How to get the most out of your session – San Diego Documentary Family Photography

San Diego Documentary Family Photography

Congrats! You’ve just booked your session… but now you’re sweating. You know your family, there’s no way this will turn out well. Let me stop your spiral and tell you exactly what you need to do to have an amazing session with me.

Fill Out Your Questionnaire

After everyone books with me, I send a questionnaire. This is for me to get to know you and your family and to start planning your session, but it’s also for YOU to start thinking about what you want from your photo session and the resulting photos. I want you to start thinking about what you actually want to remember right now and the questionnaire will get you going. If you want to remember how your toddler holds your hand as they fall asleep, well we’re going to schedule your session to end right at nap time. If you want to remember how your big kid is learning how to cook, we’re going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Some questions I ask might not seem relevant to a photo session, but I gain so much insight into your family dynamics and values when I read your answers. During your session I’m able to narrow my focus to highlight those values. I’m also very nosy and love learning about your lives!

Clear the clutter

No deep cleaning. I don’t care what your baseboards look like or how disorganized your pantry is. Move your piles of clutter to a back room and call it a day.

Not sure what qualifies as clutter? Focus on things that stick out. The pile of paperwork on your counter? Not a big deal. The pile of clean (?) laundry on the couch? Move that to someone’s bed. Dust and dirt will largely be invisible in your photos, but clutter will detract from the stories in your photos.

Consider your outfits

What you wear is entirely up to you, they’re your photos after all. But having taken my own family photos several times, I know how hard it is to pick clothes for everyone. Some tips:

• Choose your outfit first. You’re the one booking, you get to prioritize yourself.
• Avoid neon colors. They just don’t photograph well. The color bounces off onto skin in bright light and camera sensors often struggle to capture full detail.
• Avoid logos if you want a timeless look.
• Sprinkle patterns and textures throughout.
• Aim to coordinate, not match. Pick a color family and go from there.
• Make sure you’re COMFORTABLE in your clothes. It will show in the photos if you’re not.

Or just wear what you normally wear! This is my favorite way to see everyone’s style and personality. I love seeing kids in the shirt they’re obsessed with (they’ll grow out if it faster than you know!).

Trust the process

I’ve had anxiety since I was a baby. I am the first person to smack anyone who says “Just don’t worry!” So I get how hard it can be to not try to control for every thing that might go wrong, especially when you have an idea of how you want your session and photos to turn out, especially when you have kids.

I’m here to give you permission to sit back and let things unfold, to fully trust my process. If you like what you see on my website, on social media, the photos I’ve taken of your friends, you have to trust that I will tell you when something isn’t working.

Be prepared for real life to happen

This is honestly a feature, not a bug of my sessions. The photos I take of my family, of my clients, of you, are meant to show reality. For the majority of your session I aim to show the best parts of your reality, those golden days that you never want to end, the amazing hair days, the days with zero bickering, just perfect harmony.

But in order to capture your beautiful, real life stories, we have to allow the possibility of the not-so-beautiful parts. There may be tears, spills, body fluids, bickering, injuries, big emotions. I welcome it all. When we try to control so tightly for those parts of life during sessions, we miss out on all of the good parts too. We don’t get tears, but we also don’t get the hug and kiss that comforts. We don’t get bickering, but we also don’t get big belly laughs or playing together. We don’t get angry kids, but we also don’t get the cutest mad face in the world that you have to turn away from so they don’t see you laugh.

I’ve been doing this for a long time and my oldest kid turns 15 years old this year. I know how to roll with just about anything. If you want photos of your family that feel like you, I encourage you to try just rolling with whatever happens during your next photo session.

Interested in a family session like this one or online mentoring? Email me at Kayla@kaylamaltesephotography.com to find out more and be sure to follow me on Facebook.