Your session | What to expect

FIRST THINGS FIRST

I am keen to book… what do I do now?
Fantastic to hear! We can’t wait to meet you!

All you need to do is decide which package best reflects your needs, ask any questions, confirm a date with me & go ahead & add your favorite package to your cart. From there, you just need to follow the prompts, choose a payment method & fill out a short form so we know where to send your images. This doesn’t take more than 15 minutes.

How does payment work?
Once payment has cleared, you will receive a confirmation email with your date, time & location of your session along with a questionnaire to help us best prepare for your session.

* Invoices are available on request – Payment must be paid in full before images are processed *

How will I receive my images?
Once your payment has cleared, we will start getting your images ready. This can take 2 days to 2 weeks. The second they are done, we will send you an exciting message to tell you your gallery is ready to view online with a link. You will get your very own password. These images are in low res & are just so you can view and share your images with your family while you wait for them to be posted to your home. Sometimes we write a blog & share your images on Facebook & Instagram – If you do not feel comfortable having your images shared, please let us know in your questionnaire.

All galleries are kept on this website under “CLIENTS | LOGIN”

How do you justify your costs?
Excellent question! It takes many years to orchestrate a relaxed & successful session. It takes a lot of patience, calm demeanour & skill which only comes from experience & exposure.

Our gear is only the best, & we upgrade both our technical skills, creative flare & efficiency on an ongoing basis which requires training & mentoring.

Furthermore, a photography session is only the tip of the iceberg; Three quarters of the work, happens behind the scenes in file management, social networking, preparing gear, travelling, file management, digital processing, invoicing & liaison, photo retouching, creative writing, social media management, gallery management & physically getting images to where they need to be. There certainly is a lot involved with being a photographer!

Roughly speaking, 3-5 hours of work goes into every 1 hour of photographing.

How far do you travel?
60 minutes travel is included in the price of all of our packages – With the exception of our two adventure packages which includes 90 minutes of travel time. If you wish to have a session that is off the beaten path, by all means lets organise it! We certainly do not charge photography rates for extra travel, just for a little time & petrol. If you wish for us to capture your destination wedding, this can be negotiated too! Lets do it!

PREPARING FOR YOUR SESSION

How on earth do I choose a location?
There are so many options to choose from, and the good news is, we can work together to figure out what the best location is for you and your family.  I LOVE capturing families in their home, as it always seems to be the place you feel most comfortable. Think of all the times you’ve snuggled with the kids on the bed to read a favourite book, I can capture those moments for you.  And all the times they’ve done back-flips off the couch, I can get that too. We can play games, have a coffee, play fetch with your dog.

And I also love adventuring with you outdoors; it’s super fun watching your kids discover new places, build sandcastles, collect bugs and jump in muddy puddles. I have so many outdoor locations to choose from, or if you have a special place in mind, I’d be up for that too!

What should we wear?
Our philosophy revolves around anti consumerism. We like to keep accessories to a bare minimum, keep the look natural, simple & fresh. My preference is that our clients dress very minimalist & in natural fabrics. I like my clients to compliment each other, without being overly ‘matched’. Your clothing should be comfortable, fit well & be suitable for sitting on the ground if this is physically possible for you. Your outfit should most of all, reflect your personal style. Remember your images will remain in the family for generations, so safe & classic also works well.

A few quick clothing tips
– Avoid big pieces of jewellery as it can reflect the light
– Consider if you want to wear your glasses
I love people in their glasses, I wear glasses myself & they reflect who I am at the stage I am currently at in my life. However, even with non-reflective coating – glasses can omit a green hue on the lenses which impedes the images from capturing your eyes clearly. Some images potentially will not be able to be used because of obscure reflections. Consider how you would like to proceed with your session as there is no right or wrong. A friendly optometrists is also likely to be able to remove your lenses from your frames for the day as an alternative!

What should we expect during our session?
We take a lot of pride & attention at bringing a calm essence with us. We swoop in & immediately start assessing moods. If we are doing a session in your home, we will invite you to take us on a tour through your home so we can scout of a few good spots where we feel the light is working for us. If we are outside, we will likely go on a small walk to scout out the best locations. Please keep in mind that we choose locations on a mixture of different things; space, light, comfort, backdrop – Sometimes it is simply very hard to tell which spot we might end up using! However we are very opportunistic and will be sure to choose the best combination of what is available on the day.

I want to book an in-home session, how do I prepare my home?
Please, please, please don’t stress over this! Your house doesn’t need to be “perfect”. Clear the clutter, but keep things looking lived in. Because I want your photos to be honest, not fake. The main rooms we are likely to use will be the master and kids bedrooms/nursery, a lounge room, and anywhere there is amazing light. My favorite place to photograph a family in their own, is on the master bed.

