FAQs – family photography

No, and I doubt I’ll ever want to. I love being outdoors and photographing in the natural light too much! And I much prefer images of children just playing and enjoying themselves to being posed in front of studio lights. In my view, nothing beats natural light. Good natural light photographers know which times of day give the best light and we know how to manipulate it when we’re out there so you look your very best.

I firmly believe your family’s personality shines through better when they’re being photographed belting a ball at a football net in a park rather than standing posing with a football against a solid background in a studio. Outdoors, there are endless location and background options so your images are more unique. However, that’s not to say studio sessions don’t have their place. They’re just not my thing, is all.

I do, but only with natural light as I think that gives the most beautiful results. Most of my clients come to me for outdoor images but I do occasionally photograph indoors. So if you’d rather be photographed in your own home, provided you have at least a couple of reasonably large windows which let in enough light, we could start there for some more posed images then perhaps even move outdoors for a completely different look.

If it’s a winter evening and you live in a dark, north-facing basement flat in the New Town, however, sticking to outdoors is probably our better option!

Newborn posing photography, when the baby is asleep in various manipulated positions (often with props) is a very specialist genre and it’s not what I do.

I take the natural approach, much preferring to capture images of your baby lying naturally or being held by you and your family – details and moments using your baby’s everyday surroundings. Props are more likely to be a soft toy or something from the baby’s room rather than an antique bowl or bed which you may see in a posed studio session.

If you’re looking for posed baby photographs, I can recommend some truly outstanding local baby posing photography experts who can give you this.

So I can keep your session date and time free for you and spend up to an hour and a half taking images you will love, a non-refundable session fee is required, to be paid when I invoice you at the time of booking.

The session fee also includes the pre-portrait consultation which my clients really value, held either over the phone or in person, where we talk through ideas for your session and establish how best I can give you images you’ll be delighted with, and the ordering appointment when your images are ready. 

When it comes to your ordering session, your session fee goes towards the photographs you purchase.

Definitely. I know it’s not always easy for you to take time off work and to take the children out of school for week day sessions, which is why I’m more than happy to do this for you at weekends.

Don’t worry, once you have secured your booking I’ll send you a “what to wear guide” and I’ll also have a good chat with you at the pre-session consultation before the session where we can talk about all this, and more.

As above … Most likely yes, so just contact me.

I thought you’d never ask! It’s very likely you and your family simply won’t enjoy our session so much if it’s raining or there’s a howling gale outside. Given where we live, this does sometimes happen so the Met Office is my best friend and I keep a VERY close eye on the weather leading up to and on the morning of our session.

It’s very unlikely you would enjoy being photographed in rain, snow, high winds, or extreme temperatures, and I doubt I could capture you at your best, so if it’s too horrible outside we’ll have to reschedule. I’ll be in touch with you both the day before and the morning of your session if it’s looking unlikely we can go ahead, and we’ll figure out what to do.

Of course! It’s not a problem. But please do think very carefully about this … Perhaps you feel you aren’t photogenic, but remember, your children don’t care what you look like. Images of you will be one of the most important things they have at some point in the future and will mean the world to them.

Just be yourself! Interacting, laughing and just generally messing about together produce beautiful photos that you will feel a connection with forever.

Posing you all as a human pyramid wouldn’t really be top of my mind, but if that’s your thing, then let’s do it! Sometimes I might direct you to get everyone’s face in the shot and some images will be loosely posed, although naturally so you look your best. But don’t worry about this – I’ll show you what to do!

Normally around 60-90 minutes, but as I know these photographs will be so important to you, I don’t impose a strict time limit.

However, children tend to get fed up and want to do something else after an hour or so, so I use this as a guideline. But I don’t rush you, and if anyone wants to stop for a snack or break, that’s fine.

The best thing you can do is to just relax and enjoy it! Sometimes people feel a wee bit uptight and stressed before a photography session – fear of the unknown! – but what’s the worst that can happen? Just look at it as a chance to enjoy yourselves, and let me worry about what the children are doing.

We’ll have the best chance at getting beautiful photographs if we let them happen naturally (with a little guidance from me). You absolutely do NOT have to worry about your children being on their best behaviour; in fact, that would probably be counter-productive and we’d end up with photos which are stiff and unnatural looking.

I meticulously hand edit all the images I give you and my normal practice is to remove temporary things like blemishes, cuts etc, but leave in permanent marks like scars that make the person who s/he is, unless otherwise requested.

However, it’s very helpful if your toddler’s nose is wiped beforehand and during, if you know what I mean!

I send you an online gallery with your collection of images, and then it's time to decide which images you would like to purchase and how you would like them displayed in your home.  

I'll guide you through the selection process - it's fairly straightforward although it's often very hard to decide which of your photographs you really want to keep!

This takes as long or as short a time as you like - there's no time pressure because I want you to be absolutely delighted with the choice of images you purchase.

I very often provide a mixture of both, unless you specifically ask for all of some, or none of the other. Some photographs lend themselves particularly well to black and white, however, and I’ll process each image according to how I think it works best.

When I'm showing you the images from your session and see one you really want in black and white, just tell me - I should be able to do this for you.

You have the rights to the images for personal use but I have copyright.

People who book me have usually seen my photographs online first, so I’m sure you’ll understand that it’s vitally important to my business that I can use your images to promote and market my photography services.

Most clients love this and are very proud when I select one or more of their images to showcase my work. It’s important for me to clarify that the images I take during our session together may in the future be used on my website, blog, Facebook or other social media page, or in any other promotional material. It might also be the case that I enter one of the photographs I've taken of your family in a photography competition.

However, if for any reason you do NOT want your images used, please let me know and I’ll keep them under lock and key. 

Also, if you’re planning to present some of the photographs I take to family or friends as a surprise, I am always happy to delay using images until after the gifts have been received. I’d hate to spoil the surprise!