Almost everyone cries. Not always.. but almost always. And it’s not just the mums. I’ve watched dads go very quiet and suddenly find something incredibly interesting to look at on the ceiling. I’ve had clients call up Grandparents and ask them to hightail it to the studio because they physically couldn’t wait to show them. I’ve had people laugh and cry at the same time (honestly one of my favourite things to witness).
The reveal appointment is now one of my most favourite parts of the whole process and I’m honestly as shocked as you are..!
So what actually happens?
About one to two weeks after your session, you’ll come back to the studio for your personal viewing and ordering appointment.
You’ll arrive, I’ll put the kettle on (or get prosecco out of the fridge), there will be something nice to eat, and we’ll sit down together properly.
Then I’ll put your gallery up on the big screen and you’ll watch your images, turned into a beautiful slideshow, in a time dedicated to it. Not at 9pm after the kids have gone down, not when you’re also trying to cook the dinner and sort the washing.. at a time dedicated to sitting, relaxing and taking them in. You’re investing in an experience, this can be part of it.
The maternity reveal
Maternity clients are often the ones who almost talked themselves out of being photographed in the first place.
“I don’t feel like myself right now.” “I’m not sure I want to be in front of a camera.” “I’ll just wait until after the baby.”
And then they come to their reveal and see themselves in the final weeks of pregnancy. The bump and the glow, the person they were right at the edge of becoming a mother.
I’ve had women sit in this studio and say “I didn’t know I looked like that.” Not in a vain way. In a completely genuine, slightly stunned way. Because we are so hard on ourselves during pregnancy, and seeing yourself through someone else’s lens, captured with care, can be genuinely transformative.
These images become incredibly precious.
Not just because they’re beautiful but because they’re proof that this season happened.
That you grew an entire person and that you were there. I’ve met too many Mums who don’t have a single photograph of them carrying their babies so it brings me so much joy to make sure that doesn’t happen.
The golden hour outdoor reveal
Golden hour clients tend to arrive at their reveal slightly giddy because they already have a feeling it went well.
There’s something about being outside in that light, in the countryside, with the warmth on your skin and the whole evening stretched out ahead of you – it tends to produce a very particular kind of joy. Loose and relaxed, children having a blast and everyone just having a good old time.
And then they see the images and realise that the light did exactly what light does at golden hour – it turned everything golden. Every image looks like it belongs in a film and every expression is real because nobody was trying to perform.
Every moment happened naturally, which means every moment is genuinely theirs.
These are the sessions that produce the wall art that makes guests stop and stare.
The newborn reveal
The newborn reveal is the one where I keep the tissues closest.
Parents arrive one to two weeks after their session, and in that time their baby has already changed. Already. The newborn scrunchiness is softening. The particular way they smelled and felt and curled in those first days is already starting to blur at the edges the way new memories do when you’re exhausted and everything is happening very fast.
And then the images come up on screen, and there they are. Exactly as they were. Crystal clear, perfectly still, permanently captured showing the way you looked at them when you thought nobody was watching.
It is, without exception, one of the most powerful things I get to be part of.
The sitter session reveal
Sitter reveals are joyful in a completely different way – louder, if I’m honest.
By six or seven months, your baby is a person. A full, hilarious, opinionated, completely unpredictable person. And the images from a sitter session capture all of that, the wobbly sitting, the enormous gummy smile, the expression that is unmistakably, them.
Parents laugh a lot at sitter reveals. They point at the screen and say “that face – that is exactly their face.” They send images straight to grandparents from the car before they’ve even driven home.
These are the images that capture who your child is at this exact moment, before they walk, before they talk, before everything changes again.
The first birthday reveal
First birthday reveals hit differently.
Because sitting next to the images of your one year old on the screen, you are also remembering, whether you mean to or not, the newborn session from twelve months ago. The tiny, curled, brand new person who has somehow become this clapping, laughing, cake-covered human being in what felt like absolutely no time at all.
The contrast is extraordinary. And when families have images from both sessions, sometimes we put them side by side on the screen.
That’s usually when the ceiling becomes very interesting to the dads.
First birthday sessions capture the end of the first chapter. The beginning of everything that comes next. And they deserve to be on your walls just as much as the newborn ones do – maybe more, because by now you know exactly how fast it goes.
The family session reveal
Family reveals tend to produce a very specific reaction – surprise!
Not at the images themselves, but at what’s in them. Because in a family session, you’re not posing. You’re just being your family. Playing, laughing, looking at each other, existing together in the way you do every single day at home.
And then you see it captured by someone who was watching and you realise what your family actually looks like from the outside. The love that’s just there, quietly, in every single frame.
“Is that really us?” is something I hear a lot at family reveals. And yes. That’s really you.
What happens after the reveal
Once you’ve had a moment to take it all in, we’ll go through your images together and talk about what you’d love to do with them.
Albums. Wall art. Frames. Digital galleries. Whatever feels right for your home and your family – I’ll guide you through the options at your pace, with no pressure whatsoever.
I want you to leave with something you genuinely love, not something you felt pushed into.
And then you go home. And a few weeks later, something arrives – an album, a print, a piece of wall art – and you put it somewhere you’ll see it every day.
And that, really, is what all of this is for.
Ready to have your own reveal moment?
Whatever session type is right for you — I’d love to make it happen.
