorite way to end a session is just with mom and dad together. Having extra family at the session makes this SO much easier.

And a little bonus photo walking back to the car 🙂

To make things even better, I connected with Angela’s sister, Melissa, just a month later for more family portraits!

I hope this family treasure these precious memories of their time together forever!