Featured In Home Baby and Family Photography Shoot - Valentina & Family
Back in February 2022 our in-home photography team visited the south-west of Sydney to meet little a baby girl named Valentina.
We had been to see this family before for an in-home newborn photography session when their first-born Donatello arrived; how he has changed in just 2 years!
Because they were exisiting customers of Grain & Weave, the whole process was very easy for them as they knew exactly what to expect. They had an idea of what package they wanted and the outcome of their photo session. Most people don’t know what they want, or how to navigate baby photography as there are so many choices, and this family chose us initially because we visit the house, which makes it easier for new parents to not have to travel across Sydney.
Once we had finished their first experience though, they knew that they could trust us and that our team were the real deal.
It is difficult for new parents to know what to expect, but our award-winning customer service makes it so simple and fuss-free that we have been winning over families since 2016.
Same team, different photographer
Although the family had a different photographer from us the second time around, the images were still exactly what they expected and the experience was just as smooth, because all of our team are trained the same way. In fact, they remarked that it was great to have a different point of view for the second time around and they found it interesting to see how we all work. Our team are carefully selected and trained for their personality as well as their photography skills.
(Trivia; coincidentally, the photographer at this session was also present during the first session, as they were being trained!)
Image created in the bedroom ©GrainandWeavePTY - baby in home photography
The booking process
Reserve a date
Laura, the mother of the family, said that was very easy to arrange a session over email with Adele in the office and within minutes, a date had been found for two weeks time. We know that new parents are very busy, so we reserve the date in our system with new enquiries, that way they can be confirmed at a more suitable time for the parents.
We can only reserve dates for 24 hours though, as we often have many enquiries each day.
Adele put a 24hr reserve on the date as requested for the family, so they could jump online and arrange the payment for the package they wanted at a more convenient time. It can be tricky to sort these things out whilst the kids are awake!
Confirming the booking
Once the package was ordered online, the booking was then confirmed in our system within the hour and a confirmation was sent.
Conformations are sent manually, so there is no mix-up with bookings. Adele, our office manager, has been with us for many years and is highly experienced at guiding new parents through their first -in home baby photography’ sessions.
Inside the confirmation email is a link to a session brief where the family can get ideas for their session, learn what to expect and how best to prepare so that their new baby stays relaxed and they can make the most out of our short time together.
We only need around two hours for each session, as opposed to four hours like some of the other studios.
The session brief
Inside the session brief is a list of ideas and questions that the family can choose to answer when planning their photography session. It takes around 5 minutes to complete and can be time well invested as it save much more than that during the session.
A well completed brief also helps the photographer to hit the ground running so that when they arrive they know names, expectations and any driving or parking directions when traveling to the home.
Below is an example of the brief for Valentina’s photo shoot.
“We would like newborn photos for Valentina, that was the ultimate reason for the shoot but we would also love some brother sister photos of her and Donatello (he's very affectionate with her so we would love to capture that) as well as photos with each parent/child and family photos
And we would love them to be within the same style with our previous photos taken with John of Donatello, so the photos we have of Donatello as a newborn and family photo is pretty much the style/brief we are looking for, for this shoot please.”
Valentina and Donatello at home during an in-home photography session ©GrainandWeavePTY
The baby, sibling and family photography session
It can be a challenge with a young sibling, especially when they are around the 2-3 years old mark. This is because they can get very overexcited or overwhelmed with all the activity happening. Some little brothers or sisters can get a little jealous of all the attention that the new baby is getting, so it is important that the family and photographer work together.
Our tea are extremely experienced with young children and can offer some hints and tips along the way to help the kids enjoy themselves too. If the kids are relaxed, then so is mum and dad, right?!
Tip for working with young children during baby photo shoots:
Get down to their level and play; involving them and making it more of a game is the secret to getting great images. Telling them off or setting them up to fail won’t lead to a good result.
In this family session, both the kids had a great time and there was lots of room for cuddles and play. Playing games with Donatello helped to keep the fun going and made it easier to keep everyone relaxed and occupied. Singing songs and keeping the fun, loving vibe helped keep everyone calm and set up the right mood for the kind of images that everyone wanted.
The time went quickly, as it always does.
The images
As well as some classic set-pieces of six-week old Valentina - baby only images, sleeping and wrapped up; detail shots of the feet and her beautiful eyelashes, the family managed to capture some natural and relaxed group images, as well as some combinations of ‘Mum with kids / Dad with kids’ etc.
Creating images this way gives the family a variety and helps them tell a story with their images or makes a beautiful presentation album or wall-art collection.
At the end of the shoot, we gave the family a booklet that explained all the options for how they can take/display their images, as well as all the pricing should they want to change the package they ordered, or add-on any more than they originally purchased. We keep it flexible so that families can make good choices without too much stress.
They were returning customers and they knew how it went, but we always insist on our families being well informed.
Donatello during his newborn shoot two years before ©GrainandWeavePTY
The online consultation
The follow up consultation that we provide online was pre-booked so that there was minimal delay in the process. We provide this service in every package because it is integral to how we keep our high level of customer service. So many times we meet people who are a little unsure of the process; maybe they’ve been scared off by bad sales tactics before; but once they’ve been online with us they are very happy with the whole experience.
It is vital to the quality of the experience that the family has a chance to see their images clearly, crop them and compare their favourites, along with some guidance from an expert to make sure that their actions don’t affect the quality of the outcome.
A couple of days before the online consultation, we sent out a complimentary slideshow movie so that the family could enjoy the images all together.
The slideshow has been a family-favourite feature for many years and all of our customers love the moment of watching it for the first time (sometimes the 20th time!). It is often sent via link to family or loved ones overseas, particularly if they ave been sent an ‘in-home baby photography gift voucher’ by them.
Time to prepare
The family used the time in between the photography session and the online consultation to read through the booklet and have some conversations about their preferred outcomes - did they want digital photos only, or would they like to print, or even have something made from our handmade range?
Their planning, which only took a few minutes, made the process a lot easier when chatting to them on Zoom as they could guide us clearly as to what their ideal outcomes were.
Once we had reviewed the images together, they decided that having more images was more important to them than having anything hand-made by us at this stage and so they bought the whole shoot in digital format. We have many options available to our customers and they are flexible too, so that the family can focus on the outcome and not get bogged down too much in the process. Everyone has a budget too and we always are able to work with what people have available to them. During early 2022 we introduced the option for customers to use Afterpay, which has been a great help for some.
Because Laura and family had paid for a package already, we simply deducted the amount they already paid from the balance of what they ordered and they paid the difference.
There is little point in locking people into packages before they’ve seen their images, we believe.
The delivery
It takes our team a short while to get the images processed ready for delivery, in case there are extra retouch requests (we always retouch all the images, however we keep it natural and subtle). Within a couple of days the images had been uploaded to their own private gallery online where they can download them and share with friends or family anywhere in the world.
We store all the images people order on our three servers system as part of the service, so that there will always be a copy of them should they need it for the years to come.
Summary
We love meeting new families and it’s such an honour when they return to us for a second or third time. Around 30% of our annual clients are return clients and we believe that it is because they value the experience, just as we do.
If you would like to enquire about your own ‘in-home baby and family photography session’, please reach out to us by clicking the link below.
