Photo Shoot Experience
Our Family Photo Shoot Experience is the perfect way to…ahhh….experience what we do!
It includes, a zoom planning chat (15-30 minutes, depending on how many questions you ask and how much you talk about the kids) before the shoot, to discuss exactly what you’d like and most importantly what might be the best clothing to wear!!!
Now, that doesn’t mean you all wear matchy matchy, it means clothes that reflects your own individual personalities. We’’ll talk about that! And lots of other things too.
The Experience! (About 30-40 minutes-ish, depends on….see below) I don’t know about you, but I like to have fun and I like to make people laugh, at me and themselves! Kids especially, the more challanging ones the better I like it, bring it on, kid!
Now I know what some of you are thinking and this happens all the time. Usually Dad and Granny, but all the others too. They come in with a face on them, like they’ve been dragged to the dentist for the first time in 20 years, but….by the time they’re leaving, they say “I really enjoyed that” grinning from ear to ear, in awe of my witchcraft in getting their kids/grandma to do things they never could. (Well that’s what usually happens, there are one or two who have even stronger will than me, but that’s rare and even then I still get something from them)
The Ordering This can be the painful bit, parting with money, but if you’re listening during the Planning Chat and ask the questions, this shouldn’t be a surprise, and yes, do tell your partner the prices, or don’t bring them to this part and tell them whatever you like afterwards, as long as it’s not coming out of your joint account!
That’s it! You have had the Family Photo Shoot Experience All for nothing, well if you call nothing 295 Euros.
Oh! And you also get 1 custom framed piece of art, of YOUR family! Or YOUR kids!
"What is Art? Well thats a discussion for another day.
“Okay, great what size is the “art” then?”
Sigh! It’s a 10 inches (20 something cms) by 8 inches (20 somthing cms, you work it out, I’m feet and inches) in a frame with a window mount (or mat, or passepatout, as they say in France)
Which means the whole piece of “art” is about 14-16 inches by 11-14 inches, depending on the type of frame you choose. Happy now?
#1 Book your shoot!
Call (quicker) or Email (probably slower, depends) As for Forms!!! (No one ever answers those!!!) to book, pay and pick a date for your Family Photo Shoot Experience.
Everybody seems to want Saturdays, for some weird reason? Oh yeah! You’re all off on Saturdays aren’t you. Must be nice.
So….yes you can book a Saturday, but we only do 4 shoots on a Saturday, so there’s that! And Mary down the road is way ahead of you and booked hers months ago!!
And, we insist, if your kids are young, like 0-4, it has to be a morning shoot.
“But why?” Well, in our hard earned experience and by being coerced by charming or beggy people and having said, oh go then! It’s 99% chance it will be a disaster!!!
But why?” Sigh! Look we’re been here 25 years and as I said above,”in our hard earned experience” young kids are much better in the morning, they go downhill very quickly in the afternoons, after playing sports, ugh! doing their drama class at Billy Barry’s, running around the playground all morning, having been trapped in the house, while you try and get rid of your Friday night hangover, etc..
We are open all week, well, Tuesday to Saturday, so why not get your partner to take an hour off work and book in on a weekday?
Or, who knows, you might get lucky and we have that Saturday morning slot you want!!!
#2 The Planning Chat!!
Remember, this is over zoom, about 15 minutes, so you can do it at work, or while you’re driving, or while you’re out walking the dog, or….better still, while you have 15 minutes on your own, at home in front of your computer and no one is disturbing you, like crying, hungry babies, kids going nuts in the background etc. Remember that “hard earned experience” from the Book Your Shoot bit above??? Oh, you didn’t read that bit? sigh, here we go again!
“But why do I need a planning chat” “I just want a couple of nice shots of the kids and maybe the family” or “I was in 10 years ago, I’ve been to other photographers, I know all that stuff” Hmmm, really?
Well, believe it or not, that thing you think you look great in when you head out on a Friday night (when it’s dark and everyone else is pissed) may not actually be the best choice of clothing for a group (family) shoot, because although we don’t like matchy matchy, we want you, (especially you, as you might be the one getting your credit card out at the end,) and all the others to look like you all belong to the same family and that the clothes kinda blend with what the others are wearing.
So that’s the main thing we’ll chat about. We’ll also see if you’ve thought of anything other than, “let’s have a family shoot” “it’ll be great fun!” (well you actually right about that bit, it will be!)
Other things you’ll listen and pay attention to, taking notes are good, if you’re into that sort of thing! Making sure you and anyone else who is actually going to spend some money, know exactly how much everything is, so there are no deathly silences when you/they come back to see the results and the penny finally drops that you maybe should have maybe had a look at the price list that was attached to your shoot confirmation email!
And of course, we want to know what your kids are like, their personalities, shy, mad, sulky, clingy (Clingy? that’s actually you, you know, not them, you created that becasue you actually like it) sigh. Dd I mention we’ve been doing this 25 years and I know more about you and your kids than you do, than your mother does, cos, 25 years of it, 1000’s of shoots, being able to be on the same wavelenght as your crying baby, your scared toddler, your parter, need I go on?
