Behind the Business: The Time it Takes for One Photo Session
There is a lot that goes into the highly personalized experience I offer my clients. I take great pride in the highly personalized experience that I offer my clients. I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes of exactly what goes into the AWP experience, from start to finish…
The Inquiry (booking, emails, payment, questionnaire) = ~3 hours
As soon as I receive an email/message asking for more information, the ball starts rolling. Communication is super important to me because it’s the key to getting to know you and understanding what you’re looking for in a photographer. This usually involves a series of back-and-forth emailing, as I answer your questions about the booking process and help you learn what to expect. The emails lead to a complimentary phone chat where we really dive into the vision for the session and determine if we are a good fit to work together (after all, a photographer works best when she is inspired!) Once we decide to move forward, I create and send contracts, invoices, questionnaires for you to fill out, and prep guides. This chunk of the process takes at least 3 hours of work. I am not just trying to earn your business. It’s my goal to be the person you think of when there’s a milestone that needs to be captured in photographs.
The Preparation (planning, setup) = ~2 hours
The next step is planning and prepping everything for the session. Based on our conversations and your answers to the questionnaire, I gather all the items that we’ll need. There is very little that you have to do other than show up. I make sure to have everything clean/sanitized and ready to go for the day of your session. This makes your shoot run a lot smoother and gives us more time to focus on taking beautiful pictures.
The Session = 1-3 hours
This is the fun part for you! Depending on the type of session you’ve selected, the shoot can take up to three hours. Newborn sessions can even take a little longer due to the time it takes to get baby settled into different poses. Milestone sessions take some time as well, as curious little toddlers like to escape from the set and need to be wrangled back in! Sessions often include time for feedings and for parent, sibling and family photos.
The Cleanup = 1.5 hours
Once your session is all done, I begin the not-so-glamorous cleanup. This involves laundry, wiping down and sanitizing everything, and making sure to put items back in their place. Cake smash sessions can take even longer as you can imagine.
Proof Gallery (upload, image selection, sneak peek gallery set-up) = 2 hours
During proofing, I sort through your images and select the ones that I think you’ll love the most. These are used for your sneak peek, which you get to see within 24 hours of your session (yay!) We then schedule a full proofing gallery where you get to select that images that you want edited, touched up, and/or printed.
Editing/Final Gallery = ~5+ hours
The editing process is one of the most detailed parts of my work, and the time it takes can vary depending on the extent of the edits. Skin touch-ups, for example, can add extra time per image, but the base time for editing a gallery of 15 images is 5 hours. This may vary per photographer but in my case I add a lot of artistic touches that make the images pop and stand out from the rest.
Once we add everything up, the complete AWP experience takes approximately 16 hours! This doesn’t factor in prints and other products which can add another 10 hours. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy every minute of it. It’s my mission to capture your milestones and deliver gorgeous photographs that you and your family can enjoy for a lifetime!