Taking Candid Photographs of Grandma | the McNabb Family Make Time for Family Memories

I’ve photographed Kelly, Ryan, and their three girls a few times in the past. (Here’s their shoot from the fall of 2020)

This particular photo session was a little bit different, though.

This photo session was all about capturing moments with Grandma.

The girls have an amazing grandma.

She lives out in BC, but often spends weeks at a time travelling to Ontario to be with her cute little granddaughters.

Some of the awesome activities that they do include swimming in the backyard pool, learning about flowers and gardening, eating yogurt together, and just enjoying each other's company.

When I went over there, there's so many things that I wanted to capture. Lots of candid little moments kept emerging! So I kept photographing 🤩

I loved some of these images of the girls, holding their favourite things - a tiny frog, or a little bunch of petals.

When faced with so many different moments to choose from, I first focus on what’s important to each of the people there.

For example: what’s important to the girls? Maybe we capture a photograph or two of their favourite toy. Or a whole stack of toys, like that photo on the right.

Or even just how they go about getting ready to go outside. Here's a photo of the two girls in their bedroom right before we decided to go outside to the pool. I think they were showing me some of their favourite things. Super cute!

One of the most important things I wanted to catch was just how much fun grandma has with her granddaughters. In almost every photograph, this grandmother is smiling, laughing, and giving all her attention to these little girls.

One day, when they are much older and maybe have children of their own, they’ll look on these images and remember these times with such fondness.

Just look at this warm loving smile shared by these two in the photograph below. A completely candid and natural moment, that tells a mini story.

This kind of love is simply impossible not to feel.

Grandma is patient with the girls, she watches them practicing skateboarding, helps them with the swimming...

All of these treasured moments are going to be nestled somewhere in the girls’ memories.

But as they get older, some of the distinct memories will start to fade, as memories often do.

And that is when the girls will turn to these photographs, I hope.

That is how they will re-establish those memories, and forever remember their smiling grandma on that summer morning in Ontario, spending time with them, and completely forgetting anything else in the world existed.

Capturing memories with grandparents is so important.

As a wedding photographer I often have this conversation with couples, too. Often, there is a grandparent or an elderly uncle who is invited to the wedding. We always make sure to document photographs of that elder person with the couple.

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When I was a parenting researcher, I used to study parenting.

My supervisor always wanted to begin a project studying grandmothers and grandmothering. She had recently become a grandmother herself, and we both got curious about how grandmothering is shaped, and helps to shape a child’s development.

Because grandmothers are so important. Oftentimes, grandmothers are instrumental in the upbringing of their grandchildren. For me, my grandmothers, and particularly my father's mother, was like a second mother to me.

I spent long stretches of my early life living with her, I had a crib at her place, and all my toys were there too. She later helped me raise my own children. She lived with us for stretches of time, and gave up what she knew and what was familiar to her, to come and take care of my kids. And so the circle continues. One day I hope to be that grandmother to my own grandkids.

This kind of safety and security that grandmothers can bring must absolutely be celebrated.

If you were lucky enough to have a grandmother or maybe even two, a grandmother who was loving and kind to you, then I encourage you to go back and take a look at a few of the photographs you have of her and celebrate having that time with her.

Oh, and write and tell me all about her in a comment below!

What is/was the best quality in your own grandmother that you remember?