Custom photography is an experience tailored to suit you, your style, your personality and your needs. Sugarlove provides clients with artfully crafted, hi resolution, digital image collections with a print release. All sessions include a pre-session consultation, via phone or email, a custom stylized session, and professionally enhanced images.
Newborn Sessions
My favorite time to photograph newborns is in their first 6-12 days of life. Beautiful images can be made at any age, but it is during this time that the most artful poses may be achieved. At this age, babies are still almost as pliable as they were in the womb. They usually sleep very heavily, and it’s also before the onset of any possible baby acne or colic. All of these factors make calming, posing and editing easier. Beyond about 2 weeks of age, any poses that require the baby to be in a deep sleep may become more difficult.
I typically spend about 2-3 hours creating your newborn session. I am very detail-oriented and spend a great deal of time getting perfect hand/feet placement, facial expressions, waiting for smiles, etc. This time block also allows time for feeding/nursing, changing, and calming/nursing baby back to sleep in between set-up changes. My goal is 3-5 set-ups per session with just baby, plus pictures with Mommy, Daddy and any siblings.
Before you leave to come to your session, give your baby a full feeding. Baby needs to have a full tummy to get into the deep sleep that we'll need for most of the poses. Also, please dress your baby in something that does not have to be pulled over baby's head to remove, like a sleeper that snaps up the front. It's also ideal if you can keep baby awake some extra time either before or after this feeding. It's hard to keep a newborn awake sometimes, but if you can accomplish this, baby will sleep more readily during their session. Even keeping baby awake an extra 30 minutes or an hour makes a big difference.
Scheduling your newborn session - once you pre-book your session by checking out via the website, your date is locked into the calendar. This allows me not to overbook during your due week. This is a fluid date. Once you have the baby, contact the studio to schedule your actual shoot date. Newborns are scheduled on weekdays at 10am when babies are most sleepy and the light is best.
Portrait Sessions (Baby, Child, Family, Maternity or Boudoir)
My sessions are relaxed and casual and can be done in-studio or on-location. With young children, I work from the beginning of the session on developing a rapport with them to draw out their personality, and this results in portraits with many different expressions – not just smiles.
Sessions other than newborn sessions can last anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If children are involved, their age typically determines this. If you have particular “poses” or groupings in mind, or you have things you’d like to make sure I capture, we can talk about these during your planning consultation, and I will make every effort to get them.
Children are UNPREDICTABLE... so, it is my job to be ready for anything! A lot of times parents get frustrated because sessions don’t seem to be going perfect... but the wonderful thing is that those small moments in between all the tantrums & chaos that are beautiful. People often ask me how I even managed to get one great photograph of their wild child! The answer is simple... I shoot like crazy and it’s my job to capture it all! So... the only job I give you as the parents is to relax & enjoy it! I will do all the hard work! I will give a lot of direction during the session so you will know exactly what to do. Children match your energy, so if you are having fun & showing them how much you love them they will show you the same in return. Sounds simple, right? Well, once in a while there are children that for whatever reason, do not want to be photographed, so... one thing that I will ask is to be able to photograph your child or children away from the parents so they will just focus on me and my lame jokes. It usually works! They don’t know me & usually children are on their best behavior for others! This is very important in making your session run smoothly.