We serve private schools and daycare centres in the Greater Toronto Area where there are at least 30 children to be photographed. Your school/centre must be able to provide a dedicated, quiet spacious area on Picture Day that is free from regular interruptions and outside of a classroom-in-use.

We offer a full-service experience to schools and daycares by handling a lot of the work on our end! A few weeks before Picture Day we collect a list of students from you and we take it from there! We provide communications for you to distribute to parents, and we schedule the Picture Days down to the minute. On Picture Day, our Photographer and her assistant will have a great time connecting with and photographing the children! Then afterwards, we provide communications to parents to access personal password-protected online Galleries where parents view, order and pay for their images. Finally, we email digital orders directly to parents and we bring the printed orders to the school for you to distribute to the children.

We need at least 2 weeks, preferably 4-5 weeks, to prepare for Picture Day - to communicate with parents, collect student information, create schedules and handle logistics. After Picture Day, proofs will be ready in about 2 weeks, and the proofs Gallery will be open for ordering for 1 week. Orders are generally delivered about 4 -6 weeks after the close of ordering, and we are careful to deliver orders before winter and summer holiday periods. Orders placed after the ordering deadline for your school will be subject to shipping fees and increased pricing on some products.

We build our photography set in a safe, quiet, dedicated space in your school/centre (inside) or on your property (outside). If inside, we set up a backdrop and studio lights. If outside, we use natural light and/or studio light and either a studio backdrop with our pop-up tent or the natural environment as a background. Our set must be quiet (so we can communicate with the children effectively) and free from regular interruptions. We cannot work in a classroom where class is in session/students are spending their day.

We recommend scheduling as far in advance as possible as we fill during the busy spring and fall times. We hold Picture Days on Tuesdays (unless after a holiday Monday), Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in the mornings. We photograph strictly in the morning times before students have an opportunity to spill lunch on themselves! We photograph only during established and regular school/centre hours to ensure the lowest rate of student absence. We do not hold Picture Days on Halloween (or the last school day before Halloween), or any other dress-up or pyjama days.

We photograph children from 6 months up to 18 years. For the littlest, please let us know ahead of time if children are unable to sit or stand, and please bring a baby or toddler chair to the set.

We aim to make the process as easy as possible for busy school staff, but we do need a little help! We require a list of students’ full names and ages and class assignments at least 3 weeks in advance. On Picture Day, we need you and your staff to ensure kids are brought to and from ‘set’ at the correct time, and that any children waiting their turn are quietly supervised. While we like to ‘do our thing’ in terms of the photography, we cannot be alone with children on set or in the set area – sometimes we will ask for help with fixing hair, clothes and faces or calming nerves. Finally, we rely on you to distribute our communications to the parents and help ensure they are aware and reminded of Picture Day as well as ordering deadlines.

Depending on the age of each individual child, we allot between 2 and 5 minutes per student in the schedule. While we prepare a minute-by-minute schedule, our timelines are fluid – we find some children need more time than allotted and others need less. We generally plan to photograph between 30 and 80-100 children in one day (depending on ages). For schools/centres with more children, we will schedule multiple Picture Days.

We have tried and true methods for all ages – gentle communication for the very young or nervous children to make them feel comfortable, and fun comedy that elicits natural smiles and laughs for the rest. We rely heavily on the ability to communicate with the children on set which is why we need a relatively quiet space to work. We ask schools/centres to provide any sensitive/pertinent information about children ahead of time so we can be mindful of any special circumstances. Since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, we no longer wipe faces or fix hair or clothes – we ask that a staff member of your school be available to help with that.

Some children are super excited when they arrive on set, and others are naturally nervous. When they are nervous or disinterested, we use age-appropriate methods to encourage them to join us. We will enlist the help of school staff only when required, or sometimes even a sibling or friend if available. On rare occasions, if a child is truly resistant after a bit of encouragement, we won’t force them. We also offer for them to return to set if they are feeling up for it later in the schedule.

We know parents would love to see a photo of their child with a natural smile – and we succeed in producing that most of the time. However, some children, particularly the younger ones, may not smile for us. We work hardest with these children to get smiles, but we are careful not to push too hard – we want it to be a positive experience for them most of all. In this case, we still achieve beautiful Portraits that are more soulful, emotional and illustrative of a child’s personality.

As long as each sibling is enrolled at the school/centre and will also be having their individual portrait taken, then yes! (We don’t photograph children with siblings that don’t attend the same school/centre). We typically schedule sibling-together photos at the same time the youngest of the siblings is scheduled for their individual Portrait. We then photograph each of the individual siblings immediately after to ensure consistent results for parents.

Group-Class Portraits are an important part of school memories! Since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, we have been offering schools/centres a choice of whether they would like to create a traditional Group-Class Portrait or a composite. A composite is a page including small individual Portraits of each child in the class lined up in a grid. A Group-Class Portrait print (5x7” in size) is included for every child for which an order is placed. Parents may choose to order additional or larger Group-Class Portrait prints with or without an order for a child. Note we do not show proofs of Group-Class Portraits.

