When Jenny approached me with the idea, I thought it sounded like fun. It ended up being one of my most challenging shoots. A family portrait session where one member of the family didn’t know they were having a portrait session. Yikes!

This only worked because Jenny is my sister-in-law. Her mom is turning 60 the day before Mother’s Day and the family wanted to do something really special for her. They wanted to gift her with a beautiful album, but didn’t want to do the usual family portrait shoot, because they wanted it to be a surprise. Wow, that sounds just about impossible.

Jenny wanted to capture their family on a normal day in their life as well as getting some nice portraits of everyone and didn’t want her mom to know what they were up to. So, we made up a story. Jenny’s brother and sister-in-law planned a little get together and told mom that I was going to tag along because I already had plans with Jenny that day and had a photo shoot nearby that afternoon, (which is why I had my camera with me). Oh, and I might take a few photos while I was there, you know, just for fun!

I took two styles of photos: more formal portraits and day-in-the-life portraits to capture the family as they are doing what they love to do. For this family that’s getting together to eat, drink, play poker, watch NASCAR, play pool, and gamble on everything! Here’s some of the day-in-the-life portraits.

A Day In the Life

Oh and don’t worry! I’m not ruining the surprise! Jenny has assured me that her mom doesn’t follow my blog and is not on facebook! Look for the formal portraits up next week!