One of the questions I get asked the most is the difference between extended family and normal family sessions. So I thought I would lay out the differences here for those that may be wondering. I will start by saying that I think the two serve two completely different purposes. If my extended family was doing a photo session I would still do my own personal family photos in that same year without question. But photos are a priority to me (obviously) so that may not be the same for all of you!
From a business perspective everything is the same between the two sessions. The sessions are the same amount of time, the price is the same and you get the same amount of images. The style of the session is different though. Extended family sessions have a larger group of people to capture and different combinations (each individual family, photos of grandparents and grandkids, photos of cousins, photos of siblings, etc). So while you will definitely get updated family photos for each individual family in the session, you will not get the same variety as if you had done your own family session. Personal family sessions are full of those sweet initimate moments that capture how much you love your family and these moments simply don’t seem to happen as much with large extended family sessions. What you can expect though is photos of the whole group, photos of each individual family, photos of each child (depending on how many children there are of course!), sibling photos, cousin photos, photos of grandparents and grandchildren, and any other photo combination you may desire. Extended family sessions and personal family sessions are both great options but I do view them as two completely separate sessions and feel that if it is in your budget it is still best to do both sessions in a year or to do personal family photos one year and extended family photos the following year.
This family gets their personal family photos updated very regularly as they are in our Year of the Minis Program. So this extended family session was a great chance to get their whole family documented.