Yes, if requested. Please let us know in advance so we can be sure to include staff in the schedule. This is also recommended if the Group-Class Portrait will be a composite. We offer staff and schools a 50% discount on ordering Staff Portraits.

Yes, however we offer Graduation Portraits separately from regular Picture Day, typically returning at a later date. If your Picture Day is already at the end of the season, or you have only a small number of graduates, we can take the photos on your regularly scheduled Picture Day, however parents will be offered these photos in a separate Gallery. Caps and gowns must be provided by the school and should be steamed and hung prior to Picture Day. We will provide a paper scroll with ribbon for the graduate to hold.

There is no cost to the school for us to provide this photography service. In exchange, however, we do ask that you provide the help, conditions and circumstances that facilitate the creation of wonderful images of the children, and that you also facilitate our offering of Portraits for sale to parents. Costs may be incurred by the school should you wish to order more Portraits/Portrait Products than what is included. Costs for parents begin at $45 per child for our most basic print Collections. The typical investment per child runs approximately $100. We offer discount options for families purchasing more than one Collection for siblings. Our Investment Guide can be found here.

Schools/centres are offered a number of options, of which they may choose 2 as complimentary gifts. Options include print copies of Group-Class Portraits, a Whole-School Portrait, a Group-Staff Portrait, small low-resolution digital files for use in yearbooks and staff Portrait prints.

Yes, however, gifts from schools to parents are limited to prints/printed portraits only, and we still require the facilitated opportunity to offer our images for sale to parents in addition to the gift prints they will receive from the school BEFORE they receive their gifted prints.

No! At the beginning of the ordering process, we provide you with handouts with ordering instructions and ask you to distribute them to the students when the online proofing galleries are ready. You need not be involved in the process again until it’s time to distribute print order envelopes to the students when they are ready.

We use an online proofing Gallery software. Parents must log in with a valid email address and a child-specific password to view the images captured at the school/centre.

Proofs are generally ready about 2 weeks after Picture Day at your school.

We aim to show 6 proofs per individual child - and this happens about 99% of the time. Occasionally we show less if a child had trouble on set, or more if they knocked it out of the park. For Sibling-Together Portraits, we typically show 1-5 proofs. We do not show proofs of Group-Class Portraits.

We offer a number of print and digital options for parents to purchase, starting at $45 plus HST for the most basic print Packages. There is no obligation to purchase, however each order for a child must begin with one of our Packages before additional Portrait Products can be ordered. See our parent Portrait Product & Investment Guide here.

Yes! Basic retouching is free and is done unless a parent specifically asks for it not to be done. Basic retouching includes skin smoothing and blemish removal, cleaning faces, and a light tidying of stray hairs. Should parents wish more extensive retouching – such as tattoo, jewelry or clothing logo removal, or more extensive hair corrections, we will evaluate the requests on a case-by-case basis and nominal charges may be incurred.

Parents must order directly through the online galleries. They can favourite photos and add them to their cart by selecting a Portrait Package or Product they would like for each chosen pose. Payment during Checkout is with a credit card. Orders are non-refundable and non-changeable after the close of your school’s ordering window, which is 1 week long.

Sorry, but due to the fully custom nature of Portrait Products, we can not refund orders after the ordering window for your school closes and orders go in to the processing stage.

We work in a calibrated system to ensure that the images we work with on our screen match what is printed at our professional print lab. We take care to ensure images meet our rigorous requirements for colour balance and exposure. It should be noted that users viewing and ordering on their personal computer and mobile devices may see the images differently depending on their screen brightness and colour filter settings. Unfortunately, this is not a variable we can control for.

Yes, however special offers disappear, Package and select Artwork fees increase, and the customer must pay for shipping.

Print orders will be individually packaged, labeled with the student’s name, and delivered to the school for distribution to the children. When ordering, some parents may opt for direct-to-home shipping (at additional cost) – we will mail these orders directly to the parent. Digital orders will be delivered via a download link sent by email to the email address used to make the order. Parents will need to click the link to download their digital files.

After the close of the 1-week ordering time frame, we take the time to hand-retouch all images and prepare digital files and prints. This usually take up to 4 weeks, however we work hard to ensure orders are delivered before winter and summer holiday breaks. Note that digital orders will be delivered sooner than print orders but they are not instant downloads upon ordering.

While we don’t return to your school/centre for a Retake Day, we do offer retakes at our private studio event on weekend dates once in the fall and once in the spring, timed to occur after all schools/centres have had their Picture Day for the season. Parents can register for these events independently while taking advantage of nearly the same Portrait Product offering we offer to the schools/centres. We can also include retakes/makeups should we return to the school for Graduation Portraits at a later date. Makeups or retakes for absentees or children who refused participation at their allotted time may be done on subsequent Picture Days if your school/centre requires multiple days of photography.

Yes! We have insurance.

Once a date is set, we will prepare a contract to provide services to your school/centre. This contract will be sent to you electronically and it is easily signed online. You will be asked at this time to specify which two complimentary Portrait Products your school wishes to receive, although you can also decide that later if you wish.