The Ultimate Dallas Family Photographer Project: Designing our Heirloom Albums

There’s a saying that goes, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” As a photographer, in my case this refers more to family photos. Thank goodness, we have always prioritized having our photos taken. While I’m amazing with other people’s children, I know that trying to capture our whole circus on my own with a tripod is virtually impossible. So we’ve captured the images and have a handful of favorites on our walls, but my shortfall: getting the albums designed and printed. So many years have gone by, and in my busy-ness with creating these gorgeous works of art for my clients, my own images have done exactly what I caution my clients about: they’ve sat on my hard drive untouched. For years. Always lingering on my to-do list, being pushed from one Sunday list to the next. I suspect that you can relate.

While my iPhone photos are a whole ‘nother project that I’ve yet to tackle, I’m so excited that I’ve ordered my family’s albums and they are going to be gorgeous. Thick, lay-flat albums, artfully designed (by me 😀) that will last for generations. It might take a few weeks before my lab reopens to actually print them and send them my way, but I’m absolutely thrilled to have checked it off of my list! Here’s a sneak peek of a few of my favorite family albums of ours!

The first one I designed - I started with most recent and moved backward in time - is our incredible family session with Jessie Hearn Photography that we photographed three days before our big move to Dallas. She captured my kiddos and their wild-at-heart spirits so perfectly, and I included so many collages of their sweet moments together and with each of us.

In 2018, we skipped the fancy field photos and did something completely different that perfectly captured our chaos of life with three kids ages 5 and under. I knew deep down that we weren’t in an age and stage that would be conducive to capturing anything remotely practical in an outdoor session - my boys were SO WILD in this stage - so we hired a friend and fellow photographer Susan Ryan Kalina to do a documentary “day in the life” session where we did all of our favorite things as a family at home - playing outside, playing “chase” in our house, and capturing our precious LONG bedtime routine. It was so perfectly US.

This one is from our amazing session with Rebecca Gould Photography back in 2017 at the VERY end of a cold fall in Chicago. I wanted to capture our session as close to Leila’s first birthday in late November as we could without literally freezing into blocks of ice!

2016 was the year of a zillion photos, and our family album is overflowing with cuteness - from our annual family photo session, this time with my friend Vlad from Yofi Photography, and then a maternity modeling session for the insanely talented Cherise Kiel Photography from Arizona, and Leila’s newborn session with Bethany Hope Photography - a true artist. If you haven’t noticed, our family has used a TON of different photographers. I love learning through experience from the many talented artists and business owners around me, and there are so many whom I admire for all sorts of different reasons. So our photos shift in style, from more posed, to more lifestyle, with lighter edits and darker edits and everything in between!

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoyed a peek into our family’s history. All of these albums will be printed in stunning 12 by 12 inch albums so that my kids will be able to soak up these sweet memories long after my hard drive (or my external hard drive or the cloud) crashes.

And if you are reading this, thinking about how many images are still crowding your hard drive and you’d like to outsource this task, I just might be your girl. Whether I use the photographs from your family or newborn photo session with ME, or you have a print release from another photographer but need help from someone more hands-on who can help you to create these family heirlooms, I’d love to help. I offer either a simpler design service for ordering your album yourself or you can work with me to custom design your heirloom album that will be ordered through my world-class professional printing lab with lay-flat pages, archival inks and gorgeous leather, linen or velvet cover options for the cover. Albums will not ship until businesses reopen (since my print lab is part of the “non-essential” shut-down).

The beauty of this service is that it can be done completely remotely, so whether you’re in Dallas, the midwest or on the east or west coast, I’m happy to work with you without any risk to your health or mine!

If you’d like more information about this service, please email me at rachelfriedman1@gmail.com.

Stay well,

Rachel

Rachel is a fine art Family, Maternity and Newborn photographer in Plano, Texas, serving the entire Dallas Fort Worth metroplex via studio portrait sessions and outdoor on-location photography.

