Hiring the Right Photographer – Kitsap Lifestyle Photographer

Once upon a time hiring a photographer to update your family photos was just a matter of getting everyone dressed up and heading down to a studio downtown because you likely didn’t have a TON of options.  (Or if were my family growing up you waited simply waited until the church directory needed to be updated and the mammoth directory building company set up lights and and backdrop in the choir room.)  But things are bit different now.

Chances are if you ask 10 of your friends, one of them knows someone that has a small photography business. If you search for a photographer on Google the results are staggering.  And, as with any industry, once it gets too bit, it starts to break into niches and specialties.  So where do you start?  And how do you find the photographer that makes the type of images you want?

Here’s a few guidelines to help along in the process of finding and hiring your next photographer.

1. Finding a few good candidates:

Referrals – Naturally, you will likely want to ask your friends for recommendations.  Not only will you get to hear about the session and what it was like to work with the photographer but you will almost certainly get to see the end result of that session over your friends fire place or on her Facebook wall.  However, I would encourage you to make sure you ask the right friend.  Just because they hired a photographer this last year and loved their images does not automatically make this photographer a good fit for you too.  If you love black and white images shot in a studio, your friend with outdoor, color portraits lining the walls of her home is maybe not the best person to ask.

Online Searching – Let’s talk additional keywords, shall we?  Cause I promise, even if you live in the most rural of rural places, if you Google search “family photographer” you will end up with a list about a mile long.  So get creative with your keywords.  Is there a location you are totally in love with?  Throw that in the search bar.  Need someone well-versed in wrangling toddlers?  Throw that in the search bar.  See what comes up.

There are also several terms that you can use to help narrow down the niches within the industry.  Now it’s very important to note that these terms are not easily or concretely defined, but searching them will get you into the ball park of the type of photographer you want.  If you primarily want the classically posed, everyone looking at the camera and smiling, images try searching with the term portrait.  (And consider adding the search term Fine Art on top of portrait if you want something with dramatic light, unconventional posing, or a highly personalized customer experience.)  If you want images of your family in action, being themselves in their normal clothes and at normal places, try the term documentary.  If you want something sorta in between those two things, try Lifestyle or Storytelling.  Again, these niche terms are muddied, so they aren’t promised to get you from point A to point B.  But they will get from point A into the vicinity of point B.

Professional Listings –  Did you know that there are multiple professional associations and forums that actually keep listings by location?  Some of these listings just require payment to be added but there are also listings that require the photographer be vetted prior to being listed, and that is a big bonus.  Here’s a few listings you might want to bookmark:

National Association of Professional Child Photographers
Professional Photographers of America
ClickinMoms – Pro 
In Beauty & Chaos – Pro

2. Checking out their website:

So you found a few promising listings and you are ready to check out what they have to offer.  When you land on their web page go directly to their portfolio.  For right now, ignore their logo, ignore their blog, and even ignore that little link that says pricing (I promise we’ll get around to that one). Why stop at the portfolio, first?  Because these are generally the images the photographer loves most and the images that they see as defining their style and business.  If you don’t like what you see here, if it’s not your style of work, move on to the next person on your list.

But let’s say you love their portfolio (high-five) now is the time you want to slip over to their blog or social media page(s), assuming they have one.  Here is your chance to not only get to know the photographer a bit, but also start to check out the consistency in their work.  Do the colors look weird?  Is the focus all over the place? What does a session seem to look like?  Does the session seem super structured or formal?  Or is it activity based?  Does the photographer seem to excel shooting in the studio but not quite have it together while shooting outside? These are all things you should be looking for as you browse.

Now head over to that pricing page.  Depending on the photographer you might find all their pricing up front or you might find a polite snippet that asks you email/call for pricing.  Just because it’s not in the open, don’t let that deter you from asking.  This isn’t always “if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it” sort of thing.  The other thing you will want to make sure to look for is the products that are offered.  If all you really want is a gorgeous canvas and some quality prints to send out to family, then a photographer that only provides you with a disk of images after your session, may not be the photographer for you.  And if you are dying to get your images up on Facebook and your computer desktop as soon as you get them, then a photographer that primarily deals in print products may not be your best option.  Bottom line, if you are like me, you will be far more angry about spending $100 on something that disappoints you (but was a total steal!) than you will be on going slightly over budget on something you love and will treasure for years to come.  Don’t mentally lock yourself into a photographer by starting your search on their pricing page.  Find someone who’s work you love first.  If they are way out of budget just keep looking.  There are photographers at all price points, it just takes some digging to find them sometimes.

Lastly, check out their Bio and any information they make available.  Do they sound like a genuinely awesome person? Someone you could stand to be around for a couple hours? Because that’s exactly what you would be doing.  If their bio rubs you the wrong way for any particular reason, proceed with caution.  A huge part of a photographer’s job is building trust and a rapport with clients because relaxed, happy clients who trust their photographer make great pictures.  If you can’t feel like you can be yourself with the photographer, it may not be a good fit.

3. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

So you have found a photographer, love their work and are ready to inquire about booking.  Now is not the time to go on auto pilot!  Remember what I wrote above about rapport building?  Start that process immediately.  Tell the photographer a bit about yourself and your family as early as you can, even in that initial inquiry.  And ask them follow up questions regarding the information on their website, specifically, questions about their shooting style or how they run their sessions.  This is also the time to clarify and make absolutely certain that you understand their pricing structure (if you’ve already seen it) and what you get for the money you’ve paid. Every photographer runs their business a little different.  The last thing anyone (you or the photographer) wants is for there to be this awkward moment later when it’s realized that you weren’t on the same page when it comes to products being delivered.

Bonus Tip

Take what the photographer says to heart.  Trust that they have a system and a process.  It might seem like they are making your jump through a few hoops (filling out a family questionnaire? – why do they need that?) or control tiny details of the session (why are there so many restrictions on what I should wear or what time we can shoot?) but there is method behind the madness.  I promise.