The FAQ
What You Want To Know
Frequently Asked Questions
Once you have confirmed your pregnancy and have been given an estimated due date; the next step would be to contact a photographer you are interested in to book you maternity and newborn sessions. This should be done at the latest, in the second trimester. We get booked up fast and if you don’t book early, you run the risk of not getting us to photograph this special moment for you.
Super easy! Just head over to the top right-hand corner of this site and you can either click on any icon (Facebook, instagram, email or phone) and leave us a message there regarding wanting to book. Or you could just click on The Contact tab and it sends you directly to our contact page. You can also call us whenever to boo as well. (403) 804-8790. We will respond to you with 24 hours.
It’s very understanding how overwhelming preparing for baby can be. There are so many things that you feel like you need/want to do before baby gets here that it can put you out of sorts. Booking a photographer shouldn’t be one of them. Once you have contacted me to inquire about a booking. I do all the follow up and schedule everything for you. If things don’t work out when we first schedule them, no worries! We can always reschedule meetings and conversations. All of our consultations are done either over the phone or through email. So they can be done whenever YOU have free time.
We unfortunately can’t predict when you will have your baby. So for that reason, I pencil you in for a two week marker period around your due date. This gives us the freedom to work around when you deliver your baby. I have remainders set two weeks before your projected due date and I contact you to see where you are at as a reminder for the both of us about your due date. If you haven’t delivered yet I set another reminder as a weekly one until you give birth. Once you have given birth, we try to book your due date around 10-20 days after birth; depending on how you are feeling and how the delivery went.
If you have a scheduled c-section then I typically book your about 20 days after your c-section.
If you have picked a session where parents and siblings are attending, or you are doing a family session; I always recommend picking neutrals for your session. Having basic pieces that are neutral in colour and don’t have very busy patterns will help your portraits to not date as quickly. Always, always avoid logos. They are distracting in images when the focus of the image is the people, not what they are wearing. That is why I recommend basics and neutral colours. Prior to your session I do send you a prep list and I go over what to wear to your session. You can pick any colours you like, just stay away from busy patterns, contrasting patterns and logos. I just like to remind people that you want to look at this picture 10 years from now and cringe at what you chose to wear. LOL
You want it to be timeless, even though clothes do date, something simple and clean with out any distracting patterns or pieces will have more of a timeless feel.
But if you have a traditional or cultural outfit(s) you would like to wear to your session, please bring it along to take a few pictures in it. I think it’s beautiful to showcase who you are through your clothes if you have a traditional outfit that is a part of who you are.
THIS is the most important question I get asked. I am a strong believer in being honest in what you want. Don’t settle. This is your hard earned money that you are spending to create these timeless images. Having professional photography done can be costly, so you should always go with someone that you truly love their work. I always, always ask potential clients what they love about my work. Then I follow it with ‘show me with my own images, what you are looking for in your images?’ If the response is images from another photographer, I ask again what about the images on my social or website. If they can’t pick any they like, then I usually will direct them to another photographer for the style they are looking for. I want you to LOVE your images today, tomorrow, and 50 years from now. That only works if you truly do love the work of the photographer. Always research photographers and pick the one who has the look you want.
Life is unpredictable. We just came off the waves of a pandemic and should all be well aware of what to do when you or a family member is ill. I have a strict protocol when it comes to illness. If you or a family member is unwell, we must cancel your session. We can always rebook it for another day. There is no fee to rebook. However, should you choose to ignore the protocol and show up unwell. I will cancel your session myself upon your arrival. There will then be a $200 rescheduling fee for not following protocol. I know this seems strict, but you must understand, I work with newborn babies who have ZERO immune system. If I contract something that was brought into my studio from a negligent client and I pass that on unknowingly to another newborn, it would devastate me. Not to mention, I would have to cancel other sessions unnecessarily.
If I myself, or my children are unwell and I have upcoming sessions, I will definitely make you aware of the circumstances prior to and monitor it. Once we are out of the woods, I will let you know if sessions are a go, or if they need to be rescheduled.
It is recommended to contact me at your absolute soonest after symptoms develop. Even if it’s a week before your session we can monitor it together and if the days leading up to it, you’re still not better, NO WORRIES. We can reschedule for another day when everyone is well.
It really depends on the session you pick.
If you opt for a mini session we only do 2-3 setups. We do get a range of 8-10 shots per setup. So you do get a well rounded gallery to select from.
If you go the route of a collections session, we do 5-6 setups again, giving you 8-10 shots from each setup. Also we do family shots which include mom and baby, mom and children, dad and baby, dad and children, sibling shots, parents and baby shots and full family shots which give you a good 20 images to select from as well. You will have a very full gallery that I admit, will make it difficult for you to select the ones you want, sorry in advance.
I do try my best to get my selections out to you as soon as humanly possible. In the past I did try to get out a gallery within 24 hours and with setups and take downs, post session clean up and trying to run a a family of five with 3 kids in different activities every night, I soon realized it was not possible to guarantee that deadline all the time.
