Family photography packages
The main differences between packages: how many finished files you keep, and how far we're willing to drive. Every session is an hour or less. No deposit; you pay at the end of the shoot.
Senior portraits, maternity, and newborn sessions run on these same rates, so if you're pricing one of those, you're in the right place too.
Wondering how these numbers compare to the rest of the Bay Area, or what "session fee plus prints" pricing really costs? Read the honest pricing guide.
What every family session includes
Every package covers the same shoot. We're together for an hour or less, at a spot we pick around your family rather than around the calendar, and afterward you get a gallery of proofs to choose your finished files from. How many proofs depends on the package, because a longer shoot with more groupings produces more to pick from. Those counts are on each card above.
There's no deposit and nothing due up front. You tell us which package you want going into the shoot so we spend the right amount of time with your family, and you pay for it at the end of the shoot. Your gallery typically lands within a week after that.
Location help is part of it. Most families here want the forest or the beach, and we know the spots along the Santa Cruz and Monterey coast well enough to factor in tides, wind, and where the sun will actually be. If someone in your group has physical limitations, tell us, because some of these places are far more accessible than others.
How family photography pricing works here
Three dials move the price, and that's the whole system. The first is how many finished files you keep, which is what separates Mini from Platinum. The second is how far we drive: Santa Cruz is the base rate, Carmel, Big Sur, Half Moon Bay, and San Francisco sit a step above it, and Napa Valley, Bodega Bay, and Point Reyes a step above that. Same shoot, same photographer, more of the day spent in the car.
The third is the day of the week. Fri–Sun runs a bit higher than Mon–Th, for the boring reason that everyone wants a Saturday and my wife would occasionally like to see me on one. If a weekday works for your crew, take the discount with my blessing.
Which family photo package most people pick
Standard, by a good margin. Twenty-five finished files is enough to cover the whole family together, the kids on their own, and the couple, with room left over for the candids that end up being the ones you actually frame.
Mini is the right call for a quick check-in when you mostly want one good current photo of everybody. Premium and Platinum earn their keep when the group gets big: more people means more pairings, more individual portraits, and a lot more expressions that all have to work at the same moment. Platinum is the multi-generational one.
What happens after the shoot
You pay for the package you picked when the shoot wraps, before anybody has seen a photo. Your gallery lands after that, usually within a week. If the package turns out to be smaller than you want once you're looking at real photos of your own family, you can move up to a larger one and pay the difference, or take the full-gallery buyout above and keep every edited photo from the shoot. That's the whole upgrade path; there's no per-photo a-la-carte pricing to get nickeled by.
It only moves one direction, though. Because we don't take money up front and we size the shoot around the package you chose, we don't do downgrades or refunds once the shoot is done. More questions about weather, timing, or what to wear are answered on the FAQ.
Not sure which package fits?
Start with a free 10 minute phone call. No deposit, ever; you pay after the shoot.