Fun, Stress Free Lifestyle Children's Photography For Kids In The Detroit, Michigan Area

Most of my clients fall into two distinct categories; those who LOVE getting their photos and those who LOATHE getting their photo taken.

Bet you can't guess which kids fall into which category!

Blending Classic Photography Of Children With Lifestyle Candid Moments

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"Marci, LOVE the pictures!! Thanks again, we had a blast as usual. Brady said it was his favorite part of the day." Emily

Seriously Fun Children's Photography

They are growing SO fast! You love photography, want tons of photos of your kids, but it's so stressful even thinking about doing this. What to do? Set up an appointment with me. It's a fun, non stop hour of goofing around. We play, we get stuff done, we play some more and bam! You've got awesome photo!

This is not your typical stuffy children's photography session. Do I take standard kid photos? Yes, we try. But what I love (and what my clients love) are the photos of your kids being YOUR kids right at that moment. It's not them pretending to be good. It's them having fun. And sitting around posing is generally not any kid I know's idea of having fun. I want to capture their personality, their energy and what they're like right at this moment.

When siblings are part of the photo shoot (and they often are), I try to gear it toward things they like to do and capture how they interact together. Some are snuggly with each other, some like to wrestle, and some need some major distraction to get them to hang out together. Don't worry about it. They are who they are and you love them. And I'll get great photos of your children. Promise.

The best way to get great photos of your children is to have happy children. So I work really hard to make this a fun hour and take things very much at their speed. Often parents aren't aware that I'm still taking photos during "breaks". Often they are my best photos!

Below I have tips for successful family photos. It's not magic or rocket science, but there are some really great things to keep in mind when you're planning this session and a bit of preparation goes a LONG way.

Pricing

OPTION #1

One Hour at Photographer's Favorite Spot

$400 - 1 hour photo shoot usually photographed nearby Troy and outdoors. I have a list of locations where I usually shoot and samples can be found in my senior section. All locations offer a wide variety of backgrounds, textures, are safe and we are welcome to be there.

OPTION #2

Two Hours - I Want My Own Unique Location

$700 - No worries! Hopefully it's within a 30 mile radius of Troy (I can give you my address so you can figure it out and what the travel fee would be if it's further). This is a two hour shoot and means we can move around a lot more and build in more breaks. This is perfect if you feel your kids will be much more comfortable at home or in a location of your choice.

- Both packages include all the edited, high resolution digital files and the following...

Online gallery with your images posted for a year.

You can print from a professional lab connected to my site.

Free downloads included.

So long as you enjoy the heck out of them, that's all I ask!

Tips For Great Children's Photography Sessions

Please keep in mind that while cute outfits are great, being dressed appropriately for the weather is WAY more important! Kids cannot regulate their heat, so please make sure they are comfortable first and foremost. If they get cold, they tend to be (and look) miserable! Don't forget tissues... their noses tend to run like faucets once the cold air sets in. Peak shooting times are May 6th (that's when the leaves are back) - late October (the leaves start turning Oct. 6th and are usually around until Halloween).

Peak leaf season is from October 6th to about November 6th if we're lucky. Keep in mind that this is also peak wedding season, peek senior season and peak family season as well. So plan pretty far in advance! I only shoot portraits M-TH (you can surely guess what I'm doing on the weekends), so time slots do fill up quickly. Leaves typically show up and the grass turns green around May 6th. July and August are usually beastly hot, and I'm fine with this... just bring plenty of water for the kiddos to drink.

The locations on my list almost always have public restrooms around so if you'd like to change, you can. If you are planning on outfit changes some of the locations I shoot at have restrooms, some don't. Please keep in mind that many kids lose their marbles when their outfits get changed, so if your kid is one of those, you might want to keep it to a minimum and/or just swap out a shirt. If it's cold out, please keep them in an undershirt so their skin isn't exposed to the elements.

Please DO NOT bribe your children with food during the shoot. Not only does is seem to create a weird feeding frenzy, but the food remnants are clearly visible all over their faces and teeth. Food all over their faces isn't nearly as attractive as you might think! The ONLY food I've seen that works somewhat reasonably between moving from one spot to the next is clear Haribo gummy bears!

People often ask what they should wear. DO NOT wear white! This was very popular in the 80s and the look is very dated. Besides, white looks great on brides, but is begging for disaster with active kids. Try to stick in same families of colors; greens, browns, blues, etc. If you can avoid plaid, that would be great, if you can't, don't worry too much. It just makes any head swapping I have to do much, much more challenging trying to line up all those patterns!

Feel free to bring any favorite toys or props you like and want to include, just keep in mind they probably will end up in the photo.

Here's a bit of homework for you. Start brainstorming about favorite phrases, jokes, nursery rhymes, songs, saying, etc that will elicit happiness from your kids. If you need to load up your phone with favorite songs, that will be a last resort, but dancing photos can be fun too! If there is a favorite activity you like to do together, bring it along.

This is a fun shoot. I like to keep things happy and light. If your child isn't having fun, we move on and try something else. If your kids have a favorite sitter or grandparent it might make things easier when I take the family photo, as this person can often elicit much happier expressions from you all than I can, so feel free to bring that person along. Please keep in mind that you all might be a little stressed out and the kids can totally feel that stress. So keeping things positive and fun is key.

Often families want to cram as much into this shoot as possible with every combination of every family member. The narrower the scope of the shoot (kids only), the more successful the shoot. The truth is, it takes the kids a while to figure out what the heck is going on and to settle into the idea that all we want them to do is to have fun. I'm patient and can wait them out, but that does take time. This is a much more organic process than studio shots. It takes time for me to figure out their personalities and for them to just go back to being themselves. The more people and combos we throw into the mix, the less play time we have and the more it becomes fulfilling a shot list. Not much fun for anybody.

Feel free to bring along anything you think who you are and what you love. This is a shoot to showcase you during this brief moment in time. Bring whatever you'd like. I want to make your photos full, full, FULL of your personality, so bring it on!

If you'd like to see samples of my family photography sessions, please check out that page!

© Marci Curtis