I first met Carrie when we had our pictures taken for our church directory. I found out she had her own business and seriously considered having her do our family photos when the twins turned one. Silly me decided to go instead to J.C. Penny's thinking "Oh! This will be easier and cheaper." Um, no. The photographer who did our session was NOT used to working with kids and couldn't get ours to look in the same direction at once. Not an easy feat with a three year old and two one year olds, I'll give you that but she didn't try to use any of the methods that I would try when taking photos (waving props around, silly voices, etc.) All she did was "Kids! Hey kids! Smile!" Yeah, that right there? Not effective.
I wasn't wild about any of the poses that she put us in and only ONE picture out of all of them could be termed o.k. We ordered it and it WAS cheap. But, every time I see it now, I'm reminded of what a blah experience we had. Instead, I had the genius idea to take the kids in one at a time (one appointment a day over three days) so they could be photographed separately and, hopefully, more successfully. The first day was o.k. because my oldest was first. She loves a camera like most kids love chocolate so she took direction and was a complete ham. The second day was my other daughter and she just did NOT want to smile. The third day was the boy and he did NOT want to sit still or look at the camera. By the end of all of this running around and juggling three kids at the studio for a total of almost five hours, I did have some very cute pictures. But, because I'm a sucker for my beautiful children, I also spent enough that I could just have hired Carrie to come and hang out with us for a while and catch the kids doing what they do best: playing and smiling naturally.
I'd like to give family photos another shot when the babies turn 18 months in August and I'll definitely be in touch with Carrie. If you have kids and want a relaxed experience (Several HOURS to take photos! Multiple outfit changes! She comes to you! Crazy awesome.) with someone who works primarily with kids, has kids of her own, and does great work, then you should contact her too. If you look through some of her galleries they'll speak for themselves. Is it more expensive than one of the walk-in studios? Well, yeah. But only if you're one of those iron willed people who can just stick with the $7.99 one pose package. Plus, Carrie offers specials too.
You all know I'm thrifty but I also don't compromise on quality when I see it.
