The Rules To Family Photos You Will Love
By The Hampshire Photographer, Evie Winter
By The Hampshire Photographer
Choosing a family photographer is a big deal, and if you don’t think it is - we will need to agree to disagree (I’d argue but my Englishness makes me non-confrontational at times like these!).
Before becoming a professional photographer my background was in childcare, education and development. I trained at 19 and then worked in nurseries, ran a parent and toddler centre and became a nanny because I loved working with children and families so much. When you work with families and children, you can feel the positive difference in the world. You can make a mother’s life a bit easier, a child’s life a bit sunnier - short of working in medicine - I’m not sure one could have such an impact on the lives of others than to work with children.
This attitude I bring with me to my photoshoots. It is not the make up or clothes people see when they look at old photos and remember the good times (though they do help!) It is the memory of what they were doing when that photograph was taken. The love of the people they were with, the feel of their skin, the sound of their voice, the smell of their hair.
So with this in mind, I have adapted the way I work to ensure your photoshoot will envoke these magical memories for you and your family.
RULES TO FAMILY PHOTOS YOU LOVE
I do one photoshoot a day (excluding minis), photoshoots can be tiring for everyone so I like to leave time for a break if it is needed and not rush off to do another photoshoot.
I’ll ask you on the day of the shoot not to discipline your child (unless it really needs to be done but be prepared to stop the photoshoot at that stage), I prefer to keep things sweet with bribes.
I’ll stop the photoshoot if the children are just not enjoying it, they can have a break (you can have a coffee) and we will either try again or rearrange. You have noticed my prices are higher than other photographers. I’m about service and satisfaction. It is fine if you are late, if that’s what helped you get calm kids out the house. It’s fine if we rearrange. I want you to look back on the photos and feel the peace, contentment and love of being a Mother. Not the stress, tears of tantrums of kids not in the mood for photos.
Disclaimer: As my children will tell you, I’m not a complete walk over and I do believe in saying no to children but even when I want photos of my kids, I ask them if they want to go for a walk to a cafe that serves chocolate brownies in return for photos, they usually agree. Everyone is happy. After the photoshoot and the brownies we will resume a normal life of parenting, but just for the photoshoot - I like to keep it magical.