Jill Chaze Photography

Jill Chaze Photography Photographer & Education Interested in a session? Click here
https://sessionl.ink/jillchazephotography

I’ve been photographing Courtney for about seven years now.Seven years of new offerings, new spaces, rebrands, whole new...
08/30/2026

I’ve been photographing Courtney for about seven years now.

Seven years of new offerings, new spaces, rebrands, whole new directions — and every single time, we get back in front of the camera and make it look like the thing it’s become.

Small business branding is genuinely one of my favorite things I do. I love getting to know somebody’s business well enough that I can see what makes it theirs, and then hand them images that actually look like that.

Here’s the part I wish more business owners knew. Strong branding photos are not one headshot for the About page. They’re the whole year of your business showing up online.

They’re your Instagram feed looking like one brand instead of a pile of screenshots. They’re the profile photo, the highlight covers, the reel cover that isn’t a blurry frozen frame of your face. They’re the graphic when you announce something, the email header, the flyer, the thing you send a magazine at 9pm when they need a photo by 10. They’re the wide shot with room for text over it, so you’re not cropping your own head off in Canva at midnight.

When a customer finds you, they decide something about you in about two seconds — before they’ve read one word. Good images make that two seconds work for you instead of against you.

And I know being in front of the camera is nobody’s favorite. Almost every branding client tells me in the first ten minutes that they’re bad at this. You are not bad at this. I’ll tell you where to stand, what to do with your hands, which way to turn — you never have to figure out a pose on your own. That part is my job.

If your website still has a picture of you from four years and one business ago, this is your sign.

08/29/2026

Twenty minutes, a family of five, and one kid who decided today was not the day. If you’ve shot minis, you already know how this goes.

Every single mom apologizes to me. And every single time, the shot she kids for gallery, she is in awe with everything I got.

The fix is boring: don’t open with the whole-family photo. Warm the kids up first, alone, get them silly, then bring the parents in. Everyone is loose by then and nobody is performing.

Twenty minutes is genuinely enough time. It’s just not enough time to spend ten of it negotiating with a three year old.

Tag a photographer who is about to start their fall mini season. 😅

Want to know what a lifestyle newborn session actually looks like….I come to your house. We use your bed, the nursery, a...
08/25/2026

Want to know what a lifestyle newborn session actually looks like….

I come to your house. We use your bed, the nursery, and your living room. I photograph in your home, not a studio, because your rooms are part of the story. Those are the details you’ll want back in ten years, and they only exist in your house.

You put baby in a beautiful heirloom gown or something simple. Big siblings, mom and dad, and even our furry friends are in the pictures and comfortable within their own space of their home.

We go at your baby’s pace. If they need to eat, we stop. If they need to be held for twenty minutes, we hold them. There’s no rushing a newborn and there’s no need to stress.

What you end up with is what your life actually looked like in those first two weeks, which is the thing you forget the fastest.

Best window is the first fourteen days. I pencil in your due date and we finalize once baby is here.

Hi, I’m Jill. There are a lot of new faces here, so let me reintroduce myself.I spent twenty years as a classroom teache...
08/14/2026

Hi, I’m Jill. There are a lot of new faces here, so let me reintroduce myself.

I spent twenty years as a classroom teacher. Twenty years of getting kids to trust me, pay attention, and relax — which, it turns out, is the entire job of photographing children. I didn’t know at the time I was training for this and how I would love photographing children and families.

I started my business photography business16 years ago and have never looked back.

Since then I’ve photographed hundreds of families around New Orleans, and the best part is that most of them come back year after year. I know their kids’ names. I’ve watched babies I photographed in a hospital room turn into little people. They text me pictures of the prints on their walls, and I will never get tired of that.

In the meantime, when I’m not shooting or editing — you’ll most often see me doing some sort of sport activity and always out and about in the city. I’m always planning my next vacation even when I’m on vacation, and love exploring on my own.

Let me tell you why I keep coming back to the Marigny Opera House every fall.It’s the simplest backdrop I shoot against ...
08/12/2026

Let me tell you why I keep coming back to the Marigny Opera House every fall.

It’s the simplest backdrop I shoot against all season, and simple is underrated. No busy background, no distractions, nothing competing with your family. Just clean lines and those gorgeous marble steps.

And the steps are the whole thing, honestly. Steps solve the problem every family photographer runs into with a group — where do the tall people go, where do the little ones go, how does everybody fit without looking like a lineup. Steps give me levels. Everyone’s face is visible, everyone’s at a different height, and it looks natural instead of arranged.

The other reason I love it: every single outfit works here. I’ve shot deep jewel tones, soft creams, black, navy, big florals — all of it looks intentional against that backdrop. You’re not going to show up and clash with the location, which takes one more thing off your plate.

It photographs classic. Ten years from now it won’t look like a trend, it’ll just look beautiful. October 24 is at the Marigny Opera House. Link in bio to grab a time.

They will never be this small again, and you will not remember it as well as you think you will. Here’s two ways to do y...
08/12/2026

They will never be this small again, and you will not remember it as well as you think you will.

Here’s two ways to do your baby’s first year with me.

Petite Bebe is three sessions. Newborn at home, six months sitter session, and one year with the cake smash. It’s the essentials, and it’s plenty.

Signature Bebe is five. Same three, plus three months and nine months. Three months is when they finally look at you and know who you are. Nine months is the crawling, pulling-up, into-everything stage. If you want the whole year, that’s the one.

Here’s the part I love most, and it’s the part people don’t expect.

