COVID-19 is shaking up our lives and finding ways to celebrate and capture life is a journey for all of us. For us, we have chosen to offer newborn and family sessions outside. This provides the safest way for us to still photograph your family and provide you with fun images to remember the love your family shares.
Session info.
Up to 1 hour | Outside On-Location (we can help you find a great spot!)
Booking fee: $350 for an associate photographer | $425 for Thomas
Come into our Edgewater Studio! We have a ton of fun. Scroll to the bottom to see why a studio session might be a great idea for your next session!
No hassle. You show up at our studio and we are prepared and ready to capture those beautiful faces! No need to clean your home or worry about permits for on-location.
A simple look. Our studio style is meant to be clean and simple. Our focus is on capturing your child/family. So, outside of some specialty themes (Smash Cakes/Birthdays, Holidays) Our studio stays neutral so that your family and style are what stands out! You are always welcome to bring anything you believe makes your session more personalized. You can also utilize some of the rugs, creates, and rolls of colored paper to bring out a different vibe!
It is an intimate space. Have a kiddo who might be overwhelmed by a public location but don’t want to do a session at home? The studio is perfect. You have our space to yourself and can focus just on your photos and not managing your child in public.
We ABSOLUTELY LOVE photographing on location and in homes as well! We just recognize that every family has different needs and goals. Often the needs and goals change over time and may find you doing sessions in the studio, on location, AND in your home over time!
Thomas photographed PlayWorks Therapy’s gorgeous space in the fall! We just fell in love with the playful colors combined with the light and airy feeling!
We are so lucky to have the best partners. Thank you KIDO and all the lovely KIDO Fam that came by for Valentine’s Day Snapshots! We hope you all had a love Filled Valentine’s Day!
Want to know when future mini sessions and Snapshots go live?! Keep our Mini Session page bookmarked or join our Mailinglist to get notified!
Valentine’s Day Mini Sessions are always ridiculously fun! It really feels like our Minis are a great time to celebrate self and sibling love. Those individual images of kiddos showing us their hearts paired with sweet & funny sibling shots.
January Smash Cake Mini Sessions warmed our hearts in this chilly weather. Parents can make their own cake/decoration choices, based on our stock. They can also choose to let us choose for them based on their kiddos outfit. We loved all the colors that came out with this month’s sessions. A couple of outfits really made us think creatively and we enjoyed every second of it!
Chicago Parent Magazine sat down with Ana Belaval to discuss her favorite spots, being a wonderful Latinx Role Model, and balancing parenthood with her career! Thomas had a great afternoon photographing her family in their Chicago home. It was such a treat seeing her relaxed with her children and outside of her WGN Reporter hat! Also, we agree, our favorite winter activities are inside activities as well! Check out our favorite images and the article on ISSUU, below.
February’s Chicago Parent issue features Dr. Kiarra King, and her daughter on the cover! Dr. King is also featured as a writer, where she discusses her journey of self-love and awareness. Read Her Inspiring contribution through the ISUU link at the end of this blog.
Chicago Parent Magazine really brings out the best parents for their Real Life Series. Comedian Pat McGann is not only hilarious but his entire family was fun to photograph!
Read the interview on a Comical Dad Life on ISSUU below.
Follow Pat on Instagram to see more day in the life info!
Where can you celebrate love with photos? We have 4 events for you to capture those cute little faces!
TK Valentine’s Day Minis. We have 3 love inspired backdrops set up for Kiddos to capture their best smooch face! This is dedicated time in our Edgewater studio for your kiddo(s). Book your slot! Saturday, January 25th or Sunday, January 26th.
Kido Chicago Valentine’s Day Snapshots! For a small sitting fee, you can come by our favorite South Loop boutique for a few quick photos! Then purchase just the images you love. (sitting fee does not include images) Book a spot here- Saturday, February 1st
Bubbles Academy and Bump Club and Beyond Valentine’s Day Play Date! We will be at this fun event with our Portrait booth. All Images a la carte starting at $15 per image BUT we are gifting each family a coupon for 1 image at just $5. Thursday, February 13th Details to Follow!
Sod Room Valentine’s Day Party! Date and Time TBD but it is always a great time! We will be there with our Portrait booth and images are available a la carte starting at $15 per image.
Kicking off a new decade of Chicago Parent Magazine Covers with our friend ObieQ! ObieQ is the ball of energy toddler to Jenny LeFlore aka MamaFresh . At the young age of three, he is already making his own path! He brought a lot of energy to his photoshoot. A LOT of energy and it was all perfect!
