SMILE AND SAY, "NINJA TURTLE"

Though the days are (sometimes exceptionally) long, it seems that every lovely, elderly lady at my local supermarket is correct. The years are short, and every few months I get a sudden pang of fear that it’s all happening too quickly, that my babies are gone and that pretty soon they will be fighting over the car keys, as opposed to ninja turtles. I fearfully snap away on my phone, trying to capture the new hair-do, the sneaky sibling cuddle and the ice cream faces. Consequently, I keep ignoring the, “Your storage is almost full; Go to settings,” message that keeps rudely flashing up at me. I needed to stop time; cradle my little babies in their innocence and capture those cheeky grins. And as a mum, it is normally me taking the photos. I have very few shots of myself and my kids together; let alone the whole family.

[NOTE : Here is where I will start to sound ‘reviewy’, but bear with me as I will be genuinely giving you the complete picture (see what I did there??) There is also a FABULOUS offer that you are going to llluuuurrrvvvee! This experience was #partgifted to my family by the team at Studio 504, Sydney, but is clearly all my own opinions.]

A few months back, we were given a gift voucher for a professional shoot with Studio 504. A cousin had won it in a competition, lived in a different state, but asked if it was transferable. To our benefit, it was.

“It’s a rip-off,” moaned the husband.

“They suck you in and you feel guilted into buying astronomically priced photos,” barked the wise one.

So I sat down and had a good look at this voucher.

It included a $450 sitting, plus $350 towards your photos.

The sitting cost also included makeup and hair.

Oh yeah, baby.

We were soooo doing this. I cooked a steak, opened some red wine and encouraged ol’ lycra legs to have a cycle in the morning. Consequently, the deal was brokered and I made the call the next day. A date was set for a weekend, and a time was arranged for someone from the studio to phone me to have a chat about what we wanted. I was given some great suggestions and set to work googling some family photo galleries for inspiration. Given it would be a day with kids, it was recommended I come with two sets of outfits; anymore and the kids (and us) would be over it.

I went the popular ‘black’ theme; partially because I hoped it would make me look skinny and the kids both had casual T-shirts already, so no credit cards were damaged at the shops in anticipation of this photo shoot. Our second theme was ‘formal’; frocks on us ladies, ties for the lads. We were also encouraged to bring any other props to capture our ‘family’ and what we were about. It was a big, fat NO to the husband’s bike; I am genuinely unsure if he was joking, but we popped some of the kids toys in that they have had since they were babies and still sleep with.

We were informed it could take anywhere from 3-5 hours, hence we ensured we packed an arsenal of snacks for the whippers. Of course, the first hour was to be all about ME!!! My husband was directed to a nearby outdoor area down the street, but they popped round the corner to some cafe…whatever…they were OK and it was ME time. Did I mention that? Hair and makeup?

“Make me look like Jennifer Hawkins…” I stuttered…but really it must have sounded more like….

“Straighten the frizz, give it a little curl, splash on that make-up in ways that I have NO idea how to, and ‘hell yes!’ to the fake lashes,” because that’s more like how it happened. I sat and looked in that mirror; I saw my tired eyes, my sun spots, my grey hairs…and soon I began to feel a little bit of glam creep in. GET ME IN FRONT OF THAT CAMERA! Obviously, you can stipulate what you want; because it IS your moment and if you’re not into the whole makeup thing, then so be it. But dammit I needed this reminder of ‘me’.

I heard the kids screaming up the stairs first, but they located the couches and their toys before I think they even recognised the ‘new’ me.

A quick change for us all and we were taken by our photographer for the day to our area. He was awesome. He chatted to the kids and he was patient with them. All they could see were exciting lights, things to climb, cool toys on shelves; this could have gotten really ugly, but he kept the chat going. He got himself into position to show us what he wanted, and he wisely talked about Batman and Frozen Princesses.

“Work it baby, own it…”

Husband was starting to smile, the cynic in him was starting to defrost and I was pretty proud of our kids and how they were going.

A costume change, back drop swaps, a lot of laughter, and before we knew it, we were done.

It was time to change and wait for our pics to be downloaded for our private viewing.

Now here is where it went a bit wrong. A bowl of chip packets and chocolates was placed on the table in front of us. Now I am not precious; a choccie here and there is brilliant. But a free range bowl, full of wall climbing sugar hits, was placed in arms reach with a cheery, “Enjoy, kids”. Oh we limited it as best we could, but soon my kids were dancing on the makeup platforms and playing chasey between the clothes racks. It had been a long day, but I just wanted this to hurry up, now. We were ushered in to the preview room. At this point, a cheeky glass of bubbles (or three) would have gone a loooooong way, but it wasn’t on offer.

But hang on there… LOOK!!! It was amazing to see the beautiful images up on the screen. How did he do that? Was that really us?

“PPPPPOOOOOO!”

This is not something to delay, so I swept her out of that room without even a backward glance .

This was the first of many antics the kids pulled in that room; a fresh box of toys in the corner wouldn’t have gone astray, something to keep them focused for just a short time so we could concentrate.

But, hang on, how amazing were my lashes?

This reverie snapped back into clear focus when he started running through packages, because YES, it is pricey. We had gone into this room with an agreed amount that we wanted to spend, but it would have helped to have been emailed a price list previously or being clearly told that the prices are actually available on their web site. Having said this, I probably would have been a little put off, and it does make a huge difference when you see those beautiful images of your family. We also had to consider that we were unlikely to do this again for some time and our babies would only ever be this age on that very day. And we all know how fast that is flying. It does feel a little tough to be asked to make your choices then and there, especially with one child heading determinedly for the door and another draped around your shoulders. I do believe there is some option for thinking time, but I don’t feel that was made especially clear.

Now these few grumbles of mine were discussed. I had the opportunity to provide feedback and the studio rep was actually grateful for the points I raised. This makes me even more comfortable recommending this place to you.

Our biggest problem was they were all so beautiful.

It really does help that they can crop, change to black and white, do a few basic edits for you, or even pull other photos back to compare side by side, right in front of you. We made our selections, handed over the card and made it back safely to the car. The kids little heads started drooping on the way home, I wondered just how long my eyelashes would last and the husband admitted it was absolutely worth it. This was reinforced a few short weeks later when our prints were couriered to us.

Worth the time, worth the effort, worth the money.

LIGHTS

CAMERA

Now it’s time for your ACTION!!

As a huge thanks for your incredible support this year, Mummy Muckups, in conjunction with Studio 504 , have an amazing Christmas gift for you.

If you are in the market for some professional portraits (family, single, group; whatever…), Studio 504 are offering all my Sydney Facebook followers the same voucher that we used. That is $800 worth of value!! This offer is available from today (9/12/17) for 7 days only.

Even if you are not from Sydney, grab one for a friend who is.

Please check out my Facebook page to see how you can access your voucher.

This is not a competition; if you want it, it’s yours. Please have a look at their work : http://www.studio504.com.au/

Those of you who follow my blog may have noticed I don’t tend to show the faces of my kids, however, this is absolutely exceptional as I want you to really see you the quality of these photos.