You’re in these. Not standing off to the side while I photograph the baby. In them. It’s your bed, your living room, your hands. I want your face next to theirs at every stage, because you’re changing that first year too, and nobody photographs that.

I’ve had moms tell me the six month image of them holding their baby is the only good photo they have of themselves from that entire year. That’s not nothing.

And it always, always ends with the cake smash. One year old, cake everywhere, absolute chaos. Best twenty minutes of the whole thing.

A retainer holds your spot, and I can set the rest up so you pay across the year instead of all at once. Maternity can be a discounted add on if you want the whole experience.

I only run Heirloom minis about three times a year, and that’s on purpose.These aren’t like my regular minis. You’re not...
08/10/2026

I only run Heirloom minis about three times a year, and that’s on purpose.

These aren’t like my regular minis. You’re not getting a full gallery. You’re getting a limited number of heirlooms finished with the kind of deep hand-editing that takes them somewhere else entirely — softer, richer, closer to a painting than a photograph. The work happens after the session.

So I do a few. Spring, fall, and usually one more in summer.

These are the images that get printed large and hung where people actually see them. Not the ones you scroll past. The ones your kids will argue over one day.

Fall is sold out. It usually is, and I’m always a little sorry about that because someone always messages me right after.

But if you want in, tell me. If I get enough of you, I’ll see about opening a few more slots, and if I can’t, you’ll be the first to know when I set the next round.

Here’s the session I wish more families booked.Not the parents and kids., The grandparents and the grandkids.Because her...
08/02/2026

Here’s the session I wish more families booked.
Not the parents and kids., The grandparents and the grandkids.

Because here’s what happens. Grandparents come to a lot of things. They’re at the birthdays, the holidays, the Sunday lunches. And they are almost never in the picture, because they’re the ones holding somebody’s coat or taking the photo themselves.

Then years pass, and somebody goes looking for a good photo of Nana with the kids, and what they find is a blurry one from an iPhone at a restaurant.

I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve photographed grandparents who fussed the entire way there about not needing pictures, and then cried when they saw them. I’ve had families order the biggest print I offer of one image — a grandfather sitting on a bench with three grandkids piled on him, none of them looking at me.

That’s the one. Every time, it’s that one.

So if you’re wondering what to get your parents for their birthday or for Christmas, this is my honest answer. They don’t need another thing for the house. They want time with your kids, and they want to be remembered with them.

A session gives them both. An hour of your kids climbing on them, and then something on their wall forever.

And the grandkids get something too, eventually. They just don’t know it yet.

Thinking about doing this for your parents? Message me and I’ll help you plan it — I’ve done a lot of these and I know exactly how to make them easy on everyone.

One note: I didn’t mention gift certificates since I don’t have confirmation you sell those. If you do, that’s a stronger close than “message me” — say the word and I’ll swap it in.

Photographers….. Did you know Mini sessions were 56% of my revenue last year. Fall is about eight weeks out, and I know ...
07/31/2026

Photographers….. Did you know Mini sessions were 56% of my revenue last year.

Fall is about eight weeks out, and I know exactly what’s about to happen — because it happened to me for years.

You’ll decide in early September to run a mini day. You’ll post it once. Four people will book. You’ll run forty minutes behind by ten in the morning, hand over the galleries, and never hear from those families again.

Over half of what I made, in twenty-minute pieces — 108 families across sixteen mini events. They are, hands down, the most reliable money in my business, and the reason isn’t that I’m a better photographer in October. It’s that I finally built a system around them instead of winging it every year.

So I’ve been rebuilding my Mastering Minis course from the ground up. Re-recording all of it. The booking setup that lets clients book themselves without ever messaging you. The pricing math, done for you, so you’re not guessing at 11pm. And the part I honestly got wrong for years — what to offer a mini client afterward so they turn into a full-session client instead of disappearing until next fall.

I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was five years old, but I was twelve years into teaching before I ever turned it into a business. Twenty years in a classroom taught me how to take something hard and break it down for a person who’s already decided they can’t do it — and I still build these courses the way I built a lesson plan. You shouldn’t have to figure out the hard part by yourself. That’s my job.

It’s close, and I want it in your hands before the season, not after it.

Comment BLueprint below and I’ll make sure you’re the first to know when it opens. 👇

One year can go by in the blink of an eye. 🤍One minute you’re holding your newborn for the very first time... and before...
07/25/2026

One year can go by in the blink of an eye. 🤍

One minute you’re holding your newborn for the very first time... and before you know it, they’re sitting up, crawling, taking those wobbly first steps, and celebrating their very first birthday.

These little milestones deserve more than just a quick photo on your phone.

They deserve to be remembered forever.

That’s exactly why I created my Yearly Baby Club Membership.

Instead of wondering when to schedule photos or worrying about missing those once-in-a-lifetime moments, I’ll be there to document each beautiful stage of your baby’s first year.

From sleepy newborn snuggles...
To sweet tummy time smiles...
To sitting up with the biggest grin...
To that unforgettable first birthday celebration...

Together, we’ll create a collection of timeless images you’ll treasure for the rest of your life.

The best part? Everything is planned for you, making the entire experience simple, stress-free, and something your family can look forward to all year long.

Because babies don’t keep...

But the memories can. 🤍

If you’re expecting or recently welcomed your little one, I’d love to walk alongside your family during this incredible first year.

Address

New Orleans, LA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Jill Chaze Photography posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Jill Chaze Photography:

Shortcuts

Share

Category