What are your memories of your childcare photos?
Mine are: perfect hair, clean clothes and standing in a stupid queue, for what felt like forever until it was my turn to stand with the stupid props for all of 60 seconds. One year it was a fake horse and (real) hay, another year a fake library. (What were the 90s thinking!?!)
I remember the “SMILE for the camera” Bright FLASH! Click. Click. Click. “OK, someone grab the sibling from the {insert random animal name here*} room!” A quick cuddle with my shell-shocked, 4.5 years younger sister and another “OK girls, SMILE!” Bright FLASH! Click. Click. Click. The sound of the moaning 30 kids, remaining in the queue in the background. Adios Suckers! I get first dibs on morning tea and a peaceful play in the yard until your misery is done with too!
The experience was never pleasant.
Come to think of it, the photos never were, either.
Note to self* ask Mom if, A) she actually liked the photos or B) were they done for a laugh?
Come to think of it… she must have liked them a little bit. She always got them printed and put in her keyring.
Have you asked your child what their experience is like on Photo Day at childcare?
Or do you rely on the day of the photos to arrive to read their experience from their face?
I forgot about my childcare photos until 2022. That is when my then 4 year old got her very first child care photos done. I recognised that fake smile from 31 years ago – first share, my sister, for a good LOL for old times sake.
See, she’s a Professional Photographer. One who specialises in Child Photography. One who is spends 90% of her time with children… either photographing them or educating them. The LOLS quickly turned to WTFs when I told her how much we had paid for the photos.
Ever the if-we-don’t-like it,-lets-change-it!-ists, we got to researching (ie; hello insta-polls and whatsapp group chats) the topic of contention!
Our findings were close to unanimous:
From the Mum Groups: “Over-priced and I get better pics on my i-Phone”
From the Centre Directors Tahlia works as an Educator with: “Awful to deal with! They never understand staffing ratios or routines”.
And then came our next adventure!
So lets jump straight into our very authentic natures which became our business proposal’s point of difference!
1 x T = Tahlia. AKA the Founder and Boss Babe of TnT… also AKA the little (literally and biologically) sister. A part-time, Diploma qualified, casual Educator (frequenting the Centres in Melbourne’s West, Inner West, North West and CBD), colourfully filling the gaps for centres in a labour crisis, when she is not busy with her photography business.
You can read more about her across all the blogs or the socials. Before qualifying as an Educator 5 years ago,she lived her life with her first love, as a Diploma qualified Photographer with 11 years experience, travelling and photographing the world.
1 x T = Taz. AKA the Big Sister and words-writer. I am a biological Mum of one (5 year old) and a Foster Mama to many! I’m also the self-appointed god-parent and favourite Aunty to all of the children in our little tribe we call family. Always in my rainbow clothes and ready to run and act the fool for a great action-shot. I photograph children with Tahlia when she needs a 2nd set of hands (at childcares, birthdays, events etc) because A) I love it (it being, the creativity and fun of being around children) and B. She is my sister and exceptionally fussy about who she lets assist her!
The point of difference made sense in our heads and hearts.
Tahlia reached out to her network of Centres she frequents and it wasn’t long until our point of difference theory had translated to reality. Pictures speak a thousand words! The pictures of our first childcare centres shoots, spoke stories of a morning of laughter and capturing the very natural essence of every individual child. The footnotes were the reviews and thank you messages from the parents afterwards.
Every centre we’ve worked with has booked us for next year.
Actions speak louder than words.
Speaking of actions and backing our words with actions, being true believers in capturing the precious ‘every-day’ moments, especially the ones of our children when we are not around (because let’s face it – we know as parents, as soon as we step foot out of that centre door, our kids morph into a different version of themselves) – we have priced ourselves modestly. Knowing that not all families have the resources for a full photoshoot, we’d like to do our bit where we can, for the parents and children alike.
And in my Oprah-est voice, “there’s more!”, being an Educator (Tahlia)… and the doting sister of one, we have a personal bias to all Educators and we like to give them all the perks we can. We do this by offering your Educators with children attending the centre a 15% discount.
This is our pay it forward to Educators.
And to the kids, this is our hope and action to a generation of Melbournians with better photos than those of the 90’s kids.
Rainbows, glimmers and sparkles always x
Tahlia ‘n Taz
TnT
