Planning My Own Family Photoshoot Styling Perspectives from a Chicago and Naperville Family Photographer
It has been a couple of minutes since our last professional Chicago family photo shoot 🤭. Which essentially means a photo shoot that actually includes me (since I am after all a professional photographer and my kids and husband are well documented with professional photos). If you are a mom, I am sure that you can absolutely relate to not being in the pictures. So I am following my own good advice and getting in the picture with my family in a couple of weeks from now. This will also be a good reminder for me of what it is like to be on the other side of the camera.
In the shoot above, photographed by the lovely Chicago wedding and family photographer Maddie Blecha, I was going for a posh Christmas in Chicago feel. I actually found my daughter’s coat first from Little Goodall and styled the rest of the family’s clothing around this piece.
Typically, I recommend my clients put mom at the center of costume design for the group. Let’s be honest: kids look adorable in a potato sack, and most men will wear exactly what you lay out for them. Us ladies, if we don’t like how we look in the photo, even if everyone else has the most perfectly perfect smile they have ever given - we are not going to be happy. You know I speak the truth.
Styling a shoot is no easy task and the day of my Christmas in the City Chicago shoot was no exception. I felt like I was running a million directions pulling together outfits, getting my hair and make-up done (those lashes take a hot minute - unless you know Santos from Nordstrom’s Chanel - he is the BEST). About 30 minutes before our shoot it occurred to me that it would be super adorbs to buy carrots for the horses that pull the carriages downtown so we just HAD to stop at Wholefoods for those carrots that still had the leaves perfectly attached….creativity is not for the faint of heart. Despite the smiles in the photos above, the stress getting ready for that shoot led to some real changes in how I guide my own clients before a session. Pre-pandemic I formed the glam-squad to come to your home and bring the glam to you. I have also partnered with Style and Select to make clothing styling way easier for your photo shoot planning.
The shoot I am planning in the next few weeks is happening during a pandemic obviously - so the manicure, makeup and city environment are a no-go this time around. The shoot will take place early evening on a prairie and farm located in our new town of Naperville - Riverview Farmstead. I am hoping this means no crowds. Below are a few images I found (not mine all the credit goes to Timothy Whaley here) of the location we will be shooting in. Looking at the environment is the first step to choosing outfit styles for the session.
I believe that a photo shoot is the perfect excuse to go shopping - especially during a pandemic when I don’t want to head into stores and my very best sweat pants now have holes. Enter, stage right: Style and Select. This online styling program is a fabulous tool that helps my clients style their shoots in a painless way. I decided to use this tool for my own shoot and below is a video if you would like to see how it’s done! If you are a photographer checking out here is a code for 10% off BLUEBIRD10. You can thank me later 😜.
We are starting our outfit styling with the two dresses below from Rent the Runway. I also now have this available for my clients’ use so please reach out if you are interested in accessing from this cool service which also has clothing for girls now. My dress is on the right as I definitely recommend some shape for the ladies and my daughter’s is to the left.
