My Take On Effortless Christmas Photos

I think one of my favorite things about taking Christmas pictures is that the whole holiday vibe can be achieved with such little effort, as long as you know where and how to look.

Take the photo above, for instance. So many times you see people scoping out Christmas tree farms or breaking the bank getting a ton of fancy props, but a lot of times you don't need all of that to get a good Christmas shot. Especially if it's just for something simple like a Christmas card. You'd never know, but this photo was taken in a random park that just happened to have a few evergreens right by the entrance to the parking lot. There was nothing Christmasy AT ALL about this park besides those few evergreens. The pillow and wicker tree came from my house (part of my actual decorations in my house - not just for the photo), and they bought the balls and bell that day just from the dollar store. It was just enough to capture holiday flair without it being overkill. I have always believed less is more when it comes to props for a photo, especially an outdoor holiday one. It lets the focus be on what's important - the people in the picture!

Now take the photo below, which I just took a few days ago. Her and I talked for several days on where to go for their pictures (mostly discussing places over an hour away) when we finally decided to check out a small, local town to see if they had any sort of backdrops we could use. It seriously had everything! This picture almost looks like it's staged on a Christmas set, but again, there was a main road right behind me, the entrance to a pizza shop directly to my right, a big telephone pole to my left, and it had been raining all day so everything was wet and gross. But the right angle with some adjusted warmth in the picture gave them a perfect Christmas card photo. We couldn't get enough of that mailbox for sending letters to Santa!

If you're still looking to take some Christmas or holiday pictures, I highly encourage being open to stuff right around you rather than looking far and wide for what may seem like the perfect shot. Sometimes the best shots can even be taken right in your house or backyard if you know how to set it up right. Effortless photos are the BEST and they are so much easier to achieve than people realize. You just have to think outside (or maybe in this case, inside?) the box!

Both of these full albums can be seen on the Collections tab. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! 😊