I’m nervous about my photograph being taken!
We are very use to handling this situation. Having shy or nervous people is more normal than not, but we have never had a single person not relax & enjoy their session. We have a 100% success rate when it comes to feedback; often people are surprised at how easy & enjoyable it can be! Our most stubborn have even had a lot of fun. So there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

If you have any concerns, please be open with us & we will put your worries at ease & talk you through everything we are doing & prepping for. Sometimes we gently position people to help explain poses, but I promise we are not scary. If you are happy & relaxed, we don’t intervene & allow iterations to unfold how they may – So if you ever feel like we aren’t directing the session as much as you think we should, it is simply because you are already doing a magnificent job at being photographed!

Images are a split second capture – Typically any bodily tension get lost between the cracks. And hey, sometimes awkwardness is absolutely enchanting.

What if the weather isn’t looking good?
Sometimes life hands us lemons & rain can be a little bit problematic. Overcast days are absolutely perfect, & if there is rain only threatening then I am happy to continue with our booking. However if rain is imminent, we will sadly need to reschedule. If the temperature goes above 34 degrees, I will suggest we reschedule too.

What if we are sick?
Again, we can reschedule, no problem. And I’m in the same boat as you, if I’m unwell, I don’t want to be bringing that into your home.

I’d love some other family members to come along also.
All our of sessions are set up to either include or exclude certain amounts of people – This is because in our professional experience, we need less or more time to manage larger groups & to retouch more faces. If you are having some difficulty finding a package that suits your needs, please send me a private message & we can help you with your needs – This also gives us the opportunity to expand on the packages and services we have available to other clients too!

PREPARING FOR YOUR SESSION | BABIES + CHILDREN

When is the best time to book a newborn session?
Ideally I like to photograph babies within their first two weeks to be able to get adorable sleepy baby staged shots. It can be a little tricky to book in advance, but please make contact with us while you are still pregnant & will prepare with your date of birth in mind.

Being a new Mother healing from quite an ordeal can be rough! So we understand that having a session within only two weeks can be a real challenging idea! We understand this can be of little priority, which is why we offer newborn sessions for babies for up to four weeks of age. Just prepare that your baby photographs are going to be a little different. We will prepare to photograph your baby awake & alert apposed to sleeping to ensure the session goes smoothly & will allow plenty of time for soothing. Older babies do tend to require just a little more patience, but we are well equipped for the job & have a beautiful photography assistant dubbed “the baby whisperer” in our bag of tricks!

What if the kids are misbehaving?
Sometimes kids are going to be kids – I am a Mama and I completely understand. There is no place for frustration or embarassment here, I have seen it all.

However, there are ways to help prepare young children for their session. One simply way is to simply start talking to them about it. Say who is coming over & explain why. Maybe they would like to help choose their clothing, perhaps there is a special object they can hold in their photograph to help occupy them during their photo’s & also, we can even negotiate taking a photo of their favorite toy just for them to keep.

We do our best to involve young children in our process, and one of the ways we do that is by introducing ourselves clearly & asking their permission to photograph them.

IMAGES

Can we order print products through you?
You will have free rein over prints once our receive your disk or USB stick. Less & less clients are asking for prints – So we have decided to keep the focus on delivering high quality images that can be used for a huge variety of mediums.

Can I share my images on social media?
Yes of course! Please share on your personal blog, with your family on Facebook or flaunt your beautiful images on Instagram! I only ask for you to gain permission if you intend to use the images for commercial use or monetary gain. We very much appreciate a shout-out once in a while for our hard work. Mentioning us as the photographers is useful for those interested in having their photographs taken, however it is certainly not necessary. What matters is that you are happy with your photographs.

Retouching? Do you do it?
I have a process and this is how it works. We shoot our images in RAW format, which are then lightly culled to exclude similar double-ups, images that are slightly miss-focused, over or under exposed or images where eyes are closed.

I then digitally process all the images through incredible software so we can adjust the exposure, colour correct, straighten images up, remove any obvious rubbish impeding on your beautiful photographs & then we are finished. Occasionally we will notice a piece of hair out of place, or a sticking plaster on a child… & simply use our judgement to discretely remove it. We do not believe that we should be purposefully altering our clients bodies or skin – We have a gentle philosophy when it comes to image editing. Our overall rule is, if something is permanent we leave it alone. If something is temporary, we remove it at our discretion.

If you have any specific retouching requirements, I suggest you run through them with me before booking so that we have the opportunity to accept to decline depending on our morals.

Oh, I still have more questions!
I will happily answer any more questions you may have!

modernsoulmedia@gmail.com
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