How to Capture Celebrations in Pictures

Taking pictures of major family events preserves memories and cements relationships. It just doesn't work for one person to try to take all the pictures at a bustling family event.

One of the cleverest ideas I have seen is to buy a bunch of disposable cameras for the occasion and distribute them to the guest with instructions to shoot the good, the funny, the poignant, and the interesting and then leave the cameras in a designated spot for the hosts to retrieve and develop. Great pictures come from people who caught the youngest cousin sharing a lollipop with the matriarch of the family, or the preteen sister who caught her teen age brother sneaking a kiss with the girl friend who came with his cousin.

You can't be everyplace and perfect scenes do not wait for you to notice. Fleeting moments of poignancy or hilarity that begged to be preserved for the family album may only be noticed by one other person. That "one other" needs to have a camera in hand when the moment occurs.

When my brother and his beloved got married we did not know her family and of course they didn't know ours. A very low key, low budget wedding that suited their practical somewhat shy personalities did not have a photographer planned. There were some really savvy people with cameras in both families and of course many point and shoot types as well. The people with cameras brought them, with film of course, but there was a bowl full of disposable cameras on the reception table also. With the help of all the guests, there were many wonderful pictures that helped the bride fill her wedding album.