The Experience
BEFORE YOU BOOK
Finding your Forever Photographer
Building a connection with your family is important to me - that's why I love to chat with you prior to booking, if possible, to ensure a good fit. It's important for me to understand your vision and expectations for your session, so I can not only meet your expectations, but do my best to exceed them. Every photographer has their own unique style, and I want to be sure that we are a good fit.
For families with special needs children and adults - no need to stress about booking family photos. I have over 22 years working within the special needs community and am a mom with a special needs child. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve to make your family session a happy memory.
Infant - Toddler Years
To provide you with the best possible experience, I kindly request that you send me some inspiration for your session. I value your ideas and will use them as a guide to create something truly special for your family. These are moments in time you don’t get back, and as we know, those babies don’t keep.
With that in mind, I want to clarify that I won't copy another photographer's set and try to avoid a total re-create my custom design sets. I believe in crafting original, one-of-a-kind experiences that reflect your baby's individuality. Your inspiration will serve as a starting point for me to use my magic and produce something truly unique for you. Rest assured that your session with me will be a collaboration, where I combine your ideas with my expertise to create breathtaking photos that capture your baby's personality and essence.
YOU’RE BOOKED - NOW WHAT?
All sessions will get a reminder of session date, time, location and payment reminders sent automatically from my online booking portal. Be on the lookout for style guides and prep guides as well. If you don’t see this in your booking process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me - these are important pieces to make sure you are understanding of my policies, expectations and styling suggestions as well.
DURING YOUR SESSION
Family Sessions: You have hired me for a reason - to do my thing and make these photos a positive, fun, and peaceful experience for all. I know that family sessions can be stressful because you spent a lot of time planning your outfits, getting ready and spent a good amount of money for these. Rest assured, I have over 10 years experience doing family photos and found a few important details along the way.
Please do NOT be the one to call your child’s name, yell at your child to cooperate, point where the camera is and say look and smile. All of those details are part of my job and the experience you pay for. I always guide parents to pose and get in position while I work on the children (posing, making silly sounds, calling their name, ect) to be sure that everyone looks their best, parents are smiling and not in.mid-talk faces. With you standing next to or behind me trying to get your child’s attention this causes two problems; They are going to look at the wrong place by looking at or for you instead of at me and my camera, and it is distracting to me, and can cause me to feel uncomfortable and less confident in what I am doing as if you don’t trust me to do my job.
As a parent, I totally get the need to bribe, and do it for my own children, but I do have a few rules about this during our time together: please do not mention bribes at the beginning or during our session as it becomes the sole focus to the child and they will be less likely to cooperate. Kindly do not offer food/candy/drinks mid session as it takes away from your session time and it becomes a distraction and sole focus for the child(ren). Please feed your child before the session, even if its just a snack, so that this minimizes the need.
Studio Sessions: Your session will be focused on the child(ren) booked. Kindly note that I do not allow siblings in the studio unless they are getting their photo taken as well. If this is a newborn family session, I will start with the photos the siblings are in, and ask another adult to please take them out - this can be to the park across the street, home, or even to grab some breakfast at the Cafe a few doors down. If the fish store or gaming store are open, those are also super fun places to check out! As stated above, please follow the same
AFTER YOUR SESSION
I would love for you to write a review on Yelp or Google with your honest feedback about your session experience.
I will deliver a fully edited gallery within fourteen (14) business days. Your images will be watermarked upon receiving your gallery. The images will not be watermarked once the images are downloaded.
I will send you a guide on how to navigate the online store and what products you won’t want to miss out on.
Remember to share your images and tag Little Rae Photography - word of mouth is everything for a small business.
