Policies and Procedures
If your child is sick or appears to be getting sick, please contact 24 hours in advance to reschedule. Do not bring sick children to your session; please understand, we work with many brand new babies weekly and try to cut down on exposure to sicknesses the best we can.
On-line gallery will be available approximately two to three weeks after session date.
Order must be placed within 10 days of on-line gallery presentation. Your gallery will automatically expire, and you will be charged a $50 republish fee if you have not placed your order.
All unordered images will be purged (deleted). Images that are ordered will be archived and remain on file for one year.
When placing your order, if you are having any problems understanding the ordering platform (online shopping cart), please feel free to place your order by email. If you are having difficulties paying on line, please call your credit card and expiration date in to 443-299-2752 (we do not accept American Express).
When your order is ready, you will be notified. You may schedule a time to pick up your prints from the Black Horse Studio or you may have them shipped to you, priority USPS, for $15 shipping and handling.
There is a $50 returned check fee.
Your final photographs will be ready for you approximately 6-8 weeks after your order is received and paid for. Custom coffee table books may take an additional 4-6 weeks.
All images and products are to be inspected by you at delivery. If there are any discrepancies or problems, please contact The Black Horse Studio within seven days of delivery to discuss.
Due to the custom nature of the products, all sales are final.
Copyright Policy: All images are copyrighted by photographer, Jodie Otte. It is illegal and unlawful to scan, copy, print, or reproduce Jodie's work in any manner or medium without written permission (you may only print the images if digital negatives/files are purchased).
Jodie Otte reserves the right to use images taken for reproductions for display, publication, and other purposes to promote her business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does my session fee include? Your session fee includes time and talent of the photographer and image preparation which takes on average six hours post session. Remember, you are working with a custom photographer; unlike department stores and photography chains, you are getting individual attention and the ability to customize your session to fit your family's needs.
Do you "touch up" images? Yes. Small scars or blemishes may be touched up when requested. Light skin smoothing techniques may also be used. Small touchups of this nature are not an additional fee; however, please note when placing your order what light touchups you would like to have done (these may get noted directly in the ordering process). It is your responsibility to note touchups you wish to have done BEFORE order is placed. Touchups that go beyond "light" are at an additional fee if they can be performed.
Do you shoot digitally or with film? Currently we shoot digital only using top of the line professional equipment. We do not limit the amount of images that we take. We take what is needed in order to be able to present you with at least 25 final images, but usually around 40 to 50.
Do you shoot in black and white or color? We shoot all in color and then convert images to black and white using a special process that appears more like black and white film. This allows you to choose color or black and white for any image.
May I purchase the digital negatives? Yes, you may purchase all of the images from your session; please see the section of the pricing labeled "digital negatives". A digital negative is considered the digital file that Jodie uses to send to the lab for final printing. This digital file has been prepared and edited with her techniques for final print. It is recommended that if you are printing these files to use a professional lab or an "upscale" lab that will not perform any automatic alterations in color, contrast, etc. in their machines.
Why is my child's head "cut off" or my child is "off center" in an image? Images are composed based on artistic vision. Sometimes images will be cropped in close, cutting off the top of heads or maybe the side of the face. In doing this, we are focusing in on your child's beautiful eyes, and these images are best framed with a mat to give the feeling of "looking through a window" at them. Sometimes images are composed "off center" to give the image more artistic impact. This is not done in every photograph. You will get a good variety of several crops, including traditionally centered images as well. If you really wish to see an image cropped in a different way, sometimes this is possible depending on how it was cropped "in camera". Please feel free to ask if another crop is available, but understand that sometimes it is not.
Why should we have our newborn photographed within the first two weeks? The earlier the better. Babies that are under two weeks old may still be "curled" and appear fresh and new. This is such a small window of time that they remain like this. After two weeks, babies start to "unfold" and stretch out. Two weeks is around the time that baby acne will develop and sometimes will be colicky.
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