Thank you for your interest in my portrait services. Please read on to see how I like to take the portraits and what you can expect to get when you schedule a portrait session.

The best location is one in which your child or children are comfortable but not distracted by too many diversions.  Good examples are your yard, a familiar neighborhood park, or natural settings such as in the woods along the Potomac near Great Falls.  I prefer to work under natural light outdoors or through large windows out of direct sunlight. Woodded settings work for mid-day photo sessions if we can find a spot with dappled light and no strong shadows or beams of light or a spot where the major light comes from open sky and no direct sun.

I like to start the sessions with up to a half hour for the child or children to get comfortable with the camera and me.  We will work together to schedule the session when they're rested and not restless and the light is normally most flattering. For little children, I encourage you to bring along or have available a favorite toy or blanket to keep them happy and to keep their attention.

The actual photography lasts about one half hour for a single child, and it can take an hour or more if you want individual portraits of the multiple children as well as the group portrait (if they are comfortable posing for that long). We will work out a better estimate of the duration when we schedule the session.

During the session, I will take quite a few pictures, perhaps as many as a hundred or so in some situations. I will select the best images from the session, and I will create a password protected directory on my web site for you to see the proofs. The gallery will remain up for at least two months, so that you can look at the images and decide which ones you would like to have printed. You can share the gallery with family and friends, and you can copy individual images to your computer to use as computer wallpaper or to email to friends and family. For an additional fee, I can provide proof images as 4 x 6 prints.

The portrait session fee includes one 8x10 inch print or two 5x7 inch prints. For group sessions, the 8x10 inch print will be the best group picture that you select, and I will also include one 5x7 inch print of each individual.