Preparing for Your Session

Take this opportunity to look and feel your best!

Details like doing your hair, makeup and nails go a long way in making your photos just that much better -- you’d be surprised how much fingers and toes make their way into photos! Take this as an excuse to pamper yourself :)
Feel free to set out or bring along any fun accessories that you love — if you have any jewelry you’d want to swap out, love wearing hats, etc. (these are just some examples, stick with things that are very “you!”) bring them along or set them aside and we can play with incorporating them into our session.

Take the time to (or enlist help to) tidy up your home/the spaces that we’ll take photos in. I like to call my style a “photogenic day in the life,” so although we’ll be going for natural and real-life set-ups, everything looks that much better with a clean and tidy space.

I encourage you to lay out what you want everyone to wear a day or 2 ahead of time. The most important thing is that your clothes compliment (don’t match, but look good with) each other’s. Matching clothes by color can look overly planned and unnatural, so let’s keep your photos relaxed and real by just making sure that no one’s clothes completely clash or stand out from everyone else’s. I like to recommend super simple patterns and colors to keep the visual focus on the emotions and the people as opposed to the clothing.
Be sure to plan on ironing anything that tends to get wrinkly!

Plan on feeding your little one right before we get started to give us the best chance of a happy baby or toddler right from the get go. If you’d like to bring any of their favorite toys or things along with you that we can use to entice smiles or laughs out of them or distract them if needed, those are always great to have on hand!
With newborns, usually Mom is finishing feeding the baby when I arrive and that is perfectly fine! That way I can spend a few minutes scoping out the best spots for us to take photos while you feed and do any last minute baby changes/clothing changes.

Lay out any blankets, toys, stuffed animals, etc. that are special to you and any favorite outfits or accessories you have for your little one. We’ll be looking for simple blankets, sheets, comforters etc. to use as backgrounds and trying out a couple different options for outfits/swaddles/diaper covers — whatever you’ve got that you love! Having all of these items picked out and laid out BEFORE our session begins so that we can easily choose between them makes everything run just that much smoother.