The Vargas Family Portraits at Sahuaro Ranch Park - (And How I Photograph Family Sessions)

I have a question for you: How old are your kids? Are they toddlers? In elementary school? Heading into high school? Maybe they’re graduating high school or college. Or maybe they’re already young adults and one of them is about to get married.

Because that’s exactly where the Vargas family was when we took these photos.

I photographed the Vargas family in April 2025 at Sahuaro Ranch Park. I actually know this family personally because we go to church together, and they have three daughters who were all young adults at the time. One of their daughters got married later that year, so when I look back at these photos now, I realize this was kind of their last hurrah as their little family of five. Not that the family was ending, obviously. 😂 It was actually getting bigger! But this was one of those last moments where it was just Mom, Dad and their three girls before a new person officially joined the family.

I think that’s something we sometimes forget about family photos. We take SO MANY photos when kids are little—first birthdays, first days of school, Christmas, graduations—but then everyone grows up and suddenly getting the whole family together becomes harder and harder. So maybe this is your reminder that your kids don’t have to be little to have family portraits taken. Actually… maybe that’s an even better reason to do it.

Family Portraits at Sahuaro Ranch Park

We did their family session at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale, and if you’ve been there, you already know there is SO MUCH there. You have the rose garden, all the greenery, the historic buildings, open spaces, trees, and all these little areas that can give you completely different looks within the same session. It’s one of those places where I’ll be walking with a family and suddenly see something and think, Wait. Stop right here. Let’s do this.

Which brings me to how I actually photograph family sessions. I do have a shot list in my head, but—and this is important—I don’t necessarily photograph it in order.

I’m not walking around thinking, family photo, check; siblings, check; Mom and Dad, check. 😂 It depends on where we are, what the background looks like, what the light is doing, who’s already standing together, and sometimes just what pops into my head at that moment.

If I see a good spot for Mom and Dad, we’re doing Mom and Dad. If the girls are already laughing together, I’m not going to interrupt that because technically I was supposed to photograph something else next. I’m going to photograph what’s happening. So this isn’t necessarily the order of a family session. It’s more like my mental checklist of photos I want to make sure we have before we’re done.

First, We Need the Whole Family

Of course we have to get the classic family portrait: everybody together, everybody looking at me, everybody smiling. There is nothing wrong with a beautiful posed family portrait where everyone is looking at the camera. I just don’t want that to be the only thing we create.

Once I know I have it, that’s when I start changing things. I’ll have everyone walk toward me, look at each other, talk, get closer, hold hands or laugh at each other. Sometimes Mom and Dad are in the middle. Sometimes the kids are in the middle. Sometimes it depends on height, sometimes it depends on personality, and sometimes I put people somewhere simply because visually I’m like, Yep. You belong over there. 😂

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With the Vargas family, I knew the three sisters were really close and had their own dynamic. So in some of the walking photos, I had Mom and Dad together on one side and the three girls together on the other. That’s where I start looking for those little moments. Someone says something, someone starts laughing, one sister looks at another sister, Mom looks over, Dad is doing his own thing. 😂 Those are the photos that start feeling less like family picture day and more like the actual family.

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The Relationships Within the Family

Once we’ve photographed everybody together, I want to start photographing all of the smaller relationships that make up the family. Dad with all the girls, Mom with all the girls, Dad with each daughter, Mom with each daughter. Every one of those relationships is different, and I don’t want to photograph them exactly the same way either.

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I’ll usually start simple: stand next to each other, look at me, smile. Okay, we got it. Now hug. Look at each other. Give Dad a kiss on the cheek. Dad, kiss your daughter on the forehead. Mom, hold her hands. Look at your daughter. Now hug her. Sometimes they start laughing because something feels awkward or someone says something—and GOOD.

That’s what I want.

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I’m giving you something to do because most people don’t naturally know what to do when someone points a camera at them. I don’t expect you to. That’s my job. I’m just trying to get you out of the What do I do with my hands?! phase long enough for your actual relationship to show up.

The Sibling Photos

Oh, the sibling photos. These really depend on the siblings, their ages and their personalities. With younger kids, I might do something completely different, but these three are grown women, and you can tell they’re close.

