Since I use a process that isn’t the typical industry practice, I thought it would be a good idea to write a little more in-depth about the full service family photo experience that I offer.

I want to put family heirlooms of the finest quality in your hands, that your kids can pass down to their kids. I want you to feel like you spent money on something truly meaningful, whose sentimental value is so great it feels like you got a bargain. And I want to do this by providing a full service family photo experience, from an initial consultation to me personally installing your custom wall art for you. Here is a breakdown of the steps in getting from here to there:

1. A discovery call.

A lot of folks have a “love it or hate it” attitude toward using the telephone, and I get it, I’ve only recently learned that making a phone call is not as terrifying as my dumb brain wants to think it is. However, the alternative is to start a chain of emails that go back and forth for eternity with the potential to have nothing come of all that writing. A phone call is just a good, efficient way for me to get a good sense of what your needs are, and to answer any questions that you might have.

This also gives you a chance to hear about the process, go over pricing, talk about location/date for your shoot, and tell me a little bit about your family. If you want to move forward at this point I’ll send you a welcome guide, questionnaire, and materials for you to put down a deposit to reserve your preferred date.

2. A Planning Meeting.

Good planning is the best way to create a successful portrait session, and I make it easy with a personal consultation in your home, at our farm, in a virtual meeting, or your favorite coffee place. Our pre-session get-together is our chance to get to know each other and to coordinate all the details for the timing and location of your photo shoot. It’s also an ideal time to discuss your specific goals, and how you plan to display and share your family portraits.

I’m happy to offer expert guidance for the style of your shoot, what to wear, the ideal location, and the best ways to get the most from your beautiful new family portraits — everything from decorating your home with canvases, to the best options for framing, displaying, and sharing your prints. This goes beyond just having a discussion as I can go through different clothing options with you, use software to show you exactly what different sized pieces would look like on your walls, and show you artwork samples.

For inspiration, I also like to bring examples from my favorite sessions — actual finished items including canvases, albums, image boxes, framed prints and other photo keepsakes. My goal is to give you a true sense of the wonderful creations and possibilities available to help you display, care for, and share your family portraits.

Finally, I always take time to get to learn a little bit about everyone in your family, especially what makes them smile. Information such as what their interests are, energy level, and any major dislikes goes a long way toward creating a session experience that’s not only beautifully captured, it’s fun for everyone involved. Once you’re feeling absolutely psyched for your shoot, my job for the day is done and I’ll be on my way.

3. Your Shoot!

This is the fun part! Regardless of location, you’ll be warmly greeted and given a client comfort kit with water, bug spray, snacks, tissues, and other stuff to make sure everyone’s comfortable. If I haven’t had a chance to meet everyone yet, I always take some time to break the ice and goof around with the kids before I take out my camera and start snapping away.

From there, the experience is more like having a family outing that happens to have a photographer friend taking pictures. My goal is to help everyone forget they’re getting their picture taken, which is when the best expressions of love and joy come out. As long as the kids are having fun, everything comes out wonderfully, so that usually becomes the focus during the shoot. The amount of posing and more formal/traditional portraits will depend on what we talked about in the planning meeting, but even these are a lot of fun.

For my full service family photo experience, there is no time limit, so there’s never a feeling of pressure or needing to rush. Generally sessions last between 1-2.5 hours with the limiting factor either being that we ran out of sunlight or you ran out of steam.

4. The Big Reveal

About two weeks later, your images will have been selected and edited for viewing. The first time you see all of your beautiful new family portraits is always as much fun for me as it is for you. I love to present a slideshow of my favorite images from our session together, and I definitely make sure the tissues are handy.

Your ordering session is our opportunity to go through your images one-by-one to select your favorites (that will be the only hard thing about working with me!). Then we’ll work together to decide which images are best for statement pieces like larger canvases or prints, and which images will work best in albums and other products.

I can also show you exactly how your finished portrait art will look in specific rooms of your home, and give you an accurate sense of scale when it comes to selecting sizes for display and framing.

I offer a range of portrait packages designed to make ordering easy. You can also create your own package from an a la carte menu of wonderful professional photography products. Once you’ve matched up your favorite creations with your favorite images, I’ll draw up an invoice for you to pay for everything (or can create a payment plan for you,) and get working on retouching and ordering everything for you.

4-6 weeks later, once your artwork has arrived and I’ve inspected it to make sure it’s perfect, I’ll either personally deliver and install everything for you or I will hire someone better than me to do it. Either way the installation and delivery is complimentary and guarantees that you’ll have these beautiful happiness generators where everyone can see them, rather than in a closet waiting for you to hang them up.

And so that’s the Corey Flint full service family photo experience: You start with a feeling that time is passing you by and before you know it you have precious memories that have materialized into works of art. Images of the people you love are now decorating the place you love, and they’ll last a literal lifetime. That’s why every piece comes with a lifetime guarantee, so if anything happens to anything you buy I’ll replace it, no questions asked.