My tips for holiday photos

My Experience:
Being prepared is so much less stressful. We only have 20 minutes together, so I’m going to give you some crib notes to make our time together as productive as possible.

Take my notes for what they are worth. You are paying to have your pictures taken so being a bit more prepared beforehand will make you and your family look their best. Then you can just relax and have fun and hopefully get some GREAT expressions.

What to wear:

• Keep it simple. Solid colors are best. Avoid large, bold patterns and bright colors that draw attention away from your face. I really try to stay away from characters and stripes (although a mellow plaid is very Christmas).
• Just think if you were to look back on these pictures 10 years from now, would you see the great expressions, the differences in the kids sizes compared to you, something special in the kids personalities, or would it be the loud Elmo rainbow shirt (you get the idea).
• Long sleeves draw attention away from the arms and help bring the focus to your faces.
• Don’t forget the bottom half. Make sure you coordinate clothing from head to toe. Usually I suggest jeans, especially since we will be outside. Jeans don’t show the dirt as much. But since these are primarily holiday pictures, you may want to go a bit dressier.
• Accentuate the positive. Darker clothing is slimming. Lighter tones tend to emphasize the body.
• Frame your face. Scoops or v-necks flatter shorter necks and full faces. Turtlenecks or high-necked garments in portraits flatter longer necks and slender faces. (So, no turtlenecks for me)
• Keep clothing consistent. Dress everyone in the same style for your portrait session. Don’t mix casual and formal clothing.
• Don’t mix light and dark colors in portraits.
• The colors at the farms will be primarily green. If you are wearing green you will most likely blend in. I prefer red, grey, tan, even black, but would not do white for this environment and this weather.
• Also, personally I love hats for close-up headshots on the kids. Hats emphasize the eyes.
  You may want to bring the hats for a couple shots.
• When you are dressing everyone, make sure no one stands out (unless you want them to).
• Personally, for our pictures this year I found some red Christmas outfits for the girls, Andre’s in a red/green Christmas plaid and Jason/me will be in black. This way we make a black backdrop for the kids and they stand out a bit more than us. (Also, black was something that Jason and I both had).
• Not that you have to go shopping, but a friend and I went this week to help her look for her session clothes. Old Navy really didn’t have much holiday clothing in yet. Carters / Osh-Kosh had some and the Children’s Place had some holiday stuff too.

Moms posing: (because moms are the most self-critical creatures)
• 45 degree angle toward the camera (never straight on – unless you are a size 2)
• Weight on back leg
• Shoulders back – standing up tall gets rid of 10 pounds (everyone looks better standing up straight).
• Arms never squished up against your body
• Take 10 minutes and practice in the mirror (yes, see what minimizes the double chin or unflattering facial expressions – I know it sounds stupid, but trust me – and if you do it in the bathroom mirror no one has to be the wiser ).
o I have 2 friends that look fantastic in all of their pictures and they practice.

Ideas for the kids:
• Please don’t stress out beforehand: we are very low key and the kids will pick up on your stress. (Your kids cannot do anything that I haven’t seen before). You’re here to take great pictures, not impress me or hubby. We really don’t matter.
• Please try to prepare as much as possible beforehand so there is not as much to do on Sunday.
• Bribes, bribes, bribes (preferably 2 – 3) – hopefully we don’t need them, but it’s nice to have a backup plan. Your child’s favorite snack (just no chocolate that will melt all over faces and clothes – I’ve made all of these mistakes myself).

Mom’s checklist:
• Clothes laid out the night before
o For you and spouse
o For the kids
• Snacks / diaper bag packed the night before
• Wipes and a comb.
• Umbrellas (preferably packed up in the car / van / SUV)
• Coats (preferably packed up in the car / van / SUV)

Day of information:
Where we’ll meet:
We’ll meet by the parking lot entrance outside the barn. It’s directly on the northeast side of the barn.

What if it’s raining?
If it’s raining we will still be outside. One of the reasons I picked this area is there are 3 wooden structures, a gazebo and a couple areas that are covered by trees.

We’ll have umbrellas and will do that if necessary. Right now the weather forecast is cloudy (which is perfect for pictures).

How we’ll do the pictures after:
It’ll probably take me a week to process all of the pictures. I’ll email you a proof sheet. You decide which ones you want, pay for them, and I’ll put them online for you to download that day.
Maybe 2 weeks total for everything!!

Cards:
If you can’t find any cards you love, I did purchase some that I loved that are made for photographers to put photos in and sell to their clients. I haven’t had enough time to print up samples or even figure out pricing for each card. If you think you might be interested here’s the link with other people’s pictures in them
http://inotherwordsbyjamie.typepad.com/jamieschultzdesigns/2008/06/holiday-cards-set-1.html
Depending on the card it can be a photocard or a regular foldover card or there’s even a tri-fold card.

Also, if you want to put them together and order them yourself, I haven’t seen the printed quality, but my favorite holiday designs this year are:
tinyPrints