We have had our fair share of rainy days in Atlanta lately. While I live for warm sunny days, there’s something a little snuggly and nostalgic about a gloomy day that can make it perfect for a documentary family photography session.
How does your family do rainy days? Do you stay in your pajamas and lounge around? Do you go out as usual and make the most of it? Do you take advantage of any lulls in the rain to still play outside? What you do or don’t do on a rainy day says as much about who you are as a family as what you do or don’t do on any other day. And when it comes to photographing your family, it’s so much more about who you are together than what you do together that makes the resulting photos meaningful.
On this particular gloomy day, I met up with Chanda’s family at Dr. Bombay’s for some ice cream. Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to have the same idea to visit the tea house, as the place was full. Since it wasn’t currently raining, Chanda’s family decided to dry off some tables to sit outside. It took no time for the goofing off to start, and I was instantly this family’s biggest fan.
After the ice cream, we went back to the house, and they started to play the game Sorry. You spend your time in the game trying to get all your people out into play, all the way around the board, and then safely back home. This would seem like a fitting metaphor for life except for the part of the game where everyone else is trying to take out your people and send them to the beginning to keep them from getting home. Even the polite nudge of the title to say “Sorry” when you take out an opponent seems a little disingenuous. Competition is fun though and nothing this family shies away from.
After the game, Chanda convinced the others to start reading the book Wildwood together. While the boys were not so enthusiastic about the read aloud to begin with, it was only a matter of a few sentences before everyone in the room was wooed by the playful words of Colin Meloy. The reading led to snuggling which eventually led to wrestling and playing and then everyone had the energy to break through the dreary day and play some basketball out on the street. I’d say it ended up being quite the perfect afternoon.
There’s no need to let the weather rain on your parade if it is not sunny on the day of your photography session, there’s still plenty of life to live that is worthy of being seen and remembered.
This shoot was part of a Day in The Life in Atlanta session, where I worked with various photographers to show one day and how different families spent the day. To see the total day, follow this link to see the next part of the day. If you follow all the way through, you will be able to see photos of my family too.
