A family photograph taken at a reunion allows you to freeze one page of your family story forever. While the games and food take center stage, one of the most important ingredients of the day is the family photo. Remember, you will never have another chance to get this particular photograph ever again!

• Plan ahead! As important as pre-planning is for the food and games, it is equally so for this task. Be sure to have at least two quality digital cameras at the event, as well as extra batteries and memory cards. Rest assured, you will use all of your memory card space, no matter how many cards you bring! (Shooting with film is fine, too, but digital allows you much more creative license for getting the perfect shot.)
• Publicize the time and location of the family photo in the invitation or the card sent with reunion details. 
• Arrange for someone outside of your family to snap the photo (a niece’s boyfriend, a park employee, or a close-by neighbor, for example). Nobody should be missing from the photo if it is to be an historical account of this family’s gathering!
• Scout out the photo location early. If your event is outside, keep the location of the sun in mind. To avoid squinting or closed eyes, choose a location where people are not facing into the sun – For example, don’t have everyone facing east if you take the picture first thing in the morning. (The camera shouldn’t face into the sun either, or you will have a back-lighting situation that will darken the subjects’ faces.) Avoid trees, too, as they can cast awkward shadows across faces that are almost impossible to correct afterwards.  
• Gather your group EARLY during the event, before the kids have chocolate ice cream down the front of their shirts and before the youngest (and perhaps oldest) family members need their naps. Group by immediate family, keeping a triangle in mind. Find a way to make the people in the center-back of the photo the tallest (standing on tree stumps or a picnic table), working your way down from there.
• Pack ‘em in there! Don’t leave any space between people. When everyone is in place, ask everyone to inch closer toward the center, and to sit up (or stand) straight and tall.
• Place the little ones into the group line-up last, as they will no doubt be squirmy. Promise a surprise reward (candy, ice cream cone, small trinket, etc.) for the kids who sit still for the photo shoot, and announce that you’ll take a really SILLY photo after you get your good ones!
• Stop after a few shots to quickly review the photos on the camera to make sure they are what you envisioned, making any necessary adjustments to the camera or group, then continue with a dozen or so more. 
• After you take all the group shots you want and others have taken theirs, disband the entire extended family and shoot photographs of each immediate family separately.
• Give each child an inexpensive disposable camera marked with his or her name so the cameras aren’t easily mixed up or fodder for squabbling. (If there are many children, assign one camera to a group of four.) Let the kids have-at-it to take candid photos! Gather all the disposable cameras and have the pictures developed and placed onto a CD (compact disc) in digital format. From there, you can post the pictures on a digital photo website or on your family’s own website.