We met Stuart at the Santa Monica pier for our photoshoot. We were running late so we had a smaller window of time. Getting a 1 year old and 4 year old up/dressed/fed/bags packed and then driving in traffic from palos verdes to Santa Monica is a challenge. By the time we got there we were feeling pretty tired. But the photoshoot went very well considering all of this. Normally I would think 20 minutes wouldn't be enough time, but for us, it ended up being perfect. As we expected, the best moments happened in the beginning. Both if our girls smiled wonderfully in our first spot in the sand. Then we moved a little closer to the water and things weren't quite as easy. By the third and fourth spots they were half heartedly participating. We finished off the morning with an ice-cream on the pier. Our 4 year was thrilled with ice cream before lunch....what can I say, bribery works! Stuart was a lot of fun and easy to talk with. He made it feel casual which we liked.
Advice: if you have children, give yourself more time than you would expect since appts are booked pretty close to each other. This seems obvious but it never hurts to be reminded. If you have a particular pose you want, make sure you do it first. We were late so I could hardly be particular but I wish we had started off closer to the water since they did best in the beginning of the session.
I'm hoping that we get some candid shots that aren't quite so obvious. We will see soon when we go in for our viewing appointment. I do wish they had weekend appts for viewing to make things easier. Prices seem high but I'm not surprised. I doubt we will be purchasing a lot of pictures but in these days of great camera phones, etc., I would rather have one really great portrait for our house than 20 mediocre mall photos.