How to Choose Your Family Photographer

I found this great article on Mpix.com, How To Choose Your Family Photographer. 

Here are some important parts....


1) The best place to start is with referrals from friends.

Ask your friend if they were happy with the way the photographer interacted with their family. Did they get their images when promised? How was the quality of their gallery? And the most important question, would they use their photographer again?

That being said, don’t use a photographer just because your friend did. Your needs could be different. Which leads me to point two…


2) Not all photographers are created equal.

They typically have a unique style and one or two specialties. Look at their body of work and gauge whether or not their style matches what you are looking for. Don’t pick a photographer who focuses on candid images if you want all posed images. Do you want a big, extended family portrait? Then you probably don’t want to pick a photographer whose website only displays newborn work.


3) Ask to see an entire gallery.

Most photographers can come up with a handful of great images from a session to post on social media or their website. However, not all photographers can produce an entire gallery of great images. To get a better sense of the scope of a photographers work ask to see an entire gallery from a recent session. See if their work is consistent. Do you like their edits? Do you like their poses? Are their images sharp and in focus? Look at the background of the images. Are they any distracting elements? Can they use light well? Were they able to tell a story? Do you feel like you got to know the family from that session just by looking through their gallery?


4) Cost.

Cost can be a big factor. Sometimes it can be the deciding factor. But, the most important thing to figure out is what is included in the cost of the session. Sometimes a photographer may look inexpensive. However, once you factor in prints, digital negatives, and any additional fees they could end up being the most expensive of the photographers you are looking into. If something is unclear ask for clarification before you sign a contract.

And know that if a photographer is very inexpensive you may want to ask yourself, “why are they so inexpensive?”. Are they investing in great equipment that will result in great images? Do they have the proper licenses? Are they paying taxes? Do they have insurance? Are they booking seven sessions a week and won’t have the time to give your session the attention it deserves? You must factor in a photographers time invested in your session, their expertise, as well as their costs when taking into account their pricing. If a deal is too good to be true it probably is.


5) Be sure you understand all of the photographers policies before booking.

Here are some questions you may want to ask if they aren’t clear:
- Are any digital negatives or prints included in the session price?
- Is a print credit included?
- What are the print prices?
- How long after the shoot will the gallery be posted?
- What is the cancellation policy?
- What will happen if the weather is bad the day of my shoot?
- What time of day do you shoot?

Pricing should be clear and easy to understand. Because there is nothing worse than being surprised with extra pricing after all of your beautiful images have been taken.


6) Get to know the photographer.

A great place to get to know the photographer before you book is their About Page on their website. You can usually get a good sense of their personality there. Also, check their blog and social media pages. Do you like them? Have things in common? Feel like you could be friends in real life? If yes, you are usually on the right track. The clients that I click with best are the ones that feel like they know me before we even meet for the first time. And we usually end up being friends in real life. If you are still unsure if you click, schedule a phone call to chat. If you don’t feel a connection, move on to another photographer.


7) In the end your photographer should be someone you trust.

If you feel the need to send your photographer a Pinterest board with your favorite photographs you probably don’t trust them. Do you want unique and artistic images that are true to your family? Or do you want the same images that other people already have? Your photographer will have a vision for your family. And if you’ve picked the right photographer you will trust them and their vision.

Once you find a photographer you love, stick with them! I love documenting families as they grow. I love when kids remember me and are excited to see me, even though I see them only once or twice a year. And I feel each session gets better because I am connected with that family on a deeper level every time we shoot. There is nothing better than feeling as if you are apart of that family. Even if it’s just for the 90 minutes you are capturing the love they have for one another.

February 15, 2011,

Whenever Trevor or I see that the girls: left the lights on downstairs, or the heater on, or left food wrappers laying around, or food, or crap they were suppose to put away, we collect $1 from them.  I put the money in an envelope labeled with their name and write down the date, the amount collected, and why we collected it.  Over the past seven months we have collect quite a bit of money, around $20 from each of them.

The other day I collected $7 from Ariana and she was mad because I was taking her last $7.  I told her she could earn back the money by doing extra jobs around the house.  "Like what," she asked.  I told her she could vacuum, clean up the living room extra nice, fold clothes that weren't hers, stuff like that.

Today after I picked her up from dance she told me she did some extra stuff around the house.  She took all the dirty clothes downstairs.  "That was a hard job," she said,  " because Julia's laundry basket was so full it was over flowing."  And she let me know she put some of Julia's clothes away and saw that Julia had a couple sweaters on the ground in her closet.  She said she wasn't trying to get Julia in trouble but thought I should know.  I said that maybe the sweaters fell.  Ariana didn't think so because they weren't where the other sweaters were but decided maybe that could be the case.  She also told me that she cleaned up the living a little bit and did all of her normal jobs.  I told her I would talk to dad and see what we were going to give her.