Keeping Your Family Safe - Health Policy Update {Plano Newborn and Family Photographer}

In life, there is nothing more important than family. Which is why I value your family’s health and safety as well as my own. As the owner, operator and photographer of my business, I’ve always maintained certain policies that keep my clients’ health and wellness in mind:

I always clean the studio and sanitize surfaces that will be touched by your babies and children (including all newborn props, clothing and studio toys), and I wash my hands before sessions (and regularly sanitize throughout newborn sessions). In addition, I will always reschedule a session for a client who is ill or showing symptoms of illness - not only for the sake of your own family’s health but for my family’s as well.

Given the seriousness of the current COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, I wanted to update my policies in writing to reflect my commitment to keeping our families safe and being committed to the safety of our community at large. These are taken into account to reflect current updates from the CDC.

1) All session participants as well as the photographer must wash their hands for a full 20 seconds upon entering the studio, and follow up with hand sanitizer as necessary. The studio is sanitized before every session and professionally deep-cleaned on a weekly basis.

2) Only the active participants in your session are able to attend sessions - sessions will be limited to immediate family only unless an extended family has already booked a session, so that we decreased the risk of exposure and transmission of the virus.

3) If anyone in your family is showing any signs of illness, including but not limited to fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, sneezing, runny nose, headache, or chills, you will be asked to reschedule your session by a minimum of two weeks.

4) If anyone in my own household is showing any of the above symptoms, I will disclose this to my clients and reschedule for a time when we have all been healthy for two weeks.

5) If anyone in your family has traveled out of the country or on a cruise ship or has known exposure to someone diagnosed with the COVID-19 Coronavirus, you will be asked to reschedule for a minimum of 30 days after your return/exposure date.

Sessions that need to be delayed due to illness, potential exposure or travel risk can be rescheduled without penalty, with session retainers applying to sessions booked within one year of the original session date. I want to work hard to make sure that all of my clients are taken care of during this time, so I’m always happy to relocate your session to your home or a remote outdoor location where social distancing can be safely maintained.

Of course, I’m not all-knowing, and we are all following this situation closely. Sessions will be rescheduled at the photographer’s discretion as the situation evolves. As more information becomes available throughout this rapidly evolving global crisis, I will update these policies as necessary by updating this post. My ultimate goal is to keep your family, all of my clients families and my own family safe and healthy. I appreciate your understanding, and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

xoxo,

Rachel

Why Schedule a Motherhood Photo Session | Plano Motherhood Photographer

This is a guest post by Camille from Camille CD Photography. Camille focuses on maternity, newborn, motherhood and family photography on the Upper West Side in New York City. Her pure and classic portraits have been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Glamour.

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Motherhood is an incredible journey! It opens your heart to the strongest, most incredible, unconditional love. Becoming a mom is the most beautiful (yet sometimes challenging) change that can happen in a woman’s life.

Mommy and me sessions focus on capturing the special bond that you share with your little ones and make it last forever.

Here a few reasons why you should book a Motherhood photo session:

- Moms are usually the ones in charge of documenting their family history, which means that they are often the ones behind the camera. A mother and child session allows moms to be, for once, at the center of the images.

- It is a great reason to have some ‘me time’ to get ready before the session (think manicure, blow out, professional makeup, etc.)

- It celebrates the most beautiful role of your life.

- It is a gift to yourself. When your babies grow up and leave the nest, you will treasure these portraits and memories of love with your children.

- It is a gift to your children to see how much they are loved and how special they are to you.

- Motherhood portraits will help you remember details that cannot be captured like the feeling of your baby tiny hand in yours or their delicious smell

Make an investment that you will never regret and book a motherhood session to create beautiful portraits of you and your children! And if your partner is not inspired for Mother’s day, feel free to share this blog ;-)

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Rachel is a newborn and family photographer, a mother of three little ones and a firm believer that these moments are meant to be captured and cherished. To book a photo session that celebrates your role as a mother (or to gif a session to YOUR mother with her babies and grandbabies), simply click the contact button below for more information on booking a session in my Plano studio or outdoors.