So you’re shopping around for a Boston family photographer and find yourself checking out lots of pricing pages. You take note of things like session length, number of images, and whether or not printing rights are included. The truth is, the cost covers so much more than these things! So what else is included? Check out my list below.
1) A Rain Date
New England is known for a lot of wonderful things, but predictable weather isn’t one of them. Sometimes even the most accurate weather apps get it all wrong and we find ourselves having to re-schedule. Not to worry! If you’ve booked an outdoor family session with me for a Saturday, Sunday is usually reserved for our rain date. This saves both of us the stress of having to worry about weather. And if you’ve booked a weeknight session and we get rained out, we can easily find another weeknight. Which leads us to the next item…
2) Low Volume=More Time for YOU
Have you ever heard someone say “busy is not a badge of honor?” Well, I heard it once a couple of years ago and I really took it to heart. While I certainly am in awe of photographers who book tons of sessions, being a relatively low volume photographer works best for me. I’ve never had more than 12 sessions in one month, and I almost always take fewer than 10. This is partially for my own sanity, but it’s also for my clients. I want to be able to give my clients the attention they deserve. We can communicate as little or as much as you’d like prior to your session date. I often spend time location scouting, or sending detailed emails about locations I already know well so that I can help my clients choose a spot that’s a good fit for them. Providing wardrobe guidance is also important to me, and I’m happy to exchange lots of clothing-related emails or texts before we meet in person!
3) ALLLLLL the Equipment
Here’s the thing with equipment. It malfunctions from to time! I’ve had lenses stop focusing, fog up, and generally just misbehave! You can feel confident though that even if I were to have an equipment issue during our session, it wouldn’t impact my ability to keep taking pictures. I’m not known for traveling light to sessions, ha, and come with two camera bodies and 3-4 lenses. Each camera body has two card slots, so even if one card gets corrupted, I’ll have your images on the other. I also bring my equipment in for routine maintenance so that I can *hopefully* avoid any issues later.
4) My Type A Personality
Ha, my husband would argue that this isn’t something to flaunt, but when it comes to running a family photography business, I think it’s pretty important. Before our session I’ll send you detailed information about where exactly to meet me so that we don’t have any trouble finding each other day of. After the session, I’ll upload your photos immediately. As they upload to my computer, they’re automatically backed up via a program called Backblaze, but I also back them up on two external hard drives for good measure. Oh, and one of those hard drives is kept in a fire-safe box. Ya know, just in case my house goes up in flames. You may think I’m kidding, but I’m completely serious. I take image safety seriously!
Change of subject for a second! If you’re participating in my Instagram giveaway and you’re looking for the secret phrase, it’s “Covid sucks!” 😉
5) A Close-knit Network of Photographers
This one is helpful for two reasons. One, if you propose a location where I’ve never been before and I’m unable to location scout prior to our session, I’ll check with some friends and learn everything I need to know about it. This helps our session run more smoothly as I generally don’t like to shoot at places sight unseen. More importantly, let’s say you have a time-sensitive session scheduled (a fresh 48 session, for example, or perhaps you’re visiting Boston from out of town and will only be here for a few days), and I get sick or have a family emergency. I won’t leave you high and dry! Within my network of Boston family photographer friends, I’d have plenty of people to ask to shoot your session instead.
As you probably understand now, a lot more than meets the eye goes into each and every photo session! It’s not just about session length and number of files. Did anything on the list surprise you?
Until next time, my friends!
~Melissa
