Friday, January 24, 2014

Create a yearly photography plan for your family.

Clients tell us it's difficult keeping up with everything and although they'd love to have professional photographs taken of their children at least once a year (birthdays being the likely choice) well that's just one more thing that seems to fall off somewhere around March like diets.  Even in the families of professional photographers, child #2 has fewer photographs than child #1.  I guess it's a logarithmic phenomenon.  The more kids - the more laundry, lunches, carpools, ballet lessons and book reports we have to keep up with.  BELOW are a few fun photography tips for making sure your kids have awesome photographs of their childhood.

 
 
 # 1 "ALL MY FAVORITES" You'll love remembering all of your child's favorite things ten years from now. Take an hour or an afternoon and photograph your child with all his/her favorites.  A favorite stuffed animal, that outfit she drags out of the dirty clothes basket because she wants to wear it everyday. Your son wearing Dad's boots, riding his bike or eating/wearing ice cream.
 # 2 Make sure you take at least one annual photo with grandparents - it's a great excuse for a road trip.
 # 3 It's fun to take a roll of black and white film - once a year!  Come on you have an old traditional film camera somewhere.   The look is so unique it's worth the effort.
 # 4 If you live at the beach how can you resist beautiful beach portraits - go for sunrise or sunset - the light is so much prettier.
 # 5 Don't forget about family pets - close ups are best.
 # 6 Kids on the move. Get the kids together for a series of sibling action shots - close up and of course full length so you can see how they have grown from year to year. 
 # 7 Skip the traditional school photos and instead schedule professional portraits in your child's birthday month.  A fun tradition, hallmark and an opportunity to plan a fun, themed session that fits your child and will ultimately be more meaningful.
 # 8 Moms & Dads - Your children love you just the way you are.  You'll never be younger or have less wrinkles than you do today.  Stop worrying about losing five pounds your kids don't care.  Since we don't know what tomorrow brings.  Get a photo taken with your kids today.  If you are the primary photo bug in your house get out from behind the camera.  Hand it over to someone else and go in for a big hug. 
 # 9 Kids derive a certain sense of well being from the story told of their lives in photos. Don't worry about the ones you missed of the baby in your family - you know the one with the most empty pages in their baby book.  Start snapping!  
 
If you need a little reminder for birthday portraits sign up for our Kids Club Birthday Registry at http://deannedunlop.com/?load=flash#/1112944/Kids-Club-Birthday-Registry
you'll receive a reminder 4-6 week before your child's birthday, enough time to schedule an appointment.  We can help with a themed birthday shoot, location and with KYDS children's clothing boutique downstairs we can even help pick out an outfit if you like.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

How soon should I schedule newborn portraits?

 
 Mom's call me all the time to ask - "How soon should I have my baby's newborn portraits taken"?  My answer is generally the same?  It's always best to do your newborn portrait session within the first 7-10 days, if at all possible.  What do we do when clients want to include siblings, Mom & Dad and even grandparents in baby's newborn session?  It is no problem when we are photographing in the comfort of your home and we love photographing in client's homes, which of course gives us the opportunity to photograph the baby in his or her nursery as well.  The best thing about newborn nursery sessions is that we come to you, a genuine luxury at this time in life.  I am really excited about sharing this sweet newborn service with new parents.  Newborn Nursery Sessions are so intimate, unique and  lend themselves to really creative sessions.  If you know someone with a knockout nursery don't forget to share this post with them. 
Newborn nursery sessions make great shower gifts and welcome baby gifts.  
Of course, we are still offering our studio newborn sessions as well but many of our clients have found the intimacy of having their family photographed at home makes these portraits so much more meaningful and personal.