Family Photography in West Sussex

My studio is a short walk from where you park and up several small steps.  As such, I’m sorry to say that it’s not wheelchair friendly.  I’m happy to help in any other way that I can though so if you have someone in your party who needs a little special attention to make the session fun for them, then just get in touch and we can talk over what I can do to make things work for you.

This is one of two things that people regularly say to me, this and ‘I’m not very photogenic’.

Well, you’ve got to the studio and so it was obviously important enough for you to get the pictures and so you’ve already done the hard part.  All you need to do when you get into the studio is just relax and let me guide you through the process of creating your images.  I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to create great images, I’ll tell you how to stand, sit and pose and gently walk you through everything you need to do.  It might feel a bit weird for the first couple of minutes but I promise, it will be much worse in your head and after a really short period you’ll be right in the swing of it.  You might even (eek) have fun – pretty much everyone does.

Plus, as I always say, the very worst thing that can happen is that you look at the photos and don’t like them enough to look at them again.  That won’t happen but if that’s the very worst case scenario, then it’s no big deal right?

Most kids if you ask them to smile or say cheese will pull a face that is nothing like their normal, natural smile. For this reason, I don’t generally encourage you to do this in the studio. Instead, we will work to have some fun and get them to smile naturally – this can involve, singing, dancing, saying silly things, shouting ‘poo’ or ‘knickers’ – whatever works to get your little one giggling.

Yes, we have time for at least one outfit change during a session so you can create lots of different looks.

That’s quite a common thing that I hear at the studio and I guess it stems from a fear of those old fashioned portraits where everyone looks very stiff and formal.  There’s always going to be an element of posing in the studio as I’m there to make you into great shapes and I also need to light you but that doesn’t mean that the resulting images need to look unnatural.  In fact, I quite often set you up as a group and then we just let the action unfold and capture it as it goes.  When it comes to kids, because of the requirements for good lighting (after all you’ve come to me for professional images), it means they can’t just run around and play with each other. Quite often this will result in lots of photos of the tops of their heads anyway so we take the same approach.  We set them up with a location and then give them an activity and encourage them to interact.  Don’t be shy in the studio – we will sing, dance, shout ‘poo’ and do anything it takes to get the fun going!

We have the session booked for an hour for a family portrait photo shoot.  That’s actually a really long time to be shooting for so we don’t normally need all of that to get your images created but it means that we take things at a nice, easy and relaxed pace.

Of course! I call this a ‘mix and match’ session.  For example, if you are attending a session as two parents and two children, we can easily take images of everyone together, kids together, kids separately, parents together etc The maximum amount of images from one easy, fun session.

If someone in your party is ill, then you’re welcome to reschedule.  If you can give me as much notice as possible then I appreciate it but of course that’s not always possible.  I don’t offer refunds on sessions but I’m happy to hold your session fee as a credit so you can rebook at a more convenient time when everyone is back to full health.

It’s wonderful when children are really excited to have their pictures taken but of course it’s not always the case.  Lots of kids feel a bit shy or nervous of being in an unfamiliar environment, and so sometimes it takes a little while for them to warm up.  Gentle encouragement from you as parents, and any amount of singing, dancing and silliness generally gets the job done.

It’s a good idea to coordinate outfits for your family portrait session as that makes a real difference to your finished pictures.  Of course you don’t have to all wear the same (although twinning is quite in at the moment), but it’s a great idea to match colours or tones.  Avoid bold patterns and logos as they can be distracting and also they tend to date quite quickly – plain colours can give you a more timeless feel.  In the finished photos, you want the eye to be drawn to your faces and so long sleeves can help with that.  If you have any questions, then you are always welcome to get in touch and I’m happy to help.

All of my portrait work is studio based but luckily, my husband is also a professional photographer and he does shoot portraits on location. You can reach him at VisualChaos Studios and he’ll be happy to talk over your on location portrait requirements.

My studio is quite small (but perfectly formed) and so family portraits are great for groups of up to two adults and three children or five children. If you have a group larger than this, just get in touch and we can talk over what options are available.

A family portrait photo shoot in my studio includes your three favourite images and costs £95.  There’s no sales or viewing session to attend, you simply view your images and order what you would like from your private online gallery.