Another busy period for me but I’ll give what I think is a decent tip from group photos:
Don’t worry if every eye is looking at the camera. Sure, it helps but it isn’t always what you want. Sometimes if just one subject is looking at the camera and every other set of eyes is looking wherever it makes for a more intriguing photo. Even then, it is pretty easy to decide what you’d like those other eyes to be doing. If you want one subject to be the focus, have all eyes on that subject. If you want the person viewing your photos to look all around, then have those extra eyes looking wherever they want.
Or, if you have one set of eyes that is on a toddler and those eyes just won’t look at the camera despite all your tricks, then just go with that. But don’t sit there stressing out that you can’t get every single eye looking at the camera. Photography sessions are about working around your frustrations to make your subjects look awesome, not transferring frustrations to your subjects and making them miserable.
Anyway, these were done without any extra lighting aside from the sun during golden hour. Use golden hour, it is awesome!