The Experience

My approach is simple: I join you in a place where your kids feel at home, and over the course of 2 hours I take gloriously real photos of your gloriously real kids.

What to expect: Before the shoot

Clothing: I am happy to give guidance on coordinating colors to wear, but I will never require certain clothes. I want your kids to be wearing what makes them comfortable and happy, and the photos to reflect what they really wear in that stage of their life.
Location: I will spend 2 hours at a single location, or 1 hour each at two locations. It’s important to choose somewhere that is familiar and comforting to your kids, and for me to take my time capturing real actions and real emotions in those spaces. I am happy to provide suggestions or guidance on choosing the best spots!
We will coordinate a meeting day and time, with a backup day and time should weather get in our way. I offer a 30 minute flexibility window for arriving, because I know that kids can be hard to wrangle!

What to expect: During the shoot

I will introduce myself and answer any questions your kids have. (Kids tend to have a lot of questions about my camera and what I’m doing!) It’s important that they understand that while I am going to be taking photos of them, I don’t need them to do anything special. I just want them to be themselves!
This is an entirely candid shoot, meaning I will not provide directions. I will never tell your kids what to do or how to do it. These photos are capturing their true selves, and I want them to be as true-to-life as possible. If you know that you have a super-serious child, do not expect tons of laughing photos, and vice versa for very smile-y kids.
This means that unless your kids are playing next to each other, you might not have any photos of them together. It is unlikely that you will receive any holiday-card styled photos with your kids sitting next to each other.
Children are unpredictable, and these photos are photojournalism-style. This means that if one of your kids is having an especially rough day, you may end up with several photos of your child crying. To me, even those are magical moments that deserve to be remembered. Even better, it allows for some really gorgeous photos of a caretaker comforting their child.
My fly-on-the-wall method tends to work really well with shy kids, but it is not a guarantee that I will be able to get as many photos of your shy children as your more outgoing children.
These photos are primarily of your children, but there will also be candid photos of you! While many of my photos are closer-angle shots, I love to capture your interactions with your kids.

What to expect: After the shoot

A week after the shoot I will text or email you a few “teaser photos” – my favorite photos of the shoot – to tide you over while you wait for the full gallery.
Within 3 weeks of the shoot, I will email you a link to the full gallery, which will include between 40 and 50 fully edited photos. You will have access to the full-size downloads of each image to use as you please, and my gallery is linked to a print store should you prefer to get physical images that way.

Pricing

A 2 hour shoot, which includes travel up to 10 miles from Boston, Chicago, or Memphis and 40-50 fully edited photos, is $500. A $50 deposit is required upon booking.

I travel often, and am happy to add shoots onto my travel schedule. If you live in another city and are interested in family photos, please shoot me and email and I will let you know if I’ll be heading to your city anytime soon.