Hello!!! Not long now until your session. I hope you are as excited as I am to be capturing these precious moments for your family this Christmas.

Address:

My newborn and family photography studio is based in Sunbury Victoria and is a gorgeous purpose designed, commercial space within the Sunbury Storage King.  Address is 18 Anderson Road Sunbury.  There is parking just outside the gate and you will be able to walk right into the studio area inside the gated complex.  You need to first enter the long driveway and park right up near the gate. If you are coming in more than ONE car, please park your second car out on the street (Anderson Road) to ensure there is enough parking for Storage King Customers.

You’ll see the pedestrian entrance right near this gate, it is on your right and will be open on Saturdays til 3pm. At all other times, someone will meet you at the gate at your allocated time slot and will let you in to the complex.   It’s only a 50 m walk from the gate to my studio door though so easy enough xxxx. When you enter into the gate – PLEASE BE ADVISED THIS IS A COMMERCIAL WORKING SPACE AND CHILDREN NEED TO BE HELD BY HAND OR CARRIED AT ALL TIMES.

THIS IS EXCEPTIONALLY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SAFETY AND FOR THAT OF THE OTHER OCCUPANTS OF THE BUILDING AS THERE ARE MANY TRUCKS/CARS ENTERING AND LEAVING THE FACILITY.

When you enter the gate you will see a huge garage hangar door to the main building on your Right. This should be wide open on Saturday TIL 3PM but will be closed at other times. If closed,  the access code is right there on the left of the entrance above the key panel. It’s 3456.

When you come in through the hangar door, head to the end as far as you can see/walk and on the right you will see my  blue Studio Door. If the door is shut, I have another family inside talking their beautiful photographs.  If you could please wait outside this door and I’ll let you in when it’s time for your session.  PLEASE ENSURE CHILDREN ARE WELL SUPERVISED HERE, AND ARE NOT RUNNING AROUND, AS THIS JEOPARDISES MY ABILITY TO RUN THESE SESSIONS IN MY STUDIO.

By following the below guidelines, I will set you up to have the best chance possible to get the very best images I can on the day.

Background:

I have been photographing children and families professionally for almost 8 years.  Please trust in me and my skills on the day to get you the very best images possible, after all that is why you are coming to me!

I take the care, safety and handling of your children as my absolute priority and will not place them in any situation that could compromise their safety.

Your package:

The Sessions are only $40 which you have already paid, and for this you get the 15 minute session – a styled SANTA’S WORKSHOP Christmas set for your children (NO DAGGY SHOPPING CENTRE CHRISTMAS PORTRAITS THIS YEAR!!!! :0 ) and a dark wood background for some family portraits and individual child portraits with a couple of different posing ideas depending on your family size. You also receive a complimentary 5 x 7.5 inch print enlargement from the session. The sessions are up to 4 children and 2 adults.
10 fully edited proof images from this session will be uploaded onto an online gallery in dropbox, for you to choose your complimentary portrait.

From here you will have the option to purchase the XMAS MINI package which is the entire 10 of these images in high-resolution digital copy for you to print, share and enlarge at your leisure. This package is ONLY $140 additional. This is a massive saving off normal family photography portrait sessions. There is no option to purchase smaller no. of images as this is not cost effective for families or my business. I hope you can understand.

NOTE*** Images are chosen by Studio Create to keep costs reasonable for you as I do in all of my sessions. I have found Editing of large numbers of images is not only time consuming for me (which has to drive costs up for you) it is often too overwhelming for clients to choose. I want clients to have all of their best images and I ensure I pick you a great variety whilst making sure every edited image is of the highest standard (focus, lighting, facial expressions etc). My clients trust me to pick them the best. This is my point of difference with all of my sessions as I do not believe in holding you to ransom over your precious images and want you to be able to afford the best of what I take on the day.

I will also design you a Magnetic Christmas Card from the day which you can  purchase as a gorgeous fully printed fridge magnet christmas card with envelopes for the cost of 10 cards $30, 20 cards $50, 30 cards $60 or 50 cards for $80. You will be the envy of all the family sending these this christmas! They are a simple design customised with your family details that allows your family image to shine.

Environment:

It is absolutely IMPERITIVE that you Please come prepared for a quick 15 minute session that is hopefully running very carefully on time as I have a lot of sessions to get through. Your assistance with arriving on time is absolutely necessary and greatly appreciated. I will however ask you to wait outside the studio whilst other families are being photographed, purely as many people are quite self-conscious being photographed. It also would be very distracting for the children if other families were in the studio.  These are only mini shoots, so you have been allocated 15 mins to get the 10 best images to upload to your gallery.  I will aim to do a good mixture of both the Christmas setup of your child/ren and of you guys as a family. Of course I will take a much larger number then this on the day, to ensure I have a good variety to choose from. I want to give you the very best of what I have.

