Birthdays get photographed. Christmas gets photographed. First days at school definitely get photographed, usually while everyone is running ten minutes late and somebody is complaining about their shoes.
But ordinary Tuesday evenings? Not so much.
The strange thing is, those completely unremarkable bits of family life are often the things we end up missing most.
The toys permanently scattered across the living room. The same walk you’ve done hundreds of times. Your child sitting in exactly the same spot at the breakfast table every morning. Grandad falling asleep after Sunday lunch and insisting afterwards that he was “just resting his eyes”.
None of it feels particularly significant while it’s happening.
Until, one day, it isn’t happening anymore.
So while we’re all quite good at getting the camera out for the big occasions, here are nine ordinary family moments that deserve a place in your camera roll too.
Nobody needs a professional photoshoot of a child looking for their other shoe at 8.17am.
But don’t completely dismiss the everyday morning routine.
Cereal bowls on the table. School bags by the door. Someone having their hair done while eating toast. The dog waiting underneath the highchair because experience has taught them this is an excellent business strategy.
Right now, it probably just feels like getting everybody fed, dressed and out of the house.
In ten years, that kitchen might look completely different. The highchair will be long gone, the school bags will have disappeared and nobody will need you to find their PE kit.
Take a photo occasionally.
Preferably after you’ve found the shoe.
There is something very family about a sofa that technically seats four but somehow contains five people, a dog and seventeen cushions.
Film nights, Saturday mornings, somebody reading while somebody else scrolls through their phone. These aren’t occasions you’d normally think to photograph because absolutely nothing is happening.
That’s precisely the point.
Family photos don’t always need coordinated outfits, perfect lighting and everybody looking at the camera. In fact, some of the best ones happen when nobody realises you’re taking them.
If you do fancy getting everyone into one slightly more intentional picture, we’ve also put together some tips on how to get a decent family photo without anyone storming off.
No matching white shirts required.
Children have an impressive ability to become completely obsessed with something and then apparently forget it ever existed.
The dinosaur they carried everywhere. The battered teddy that wasn’t allowed to go in the washing machine. The football shirt worn approximately four days out of seven. The blanket that had to come on every car journey.
Photograph them with it.
You don’t need to stage anything. Just capture them playing, cuddling it or dragging it around the house as they normally would.
Years later, a photo of your child clutching that slightly grubby rabbit may bring back far more memories than a beautifully posed portrait ever could.
And yes, you may finally be forgiven for putting Rabbit through the washing machine.
Eventually.
Not every family adventure involves mountains, beaches or carefully researched National Trust parking arrangements.
Sometimes it’s just the usual loop.
Through the park. Around the block. Along the same footpath you’ve walked since the kids were tiny.
Because you do it all the time, it doesn’t seem worth photographing.
But look at what’s actually changing.
A toddler who once needed a pushchair eventually walks beside you. Then they’re racing ahead on a scooter. Then they’re taller than you and walking approximately six metres behind because being seen with their parents has suddenly become deeply embarrassing.
The route stays much the same.
The people walking it don’t.
We quite rightly take photos of grandparents at birthdays, Christmas and family celebrations.
But don’t forget the ordinary ones.
Grandma making a cup of tea with a grandchild sitting at the kitchen table. Grandad showing them how to plant something in the garden. Reading a story. Playing cards. Sneaking them a biscuit when they’ve already been told they’ve had enough biscuits.
Those everyday interactions often say much more about a relationship than a line-up of everyone smiling at the camera.
We’ve written before about the special relationship between grandparents and grandkids, and it’s often the smallest shared routines that become the strongest memories.
So take the photo even if nobody is dressed for it.
Especially if nobody is dressed for it.
The kitchen tends to be where an awful lot of ordinary family life happens.
Homework gets done there. Big conversations happen there. Cakes are made there with wildly optimistic estimates of how much flour will actually remain in the bowl.
Someone sits on the worktop when they shouldn’t. Someone else opens the fridge four times in ten minutes hoping something new has appeared.
It might not feel particularly photogenic when there are dishes by the sink and cereal boxes on the worktop.
But that’s your kitchen being lived in.
Take photos of people cooking together, eating breakfast, decorating cakes or simply sitting around the table.
You might be surprised how much you’ll eventually love seeing the room exactly as it really was.
Move quickly. This opportunity may be brief.
Sibling relationships aren’t generally made up of constant harmonious cuddles and heartfelt declarations of affection.
They’re more likely to involve arguments over who is sitting where, suspiciously precise measurements of whose drink contains more and accusations beginning with, “Muuuum, they…”
Which makes those quiet moments together even more worth catching.
Building Lego. Playing a game. Sitting together watching television. An older sibling helping a younger one. Laughing uncontrollably about something nobody else understands.
Don’t interrupt and ask them to smile.
You’ll ruin it.
Just take the picture.
Pets quietly become part of the furniture.
Sometimes almost literally.
There’s the dog stretched across the doorway everyone has learned to step over. The cat occupying the exact chair somebody was about to sit on. The rabbit waiting at the same corner of the run every morning.
Because we see them there every day, we rarely think to photograph it.
But their little routines become part of the rhythm of family life.
So photograph the dog asleep under the table while everyone eats dinner. The cat watching the kids play. The muddy footprints after a walk. The ridiculous sleeping position that cannot possibly be comfortable.
They’re not just photos of your pet.
They’re photos of what home looked like with them in it.
This might be the most important one.
Every so often, take a photo when there is genuinely no reason to.
Someone reading in bed.
Your partner making dinner.
A child doing homework at the table.
Everyone eating a takeaway straight from the boxes.
The kids laughing at something on the floor.
Your parents sitting in their usual chairs.
The view from the back seat of the car.
Nothing remarkable. Nothing organised. Nothing you’d normally think deserves a photograph.
Because family life isn’t mostly made up of weddings, birthdays, holidays and Christmas mornings.
It’s made up of thousands of tiny, ordinary moments that happen so often we assume they’ll always be there.
And then gradually, almost without noticing, they change.
The toys disappear from the floor. The school bags stop hanging by the door. The children grow. The pets get older. People move house. Families change shape.
You don’t need to photograph every second of it. Nobody needs another 4,000 photos to sort through.
But every now and then, when absolutely nothing special is happening, get your phone out.
Those might just become the photos that mean the most.
