Everything you were going to ask by email.

Sessions currently book four to six weeks ahead. If you have a date that matters — a milestone birthday, grandparents visiting, a Christmas gift — work backwards and add the two to three weeks between the session and your reveal, plus production time on any artwork.

Newborns are the exception and are handled differently. See the newborn section below.

Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, by appointment only. There is no drop-in and no walk-in viewing, because we only have one family in the studio at a time and the door is usually locked while we are shooting.

Epping, Sydney NSW. The full address and parking details come with your booking confirmation.

Yes. We shoot on location right across Sydney: the Northern Beaches, the Inner West, the Sutherland Shire, the Hills, Ryde, Hornsby, Eastwood and the North Shore. The $395 session fee is the same either way.

Location suits families who are more themselves outdoors, and anyone who wants the light and the setting to carry part of the picture. The studio suits newborns, weather-proof certainty, and the cleanest possible result for a large wall piece.

Within one business day. If you would rather talk it through, call 0450 255 413 during studio hours, or email info@t3portraits.com.

Up to 90 minutes, studio or location, for $395. Mini Love sittings are 15 minutes on set dates for $150. Newborn sessions are the long ones at two to three hours.

First a planning call: who is coming, what you are wearing, and — the question that shapes everything — whether there is a wall in your house you have in mind.

Then the session, worked through in several setups with continuous direction. Two to three weeks later you come back for the reveal, where you see the edited images at real size on a wall rather than as thumbnails on a screen, choose what you want, and design the artwork with us on the spot.

The whole four-step version is on the process page.

Then we have a completely ordinary session. We are parents of three. We do not need a child to perform, sit still, or look at the lens on request.

If a toddler arrives refusing everything, we stop asking. We let them explore the studio, photograph the parents for ten minutes, and come back. The frame where a four-year-old is halfway out of shot laughing at something off camera is frequently the one that ends up largest on the wall.

Please do not spend the drive over telling them they have to be good. It rarely helps and it makes the first fifteen minutes tense.

Almost every adult who sits for us opens with that line, and it is usually the mother — the person who has taken every photograph in the house and appears in none of them.

The answer is direction. You will be told where to stand, what to do with your hands, where your chin goes, where to look. Nobody is asked to relax and be natural, which is the instruction that makes people freeze. It is also why the session runs at ninety minutes: the first fifteen are usually the stiff ones, and we plan for that.

A full session has no set limit — grandparents, cousins, the whole extended family — as long as you tell us the numbers in advance so we light and space it properly. Mini Love is capped at seven people.

Coordinate, do not match. Pick two or three tones that sit together and let everyone wear a different combination of them. Plain beats patterned. Sleeves photograph better than singlets on almost everybody. Avoid large logos, slogans and characters — they date the photograph and pull the eye away from faces.

Think about the room the artwork is going in. A portrait destined for a warm, neutral lounge and one destined for a dark, moody hallway want different clothes.

You are not doing this alone: wardrobe is a one-to-one conversation before every full session, and Mini Love clients get an emailed guide.

Gowns are provided for maternity sessions. Wraps and props are provided for newborns. For family, children’s and headshot sessions you bring your own clothing and we help you choose it beforehand.

Feed them before you arrive. Keep the nap where it normally sits — a session that collides with a missed nap is a hard session. Bring a snack that will not stain and a spare set of clothes.

Do not promise a reward for smiling. It produces the clenched, fake smile that every parent recognises, and once it appears it takes twenty minutes to get rid of.

Outfits on hangers rather than folded in a bag, a hairbrush, anything that genuinely comforts a small child, and a change of clothes for anyone under five. For newborns, a spare dummy if your baby uses one, extra nappies, and more feeding supplies than you think you need.

Yes, if it means something. A blanket that was knitted for the baby, a grandparent’s ring, the toy that will be thrown out in two years. Objects with a story photograph better than props chosen to look good.

Your reveal is two to three weeks after the session. You see the edited images at real size, in order, with us in the room. It is a proper appointment, not a link in an inbox.

You do. We cull the technical failures — blinks, blur, the frame where a sibling is mid-sneeze — and everything that survives goes in front of you. We will give you a straight opinion on which images hold up at a metre wide, because that is a technical judgement, but the selection is yours.

We’ll give you a firm date at your reveal, once we know what you’ve chosen.

Installation is part of the service. We would far rather your artwork went up properly, at the right height, on the wall it was designed for, than sat wrapped behind a bedroom door for six months. We deliver and hang across Sydney. If you’re further out, tell us where and we’ll sort it.