Who is Beauchamp Photography?
We are a Grande Prairie-based husband and wife team, named Chris + Laura. We specialize in documentary-style photography and unique portraiture, with a focus on the timeless qualities of great candid photography: timing, light, and composition.
Who is your usual client?
Everybody’s different. That’s the whole point.
Some really appreciate photography as an art. Some are sentimental. Some adventurous. Some shy. Some want to push the boundaries, and some want to be a bit more subdued or traditional. We believe in authenticity. It’s the moments between the forced smiles that count.
Our family portrait clients want photos to share and treasure, not just a DVD on a shelf. An album on the coffee table, canvases on the walls, pictures at the office. Most of our brides value naturally beautiful photos of their friends and family over the epic portrait shots—although they are excited about both.
You can see a whole bunch of our clients—and just how different each of them are—by checking out our blog and Facebook page. Both get regular updates, and those are the places to find our most recent work.
So what’s it like working with you two?
Hopefully: easy. We strive for an unobtrusive approach in all of our work.
We will pose people during portrait sessions and formals, and occasionally make suggestions (such as moving closer to nice light), but we encourage everyone to be themselves, above all.
During weddings, we will be nearby all day long, usually from getting ready to getting down on the dance floor. It’s important to us that we know our couples well enough for us all to be comfortable around each other. We take this seriously.
For weddings, we will split up in the morning. Laura goes with the ladies and Chris with the guys. This allows us to capture things happening in different locations and put the whole story together for the album in the end. It also gives us a chance to get to know everyone early in the day.
Can you tell us a bit more about the engagement session?
We include engagement photos in all of our wedding packages, as this session accomplishes several things. Of course, you get some beautiful couples photos, perfect for your guestbook, invites or other creative things.
But the session also gives us a chance to get to know each other and break the ice photographically. It can be a little off-putting to have a camera in your face, but only for the first little while. The engagement session allows you to get used to being photographed before the wedding day, so you can relax and just be yourself.
We strive to make our engagements meaningful, and we work with our couples to choose locations that make sense for them. Into quadding? Bowling? Softball? Let’s work that in. Have a favourite restaurant or first-date location? Perfect.
What should we wear to the engagement session?
Your Mom took a lot of care to get you looking your best for all those school photos—and she was onto something. Dress up! You don’t need to be super formal, but you should be on your way to dressy.
Ladies, if you wear dresses, wear a dress! If your man has collared shirts and pants, and dress shoes, he should wear them. Try to avoid t-shirts, logos, shorts, sneakers and sandals if possible, especially on guys. Any quirky clothing accessories you want to bring (hats, jewellery, shoes, etc.) can make things fun too.
You are also welcome to bring a change of clothes if you’re into that.
How much time should we schedule for formal photos?
Our approach is documentary in nature, which means we’d be happy to shoot candid photos of real moments all day long. That said, we are happy to do family formals, bridal party groupings, and intimate bride and groom photos in multiple locations if that’s what you’re after.
The amount of time to schedule for this really depends on you and what kind of photos you want from your day.
We can do basic family formals with parents and a few groupings in as little as ten or fifteen minutes. We can also do epic photo shoots in sprawling locations over the course of an afternoon. Hashing out what makes the most sense for you is something we do during our consultation meeting.
How long will it take to receive our albums and images?
We will typically post an image or two from your wedding or other session within a few days of the shoot day on our blog and Facebook page, and then follow up with a longer blog post as soon as we can (we blog everything in the order it was shot to be fair to everybody). We spend more time editing all of the images for final delivery.
For weddings, we promise final delivery of all images within 8 weeks, but are often able to deliver sooner than that. For portraits and other shoots, we promise final delivery within 2-4 weeks.
Albums and other products may take 6-12 weeks to get into your hands, since we share proofs of the design with you and go through a modest revision process. They can also take 2-4 weeks to be printed, bound, and delivered after the design is complete.
How many pictures will we get?
This varies depending on type of shoot, but you can typically expect between 60 and 120 images for things like engagement and family portrait sessions.
For weddings, we typically deliver over 800 images for a full day of wedding coverage. Your album could contain between 60 and 120 images, depending on how many pages you order.
Do you travel or do destination weddings? What are your travel rates?
Of course! We love to travel. We have photographed weddings all over Alberta and B.C., as well destination weddings at resorts. We do ask for travel fees on top of our normal rates for any travel more than an hour outside of Grande Prairie. Sometimes this means flights, hotels or a rental car. Sometimes just some fuel compensation and/or a hotel. Extended travel may also require a day rate to cover our time. We try to be as fair as possible in calculating travel costs. Please contact us about your exact needs and we can give you an exact quote.
What kind of gear do you use?
Photographers are notorious gear-heads. Ultimately though, cameras and lenses are just tools. We happen to use Canon 5Ds (all three generations), and a variety of pro series (mostly prime) lenses to go with them. We have backups of everything that matters, including camera bodies, lenses, batteries, flashes and storage media. If you’re a gear head too and would like more details, we can nerd out with the best of ‘em.
What is the booking process?
Simply phone us or email to let us know your preferred date(s) and location(s). You can see our basic wedding package prices, as well as portrait fees, right here on the site.
After a call or email exchange, we usually set up an in-person consultation to discuss your session, your needs (eg. wedding plans) and look at which products you want to have made with the photos. We have samples of our albums and large canvas prints.
At this stage of wedding bookings, we also sign a contract, book an engagement session, and acquire a $1,000 deposit. Once the contract is signed and deposit paid, your date is secured!
We usually talk two or three more times leading up to the wedding to make sure detailed scheduling and planning is in place for the day, and we’re pretty happy to get together for more casual meetups.
I have another question!
Please, just call us or email. We’re friendly.
Chris + Laura
780-897-9474