Literally STILL pinching myself about how our 2020 family photos turned out. In a year that’s been nothing short of a circus – we needed this little win. Ha! Seriously though, it’s been a rough few weeks for many (few months?), and I had my heart set on at least having some great pictures done to capture what’s been our 2020 highlight: Olivia Grace. She’s at basically the best age ever right now (although I admit I’ve been thinking + saying that at EVERY step along the way so far…ha!), and I was reaaaaaally hoping to get some family photos done that truly encompass all of the PERSONALITY she has right now. She’s just a total joy and the lovelovelove of our lives, so it was a big fat fingers crossed that it would be brought to life in this way.
And sure enough…we are in LOVELOVELOVE. I actually ended up booking our family photos through a service called Shoott, which I had learned about through a Facebook ad, ironically enough! It struck my interest when I saw that you don’t actually pay for the shoot itself – you only pay by photo for what you actually like after the fact. With a toddler, this sounded fantastic, because Lord knows you just DON’T know how the luck of the draw will play. Will they be a happy camper? Will they throw a tantrum? Will they get dirt all over their clothes or just NOT want to participate? Or on the flip side, will the weather hold up? There can feel like a hundred and one variables to consider with family photos, and seeing as last year’s session cost us $500+, I was reaaaaally hoping to NOT have to drop the big bucks again without some sortof guarantee. This felt like the best of both worlds – pressure off on the shoot itself, and then only being locked into what you actually LIKE.
You pay per photo and the price goes down the more photos you get; alternatively, you can get the entire gallery for around $200 (which we ended up doing). So given that we got over 100 photos for just over $200 (and you can get 10% off your own gallery of 5+ pictures with code CHJWBIA6VF at checkout – you don’t actually have to use a code or anything to book since it’s free to do so!).
In terms of actually signing up for a session, after choosing your city/location, you pick which spot you want to have your session at and can choose an available day/time from there. The only downside, in my opinion, is that you don’t get to choose your specific photographer. You get an email the day before your scheduled shoot with your photographer assignment, likely based on availability for your location, etc. I was admittedly nervous about our session after stalking our assigned photographer because I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of the other work I saw and would’ve probably not chosen to sign up for her had I seen her work first.
However.
I came prepared with a Pinterest board of ideas + inspiration for shots, communicated what we liked (+ didn’t like) in terms of family photo styles, and very much stayed involved in the entire process. And I think it speaks for itself – while I handpicked our family photographer last year based on her work, she was $500+ and we got MORE frame-worthy favorites from THIS year’s shoot that cost only $200. So really, I think it can go either way – since there’s so little skin in the game, it’s 100% worth a try.
And just an FYI: I’m not working with Shoott – they have no idea who I am LOL – so I’m not affiliated with them in any way or receiving “kickback” if you sign up! Every single person who signs up for a session gets a follow-up email with a link/code to share with their friends in case they want to help spread the word, and since y’all are my friends – figured I’d help a sis out. 😉
SO NOW, drumroll please…our 2020 family photos!
FYI: Liv’s adorable little denim dress is currently on sale for not even $13, and my own dress is on SUPER CRAZY SALE – it’s originally $88 but it’s on clearance with an ADDITIONAL 60% off the lowest price in your cart, so it comes down to only $20!!!! It runs big – I’m wearing an XS. I bought it in both colors before the shoot since I didn’t know which would work better for family photos, and I lovelovelove the more rustic, fall-ish feel of this one!
When do you get your family photos done?
Have you ever heard of Shoott? Would you try it for your family photos?
