Westchester Family Photographer – Jen, John, and Jordy
Westchester Family Photographer – Jen, John and Jordy
I recently photographed a beautiful in-home session with John, Jen and their baby girl Jordy. I’m extremely proud of the photographs and final artwork that are now up in their home. But before we get to those, a little background on them and their session.
John and I go back a long time – he and my brother have been childhood friends for as long as I can remember. His wife Jen is good friends with a few of my past Michael Justin Studios clients. In fact, you can see both Jen and John in one of my recent wedding films from Nantucket. When they reached out to me in late 2020, they had the unfortunate story that most of my recent clients have: due to Covid they don’t have any great photographs of their children/lives from the past year. These moments in their lives are so fleeting, we needed to do a session ASAP.
THE DESIGN CONSULTATION
The first step in any of my sessions (after the initial phone call of course), is a design consultation. This is such a valuable and important part of the process – it’s where we lay out the blueprint for the whole session. We pick out the wardrobes for each person, I get to meet the whole family, look through photos and get a sense of the desired look/aesthetic the client wants, and also see sample products.
THE WARDROBE
Before I arrive for the design consultation, I ask [usually the moms] for one or two outfits be selected. I typically build off the mom and coordinate the colors from there. Then we lay down each outfit on the floor and see how it all fits as a cohesive set.
Outfit 1: We ultimately changed Jen’s pants to black and opted to leave the jacket off Jordy.
Outfit 2: For outfit 2 we wanted Jordy to stand out a little more so we put her in a pink colored shirt.
THE SHOOT
Included in the session fee is professional hair and makeup. After the long and hard maternity period plus delivery, this is my way of saying “thank you” and giving moms a little R&R before the shoot.
Little Jordy was AMAZING. She barely made a peep and smiled on command. I was shocked at how good she was, really. Since we had the session planned out from the Design Consultation meeting, the session lasted about an hour and a half.
THE PHOTOS
On reveal day, Jen and John ended up ordering 2 large framed prints for either side of Jordy’s crib, and an 8 image collection of matted prints. All images received master retouching, another service I’m happy to include for my clients.
THE WALL ART
During the design consultation I make sure to take photos of the spaces where wall art may be placed. Taping a piece of computer paper to the wall gives me the scale I need to accurately design the wall art to the space. Taking the photo wide enough to include furniture and other decor, allows me to design pieces that will seamlessly fit into the room.
Here’s the image I took during the design consultation:
The 4 framed prints that were already hung above the crib were going to remain, so I went with a white frame that matched but opted for a deckled edge print and a standout backing to give it a 3D look. I really love how they fit with the room but also stand out! After the images were framed by my local framer, I hand delivered them and hung them in their home.
So there you have it – a complete look at the experience, photographs, and wall art that Jen, John and Jordy received from me. What do you think? Is this something you or someone you know would enjoy? Let me know!
-Michael Justin