Peek at all the fun outtakes from the session below!
Woot! January 2020 and we managed to get all of the 2020 Smash Cakes up on he website! Now you can plan for your Little Cake Smasher’s photos well in advance!
We are incredibly excited that we have been doing these mini sessions for over 5 years! Creating fun birthday photos for so many cuties has been one of our greatest pleasures.
OTHER OPTIONS? If the dates for the mini session events do not work, you want to include family photos, or you want to bring in more/different decorations than what our mini session provides, you would book a Full Session, or Weekday Flex Mini, and add a smash cake to it.
Children and Family + Smash Cake Session– In Studio
If you have your Children and Family + Smash Cake Session in the Edgewater studio and want us to order the cake, it would just be an additional $45 on top of the session fee. Usually, we take the last 30 minutes of the full session and do the cake. For decorations, you would just fill out a simple survey to choose your banner, balloons, and cake options.
Weekday Flex Mini + Smash Cake– In Studio We are testing a weekday flex mini session in our Edgewater studio. The Flex mini allows families to individually book mini sessions in the studio, Monday-Fridays 30 min for $275. This would not include a cake. The cake would be an additional $45.
MINI SESSION EVENT vs FLEX MINIS: The pricing structure for a mini session day is different than an individually booked mini session. Booking on a pre-established designated mini session event is always a more economical option than individual booking.
NOTE ABOUT CAKE FEE: The cake fee includes the cost of the cake, delivery fee, and a fee for TK Staff to be present for the cake delivery. For Smash Cake Mini Session Events, the bakery has given us bulk pricing, and delivery costs are divided among all of the booked sessions.
So, you need a new headshot but not sure what to choose. Check out our three options below!
In Studio
Coming into out Edgewater Studio offers a clean and simple option to focus on you and your brand.
On Location: Environmental
Locations can help to highlight what you do and who you are. If your venue or business brings out the best in your brand, you may want to consider using that environment in photos! If your brand isn’t location-dependent, showing off your love of a favorite location or vibe can really help you stand out!
On Location: Corporate
If you do not want an environmental background and coming to the studio is not an option, we can bring our Grey backdrop to you. Additional fees apply.
After over 5 years of monthly Smash Cake Mini Sessions, we kind of think we are cake connoisseur. For the majority of those 5 years we have used Westtown Bakery and Diner for our Smash Cakes. Our top 5 reasons we love Westtown Cakes
VEGAN and They work with most allergies- The biggest concern as Children Photographers is health and safety. When it comes to a babe’s first cake experience, we understand that they may be coming in with allergies or the potential of having a bad reaction. Working with a bakery who gets that was top of our list. They have worked with us on 99% of our special allergy requests. Most importantly, their standard cake is Vegan, which takes out a large number of our concerns for reactions!
TASTE- We have often heard vegan cakes noted as “great for a vegan cake!” Westtown Bakery cakes are the best cakes we have tasted. PERIOD. No disclaimer needed. Our clients, photographers, and even our own kids are obsessed with Westtown Bakery’s cakes. Parents have been seen trying to scrap together remnants of an imploded cake in order to take them home!
CUSTOMER SERVICE- Westtown Bakery has amazing communication and is always responsive and collaborative. Coordinating 20+ cakes every month is no small task and they make it easy and fun to work with them!
DESIGNS- We have worked with them to get the perfect Smash Cake down. The times that we have asked for something out of the box, they have delivered beyond what we were looking for.
STRONG MISSION- Westtown Bakery aims to use locally sourced and sustainable ingredients and products. Supporting businesses that support our community is incredibly important to us.
Want a Westtown Bakery Cake for your next in-studio session? Just ask us how to have one delivered straight to our studio. It is a piece of cake.
We are ecstatic to add Paris312 to the list of favorite event spaces! This party was our second event in this space and we are official IN LOVE. Lyla’s 1st Birthday was stunning and fun for every guest.
We have had the pleasure of working with Stepping Stones Nursery School for Headshots for their teachers and Directors. In preparation for their second location, we went to photograph the stunning new Lincoln Square school. Stepping Stones is a nature-based school. They value outdoor play and connecting with nature. The work they did to bring these values into the design and materials of the school are just remarkable. We now have dreams of sending our children here.
The Metropolitan Club lives on the 67th floor of the Willis Tower. 2018 ushered in a newly renovated space for the club. Before they launched the new space, Thomas spent a few days capturing the changes.
