Back to School Photo Session | Round Rock Family Photographer

Sep 4

Every year, right around the start of the new school year, we meet up in the studio with our best friends to take photos of the boys. These back to school photos have become a tradition, and it’s always so much fun.

The boys are growing up together, and every year they look just a little bit different. Their personalities change. They’ve got different interests. And somehow, these photos manage to freeze a tiny piece of it all.

As a mom, that’s invaluable to me.

There were plenty of traditional portraits in this session, but my absolutely favorite images are the ones where they’re being completely ridiculous. Climbing all over the chairs. Sitting on top of each other. Laying upside down on the couch. Making weird faces. Hugging. Laughing.

You know, normal kid stuff.

And that's exactly why I love doing these sessions in the studio. (You might recognize it from this cake smash session there recently!) The space is simple, so the kids are the focus. We can move around, change things up, and let them interact instead of expecting everyone to sit perfectly still and smile at the camera.

Why You Should Take Photos With Your Best Friends

If you've never thought about doing family photos with your best friends, I really recommend it.

We spend so much time documenting our own kids, but there is something really special about photographing them with the people they're growing up alongside.

little boy in chair next to friends by Round Rock family photographer

brunette toddler in wicker chair in studio by Round rock and Austin family photographer

mother holds her boys on chair while they kiss her by Jessie Shaw Photo

mother holds her little boys in chair while they kiss mom’s cheeks by Jessie Shaw Photo

These are pictures of their childhood.

Someday, they're going to be teenagers. Then they'll be grown. And 10 or 20 years from now, they'll be able to look back at these photos and see who they were at this age. They'll see their best friends. And the clothes they wore. They'll remember how they used to play together.

I think about that a lot.

I would give anything to have more pictures of me and my best friend from the 90s haha

I mean, how fun to have pictures of us playing? I don’t have taht! Doing whatever it was we thought was so important at the time.

How cool would it have been to have that documented? So now, I'm trying to create more of them for my own kids.

These back to school photos give us a chance to document another year of their friendship. The little details we might not notice day to day suddenly become really obvious when we put the photos side by side.

They're not going to stay this age forever. The boys will keep growing. Their friendships will keep changing. And we'll probably keep meeting up every year to document it all.