Booking a Session

You’ve followed and liked what I do and now want to enquire about booking a shoot for yourself!

Firstly, thank you for your interest in a personal photography session. After all my business can not work without you. Whether it be family or pet I’m hoping this will provide a little guide into how I work and what actually is involved in a session.

What happens on a photography session?

I will have been in touch a few days before to check the weather forecast as most of my sessions are held outdoors, you will appreciate sadly we are in the hands of the gods and if we need to postpone the session we will. There is no point in creating images of soaking wet animals and kids if we can simply move along another day. I do encourage you if we really are unsure, simply to look outside on the morning of the shoot and make a judgement call. As we all know the weather man DOES in fact get it wrong, 9/10 we can often still shoot it. I LOVE grey skies. Please don’t be put off by grey clouds, these actually photograph better than bright, stark high contrast sunny days, I promise.

I would have asked you to also think about what sort of thing you are looking for? Some clients simply say, I love what you do, just go for it and others have some specific requests such as Black Backgrounds or animal only. Please do let me know as this means I can be prepared for how the session will run. Some of these require specific set ups or equipment.

I will arrive at the set time and location, usually a little bit before and have another chat with you running through any thoughts or worries. What if my child is really shy? What if my horse is naughty!

Trust me, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. We will always find a way to win them over. As my photography style is very natural, I am not expecting you or them to be staring at the camera. Working with Children for Disney Cruise Lines in a past life has given me an abundance of tools!!

I will then look for locations to use to provide the most amount of variety I can for your images, I don’t always look for a background or spot, I am looking for lighting. For example on a harsh sunny day I am looking for shade to give you even light and no squinting. I might be looking for long tufty grass to add texture and depth. you don’t have to have an epic landscape behind you to create stunning images.

Each shoot generally lasts about an hour to an hour and half, depending on how it goes. With young children I will work quickly as you never know when they will throw the towel in- Equally with horses and their attentiveness to the shaking bucket rubs off after a while.

Talking of shaking buckets, if you are having an equestrian shoot I do ask if we can have another person along side to help encourage them to look left/right. If the animals can be remotely clean that is a big help, I find getting them in the night before usually helps.

During the shoot if Children create stains, or horses for example might slobber on you- Don’t Panic- It can be touched up after in the processing . Story of my life removing snot from noses!

You will be completely guided by me, and again, you are not expected to pose you will be encouraged to have moments with your family, child or pet and I am simply capturing it.

What do I wear on a photography session?

Ultimately be you.

I want you to be as comfortable as you can, if you aren’t it will show. Think about your images before we have even taken them. What can you imagine they might look like? Is it Autumn/Winter? Do we have lots of colours out on the trees? Coats, Wellies, Wolly Hats!Is it a Summer Evening? the light will be soft and golden, pick colours that might compliment. Prom dress sat in the wardrobe from last year? These look epic on equestrian shoots.

Ok I am ready to book and invest.

Fabulous!

Have a think about when you might like to have your session, these run Monday- Friday weekends are rare due to weddings taking priority. But during the spring/summer months evenings are encouraged due to the beautiful light we have so perfect for after work if need be. Half terms are also ideal if you are planning on having the kids involved in the shoot but bear in mind these are often the most popular times so book ahead.

At point of booking full payment is required to secure your slot. Remember, I do realise we are held against the weather if we need to move your session, we will just move it to another date.

Shoot Time - Black Background Shoot ( If location allows) - Processing and Previewing Images Online - 15 High Resolution jpeg Images for you to print or use as you please.

£250 (Radius of 20 miles) extra is charged at 45p per mile.

Additional Digital Images, Prints and Canvases can be purchased separately.

What happens next.

After your shoot I will work through your images, selecting the best to show you. I believe photography is very personal so I don’t remove too much- it is for you to decide which version of you, you prefer! I will take out the blinks or missed expressions but be prepared to view a lot you will love and to be ruthless which one is your winner! The Images are held on a viewing gallery online that I ask you select within 2 weeks.

From your shoot you can select the DSC file numbers you want to keep with any editing requirements included in your package of 15. Please discuss any editing before committing to ordering the images, I am very competent in removing slobber, snot and stains but sometimes I am not a miracle worker. Your selected images will then be processed and sent to you via download, so a computer/laptop will be required to store these at high resolution. Using your phone to save these will not be high resolution for printing later on. The link will be sent to you via email and the link lasts a week. Attached will be a guide to prints/framing/canvases should you wish me to arrange for you, however you do have the files to go and create magic yourself!

I always get asked as everyone wants them ALL! Images are never deleted from my personal drives so if you wanted to come back to these in the future as long as you had the file numbers, you can always order extra a later date.