How we’re keeping both your, and our, family safe throughout the winter season and covid-19
Covid… It’s a word that we all roll our eyes at but it’s not going. In our family, we know that the corona virus is just a new thing to have alongside our family life. For our family based, independent, business we’re feeling so relieved that we don’t have a highstreet based studio anymore and that we don’t have to find a way to look after multiple clients & their families, within the studio space due to us only allowing one family at any one time in the building. We thought it would be helpful for you to have a list of how we’re working to keep covid-19 out of the studio, in one easy place for you to read.
What happens when we book in for a photoshoot with you?
In short, all sorts! When you decide to book in with us Kirsty spends a lot of time on the phone with you talking through shoot ideas, themes, mood boards and also what you’re planning to do with your imagery after your shoot. As you know, we don’t take a “booking fee” as we understand that you need to have your shoot in order to create your final pieces! Therefore it’s quite useful to know what we’re shooting for (updating family albums, decorating a room or creating a collage of imagery for you to display across your home for example).
Once you’ve booked, you’ll receive a confirmation email. Then, closer to the date of your shoot, you’ll receive the most up-to-date studio guidelines we have in regards to covid-19 for you to sign to say that you understand and that you know what is expected both of us, you and other clients during this unique time. The day before your shoot, you will receive a text message asking you to confirm that you’ve not been with anyone either suspected or confirmed of corona virus. If you have - then don’t worry - let us know and we will very happily get you rescheduled. We’d much prefer this than a family feeling under the weather, not wanting to enjoy their photoshoot and then have the fear that covid-19 has been in our studio.
On the day of your shoot we hope we’ve done so much work beforehand that you’re able to leave any concerns you may have, in regards to covid-19, at the studio door.
The studio will have been fully cleaned and disinfected before your shoot with us and we steam all soft furnishings at least once a week
You will be the only users of the building, meaning you won’t “bump” into anybody else. We also follow the government rules by providing the government’s “track & trace” QR code for you to use, should you wish to
We have sanitiser stations across the premises including in the lounge, studio and makeup room
In the loo, we’ve replaced our “posh” Bayliss & Harding luxurious soap with antibacterial soap and we’ve taken the hand moisturiser away, for now. We’ve also replaced our popular soft & fluffy hand “flannels” with disposable towels (sorry!)
Our kitchen area is currently a client free zone. We make all of the drinks: They’re provided in disposable cups and we’re using tea & coffee that’s pre-packed (the Twinings fruit tea’s are amazing!), as are our sugars, for extra protection. The biscuits (which if we’re honest, never last long!) are also pre-packed too
We ask for all of our clients to have a “look no touch” policy for our products, again to restrict the possibility of contamination
We’re now more picky over which props we use in the studio… Where possible, we try to use ones with wipeable surfaces and the one’s with fabrics are sprayed with disinfectant spray after every shoot and steamed at least once a week
Our production time has been increased by a week on all product based orders. This is so that we can adhere to the 72 hour “quarantine” advised by the government for items going through multiple workplaces and/or households. We will not open your order for 72 hours from date of dispatch. Once we’ve checked your order and are happy it’s ready for collection we will then leave it another 72 hours before we arrange a collection date and time. All collections must be prebooked, and are arranged before 9.30am or after 5.30pm to make sure that clients don’t pass each other on the drive way.
James, your photographer, is partially deaf and can sometimes rely on lip reading when communicating with clients. Therefore we respectfully ask that you do not wear a face covering however, if you want us to then PLEASE just say and we’ll happily do this.
Are there different rules for different shoot types?
Not really… We’ve put a couple of extra measures in place, as listed below, which we think as a business is the right thing to do however we treat all of our clients the same and will say if there’s something specific that we need to do. ALL of our shoot experiences, (including newborn, family & our BBBY Boudoir) will now be on a strict “one shoot a day” policy for the foreseeable future. This allows us to spend all the time you need with us plus ensure all of our facilities get a thorough clean between shoots (and still leave time to spend with our three daughters at the end of the school day!)
We now only book up to two newborns a week. This is so that we're able to isolate all props for 72 hours as well as ensure that all blankets used are machine washed, at a minimum of 40degrees, beforehand. We know this means that the hand made felts that you all ask for and love won't be available however there's lots of other props available to you and it's better to be safe than sorry! This decision does mean, however, that we can only book up to 4-7 newborns a month (without getting too detailed, if we know the sex of the baby we can ensure we've got the blankets if we don't then it doesn't matter and we'll just make that newborn the only one of that week). This will impact our business financially but we are, quite frankly, proud that client's have felt safe in our environment and we wouldn't want it any other way.
Following the government's announcements we've, reluctantly, decided to put a halt on all large family based shoots. This is because these usually include family members from different households and it's quite common for people to be travelling from all over the country for these types of experiences. We will still be going ahead with shoots with up to six participants (including both adults and children). If you’d like to know how we are implementing the government’s three tier system in our studio then click here to be taken straight to this information
With heavy hearts we've decided to postpone the selling of any future "Watch Me Grow" experiences until further notice. Again, we know this will impact our business financially however it doesn't seem right to be newly selling milestone based shoots when we don't know if, once that milestone is hit, we'll be able to go ahead with the experience at that time. Those who are already on these plans need not panic - we've got a few ideas up our sleeves that, depending on what the situation is nearer the time of your milestone shoot, we'll be in touch with.
I could go on! For us, we want you to have an enjoyable experience with us - that has always been our goal over the 20 years of photographing families. We think we deliver this as we’ve got families who visit us time & time again and, for us personally, we get a massive sense of pride & satisfaction from this! With the arrival of covid-19 we hope we provide the balance to ensuring that you’re safe with us but also that you’re able to have a sense of “normality” throughout your time with us.
J&K