ottawa photography studio

If you were to ask my husband how many times he’s renovated the studio his answer would probably be “too many”.  It seems like at least once a year there’s a major reorganization or overhaul of the space as I try to make the best use of the square footage I have  available to me. 

sara mcconnell photography

My spacious studio is currently located in my home.  In the City of Ottawa businesses are permitted to operate in residential properties but are only legally allowed to use up to 25% of the space.  For this reason I have limited my studio space to comply with the bylaws and as such, I can’t expand my space, which is why I’m always looking for ways to maximize the space I have available to use.

ottawa photographer

Every time I change the configuration of my space I learn new things about what does and doesn’t work for the different sessions that I photograph and then I head back to the drawing board to see what I can do differently to make my session workflow and session set-up as efficient and flexible as possible.  

ottawa maternity photographer

This was the biggest change we’ve made to the space since moving into our home 7 years ago.  Not only did my husband move the barn board set and re-floor the entire space but he built a three dimensional white set at one end of the studio.  Since everything was torn apart it also seemed like the perfect time to re-paint the entire studio.

The entire project took 5 days and I will admit that halfway through I wanted to just put everything back and forget I’d ever had this ‘great idea’. As you can see from the ‘in progress’ cell phone photos, it was messy chaos.

ottawa newborn photographer

Aside from how I store my different flooring options, I didn’t change the storage configuration of the studio during this round of renovations. There’s a lot of props and accessories tucked away in the studio space and I also have a closet full of maternity gowns as well as a 5x10x10 storage locker at Dymon for furniture and seasonal props.

ottawa baby photography session

What I love the most about the space is how bright and spacious it looks thanks to the new white flooring. I also love that I can now have three sets up at the same time, which means I can offer clients more variety without having to take time during their session to re-arrange the studio and hang new backdrops.

This is especially important during baby, toddler, and child sessions, when we are working with limited attention spans. Now that I have expanded my backdrop collection, it was really important to me to be able to offer as many different options during a session as I possibly can. You can see my entire collection of backdrops here.

ottawa child photographer

I can’t wait to share my 2020 sessions with all of you!