Session planning
What to bring
The photographs people keep are the ones with something of themselves in them. A camera and a nice background gets you a picture of a person. Add the dog, the trumpet, the beat-up car you learned to drive in, and you get a picture of you.
Nothing here is required and nothing costs extra. Tick anything that sounds like you and it comes with you to the enquiry, so we can plan around it before the day rather than improvising on it.
Before you go shopping
You do not have to buy any of this
I bring props to sessions myself. What I bring depends on the kind of session it is and on what you have told me you are into — so it changes from shoot to shoot rather than being the same box every time.
Which is exactly why the list below is worth two minutes of your time. It is not a shopping list. It is how I know what to pack. Tick what sounds like you, or just tell me what you are into when we talk, and I will bring what I can.
Bring your own things too if you have them — something that is genuinely yours will always beat something out of my car. But if the only thing standing between you and a good idea is a trip to the shops, say so and I will sort it.
Tick anything that sounds like you
Ideas
Most people bring two or three things. Bringing nothing at all is also completely normal.
Not props, but bring them anyway
The small bag that saves a session
None of this ends up in a photograph. All of it stops something going wrong ninety minutes in.
For looking after yourself
- A small mirror
- A comb or brush, and whatever you use on your hair
- Blotting papers or powder — skin goes shiny under an evening sun
- Lip balm or gloss
- Spare hair ties and grips
- A hair tie is also the thing that ruins a photograph if it is on your wrist. Take it off before we start
For the ninety minutes
- Water — an hour and a half outdoors is longer than it sounds
- Shoes you can walk between spots in, and the nice ones in a bag
- A jacket, for when the sun drops and it turns cold quickly
- Bug spray, for anywhere near the river in summer
- Sunscreen, for an afternoon session
- Safety pins — they have rescued more outfits than anything else on this list
Bring a person
Whoever comes with you has a job
Somebody has to carry the second outfit, hold the dog, remember the shoes and spot the thing you cannot see — a collar folded under, a label showing, hair stuck to lip gloss. That person makes a real difference to how the session goes.
And if you are a senior: whoever comes gets photographed with you, free. Mum, dad or both. One photograph of the two of you, included in every senior session — because the person who drove you there almost never ends up in the pictures, and a year later they wish they had.
Worth telling them beforehand so they are not caught out in the wrong shirt.
Worth knowing
The best prop is usually not on a list
Everything above is a starting point, not a menu. The things that work best are the ones nobody would have thought to suggest — a grandfather's tools, the jumper you have worn every winter since you were fourteen, the ugly trophy from a competition you did not win.
If something belongs in your photographs and it is not on this page, bring it and tell me why it matters. That sentence is usually the whole idea for the session.
Practical
A few things that help
Two or three, not ten
A session is 90 minutes and props take time to set up. Two or three things you actually care about beat a car boot full.
Bring a person for the pet
Somebody has to hold the lead while you are being photographed. That one extra pair of hands is the difference between the dog being in the pictures and the dog being a problem.
Tell me beforehand
A horse or a car changes where we can shoot. Knowing in advance means picking a location that works rather than improvising on the day.
Nothing fragile you would miss
Sessions happen in parks and fields. Bring the thing that matters, but not the only copy of the thing that matters.
Food is messier than it looks
Ice cream and doughnuts photograph beautifully and destroy an outfit. Worth saving for the end, or bringing a change of shirt.
Ask about anything
If you are wondering whether something is allowed, it probably is. Ask and I will tell you whether it will work where we are going.
Bring the thing that is yours
Tell me what you are thinking and we will build the session around it.