My wife Monica hinted that since the Sanchez, Sweeney, Ericksen, and Fischer clans were going to be under one roof for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday up in Longmont, it would make for a good opportunity to shoot some family pictures. I’ve been known to break out the strobes and shoot photos at a family gathering every so often, something I’ve done on-and-off over the past 20 years or so. Having been in something a photographic drought of late, a Thanksgiving shoot sounded like a pretty good idea.

Ask anyone in my family who’s been fortunate enough to endure one of these sessions and they can tell you it can be quite a production, usually pitting light stands and soft boxes and cords against couches and desks and dressers in usually less than ideal spaces. This go around I set up my “studio” in the basement of my in-laws, Jon and Laura Ericksen. It doubles as the bedroom of my 20-something twin nieces Olivia and Aundrea.

Surprisingly enough, even the most reluctant of my relations usually capitulate and allow me to take their picture once these photo sessions get rolling; they’re kind of like a dance, but without the music.  They’re often noisy affairs with lots of laughing and cries of “Wait! I wasn’t ready!” and “I think I blinked.” This session’s most memorable moment came when my brother-in-law Kirk suggested, as I was photographing Monica, Laura, and Christina, that the ladies, um, lift up “the girls.” And the three sisters, in unison, did just that. The room roared.

Amid all the bluster I’ll occasionally make a portrait. And I have a few favorites from this take. I like the photo of Enedina. I like the photo of Jon and Relayna. And I really like the photo of Manuel with his daughters.

That my nieces, my in-laws, my wife, and my stepdaughter, all let me take their picture, well, I really love that.