Not the one you took. The one you are in. There are thousands of pictures of your children on your phone and almost none of you holding them, because you are the one holding the phone. That is the thing we fix.
Scroll back through the last three years. Birthdays, the beach, the first day of school, the messy Sunday mornings. You will find your children in all of them and yourself in almost none, and the few you are in were taken at arm’s length with someone’s elbow in the corner.
It is not vanity to want one good photograph of your family with you in it. Your children will want it more than you do. They will not care whether you had lost the weight or done your hair — they will care that you are there, at this age, with your arms around them.
And a phone is not where this lives. Phones are lost, dropped, replaced, and the folder gets to eleven thousand images that nobody ever scrolls to the end of. A printed portrait on the wall is seen every day by everyone in the house, without anyone opening anything.
Everything you have already talked yourself out of.
These four come up in nearly every enquiry. None of them is a reason not to book, and we would rather answer them here than have you sit on the idea for another year.
Nobody is photogenic when they are unphotographed. Being easy in front of a camera is a skill, and people build it by being directed well — not by being born with better bone structure. Almost everyone who says this has only ever been photographed by a family member who said “stand there” and then said nothing else for forty seconds.
Direction is the whole craft. Where to put your weight, what to do with your hands, who to look at, when to actually laugh rather than hold a face still. That is our job, and it is the part you are paying for. You are not required to know how to pose. You are required to turn up.
He will be there ninety minutes and he will like the result. That is as plainly as we can put it.
Nobody is asked to perform. There is no cheese, no chins-down-eyes-up, no thirty minutes of the two of you holding a pose while a stranger fusses. Most partners arrive braced, work out inside ten minutes that we are doing the heavy lifting, and spend the rest of the session mucking around with their kids. The ones who dug their heels in hardest are usually the ones who pick the big print.
Fine. Genuinely.
We are Binh and Lin, husband and wife, parents of three. A toddler who bolts, a six-year-old doing a bit, a teenager who has decided this is beneath them — none of that is unusual and none of it derails a session. The session length exists precisely so there is room for a meltdown, a snack and a reset.
Behaviour is also not the goal. The frames families end up hanging are rarely the tidy everyone-sitting-still ones. They are the ones where someone was being carried upside down.
Do not match. Coordinate. Five people in identical white shirts and jeans reads as a uniform, and it dates the photograph the moment the trend turns.
Pick two or three soft, related tones and let everyone sit somewhere inside them. Long sleeves photograph better than bare arms. Avoid slogans, big logos, tight stripes and neon. Consider the room the portrait will hang in — a warm lounge and a cool grey hallway want different palettes. Shoes matter more than people expect.
You get a written wardrobe guide when you book, and you are welcome to photograph the options laid out on the bed and send them through. We will tell you which pile to use.
A real choice
Studio, or somewhere outside?
Same session, same fee, genuinely different photographs. Neither is the upgrade. Here is what each one actually costs you.
Studio, Epping
On location
Light
Controlled, identical every time
The hour before sunset, or nothing
Weather
Irrelevant
Can force a reschedule
Timing
Any slot, Tue–Sat 9am–5pm
Tied to the light
Small children
Contained, warm, no traffic
More room to run
Background
Clean, plain, ages well
Sand, bush, water, a place you love
Wardrobe
Two or three changes easily
One, realistically
Feel
Timeless, close, quiet
Airy, moving, seasonal
Fee
$395
$395
Side by side
How we’d choose for you
If there is a baby or a toddler in the group, or if a specific large piece for the lounge is the point of the session, we lean studio. Controlled light holds up when a print is a metre wide, and nobody is fighting wind or a setting sun.
If your family is older, active, and the place matters — the headland you walk every Sunday, the backyard you are about to move out of — go on location. We shoot across the Northern Beaches, the Inner West, Sutherland Shire, the Hills, Ryde, Hornsby, Eastwood and the North Shore.
Talk it through with us on the planning call before you commit. It takes about five minutes to settle and it is not a decision you should be making alone on a website.
You are never left guessing what comes next, what to bring, or what you are supposed to do with your hands.
Plan it
A call before the day. Who is coming, ages, studio or location, what the photographs are for and which wall you have in mind. The wardrobe guide follows by email and we will review your outfits if you send them.
Photograph it
Up to ninety minutes. Everyone together first while the small ones are fresh, then the pairings — parents, siblings, each child alone, and yes, you with your children. Directed the whole way through.
See it properly
Two to three weeks later we sit down together and project your images at real size, on a real wall, in the frames we actually supply. This is where you choose, not from thumbnails on a phone.
Hang it
We print, frame and deliver. Matching digital files come with the framed artwork. The job is not finished when the shutter stops, it is finished when the piece is on your wall.
Getting the size right
Everyone’s first instinct is one size too small.
Every single time. A print that looks enormous leaning against the studio wall looks apologetic above a three-seater sofa. This is the most common regret in portrait photography and it is entirely avoidable — which is why we show you at scale before you decide anything.
20×24 inches
A hallway or a study.
30×40 inches
The honest minimum above a sofa.
40×50 inches
The piece people comment on.
Pick the size against the wall, not against the photograph. A portrait wants to fill roughly two-thirds of the furniture it hangs above, and faces need to read at life size or close to it from where you sit. At the reveal we put each option up on the wall at true scale so you can see the difference instead of imagining it.
The session fee is separate from the artwork. You choose artwork afterwards, once you have seen your own family at size on a wall.
The family session
Studio or location, up to ninety minutes. Planning call, wardrobe guidance, full direction on the day and the design consultation at the reveal.
Session fee · $395
The Wall Collection
A framed statement piece for the main wall plus a matched pair for a second room. Matching digital files included.
Most chosen · from $3,200
Heirloom album
Hand-bound, linen cover, twenty spreads. Designed by us and approved by you before anything is printed.
Add on · from $1,250
Most families invest between $1,800 and $4,500 all in. There is no minimum spend. If a fifteen-minute sitting suits you better right now, Mini Love is $150 — but it is a different product and will not produce a metre of framed artwork.
Before you book
The practical questions.
Up to ninety minutes, studio or location, for the $395 session fee. There is no charge per person and no limit on how many of you come.
Four to six weeks. The studio runs Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, by appointment only. We reply within one business day with real availability — if you are working to a deadline like a milestone birthday or family visiting from overseas, say so in your enquiry.
Yes. Multi-generation sessions are some of the best work we do, and there is no extra charge for extra people. Tell us the numbers on the planning call so we can plan the setups and allow enough time.
Two to three weeks after the session, at the reveal. We show you everything at real size against a wall rather than emailing you a gallery of thumbnails, because size is the one thing you cannot judge on a screen.
Matching digital files are included with framed artwork, so whatever goes on the wall comes to you digitally as well. Digital-only options can be discussed at the reveal.
Also worth a look
Other ways to be photographed.
6 months to 12 years
Baby & Children
One child, properly photographed, at the age they are right now.
