family photo session – SarahRuthSeeks

Family photo session 2

I had another opportunity, which came to me via word of mouth, to photograph a family here on vacation. This time, it was twin sons aged 13, a 7 year old, and their parents. It was a TON of fun. They were a really great family to work with.

I’m still uneasy about posting pictures of children. Even if I get their consent, I feel like they don’t quite understand the impact of what it really means to have their picture on the internet. So until I get over it or feel more comfortable with it, you’ll just have to deal with imagining how some of these come out, seeing backs, and adults. I also tried using my software to blur faces, but it seems it’s missing that feature unfortunately.

I am really really enjoying this. I am not really sure where to take it from here, and I don’t have anything booked as of now.

I asked if she thought the value was equal or greater than what I was charging, and she said definitely yes. She mentioned that a lot of photographers will charge extra for the unedited versions. Personally, the editing isn’t my skillset or favorite, so by all means I’ll charge less to get that off my hands to be honest. At this point it’s really nice to not be doing it for the money and to not care.

I told them I’d remove people in the background in some photos, you can tell I didn’t make a huge effort for these. That’s honestly the most time consuming. Instead of spending a ton of time doing that on photos they may never print, I did it for a few and told them to pick a couple out they really wanted me to do it for when they had a chance to review and let me know.

I thought overall this was a huge improvement on my first on and I did a lot better getting everyone’s attention. I had to work a little harder with my instincts and own creativity, she didn’t come with any ideas this time and it went a bit quicker. It’s funny how some poses work better with some families than others. I didn’t have everyone sit somewhere, so I think if there was one takeaway, maybe I can start creating a list of my favorite poses until I get them more ingrained just to have on hand and refer to during the session.

First paid family photo shoot

Word gets out quickly about offering affordable photoshoots. A family was coming for vacation and wanted to get some for a Christmas card while they were here, and offered to pay me (ME? Me, a hobbyist photographer?) to grab some pictures of them. I charged them $150 for ~1.5 hours of photography on the beach and some editing. I figured that that’s reasonable for a rookie? I’m kinda winging it here.

I always ask people before I post their pictures on this blog. She kindly requested no faces of the kids, so you’ll miss out on some of the really fun ones, but I loved this session. (I have no idea what we’ll do about the picture and social media and kid thing… thankfully we’re not there yet) The boys were a ton of fun to interact with and the mom came with some specific posing requests, which was helpful.

I’m pretty sure I edited people our of these two pictures, but at this point I can’t remember.

The general flow was some casual walking down the beach to a quieter spot. Taking care of some specific poses in front of the Mokes, next to a boat, etc. Then we let the boys get a little dirty and play in the sand. Some things I learned this session:

Having the kids look into the sun can be tough, so counting down to eyes opening is helpful
Trying to encourage everyone to smile and look at the same time (it’s not as obvious as I’d expect!) I felt like there were a lot of missed shots because one person wasn’t smiling or looking at me.
Learn names earlier (Face palm! So obvious)

There were a lot of the blue jellies washed up, I think because of the wind and storm heading our way. One of the boys had been stung earlier, so they were super conscious about it and made it a bit tougher for relaxed beach walking.

I think the best part is I have a ton of fun doing it. I’m definitely a little nervous leading up to it, but keeping the price so low makes it feel really low pressure.

I ended up with ~600 pictures and edited ~94. I think that’s worth $150, right?

Hope so! I have another paid gig on Friday.