Choosing your family photographer is never an easy task! Once you find your photographer, its easier to stick with them for follow-up sessions in the future. Having a consistent style of photos and products over the years makes your family photo wall look so much better! Following my guidelines can help you and your family avoid costly mistakes and do-over shoots!
Here are some things to look at for when looking for you family photographer.
- Do they have a real website that is not a FaceBook page or Instagram account?
- This will show you if they are a serious business or someone just starting.
- This is not a deal breaker by any means, but it will justify their prices or not.
- How long have they been in business for?
- This person/people will be in your family for years capturing your memories. Make sure they are there for the long haul!
- Do they have lots of examples of their work posted?
- This will show you their style. Everyone is different and you should know what to expect long before you ever schedule a session.
- Do that have a local contact phone number?
- This will ensure that they are local.
- Do they have history of working with children?
- Only important if you have kids or will in the future.
- Is their style something you want for long term?
- This is important for the long term.
- Do they offer the products/sessions you want?
- Buying digital images and then printing them out is not the most cost affective way to get physical products.
- Most of the time Shutterfly and Walgreens do not live up to the quality of a professional photographer so products from them will always be sub-par to what you can get from your photographer.
- Do they have a studio to shoot in?
- Goes back to the “are they a serious business question.
- Indoor session options are sometimes easier with children
- Studios have constant water and NEVER rain.
Once you find someone that meets the criteria that is important to you, contact them and see how you feel after a conversation. If they say the wrong things or worse yet, don’t event take your phone calls, you know they are not the ones for you or your family! You should be comfortable with who they are and how they talk. You will expose your family to this person/people. They need to feel comfortable and so you do you. If you get ANY weird vibes or get uncomfortable just move on to the next photographer on your list.
All of these can help you get on the right track to finding someone that you can trust to capture your family’s biggest moments.
I hope I helped!