FAMILY PHOTO SESSION PREPARATION GUIDE

What to Expect

I have a lot of fun getting to know and photographing people. My main goal is to transfer that attitude to my client - so you and your kids walk away loving your experience. I will always take the time to get to know you a little bit before I start taking photos, I want to help the children feel at ease with me. Some children really love the camera and others might not want anything to do with me, even then mom can help them have a good time and I will capture them in their parents' arms if they chose to stay there the whole session.

Relax and Enjoy Yourself

I am totally aware that being in front of the camera can make us feel uncomfortable, because I am one of the most awkward people ever in front of the camera I will go the extra mile to make you feel at ease. I will encourage you to engage with your children, talk to them and play with them. You are welcome to bring their favorite toy, book and blanket. I will prompt you to do fun things: tickle the youngest, pile onto mommy… I may ask who has the stinkiest feet to get that 8 year laughing. Don’t be worried about looking good because that is my job! Loving you child will make you shine and create these magical images you dream of. I will direct you and do everything I can to help you relax, all you will need to do is follow my directions and listen to my rambling about nonsense.

What to wear

One of the most common questions I get asked during the planning stages with my clients is "What should we wear?" Advice on what to wear on your photo shoot has changed over the years. No longer are white shirts and jeans on everyone the trend. I am more than happy to discuss your clothing choices, help you narrow down your decision or give you a direction to focus on as well as make sure that your clothing coordinates well with the locations chosen for your photo shoot!

#1 Choose Your Palette First.
Choose the colors you love. Chose what you (mom) would like to wear and feel beautiful wearing, then chose for everyone else in the family.

#2 Don’t Match. Coordinate.
You want to complement each other’s outfits by choosing colors that work well together. I find that if everyone is wearing the same clothing, people will all tend to blend in together and there won’t be too much pop and life to the images.

#3 Use Colors and Textures.

Muted tones look beautiful together in a family picture and give that soft dreamy feel, but I also love one or two bold colors. When picking patterns, choose smaller ones that won’t pull attention away from the main subjects. When thinking about texture, choose different ones that will give photos some interest such as lace, corduroy, denim, and knits.

#4 Keep Make Up Natural.

You will want to avoid using very heavy makeup, but a bit of color on your lips, eyes, and cheeks will help bring you to life in photos. Be sure to bring some lip gloss with you as well for touch ups as there may be lots of smooches in story from your partner and little ones!

#5 Be Timeless.

For some fashionista’s, this may be a difficult concept, however you are going to want these images to stand the test of time. Pick outfits that aren’t considered too trendy, but will be able to be enjoyed and displayed

#6 Plan Ahead.

Make sure you have given yourself enough time to think about all of the details of your session. Plan ahead so that #1 you can truly think about your photos and everything you want out of the session, #2 you aren’t rushing and stressing out right before your session, and #3 if you have decided to go for a new look for your session or someone gets a bad haircut, you still have time to fix things if you need to.

#7 Shop At The Same Store.

Make coordinating family photo outfits easy by shopping at the same store or brand. It’s especially helpful when there are multiple children to dress. Just this spring, I found a dress for myself and then immediately went shopping at the Carter’s store. In ten minutes, I found shirts for all three of my boys! The colors not only coordinated with my dress but coordinated with each other as well.

Here is a Pinterest board to help you get going on some ideas.

FAQ

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE MY PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE?

I try and keep my family photography very natural, I direct you into a simple pose and then give you prompts to help you relax and help bring connection and make you feel at ease. I give time for a scene to unfold but if a certain pose is not working or a child is starting to get cranky, I just move to the next idea/pose. Every family is different, every child is different, so I adapt the shoot to what is happening. I can get a really good set of images in a very small time frame, so I don't want you to stress if you need to take the time to calm a baby down or fix an outfit on your 11 year old.

DO YOU PHOTOGRAPH IN COLOUR OR BLACK & WHITE?

I do a mixture, choosing what I think works best for each individual photo

WHAT HAPPENS IF MY CHILD IS SICK?

I am happy to reschedule if this happens, I just ask that you let me know as soon as possible, it will also depend on studio availabilities.

SHOULD WE BRING ANYTHING TO THE SESSION

It's great if you can bring along some of your child's favourite toys, books, blanket, snack – anything that you enjoy doing together as a family. Snacks are also a good idea to boost your child's energy levels. Make sure you child is is not hungry during the session. Nobody looks happy when they are hungry.

After the Session

After your session, I will get to work on culling your images down to the very best of the best (typically between 40-60 images/session), then editing those images and getting them up into your gallery. Once they're ready, I'll be sending you a link with the gallery.

Downloading your files:

The process is simple: select the images and use the down arrow in the upper right corner of your gallery - click on that and the system will walk you through the download process. The images will download as a zip file, which you can double-click on to expand. I suggest you make a second copy of the expanded files, then save the two copies to two different locations - I generally recommend that one copy be saved to an easily accessible drive (either on your computer or on an external hard drive), and that the other get saved to the cloud (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.).

Copyrights (and wrongs):

Once you've got your digital files in hand, you are free to print them when, where, and as often as you wish - you can use them to make holiday cards, share on your social media pages or personal blog, etc. The only things you can't do are related to the resale of your photos or use for commercial/business purposes. For instance, if you authored a book, you'd need additional permission to use one of the photos on the dust jacket, and you wouldn't be able to enter one of

the photos into a contest and win prize money for it. Otherwise, you've got free reign.

Printing your images:

While everything that I offer in my store is printed in professional labs and guaranteed to  beautiful, I also recognize that you may want to print your images yourself, and thanks to those digital files, you absolutely can! Be sure to de-select any color correction options, and be sure to upload the original files you downloaded, not copies. The files you receive from me should allow you to print up to 20x30" at minimum.

Selection of Print products made available in the gallery.