I often talk about why I believe investing into high quality prints and products is important. A lot of photographers will tell you to print your pictures… but knowing which labs to trust, and which products to invest in, can be overwhelming. It is part of my job to help my clients navigate those choices. When you hire me, I use the things I’ve learned to help you through the process of deciding what you want, and what that will look like… and we do it in a way that not only takes the stress off, but makes the whole process a celebration of YOU, the Senior.

What’s Better than a Celebration With Food? Food with your FACE on it.

The first thing we do when you get to your Reveal Night, is we catch up over dessert… usually I have local baker Shannon Warren, of Simply Divine Cakes, make a cookie cake with one of the images from your session on it. Not only is the cookie cake delicious, but c’mon, having your face on the top too? That just, well, takes the cake! 😉

Viewing Your Slideshow

Once we enjoy the cookie cake, we step into my office. I turn down the lights, get out the Kleenex (mom or dad, and maybe grandma, will probably need one), and I turn on a big tv. One by one you get to see the best images from your session, fully edited, and set to music. You get to re-live the highlights and the great time we had on shoot day. The slideshow is entertaining, it pulls on your heartstrings, but the process of seeing the portraits that way for the first time also helps with making your choices. Here is how:

As the pictures pop up one by one, there are going to be some that will have an emotional effect. For mom or dad, they may see an expression that takes them back to when you were little; for you, you may see yourself looking better than you ever thought possible; maybe one of you will remember something that happened when we took the picture that gives it special meaning…. THOSE are your “super yeses.” Those portraits, the ones that you connect with on an emotional level, are the ones I suggest go straight to the top of the pile when you are choosing which photos you use in creating your heirloom art.

Selecting Your Products

Before you come to your Reveal Night and Ordering Session, you will have seen and held samples of the products from my studio, so that you can have a good idea of which ones you want for your family. Have you ever ordered something online thinking you’d love it, and when it arrived it wasn’t at all what you expected? Yeah, same. That’s disappointing and kind of infuriating.

At your ordering session, you have the chance to touch and feel each sample again. This time, you will have seen your own portraits, so it is easier to imagine how your own prints and products will look when you get them back.

But I make the imagining even easier, because then I pull out 4×6 prints of every photo in your gallery, and we use those physical prints to help you decide which portraits you will make into what products.

I use online galleries to deliver digital images with some of my sessions, but in the same way I prefer to read from an actual book rather than use a Kindle or and iPad, I find it helpful to hold the physical prints side by side when comparing pictures and making choices between them. I then use the 4×6 prints to double check my orders, and as a bonus, you have at least one physical print of every single portrait we made to take home with you.

Designing Your Products

Once you’ve decided on which products are best for you, and have chosen the pictures you want for those, I am there to work with you to design everything! I will show you how your portraits will look cropped in different sizes; we will try different photos in your storyboard collages to understand what combinations you like best; we will talk about what color spine looks best with your album cover photo. The beauty is, you don’t have to figure anything out on your own, but you get the last word. I design with your input, so in the end, I do the heavy work, but YOU decide what your products will look like. And you already know you will love them before we ever send them to the print lab, because you will have seen every piece in digital form before I order.

Delivery Day is Like Christmas Morning

The fun of Christmas Morning is opening gifts… but there is a LOT of time and work that goes into prepping for that part, isn’t there? We’ve all done it. First we have to take our time to order, and then we have to deal with any issues… what happens if I accidentally ordered the wrong thing, or what if the gift comes broken? Then we have to contact the company, arrange to have it replaced, deal with customer service that we HOPE is good… and then even once the gift is there and in good condition, then we have to wrap it and make the packaging pretty. If only it were as easy as Santa dropping by with his sleigh of pretty presents….

Hi. I’m Santa. And I take care of ALL of those things for you. You get to sit back, take it all in, and enjoy!

If this sounds like something you’d like as part of your Senior Portrait Experience, shoot me an email at lymarie@lymariepjacksonphotography.com … I look forward to hearing from you!