My Approach: Family Photography
Family photos happens to be one of those things most people dread, but can also agree that they're 100 percent worth it. If you find yourself dreading the annual family session, let me be the first to say that maybe you're booking the wrong photographer!
If you're in the market for a family photographer that grows and adapts to your family's quirks and dynamics, look no further! I truly believe I cracked the code to for the best family photos! If you need a little convincing, continue reading! This is my approach to family photos:
My main approach to family photography as a Huntsville, Alabama photographer - reading the room.
One soft skill that is incredibly important for every photographers is to be able to read their client's emotion and develop upon that. Human to human, it would be naive of me to expect all my clients to show up to their sessions full of excitement and smiles. Come to your session scared, nervous, anxious, frustrated, joyful, tired, overwhelmed, goofy. What's important is that you showed up as yourself.
By reading your emotions, I can quickly shape the session to make you and your family feel the most comfortable and confident.
If we need time to take a deep breath, we can start out with posing that requires a lot of space. If your family shows up full on rambunctious energy, I can chase your kiddos around to capture all the candids!
Speaking of kids, some kids need time to warm up to their photographer. Based on the time I know is preferred to capture both "timeless" and documentary style photos, I have have baked in additional time to allow your children to warm into the session. This is another reason that I highly recommend keeping with the same family photographer from season to season. It makes each session feel like a little reunion instead of starting over from scratch.
In the end, photography is meant to document a specific time in your lives. It's more than okay if that time looks messy and chaotic. Some seasons should be represented by missing front teeth or kids that can't help but bug the other. I promise that one day you'll be excited to look back and reminisce on this fleeting moment of y'all's lives.
I'm both hands-on and hands-off with posing. Your job is to be present.
My favorite (and what I'm best at) part of photography is capturing candids!
It's not likely that my clients will step into a session "knowing what to do". It's my job to direct and prompt during my sessions to encourage the biggest smiles, giggles, side eyes, and smirks. I'll encourage my clients to play games like tag, duck-duck- goose, or airplane with their children. And don't worry, it's also my job to direct smiles at the camera when I have the whole groups attention!
I've heard over-and-over, "I hope you were able to get good photos" from clients that later are floored by their gallery. One thing about me - I'm quick. I'm constantly capturing moments that never grabbed your attention. For example, that quick smile by your 4-year-old was captured before they decided to throw up a piece-sign and overcame to their goofiness.
If you're going to take one thing from this read, let it be this. My greatest advise is to not pester your children during your session! The amount of photos from over the years where kids are smiling adorably at the camera, but the parents are too busy in the middle of a lecture is certainly way too many. Just smile and enjoy the session! Let me be the one to coax out your children's attention and toothy-grins!
Your photos are meant to be unique because you're unique.
In the early stages of booking your family session, I'm more than likely to ask you for an inspiration board (usually through Pinterest). This photos you collect for inspiration are by no means meant to set expectations. I use that board to help brainstorm locations, timing, and to get an overall pulse on what style of photos you're envisioning for your session such as blurry, movement, sitting, pick-ups, etc.
This Pinterest board can also be a resource for planning outfits or props!
If there are specific poses on your board that you must have, bring those and remind me during your session. Otherwise, I'll be using your inspiration to inspire me to direct your session.
flexibility!
One of my biggest take aways that I've walked away with from working in the wedding industry for 5 years is I value flexibility. Clearly weddings cannot be rescheduled, but your family photos can be (if need be).
If something comes up like illness, the grandparents booking tickets to the zoo without discussing it, or a kid's baseball game that didn't make it on the calendar, do not sweat it! I don't require a reschedule fee for clients that need to adjust their session date.
If you're booking a newborn session, I can be flexible all the way up to an hour or so before. Usually, clients book their newborn photos before their baby has even made it earth-side. By no means should you (or I) know exactly when your new snuggly newborn will be ready to leave the hospital or even what time of day works best for his or her schedule.
I recommend booking the session to be within two weeks of the delivery date just so we can get something on the books. Once the baby is born and you're ready, just reach back out to me to adjust or confirm the date we have on the calendar. The day before the session, we'll chat about what time is best for me to make an appearance with my camera!
I value my returning clients!
As a thank you for all my clients, you will always receive 10% off any general sessions booked in the future!
I truly love my clients as if they're my friends. I genuinely get so giddy when a booking comes through from a client that I've worked with in the past! Photography is definitely a luxury, and I feel such honor by those that choose to invest in my business year-to-year.
10% might not seem like a crazy percentage. But it might seem better by knowing that I cover the tax amount for all my packages. What prices you see on my site, you get! At the time that I write this, my standard family session is $625. With that 10% discount, we're knocking off $62.50 from your session price. That's enough to maybe get a few new outfit pieces or help pay for dinner after photos! In this economy, I know that every dollar counts.
Thank you for reading my blog post!! If you're ready to book a session, click here to check out my packages. Otherwise, I would love to get social - follow me on instagram!
With Love,
Kaleigh
