Kerry Unwin: Child & Family Portraiture
A professional since 2014, Kerry built a portfolio photographing her own children and those of her friends. One day she was asked how much she’d charge for a family session and she hasn’t looked back, building a solid business. Visit www.kerryunwinphotography.co.uk and www.facebook.com/kerryunwinphotography
Perhaps more so than other genres, family portraiture moves through trends, as clients seek to personalise their images. One of the biggest trends Kerry has noticed is a rise in fine art studio photography but also more lifestyle images that are edited with a dark and contrasty feel.
Newborn photography is also getting bigger, as parents seek to capture the early days of their baby’s life. Kerry says that many of her clients who book newborn photoshoots in the studio tend to return later for ‘sitter’ sessions once their little one is sitting up
steady. These are usually followed by a first birthday ‘cake smash,’ which is now a big trend in the UK.
Clients pay a session fee, which covers the shoot time and editing, and then approximately two to three weeks later they return to Kerry’s studio to view their gallery. At this point they can choose between her different packages: Bronze, Silver or Gold. Each package varies slightly depending on the shoot, i.e. Newborn, Maternity etc.The Bronze package typically includes three high-resolution handedited images, whereas some of the Silver
packages give you ten digital images on USB plus matching prints. And then Gold offers even more – all the gallery images on USB and as prints, a gallery video set to music, credit towards another session and credit towards wall art.
Kerry’s advice for pricing your work is to calculate your costs: for example, equipment, software, insurance. Then add on what you need to earn – and don’t forget to leave some aside for tax and national insurance.
‘Luckily I had quite a lot of business experience before I set up so I was able to put this into practice, as being a photographer is probably only about 20% of actually picking up a camera,’ Kerry says. ‘Even though I was mostly aware that there was a lot more to it than just taking pretty pictures, I don’t think I realised quite how much admin is involved in running a successful small business. I would say to anyone who isn’t keen on that side of things to find someone to do their admin for them.
‘It’s tough; you need to put a lot of hours, sweat and tears in, but it’s totally worth it if you want to make a business out of doing something you love. The only downside is that I barely pick up my camera for fun now and it mostly stays in the studio as work equipment!’