Scheduling Family Portraits

Life is busy!  It can be hard to fit everything in and sometimes the urgent takes priority over the important.  We all know how much we would cherish looking at a portrait of the people we love most in the world hanging on the wall, but getting them all in one place at the same time (let alone looking picture worthy!) can be tough.

Our studio tries to do it's part by scheduling around when your family is available.  Yes, that does include nights and weekends and even most major holidays, including Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, and Mother's Day.  We appreciate the support your business gives our family and celebrate our holidays on an alternate date to support your family.

Over the years, we've also learned some scheduling tips that might make it easier for you:

• 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. are optimal times for gathering a family with minimal impact on the rest of your day (they also happen to be times for good outdoor lighting and avoiding Arkansas heat).
• Planning a fun family activity in conjunction with your session makes it easier to get everyone on board and in a good mood.
• If planning for a holiday portrait, before the meal works best.  Having a catered meal,, crockpot meal, or cold cut buffet will reduce stress for the person planning the meal (and usually planning the pictures, too).
• Planning around times your family will already be together helps make sure everyone is present.
• Planning six months to a year in advance will help those who need to schedule time off or travel time to be available.
• If planning hair & makeup, let the teens go first and pay them to dress the littles while the moms have their turn.  Moms will be relaxed and ready at photo time, teens will love the extra cash, little love the attention from the teens, and dads are happy they got to watch the game.
• Packing picture outfits (even if you are local) all the way from the underclothes to the shoes, socks, and accessories in a single bag for each person and separate from your other things will make getting ready stress free.  We recommend doing this at least a week ahead of time to make finding or replacing any missing pieces easy to fit into your normal routine.
• Trying on your outfits before packing them will highlight anything that has gotten loose or tight, is missing a button, or doesn't look as good together as you thought it would.