I know spring barely just blew in, and while you haven’t thought twice about your annual portraits, I have. I’ve been talking about 2015 fall portrait season since the middle of 2014 fall portrait season. I’ve seen it all and learned volumes in the making of a gorgeous family portrait session. And because of this I want to share my insider opinion on how to get that series of photos that truly makes you think you’ll never be able to choose just one for this year’s holiday card.
1. Ask around. If you’re like me, you keep Christmas cards year-after-year from friends and family. They’re just so pretty and one of my favorite parts of the season. So dig them out and note the photos that you gravitate towards. And then start chatting up those friends. You likely have a similar style so narrow down the pages and pages of Googled “Wichita family photographer” results in this quick simple step.
2. Once you’ve got a short list of photogs in your back pocket, go back to the images you loved and study them. What do you like about them? Are they super stylized, are there tons of props, is everyone looking at the camera smiling, are they light and bright or are they moody, lots of color or only black and white, is it in a natural setting, is the family interacting, goofing around, intimate, genuine, rustic, edgy, ethereal, etc.? Identifying your style preference before you start scanning photographers’ work is crucial.
3. Start reviewing websites. This is the type of work the photographer is most proud of and wants to do more of. Pay specific attention to the type of portrait session you’re after, meaning review their family portfolio, not their newborn portfolio unless unless you will have a newborn in your annual portraits. If you’ve decided you want your family portraits to have a natural, ethereal feeling where everyone looks full of candid joy, but you can’t find anything on a specific photographer’s website that matches that and makes your heart pitter patter, then they aren’t for you.
4. Let’s say you’ve found 2-3 photographers that align with your desired look. Go back to those sites and check out his/her blog now, again only reviewing the category of session that applies to you. This is their most recent work, and it also starts to give you an idea of what a complete session with them would be like. (No blog to be found? Ask for samples of full sessions to review.) Is the look and feel of a session consistent throughout each of the images shown? Does the color and lighting drastically change? Do the subjects look overly airbrushed or like themselves? Are the candid shots dorky and forced or is there real emotion captured? What are the clients wearing? These glimpses into a photographer’s final product give a much more honest look in regards to quality and style than an initial glimpse of a website.
5. Contact the photographer. Read their “about” section on their website to get a feel for his/her personality. Ask what types of shoots they enjoy the most. Some are Pinterest-board driven, i.e. kids in hand-crafted hot air balloons and some have styles that literally look like they were a fly on the wall the day they photographed each family. They should be professional and prompt in communication and really sell themselves to you at this point.
6. Check out their pricing. Get a full explanation of everything you’re getting with your session. Some photographers charge separately for the sitting fee and then for the prints and/or digital images. Some include tax. Some only give you 10 images with their initial price. Some will give you everything they love from a session. Some will only allow you a 30 minute window of shoot time vs whatever it takes to get the amount of shots everyone will be comfortable with. Consider these things: a) Does it take your kids a while to warm up to someone new? 30 minutes isn’t likely going to cut it then. b) What are you going to do with your final images? This gives you an idea whether you need a product-focused vs digital file-focused photographer. c) As all things in life, you get what you pay for.
7. Book them! And do it now. Even if you aren’t doing your session until six months from now. Especially if you’re scheduling your session six months from now. Fall is a photographer’s busiest season, and a good, sought-after photographer will book up quickly and learn to limit the amount of sessions they offer in order to provide each client a high-quality experience. Case in point, I’ve had well-trained clients looking for a coveted October session on my calendar since last October. And bless them for that.
