Tag: la habra senior portrait photographer

When Is the Best Time to Book a Senior Session? 

There is no one answer to when you should book your senior photo session – there are several variables to take into consideration. 

Availability 

To ensure you find a time that works for you, start by looking at your availability. You never realize just how little time you have until you try and work a photoshoot into a busy senior year. Before you know it, it’s a month before you graduate, and you don’t have a date for your session yet. 

For example, many extra-curricular activities take place in the fall, leaving very little time for a senior photo session. If you are more involved in sports such as softball, spring is a difficult season to plan around. 

The main goal is to not be stressed before or on the day of your senior session – it will show in your photos. On the day of your shoot, you want to be relaxed and enjoy every second. 

The Theme 

Most likely you already have some idea of the types of photos you want to take to commemorate your senior year. Outfits play an integral role in the overall style of your shoot. If you want to wear a beautiful boho outfit for your senior session, shooting in winter isn’t quite going to work. Get a clear idea of the style you would prefer before you choose a date for your photo session. 

The Location 

Your location will also fit in with the theme of your shoot. However, not all locations and settings look good at certain times of the year. Want an urban shoot? This works at almost any time of the year. Prefer to take photos at a local park? Spring and fall create the best backdrops. 

There really is no right or wrong time to schedule your shoot, you just need to plan for it. The minute you have an idea of what your senior schedule will look like, start selecting a few dates – you won’t be sorry. 

Featuring Class of 2023 VIP Seniors Gisele and Natalie!

Sister Portrait - Seal Beach, CA

Don’t Leave Your Photos Stranded and Alone

Sister Portrait - Seal Beach, CAWe ALL do it, well unless you are the kind of person I dream of being – completely organized and everything in its place.  We put off printing our photographs.  We always have tomorrow – right?  We are just too busy to sit down and really spend quality time on the computer figuring it all out and then going to the framer or creating an album online – it’s so daunting and time-consuming.  That’s where your professional photographer (me) can be of great service.

My service and price includes printed photographs AND digital files.  I can also provide various types of wall art, including acrylic, metal, professionally framed prints, canvas, and/or custom albums!

Back when I was a shoot and burn photographer, I would photograph my client, edit their images and then upload the photographs to a site where they could download them to their computer.  I have had clients (not many but enough to know there are probably more) contact me and ask me to either send them the link to their photos again or inquire as to where their photos went – several years later!   Wait – what?  You paid a professional photographer to take your photos or record your wedding and they are still floating in cyberspace?!  Yes, I could have given a disc or flash drive, but that could just as easily get lost.  THIS is one of the biggest reasons I am no longer a shoot and burn photographer.  I value my work and photographs too much to not print and share them.  Putting your photos online for you to download sounds super convenient, but I’m not serving you – my client – by doing this.

My service includes the printed photographs mounted and matted and placed in a gorgeous folio box you will want to show off, or even framed if you like.  Or you can have them printed in a beautiful keepsake album.  You will have something to put on your coffee table and share with guests or just look at from time to time – and pass down through the generations.  Do you still get your digital files – YES!  But all the other work has been done for you.

I am a boutique business and boutiques are all about personalized service to their clients.  I don’t just take photos and then leave you to sit in the dark after work trying to figure out how to download 1,000 photographs from your wedding or spending half a day searching for that little flash drive or disc you put in a “safe place.”

When you see prices and packages of professional photographers like me, you probably step back and say, “But all we want are the digital files.”  “It’s so easy – you just take the pictures and upload them right?”  “Why do you charge so much and why can’t I just get a disc?”  Because I care about you, my level of service and your photographs.  There is a lot that goes into those photographs:

  • You get a free consultation right off the bat – whether you hire me or not.  We discuss what your end-game is – do you want large wall portraits, gifts, album(s) . . . etc. – what you are looking for in the style of your photographs – locations, etc.
  • Before the session, I am visualizing, creating a shoot list, possibly buying props – you are on my mind a lot.
  • The photo session:  We have a great time, different poses, play, and connect.  We are done when we are done – if we want to hang out and wait for the sun to nearly set – we do that – simply to obtain the best photographs that you are dreaming of.
  • I don’t think I need to mention all the education, workshops, years of practice, and expensive equipment I have.
  • Then culling and editing.  This takes much longer than your session did I guarantee you.  I sit with your images, I toss those that are duplicative or not perfect and then I create.  I retouch, head swap in family photos if someone blinked or looks better in another photo, sometimes I add textures and special tones, and I analyze how I want each and every separate photograph to look.  I put great effort into making sure every photograph is ready for printing and hanging.
  • Reveal session.  We get together and you get to see at least 30 photographs all retouched, printed, mounted and matted ready to take home.  AND you get the digital files for every image you purchase!  Win-win!

Wouldn’t it be a shame to only put your images online after all the work and love that went into them?

family portrait oak glen, ca