Treasure Island | Family Vacation Beach Pictures

How lucky am I to see this family twice in a month? Pretty lucky! I love when clients allow me to document their extended family on top of their little family photo sessions. While this family was recently on vacation together, I met with them at Treasure Island for a family vacation beach photo session. The night we had was a little crazy with dark clouds, but no storms and no rain, but the wind, man that was stronger than I think I have ever seen at the beach. Unfortunately, even though I save two nights for families while they visit to pick the better weather days of the two days at least, we still had a wild week of wind while they were here. Their vacation was spent with little bits of sand blowing at them the entire time. That is highly unusual for Florida but it was the cards they were dealt. This family though didn’t even complain, they just enjoyed a night together and made the most of it and protected their eyes as much as they could.

I love a good wind blown moment for hair but it is not everyone’s cup of tea. So if you are planning family vacation beach pictures it is a good idea to have a plan to mitigate for beach hair if you are not wanting the beach hair look. Extra styling product can help. Hairstyles that keep the wispy hair out of your face or your little ones with more fine hair in particular can help, too. I definitely recommend starting portraits off the beach if at all possible, too. No matter if wind is higher than normal or not. First, it gives a bit of shade before the sun goes down at golden hour; which is more like golden 20 minutes. Second, it provides a wind break of sorts if we can find the right spot to block some wind. Lastly, it is one way I can absolutely compete with little ones attention at the beach if you want more traditional smile for the camera portraits. Once they are in the sand and near the ocean, they truly do want to play more than take photos. Honestly, I get that. So as long as you make it fun, we can still document the portraits and authentic playful moments along the way, too. But, since most families want at least a few of those traditional portraits for posterity, starting off the beach is a great way to do so.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Treasure Island and the amazingly sweet and kind S family. I have only been to this beach in Tampa Bay twice and the first time was insanely crowded but this night, the one other good thing about some slightly inclement weather is there was hardly any people around for miles! Oh and if you are here to view this because you know this family, make sure you leave them a comment below, too. I do gift prints for families who leave ten comments on their blog post.

Each family with the grandparents. Love those cheesy smiles and real moments so much!

There is something magical about a timeless black and white extended family photo that will stand the test of time, even when these grandchildren become grandparents themselves one day!

love these authentic and sweet portraits of the cousins!

loved these special moments between a girl and her awesome godfather. I miss mine so much and he was the best uncle ever!

moments like these are what would grace my walls. This guy won’t always be this small, especially with all the height in this family, so these little moments just make my heart so happy <3