What To Expect From Your A Day In The Life Session
"She captured magical moments of my children living their lives; playing together, laughing, crying—moments that I’m usually unaware of or so entrenched in that I don’t get to really see them." -Alexis
How to book your A Day In The Life session
Shoot me a message through my contact page, so we can get in touch.I will send you some questions about your family. They will help me figure out what you’d like your kids to remember about you, as well as help prepare for kiddo personality quirks that you’d like pictures of.I’ll send you my client guide. It has information about my different session options, pricing, as well as other tidbits of information I get asked about a lot. A Day In The Life sessions are available from four hours up to a full day – or a few days!We’ll talk. I’m a bit awkward talking on the phone, but would love to meet for coffee or video chat – I want to make sure we have the same expectations about your session. The most important thing, though, is that you can decide if you’re comfortable with me in your space.You’ll sign a contract and pay a retainer to hold your date. I will send you both the contract and the invoice electronically, so everything goes smoothly. Once the paperwork is done, we can concentrate on making your session the best it can be.You’ll pay the remaining balance a week before the session day. Then I can start editing your pictures when we're done – high five!What to plan for your session. I will join you in-home and anywhere else you might venture during that day. The most important thing is to capture your family just as you are on a regular – or special – day. Here’s a blog post with some ideas of things that could be fun to document.
The A Day In The Life Session Day
Preparing your home for your session – or not. The most important thing about your pictures is to leave behind keepsakes for your kiddos – not to impress strangers on social media with a spotless kitchen. Your floor hasn’t seen the vacuum for two weeks? So what.How you dress matters. To have an honest record of your family, you should dress like you do every day. Matching clothes are best reserved for formal portraits.Be you. Most of my moms feel self conscious especially after having a baby, but what I like to remind them of is that these pictures are important keepsakes for the kids. Thinking back I never cared about how my mom physically looked in our childhood pictures (or in real life); it’s the expressions, the action and the connections that are most important.
Let your kids be themselves. Showing that you value pictures of your kiddos being themselves will tell them how much they are cherished just as they are. Here’s a previous post about how to talk to your kids about their upcoming family photo session.My accommodations – if you’d like me to be with you starting from when you wake up, I will need a spot to sleep. During sessions 4h and longer (or sessions starting from waking up) I ask to eat with the family.I will show up in comfy clothes – and take my shoes off. I have to be comfortable to be able to crawl on floors, lay in the grass, or climb on top of furniture while taking pictures. Back in Finland it’s a tradition to take our shoes off, and I follow this “house rule” here, too.
I’m no regular baby sitter. If you leave the kids alone with me in a room, I will take photos of whatever happens – whether they’re drawing on your couch or smearing whipped cream on the dog. I will do my best to intervene only if I think something dangerous is about to happen.I might talk to you, just as a friend would while they’re hanging out. This usually helps people forget what I’m up to, as well as gives me clues about what I should look for to incorporate into your pictures.
“Society has trained all of us humans that the world stops for a photograph … That’s horribly hard for documentary photographers because we want the world to forget about us.” – Tyler Wirken, documentary wedding photographer
Don’t mind me! I will climb on chairs or when get close up and personal with my camera.
After your A Day In The Life session
I’ll work on your digital files asap. I always end a sneak peek as soon as possible, usually within a day or two. Unless something very dramatic happens, I can edit your full A Day In The Life session in about 4 weeks. I will let you know if I have any plans that may change the delivery time.
You’ll get a link to view your online proof gallery. You can create favorite lists, mark images for your photo book, order prints, download files, as well as share the gallery with extended family to enjoy.I can’t wait to hear your reaction about your photos. I’m checking my email every seventeen seconds after I’ve sent pictures to a client. I pour so much heart into the pictures, and hope they make the family as happy as they make me.Let me know if there are images you do not wish to be shared online. I might write a blog post, or post some images on social media. It is very important to me that my clients can trust me, and are comfortable with anything that I would share online. Situations where families might ask me to not share could be breastfeeding images, for example – some are ok with those, too. The proof gallery has an easy system for marking the images you want to keep private.We can meet up to go through your album design, or pick out pictures to print for your walls. I use an amazing print lab for pictures and am obsessed with their museum grade paper quality. I also love photo books, because they can be out on the coffee table and flipped through over and over again – which is why they are a part of every package.If you opted for a la carte pricing, you'll get digital copies of all the pictures that you purchase as products – yay!Go ahead, flip through a photo book with me:
For the future
Recommendations and reviews are important. A written testimonial or a review on Yelp/Facebook or Google helps other families find the right photographer for them.Here’s more information about how to write a review for your photographer.