PREPARING FOR YOUR SESSION

We want to set ourselves up for the best possible outcome for your session; here are some steps you can take to help!

Make sure that you and your children are well fed and well rested.

Be certain not to schedule your photo session around your child’s nap or cranky-time. And make sure everyone, YES even you parents, get a good nights rest the day before, even if you aren’t in the photos. Everyone’s a little happier with a good nights rest! And make sure to have a nice filling meal before putting on your special outfits for the session. There’s nothing worse than trying to get a cranky, hungry child to smile on cue.

Get clean.

The camera captures everything so make sure to arrive with clean noses, ears, and fingernails. Also if shoes are going to be worn make sure they have been recently cleaned if they are not new, including the bottoms of the shoes. If you enjoy nail polish please make sure you have a fresh manicure and pedicure or remove the polish all together. While I understand that things like scratched and rashes occur especially with young children there is no excuse for arriving dirty to a photo session; if extra editing is requested due to dirtiness an additional fee may be required. 

Healthy means happy.

On the day of your session if you happen to wake up and one of the subjects being photographed is congested or starting to get sick please do not hesitate to contact me! While I technically require a 24 hour reschedule notice to retain your deposit no one wants to be photographed when they aren’t feeling well. As long as I have a few hours notice I can probably still accommodate a reschedule.

Talk with your children about the session.

I know – it seems so simple! But chatting with your kids and sharing your excitement with them will do WONDERS for your photographer. Prepare them with what to expect; talk about how much fun they will have with the photographer Miss Beth; explain that I will have a camera that captures pictures and lights that are silly and flash at them. The idea is to simply get your little ones excited for this session. If your kids are excited for this session, rather than dreading the session, they are far more likely to cooperate when we ask them to pose with you.

Plan ahead and give yourself time!

Rushing is stressful, and beginning a family session with residual stress is not fun. We all know that when mom is stressed, so is the rest of the family! An easy way to avoid this stress is to plan ahead and set aside plenty of time to get ready and for travel. This includes planning your outfits ahead of time! Shopping for outfits last minute is not setting yourself up for a successful stress free photo shoot. If you are unfamiliar with the session location view it on google maps. Decide ahead of time where you are going to park; is there a lot or are you going to park at a meter on the street.

Don’t worry about making your kids sit still and smile at the camera.

Here is a typical conversation that I often hear from parents during their session: “Honey, sit here. Okay, turn around and smile at the camera. Smile! Say Cheese! Are you looking at the camera? Don’t forget to smile!” … Here’s the issue – while parents are giving directions, they themselves often forget to look at the camera and smile. If you are dying for that perfect shot (which, in my opinion, is a little stuffy), then keep your eyes locked on the camera and smiling. Let the photographer interact with your children, and you will most likely be infinitely more pleased with the results.

Ditch the rewards system.

Please know that in no way am I critiquing a parenting method. This has nothing to do with parenting. In my experience, offering rewards to kids for good behavior during the session has not been very helpful. Let’s use ice cream as an example. Susie says to her daughter, “If you are good during this photography session, you’ll get some ice cream”. Susie’s daughter now views the photographer as the person standing between her and her ice cream, and she no longer wants to cooperate with the photographer. Or she will cooperate for 2 minutes and think it’s ice cream time. No bueno. My suggested method is to simply keep the session fun and inviting. Bring along toys for the kids to play with, read a book, interact with each other as you normally do, get in tickle fights, blow bubbles. You will love the yummy candids!