10 Questions to ask your senior photographer before booking

It’s not too early to start thinking about your upcoming senior session. So I wanted to create a super simple and easy questions checklist for all of you soon-to-be seniors to ask before officially hiring your senior photographer. All seniors deserve to have their photo session be memorable and a fun experience. The photography industry s saturated with lots of people claiming to be photographers, who could end up giving you a poor experience. We don’t want that! I have created a list of 10 questions for you to start the senior photographer search.

Here are my top 10 questions to ask your soon to be senior photographer before booking:

1. What is your turnaround time?Every photographer has a different timeline. Turnaround times will vary from 4-6 weeks, or depending on their workload. I guarantee you will see your images within 2 weeks from your booked session.
2. How do you deliver your photos? Just about every photographer delivers their gallery via an online system, but don’t assume, ask. My galleries are delivered via an online system, with both digital downloads and print credit to purchase products within the gallery.
3. How many outfit changes do I get? This varies between photographers, so make sure you know. I offer 4 outfit changes with my 90-minute sessions.
4. How many locations do I get with my session? With my 90-minutes sessions I offer 2 locations, typically within a 10-15 min travel distance of one another.
5. How long is a senior session? This varies between 60-120 minutes among photographers, so make sure you ask how long the session is before you book. My senior sessions are 90-minutes, and they are booked during the last 90-minutes of the day just before sunset, when the lighting is at it’s best.
6. How long do you have access to the photos? Make sure you have enough time to go through them, make downloads and purchase your prints. I allow 30 days from date of delivery to download and purchase prints from within your gallery.
7. Can we order prints and albums directly from you? Find out how the photographer handles tangible products such as prints, albums and digitals. Will you be placing your order online and fulfilled by a print house automatically or will your photographer be self-fulling their orders manually? Within your online gallery with me, you place an order using your print credits and the order is shipped direct to your doorstep.
8. What is your cancellation policy? Life happens and make sure you know what you are signing up for in case you have to back out for any unforeseen reason. If you cancel a session with me within 1 month of your session date, you will be refunded everything you have prepaid, except for the $300 non-refundable retainer fee.
9. How much of the deposit do you require and when is it due? Some photographers require a deposit to book a date. I have a $300 session fee to hold your booking, and this is due when signing the contract.
10. Is the deposit refundable? Again, life happens and you want to make sure you know what will happen if something comes up. I have a non-refundable $300 session fee for every senior session due at the time you sign your contract.

Because I care about your experience, I want every senior to have an excellent one with whomever their photographer is, here are a few tips:

• Ask your photographer to see a full senior gallery
• Ask your friends or family who they used for their senior session
• Check out their social platforms and website to see more of their work.

That’s it! I hope you found these questions helpful as you do your senior photographer research. If you have any questions or ready to book, please check out my senior page for details and pricing. If you are ready to start prepping for your senior session check out the blog post “3 things you can do now to prep for your upcoming senior session”.