FAQ

Why are your AlisonWonderland Creative Portraits and packages more expensive than some regular photo sessions?

Ah this is a big one....!

First of all no good photography should be cheap, people who run professional photography businesses have very high running costs, they are usually highly skilled having invested years honing their craft, training and using the best equipment and maintaining it etc, not to mention insurances, software, technical equipment, website hosting and all the usual business costs, that's before we start on the actual photography itself; think about how much time is involved from taking a booking, preparing for the shoot, understanding the expectation of our clients, the photo session itself, then the choosing and editing ... it can take hours and hours of work.

That's for regular photography.....

With the images i'm creating here you can count all of the above plus the creative vision, years of art college and thousands of hours spent learning how to manipulate images digitally, use Photoshop and get the results I want... ( I'm still learning, i don't think i'll ever know it all - exciting!!) preparation for the session could take some time too, depending on what we have planned, sometimes props have to be created, bought or sourced. Then each image takes anything between 1 1/2 and 10 hours to create! .... Also Stock photography has to be either sourced, purchased or created myself to include in the images to enhance the scenes and help to realise our vision, think about how many hours therefore go into one package; that's before you get any USB stick or prints.... also included!

This is not just any regular photoshoot - there is a time and place for those - I value them highly, this is so much more, a special bespoke session to capture something totally unique not to be held as jpg images on your phone or Facebook for ever more... this is so you have a beautiful work of art for your walls, to display with pride, & to treasure for yourself, or as gifts ... This is an AlisonWonderland experience!

Taken at the bottom of the back garden

I know i'd like to book a creative portrait session, but can't decide what to have or a theme, Can you help?

I certainly can, all of my sessions start with a chat, sometimes in person over a drink (and sometimes cake!) and sometimes over the phone or Skype if 'in person' isn't possible, We chat about things you like, or that your child likes, the kind of images you've seen that you like the look of, we talk about what you don't like too, it's just as important!

I find out lots of things to fine tune some ideas, I do the hard work don't worry, it's a fun exploratory conversation, we talk childhood memories, films, songs, books, toys, paintings, all sorts... you'd be amazed at where the inspiration can come from! If on the other hand you have a clear idea of the sort of thing you'd like, we can talk about that and see how it could work for us an image.

You can also look at my Inspiration Gallery page which is a selection of just some of the images I've created,

Created in Wonderland

Taken in local woodland

Where's Chocolate Photography gone?... You're doing all these creative portraits and arty stuff now.. does that mean you're not doing families, or pets, or weddings or any of the other things you did any more?

The decision to re-brand and change my business name was really difficult, I loved Chocolate Photography and i spent 6 years building up a great reputation, a loyal client base, and a solid and memorable brand.. maybe i've lost the plot ... only time will tell.... What I can tell you is that I bought the Domain name AlisonWonderland.photography in winter 2014, it just felt right and I knew i had to have it, I thought i might do something with it at some point even if it was just experimental, creative photography and art work for my own pleasure. A long series of events and conversations led me to rethink my business plan and how I move my business forward. I love all aspects of photography, I really do, but I get my greatest joy from the more artistic elements, I'm a creative soul and love to escape into my imagination, a lifelong daydreamer - that's me!

I wanted to offer something a little different, something really creative and magical & that had a unique stamp.

It made sense to re-brand to reflect the kind of imagery i'd like to create for my clients, and where my passion lies, that said, if people approach me that especially want me to do a 'regular' photo session for them I will be more than happy to chat about it. I will still of course be keeping my wedding photography and business elements with the addition of offering photography workshops and editing tutorials.

Where do you do the actual photo sessions?

That depends on what we're aiming for as an end result, but generally a local park or woods is perfect, if we particularly need to be near a pond or lake, or in town then we'll fix a location to suit the images we'll be creating. I'm happy to travel within approx 30 /40 mins for the Fantasyland and Wonderland packages but need the pixie packages etc to be a little nearer to my location in East Sussex if possible to make it viable for me. I've had lots of interest from lovely people all over the South East that are prepared to travel to my beautiful neck of the woods and then make a day of it while they're here, if you'd like to do this i can even offer advice about good places to go!!

I will gladly chat about traveling further afield but will have to charge a little extra.

Please note - I never use studio spaces, and static backdrops for my AlisonWonderland sessions, I much prefer the results from using natural environments and building our story from that.

How? - What? - Where? - Why?

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