Summer Days

Last summer we spent our family vacation on the shores of Lake Michigan.  I wanted to get portraits of the girls at the beach so I made sure to bring dresses for both of them.  I remember this day very well.  We drove into Pentwater and had dinner out on the deck of a restaurant in town.  It was nice eating outside and listening to the entertainment.  There was a local girl singing and playing a guitar.  She sounded great.  She had a stack of her cds that she was selling, so I bought one as we were leaving.  We later found out, she was on the show America’s Got Talent.  To hear her music check out her website, Debra Romer.

After dinner the sun was beginning to set so we went to the beach to get some pictures.  The girls had so much fun playing in the sand and being little models.  They thought it was so cool to play in the water with their dresses on.  We got lucky because on the shore was a blue boat that matched their blue dresses.  The sunlight was perfect.  The setting was perfect.  The girls were perfect.  I was able to capture a lot of great memories.  My daughters will only be young once and I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

If you are thinking of getting portraits taken this year and you love the beach, you might want to have those portraits taken on the shores of Lake Michigan.  Contact me to set up a session.

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Week 9

March 27th, 2011

Reflections

1/125 s f/11 ISO 200

Ariana and I went to a park in Commerce this evening for our weekly photo shoot.  We weren’t there too long because it was so cold today. I know it’s Michigan, but was kind of hoping for a warm spring. We didn’t bring our gloves and our hands were freezing.  This park is a nice place to go and there are always people there walking. I actually did family portraits there last fall and they turned out great.  You just have to watch out for the geese droppings.  Ewwwwww.

I like this park because of the trees.  They are in the swamp and are dead.  It’s like being in a tree grave yard.  A couple years ago when I first took pictures here, there were a lot more trees standing.  I didn’t see any trees that captured my eye like I did a couple of years ago.  I did however capture this nice picture of the bridge.  The bridge is a another highlight of the park and it leads you to the trees.

Spring Day

1/60 s f/4.5 ISO 200

I like this picture better than the following picture because of the lens flare.  Most of the time you do everything in your power not to get lens flare but in this instance I think it adds a creative artistic element to the picture.

Spring 2

1/320 s f/4.5 ISO 200

Before & After

Us Girls

I was going through my pictures the other day and realized I never finished editing my vacation pictures!  I am really bad at that.  I am very critical of my own work and it takes me awhile to like my own pictures.  I always look for how I could have made them better. When I first got back from my trip I only liked a few.  I edited the ones I really liked and passed over the others.  Now nine months later when I looked back at my vacation shots I realized there were many great pictures I passed over.

I always loved this shot that Trevor (my husband) took.  I didn't like all the extra distractions in the background though.  I knew it would take some time to edit this one and that is why I held off touching it up. I would have loved to have had this shot taken with no people on the beach.  But let's be real, when would a beach during the summer not have any other people there.  Especially at sunset.

Week 8

Old Detroit
1/30s f/2.8 ISO 8000

Ariana went to the Detroit Historical Museum over winter break with a friend.  She has been wanting to go again and show us what was in the basement.  She loved the museum and would not tell us what was in the basement.  She wanted it to be a surprise.  We finally had a free weekend and took the kids to the museum.  I had picked up two free passes at the library and Trevor got a library card and picked up two free passes as well.

Before we went to the museum we first stopped and had lunch at Lafayette Coney.  We love that place.  It is a hole in the wall but they really do have the BEST coneys.  If you have never ate there, you are really missing out.  The next time you are in Detroit stop in and get a coney.  Check out their facebook page at Lafayette.

After lunch we went to the museum.  When we got there we discovered there was no charge to get in.  I'm not sure why. We didn't even need to use our free passes.  The kids had a blast.  They really like museums and seeing artifacts from the past.  We were walking around looking at everything and then the girls and I lost Trevor.  Or he lost us.  Either way we couldn't find him.  When we finally caught up with him, said he was in the basement and wanted to show us it.  Ariana was a little deflated.  SHE wanted to show us the basement.  Trevor felt bad that he went in the basement without us but he thought we were down there. He told Ariana that the rest of us hadn't see the basement and could lead us down to it.

When we got down there, we were all in awe.  It was a walk through time from mid 19th century to early 20th century Detroit.  My favorite was the 1840s.  The picture "Old Detroit" is my picture for the week because this is what Ariana had been waiting to show me for a couple months.  I can see why she thought the basement was very cool and wanted to show us it.  If you get a chance, check out the Detroit Historical Museum.

Wolf Moon Blogged

March 19th, 2011

Wolf Moon Over the Lake

I started following Michigan in Pictures  back in July of 2009.  It is a really cool blog where the author showcases pictures from Michigan and writes a blog post to go with them.  I have been wanting one of my pictures to be featured.  After a long wait my Wolf Moon Over the Lake was featured on March 19th.  Read the blog post Sap Moon, Worm Moon, Super Moon and see my pictured featured on blog.