We wanted to get some professional photos done of our wee family before our new arrival came along last year. I know Jo from Mei Photography from a while back when we used to work together in the Glasgow Science Centre, and from following her pages on Facebook I know what gorgeous and natural looking photos she takes, so I booked a photo shoot with her.
I don’t love studio portraits and I wanted our photo shoot to be natural; like we were out a walk in the park as we would normally be. So we went to Pollok Park in the morning and Jo met us there for an outdoor photo shoot.
The Photo Shoot
I’m not very good at being a subject; I get quite self conscious (especially when I keep growing out of all my clothes – too many Galaxy ripples this pregnancy…) and I somehow always end up pulling silly faces or having my eyes closed in photos. But Jo made me feel completely at ease. She gave us some direction, but also let us just be and interact together as our little family usually would. And she produced some really beautiful shots of us all.
She is clearly very used to working with kids and was excellent with the little lady. As you might imagine, an almost 3 year old isn’t the best at taking direction, so Jo let her explore and play and went along with her, just taking photos of a 2 year old doing what 2 year olds do!
We also brought our lovely labrador along. (You know; just to add another layer of mayhem…) Jo happens to be very experienced working with animals as well, and took it all in her stride.
I know that might be a face, as they say, that only a mother could love, but some of the “toddler being a toddler” photos are actually my favourite ones. Toddlers have such huge personalities (I sometimes like to think of them as condensed bipolar) and the little lady’s personality shines right through!
What I thought might be quite stressful and difficult turned into a really lovely little walk in the park. I had been worried that the weather might not be great, but Jo kept in touch beforehand and reassured me that if the weather had been awful we could reschedule for another time.
After The Photo Shoot
Jo had the photos ready for us pretty quickly afterwards and I found it incredibly difficult to choose which I wanted because there were so many I liked.
I was ridiculously disorganised until recently and I didn’t actually get round to choosing the photos we wanted until now. (Babies make me forget everything else in the world). But now I’m so looking forward to getting the photos for our wall. (And the grandparents are too!)
The Cost
There are a few different package options, with the option to buy extra prints of any photos. Knowing how much time and work goes into editing in particular, I think they’re reasonably priced.
If you happen to be swithering between between two pricing options, (and this goes for any photo shoot you may be getting done) I would advise going for the higher option. It generally gives you more prints and more digital copies. And after struggling to choose between photos, and having so many that I wanted copies of, I really wished I’d went for the bigger package!
The Verdict
I’d highly recommend Jo for a family photo shoot. She was incredibly easy to work with, super friendly, and for our shoot, made us feel really comfortable. She stayed out of the way enough that none of us felt self conscious, but gave us enough direction that we knew what we were doing. And just look at the photos! She got some really beautiful shots of the little lady, and some really natural shots of our little family interactions.
Jo was also very professional. She had a sneak peek ready for us really quickly after our shoot, and our photos were ready within a week.
Thanks again Jo. We LOVE our photos. (And apologies it took so long to get round to writing this.)
You can find Jo at MeiPhotograhy.com or on her Facebook page here. She also has an insanely pretty Instagram account!
