I thought a going away party would be around 20 people at the most, sitting around chit chatting about the weather or what was going on in everyone's lives. Well, yes...people were chit chatting but I was taken back on how many people were there. Then I started asking who everyone was and for the most part, everyone was related!
I can count all the direct members of my family on one hand. I am not used to a family gathering that looked like this! I asked how everyone knew each other and the response typically went like this: "that is my cousin and those are her kids and that guy next to her is my cousin's husband and that kid is his son but the other kid next to his belongs to my cousin's aunt who is over there talking to my other cousin's sister in law."As complicated as it sounded, I think questions would have added to the mix of complications so I nodded as my brain tried to mix and match kids with parents with siblings with parents.
I met Anne Maxon last year while I was in Boston and she has such a beautiful family so I wanted to take a portrait of her, her husband and their four beautiful children. Her kids are naturals. We walked behind the house and I pointed to the ground on where to stand and as soon as I put the camera to my eye, they were all smiling and posing.
Later in the evening, the entire family started gathering together to take a group portrait. I heard one woman say, "there is a photographer that is going to take our family picture." Instantly, I was excited to see who was going to take their picture to meet the photographer and talk about pictures but I soon realized that everyone was looking at me. I was the photographer they were referring to. I haven't taken many group portraits, especially this size but I was willing to snap away. I then took a group photo of the kids in the family which was challenging. Lucky for me, I had the parents behind me snapping their fingers and clapping away to get the attention of their kids to look at them.
Everyone at the event was very kind to me about my photographs. I was thrilled to be approached by people I've never met before to tell me they enjoy viewing my images. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the family, if only for a little while.
