Holiday photos: 3 ideas to capture your traditions

worried the coming weeks are going to be a whirlwind?

here are 3 quick tips to capture your favorite holiday traditions with some photos

I want to share with you some of my favorite ways to take photos of my family’s favorite holiday moments. But first – a story.

Growing up, every year right around this time, we’d come home from school one day and there it would be: mom’s homemade pumpkin bread. It would make an appearance a few days before Thanksgiving and we’d have a steady, fresh inventory of it into the new year. And then one day – as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, and we wouldn’t enjoy it again for about 10 months. There is no reason mom couldn’t have made it all year round, but she didn’t. So when we had it, it was more than just a piece of bread – it was a whole season of pumpkin, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon wrapped up in each bite. We knew it could disappear at any moment so we savored (and yes, probably fought over…) every slice.

What does it for you? What fills up your senses? Is it the shwooop of the whip cream on hot cocoa? the stack of cookies cooling on a rack? your view of the kids in front of the crackling fire? You’ll know it when you are in that moment, and when you are – what ever is is – take out your smart phone, and snap a few photos of you family’s favorite holiday traditions. It does’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be good, but I guarantee you, you will look back one day and you will remember what it was like in that moment. And you will be so happy you have those images.

Here are some simple things you can do to grab some of those special moments.

Chronicle your Holiday with Photos of your Processes

Many of the traditions we have around the holidays are rooted in process – making christmas cookies for example – mixing the cookie dough, rolling it out, cutting the shapes, watching them bake, icing them – and eating the broken ones! One of our traditions is making cinnamon buns.

Holiday Photo Story Telling: Pairing Multiple Images

You can tell a mini story by taking a few photos back to back – after everyone has looked at the camera and they relax, you can get some great in between moments.

Give it Some Perspective

Think about coming in close and then also taking some photos from a distance. Or even from different angles – standing overhead for example. This helps provide context for what was going on in those moments, and in doing so, expands our memory of the moment.

you got this!

I hope this is info helpful as the holiday season draws near. You might even want to scroll back into your phone’s photos from a year ago and see which holiday photos catch your eye or bring a smile to your face. But more importantly, I hope that you enjoy your friends, family and favorite foods over the coming weeks!

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