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So yes, we did the nice photo with everybody together and smiling. Beautiful. Now let’s mess it up a little bit. 😂 Hug each other. Look at each other. Make a funny face. Walk toward me. Talk to each other. Sometimes I’ll purposely give them less direction once I can see they’re comfortable because I want to see what they do on their own. That’s usually when someone’s real personality comes out.

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Actually, looking at these photos again, can you tell who’s the oldest, who’s the middle child and who’s the youngest? Because I feel like you can. 😂 Tell me your guess.

Mom and Dad — You’re Not Getting Out of This

This is something I always try to photograph during family sessions: Mom and Dad by themselves. I don’t care if your kids are five or thirty-five. We’re taking a picture of you two.

Because think about it—how often are Mom and Dad actually photographed together when it’s not a selfie? And depending on the age of the kids, family picture day may have already been a whole production. Getting everybody dressed, making sure everybody’s on time, did everyone eat, where are your shoes, get in the car, why are we late?! Again, depending on the age. 😂

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Once we’re there, though, I like giving Mom and Dad their own little moment. One of my favorite things to do is have them walk. I’ll have them hold hands and walk toward me, then pull away from each other a little bit and come back together. Sometimes one person gets ahead and pulls the other one forward. Then I’ll have them stop, look at each other, get close, and depending on the couple, maybe we even do a little dip. Basically, for five minutes, I’m making you date again. You’re welcome. 😂

Everyone Gets Their Own Moment

This is one of my favorite parts: everyone gets their own solo portrait. The kids, Mom, Dad—everybody. And this is probably the part where I follow a “shot list” the least because I look at whoever is standing in front of me and go from there.

I might tell them to turn this way, move their hands, look over there, look back at me, play with their hair, walk toward me or give me a funny face. Sometimes someone is naturally quieter. Someone else needs about three seconds before ALL the personality comes out, and someone is ready before I even say anything. 😂 You can see that in these photos. I feel like every one of them gave me something completely different.

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That’s what I want. I don’t want to take the exact same photograph of five different people. I want everyone to look like themselves because, yes, this is a family session, but you’re still your own person. You deserve your own photo too.

Planning Your Outfits With the Location in Mind

Now let’s talk about something I learned from this session. First, I really do love these photos. During our consultation, we talked about coordinating outfits and choosing solid colors, and they understood the assignment! They coordinated without matching exactly, which I love.

But when I was editing the photos, I noticed one little detail. Some of the green outfits didn’t pop from the background as much as I would have liked. They blended into all the greenery at Sahuaro Ranch Park a little more than I expected.

And again, I love these photos. You can see the relationships, the love between them and their family dynamic, and to me that’s always going to be more important than whether an outfit perfectly pops from the background.

But I think when you’re working on something and getting ready to deliver the final photographs, you naturally notice those little details where you think, Okay, next time I could do this a little differently. Not because something failed, but because you’re always learning.

So this is something I’m taking with me into future consultations. When we’re planning outfits for an outdoor family session, I want to think not only about how everyone’s outfits coordinate with each other, but also about how those colors will look with the location we’ve chosen.

For somewhere as green as Sahuaro Ranch Park, I might recommend bringing in more colors that stand out from all that greenery rather than having too much green in the outfits. But if we’re going out into the Arizona desert, where we have those warmer browns and neutral tones, bring me the green! 😂 And around the holidays, green can make perfect sense too.

It’s just another little detail I’ve learned along the way, and now it’s something I can use to help families plan their sessions even better.

Your Family Doesn’t Have to Be in the “Perfect” Stage

There isn’t one perfect age for family portraits. Your kids don’t have to be little. You don’t need a newborn. Nobody needs to be graduating. It doesn’t have to be Christmas. You don’t need some huge reason.

Sometimes the reason can simply be: This is what our family looks like right now.

Because it changes. Kids grow up. They graduate. They move away. They get married. Someone new joins the family. Then maybe babies come along and suddenly the family gets even bigger. All of those stages deserve photographs.

For the Vargas family, this happened to be one of those little in-between moments. Their daughters were grown, one was about to get married, and their family was about to enter a new chapter. But on this particular afternoon in April, it was still Mom, Dad and their three girls walking around Sahuaro Ranch Park together—laughing, hugging, carrying their extra shoes and water bottles 😂 and being themselves.

And now they have photographs of exactly what their family looked like in that moment.

I think that’s reason enough to take the picture.