I am working on tweaking my gallery selections to be something we can do in studio. But, until then the turn around time on selection gallery is about a week. If its longer, I will let you know so aren’t left waiting.
You then get two weeks to make your selections and decide on your package. After that, I edit what I need to and send off what needs to be printed.
When you decide you want to book me the first thing we do is setup all the information for your session and fees.
Your first payment is the booking fee. This fee secures your spot and your session. It must be paid after you decide your want to book me as your photographer. It’s $200, and it gets put towards which ever package you choose.
After that depending on which package you choose the remaining fee will be different.
It has to be paid in full prior to receiving edited images or print art.
If you are worried about payment and afraid you won’t be able to pay in full by the end, please bring this to light after your photo session so we can work towards something. Life happens. Babies are expensive and take a lot of time and money. I always check in with my moms and dads to see how they are after the session. If money is an issue, you always have up to a year to purchase your images.
We can do incremental pay for images as well if necessary. Following your gallery selection, I make it know that you will not get anything edited until final payment is made. If this is problematic you may contact me and we can discuss this further and see what we can do.
I want to make sure you walk away with something. If you had wishes to have the album package, but things changed and you are only able to afford the print package, that’s fine. You can always come back and upgrade after your session up to a year.
I started this business with the sole purpose to ensure that my clients walk away with something in hand. Whether that be prints, wall art, canvases or albums. I want you to have something at the end of our time together that you can display once all is completed. That is the whole reason why we get photos done of our loved ones, isn’t it? If you are getting professional photos taken, you should be getting them professionally printed, especially by the photographer that took them. I want you to have your photos that I have taken, printed to look exactly how I would have wanted them to look. I have relentlessly tested different professional print labs to see who had the best prints for the work I create. So at a collection minimum you get professional, UV protected high quality HD Noritsu printer that prints with exceptional sharpness and tonal range.
Even with the minis at the least you get digitals. You can display them on a screen, have them printed at a professional print lab of our recommendation if not through us. At the minimum you will have something to walk away with that will let forever.
Not every baby is completely content for the entire session. But sometimes some babies really do struggle. I like to give baby some time to settle at the beginning of our session. Newborns are very animalistic. They rely heavily on their senses as a way to understand norms and comfort. My studio will smell differently than your own home. If I am at your home, I smell differently that you do, especially when they associate your smell with feeding and comfort. They can feel uneasy. They can also pick up on stress and anxious behaviour. All these things can make a baby feel unsettled. That is why prior to your session I send you a prep list to make your session flow with ease. Due to all this, this the reason why I strongly suggest parent and/or family photos with baby. If baby can identify you amongst the smells, sounds and contrasting lights and colours of my equipment, props and my own smell and voice; they will be put at ease for the beginning of the session.
Also I wrap baby for the first set of shots. It calms them down, and 9 times out of 10, puts them to sleep. If baby is awake and decides to not sleep, I take advantage of it and photograph baby awake. It’s nice to have a variety of different shots, so I really like getting awake shots. If baby is having a bit of a crying fit I photograph it too. crying photos are cute and a go reminder of what life is like in the beginning LOL. I like capturing all the little facial expressions, they are just so darn cute!
But if baby is awake, unsettled and we can’t get baby to settle within the first half an hour and after a diaper change and feeding; something else might be the matter. If I don’t feel baby is comfortable or looks like they are in pain or won’t stop screaming or crying amongst all my little tricks, I unfortunately will have to reschedule the session. I will recommend you call your family doctor to see if they can help.
I have only ever cancelled a session once due to an unruly baby and she just was having some painful gas that we couldn’t relieve at the studio and mom was getting emotional. So instead of it becoming a horrible experience, I calmly told my new momma to take baby home, give her a nice warm bath with a nice belly oil rub after and try to put her to sleep. Then to have her take a nice bath herself and relax a bit. I would check in with her later on to see how they were and we will worry about rescheduling later. The next day baby was all better and so was mom! We rescheduled for the day after that and all went well.
As I stated before, the collection sessions give you a ton of images. I never state an exact amount because sometimes we get more and sometimes we get less. But I have a tendency to over shoot, so you will always have plenty to pick from. But not too many. If you have too many to choose from it can be more overwhelming than fun. So I just like to give enough for you to select even the largest package of digitals.
I hail from Calgary, Alberta. There were so many talented and incredible newborn photographers in that area and we all had something different. Now being here in Southern Ontario, there are more newborn photographers around me and again I haven’t seen anyone whose work looks the same.
I am a believer in finding a photographer that you really do love their work. You will love your images so much more if you follow who you love. My dramatic shadows, lively and muted colours, story telling all mixed with your own personal touches and customizations sets me apart. I want each of my images to look different. Even when clients tell me they want me to replicate an image I did before. I feel like you should have something that feels like you and your look, your likes, with your touches. I’m just here to bring it to life.
Also my all-inclusive packages are something I have yet to see other photographers take on. Like I said before, I want everyone to be able to experience a professional photo session. No matter what your budget is, I have something for everyone.