Session:

If you are bringing a baby, I can not place your baby in certain positions and props when they are awake due to safety issues and I will not compromise my policy on this. This is for your baby’s utmost safety and comfort. If you do have a baby, please try to feed them well before you arrive, this will help them to be most comfortable during the session and more able to get good eye contact with the camera.

Snacks:

Please ensure you feed your children with some snacks prior to the session so they are happy and not hungry for me, and feel free to bring me some snacks to use as bribery. I will have some small treats there on the day, please let me know if you’d prefer I don’t offer these to your children or if there are any allergies I should be aware of.  Talking to your children prior to the session about how much fun they are going to have and that they can have their favourite snack/toy/meal/ice-cream (whatever works for your child) is essential.  This helps us to set the scene of a good fun time especially for children who are nervous or shy! As it’s a santas workshop set this year, you can even talk to them on the way about how gorgeous they look dressed up and that I hammers and tools for them to play with they can look at lots of toys santa is making.  Whatever you think will make your children feel most at ease and be ready for some fun!

Dress:

People often ask what to wear for family sessions. I usually only photograph just the kids in the Christmas setup (this year’s set is quite tight, so it would probably be difficult to get the whole family in, but let me know if you’d desperately like a Christmas theme family photo and I’ll try my best) so you may want to bring a change of outfit for them from the family portraits to the Christmas shoot.  For the family part – Dad’s are best in a simple single colour polo or t-shirt and mums in a nice sundress or pants/leggings/jeans and neutral coloured shirt etc. Please ensure Dad’s do not wear large patterned or logo’ed t-shirts as they will date your photographs. Similar for large pictures on shirts or bold patterns etc.  Complimentary neutral colours also work best. A simple plain colour is best, and dark works best for dad’s. The optimum choice is a plain black t-shirt. If you only have a logo’d one, we can turn it inside out or I have a couple of spare in the studio if you’re stuck. Please don’t wear bold colours, neutral tones are best, cream, brown, black, natural, grey, navy, soft muted pinks if possible. For the christmas photos this year, it is a very traditional set – you can see the backdrop on my facebook page, lots of red, green, browns, creams, very vintage christmas.

For your family photos, I highly recommend on the day wearing items from a similar colour palette, no need to be too matchy, matchy but something complimentary between you all works best!   You can easily change the kids tops in between if you want them to have some christmas attire on for that portion.    The sessions will be quite quick though, so don’t bring anything too difficult to change. These are the colours I photograph mostly and will best compliment the wood background I will be photographing you against.  For your children, please dress them in similar neutral tones that compliment the colours you are wearing.   There is nothing worse in a photograph that one child is in bright red or hot pink and the rest of the family in a total contrasting neutral colour. If your children are in bright, fluorescent colours or colours that clash, I think you will be disappointed with your images as it is my aim to create timeless images that will not age in years to come.  The Christmas set this year is very traditional, think creams, gold, reds and hints of green with complimentary wood toning! Any of these colours and a hint of deep red would be lovely for the kids!  Mum’s please wear some light makeup if you feel comfortable doing so, as I know as a woman, you will feel more comfortable having your image taken with some light makeup on.  Try to avoid thick foundation, bright red lips (unless this is totally you!) as they never photograph well xxxx

Additional:  ****SUPER IMPORTANT*****

I need you to please trust me on the day to capture your children’s personalities, you’ll only be disappointed if in every image they aren’t looking at the camera so TRUST me to capture their attention and expressions by letting me have their full attention. It’s very tempting to call to them to try to make them smile etc but I’d hate in every image for them to be looking over at you guys with those horrible fake smiles. I’m sure you understand!!!! I’ll remind you on the day but do not wish to offend so please understand it is simply so I can get the best images possible for you.  I never will ask them EVER to say CHEESE as this produces horrible fake smiles and not what I’m looking for.

Finally, there is no pressure on your children to perform at the session, natural shots are always best and I like to shoot in a very relaxed and easy manner so there is no pressure on them to be perfect or to be looking at the camera with big perfect (usually cheesy if forced) smiles in every shot.  Asking your children to say cheese, or smile with any of those make really fake, uneasy children’s smiles which as parents we all hate!  I’m a mum of two littlies and I’ve done this for a long time – Let me capture beautiful natural smiles for you, I promise you’ll love them more !!!!!!

Thank you again for trusting me to create these beautiful memories of you and your children this Christmas. I really am very lucky to love what I do and I can’t wait to show you.

See you soon!!!!!!

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me.  If they are urgent questions feel free to send me a text  0427 077 771 xxx

I look forward to meeting you and your family at your session  . xxxxx see you then, Cheers xx Tracey