So, yeah, a planning chat is a good thing, but you know better, right? You don’t need one and you’re so busy and shure its only a photo shoot!
#3 The Shoot!!!
So! If you’ve followed all the advice above, everything should go really smoothly, right? Well, that depends. Have you given yourself enough time to get all the kids washed, dressed, fed, without losing your stuff (there’s another word, beginning with “s” I want to use here, but your granny might be reading this, so use youe imagination!
We will have fun! Yes, even you, even your Ma, even your husband (I know bit sexist, but true I’m afraid) Why? Because I like to have fun and so do you, if you can remember that far back.
It will hopefully only take 30-40 minutes, as that’s about as much ultra-high energy I can expend at full speed at my age, getting your kids where I want them, making them be themselves and taking your mind off being photographed (I have lots of tricks and ways of doing that, remember the 25 year bit above? You did read that, right??)
And look, stuff(same word I want to use as above) happens, right? Someone didn’t take their usual nap (your husband) Someone only came because her mother in law and her husband made them, so natually they will be the last to arrive, so you get the message. Etc, etc…
I won’t go on about all that stuff, let’s be happy, excited, ready to have the best experience as a family, maybe ever!
And fun, with a capital F. I dare you to try not too!!! I love a challange and I always win, well 99.999999% of the time! There’s always one, right, sigh!
#4 The Results!!!!
So….this is the best part and the worst part, yin & yag, good & bad, light and dark, day & night etc..
The best part is showing you what your family really look like, not the thing your brain does, when you look in the mirror or at them (lets call it mental deception) the real smiles, that you never get when you try take a photo of your kids with your phone as you start getting annoyed becasue they qiute naturally don’t want to say “cheese” at that moment and cos you take way too long to figure out what buton to press etc.
You left the studio thinking theres no way I got anything good out of your bawling kid, but you didn’t see what I saw! I knew I’d got them, for that 200th of a second and thought, ”got ya! You little bollix” (sorry, that just came out without my filtering it)
Anyway, that’s the best part!
The worst part? All of a sudden realising you’re either going to have to spend some more money to take those amazing photos home, or you’re going to have to think of a good reason to tell us what you only want the one that’s included in the Family Photo Shoot Experience.
The bad reasons are, “we only have small walls” (oh really? Do you have to crawl on your hands and knees to get into your house?) “I don’t like myself in the family photo, I just need to loose that covid weight” (We can fix that and no one will ever know!) “We had a another shoot recently, 5 years ago”. (Hmmm)
The good reasons are, “We don’t have any money, this was a gift from my mother” “We have lots of money, because we never spend any, so we’re not going to start now!!!” And that is about it.
“Why is it so expensive?” “How many photos do we get?” “Can you give us all the digital files, like our wedding photographer gave us?” (As you may or may not remember, your wedding photographer charged you a lot of money upfront! Therefore had already been paid in stuff before he/she/they had to put up with all that nonesense at your wedding.
We do it the other way, basically doing everything above (You’ve read all that, right?), the planning chat, the emails, the phone calls, the texts, the shoot and now this, the ordering bit. That’s about 3 hours of our time! All for next to nothing!!! Or really nothing, if someone else bought you the Family Photo Shoot Experience. Not to mention the beautiful framed piece of art, of your family or kids, (yes, “art”, I’m not embarrased to call it that, because it is) already included!!!
Now it’s time to take a deep breath, realise you will smile at these art pieces on your wall for the rest of your life! Then your kids will smile and cry at them when….well you know….none of use live forever, then your grandkids etc etc etc.
One woman who was in recently said “we were in with you 20 years ago and you charged us a fortune” and I said, “Well, are they still up on your wall?” “Yes” “Do you still smile at them everytime you look at them?” “Yes” “was it worth it” “Yes” “Well then, what are talking about?” “Okay, how about you give me back all the photos and I’ll refund you everything you paid, 20 years ago, in Irish Punts” “Ah no, I was only saying” sigh!!!
Why is it soooo expensive here??? Well, I could tell you, but the truth is, you really don’t want to know why, you just want it to be cheaper! (I’ve had that conversation many times and will happliy tell you over the pint you’ll be buying me at the time. Until then, here are a few words of wisdom, (yes “wisdom” I’m way older than you and I know stuff, right!)
“You get what you pay for” (sometimes)
We are, in the genius words of an Amsel lager ad “reassurringly expensive” (isn’t that genuis!)
“How important is cheap to you” (a bit insulting, from an American photographer, who’s class I went to years ago) and
“These photographs are not expensive, they’re priceless”
If you’re like me, you’ll forget about how much it cost really soon and just be glad you bought that exrtra one or ten, especially when the neigbours or your sister calls round and is blown away but my “art” and you say, “We went to Mark Nixon Studio, you know!” Secrectly loving them regreting the photographer they went to and spent even more money on their “not-art” than we charge!!!
Because unlike you, I know what other chancers charge and how they trick people into buying more than they want to. We don’t do that. If you walk out of here with the one photo that’s included in the “Experience” with a smile on your face and a glow in your heart. I’m happy! Truth!