There are many reasons to invest in professional photography, but here is a little behind the scenes look at what all goes into it!
A 1-Hour Session Is More Than 1 Hour
When you book a photography session, the part you see is usually pretty simple.
We meet at a beautiful location. You get in front of my camera. We spend an hour together; I photograph the two of you laughing, walking, dancing, or simply being together, and eventually you receive a gallery full of photographs that tell the story of that session.
But there is so much more happening behind the scenes!
Your session may be one hour in front of my camera, but that one hour represents much more than an hour of work.
Before we ever meet
Your session starts long before you show up.
I want your experience to feel intentional, not like you simply picked a date on a calendar and showed up with no idea what to do.
That means communicating with you, answering questions, sending your questionnaire, helping with location decisions, putting together your session guide, talking through outfits and timing, and making sure I understand what you want your photographs to feel like.
I don't want to walk into your session knowing nothing about you.
The little details matter.
Maybe you're celebrating an engagement. Maybe you're documenting your family while your kids are still little. Maybe you're graduating. Maybe you're simply wanting photographs of the two of you because you haven't had them taken in years.
Knowing your story helps me photograph it differently.
Then comes the actual session
This is the part that gets called "the one-hour session."
And yes, my sessions are around one hour.
But that hour isn't simply me pointing a camera at you!
I'm watching the light. I'm thinking about composition. I'm paying attention to how you're moving, where you're standing, what's happening in the background, and how I can create photographs that feel natural while still being intentional.
I'm also directing you!
You don't have to know how to pose. You don't have to know what to do with your hands. You don't have to be naturally comfortable in front of a camera! That's part of my job.
The goal isn't for every image to feel perfectly posed. I want the photographs to feel like memories you can step back into.
And then you go home...
Afterward, I back up your photographs and begin sorting through everything we created together.
Then comes editing.
Every image you receive has been individually considered and edited to fit the look and feeling of my work. I'm paying attention to color, light, skin tones, composition, and all of the little details that make an image feel finished.
It usually takes another hour to go through and choose the best images from your shoot, and send you 24 hour sneak peeks! I then spend another hour or two on your full gallery, perfecting the perfect representation of your story.
This is also where my style comes into the process!
I love photographs that feel cinematic, a little nostalgic, and timeless. I want your gallery to feel cohesive from beginning to end rather than like a collection of random snapshots.
My editing style has been curated from years of editing!
There is also a business behind the camera
Photography is more than the hour you see on my calendar.
There is professional camera equipment, lenses, memory cards, batteries, hard drives, computers, editing software, gallery hosting, website costs, insurance, education, business expenses and all of the little things that keep a photography business running.
There is also the time spent answering emails, preparing guides, organizing galleries, backing up files, keeping everything organized, and making sure your photographs are safely stored. Not to mention the time it takes to post content on social media (which I love) but is very time consuming as well!
The camera is only one part of the job.
The experience, the expertise, the preparation, and everything that happens afterward are part of what you're investing in, too!
So what are you actually paying for?
You're not just paying for an hour of my time.
You're investing in someone who has spent years learning how to use a camera, understand light, photograph people naturally, direct posing, edit consistently, and create images that feel like *you.*
You're investing in the planning that happens before your session.
You're investing in the photographs being backed up, carefully edited, and delivered in a way that makes the entire experience feel easy.
And most importantly, you're investing in photographs that exist because you decided this season of your life was worth preserving.
Because eventually, you won't always look exactly like you do right now.
But you'll still have these photographs.
That's the part I care about most!
More than photographs
I don't want your session to feel like an hour where you stood in front of a camera and smiled.
I want it to feel like an hour you actually enjoyed. How it felt to be together in that particular season of your life! The photographs are important, but so is the experience of creating them.
So yes, your session is one hour.
But the work behind that hour is so much more. That's what makes me love what I do. I'm not just creating photographs.
I'm helping you preserve a little piece of your story, and I would love to tell yours!
