Finding The Right Photographer For Your Needs.
There's a saying in the photography world that goes "There's a Photographer For Everyone." And I really do believe this is true. I think it is definitely important to "research" your photographer before booking. Check out their website, instagram, Facebook, etc. See what they are all about. See what they post about, and what they write about. Are they funny or serious? Do they tend to take more posed images or more candid images? Which of those do you prefer? Do they shoot at locations that appeal to you?
Editing is a big piece of choosing a photographer, in my opinion. Photographers work is usually placed into two categories (some more photography lingo for your knowledge): either 'light and airy' or 'dark and moody'. Clearly, these are not the only two editing categories, but they are certainly the main ones. Granted, I consider myself to be in between both of those (def more moody though)... It is important to recognize HOW your photographer edits their images. If you are looking through their social media handles, and don't like the way their greens look, or the amount of 'mood' in their images, they may not be the photographer for you.
If you notice that the subjects being photographed often are not looking at the camera directly, but yet, playing a game or dancing around... is that something your drawn too, or something you don't prefer?
With my approach, I always have a 'timeline' that I tend to follow when it comes to portrait/lifestyle sessions. It's just a typical flow that I tend to follow, but 99.9% of the time, by the time we are into the second 'pose' or movement, the session takes off from there. I consider myself to be a play-based photographer... meaning that I start with one photo of your family/subject directly looking at the camera, and then from there, we play games and have tickle fights, and do all the fun things we can to make sure we're capturing the MOMENTS of your life. I want to take a photo of you pushing your daughters hair behind her ear, or your son giving you Eskimo kisses. The in-between shot hug that you don't even know I'm taking. The kiss on the forehead dad gives mom halfway through the session because lord knows it took a lot of wrangling to get you all here and dressed in one piece. And my editing, welp, I edit how I feel. I edit with emotion. Mood. Boldness. Colors. Sun. Light. Flares. Excitement.
