Book studio hours without guessing a Saturday

The caller wants a Tuesday hour. You have a camera in your hands.

Someone rings to put a sitting in the book. You are halfway through a newborn set. The paper is still on the stand. You cannot write and photograph at the same time.

The caller does not want a time of day first. They want a family hour, or they want to know if 14 June is free, or they want you to hold a christening Saturday. Those are three different things to write down. An assistant that opens with “what date would you like?” has already chosen the wrong book.

A sitting needs what they want photographed, how many people, studio or outdoors, then an hour that is free. A wedding needs the date, then the book, then a hold or a callback — not a locked Saturday from a feeling. A christening needs the same care as a wedding. Mix them and you have a couple sure they have you on a day you are already in a church, or a maternity hour sitting on top of a reception in Glyfada.

This is the booking work in a small Greek studio: an hour under a light, or a whole Saturday in a church.

Wedding, christening, or studio — then the facts

That is the order. Nothing goes into the book until the assistant knows which of the three it is. Time of day is not the first question. A date is not the first question either, not until it knows this is a sitting, a wedding, or a baptism.

A studio portrait. Family, maternity, newborn, a headshot, a name-day set in front of the paper. How many people, studio or outdoors, weekday or a Saturday you have actually left open for sittings. Then the calendar, then a time that is free, then the text. This is the work that can be finished on the call.

A wedding. Church or town hall, then a reception. Getting-ready pictures if you do them, the ceremony, the groups, the party. That Saturday is gone once you say yes. Hours of coverage, a second shooter, an album, travel to an island — those wait for you. The assistant takes the date and the names. It does not invent the rest.

A christening. Still a church. Still usually a Saturday. Still a hall afterwards, and grandparents who want a posed set on the steps. It is shorter than a wedding and it is not a studio hour. Do not let the assistant treat it as a gap you can put a sitting into, and do not let it stack a morning baptism in Kifisia on top of an afternoon wedding in Glyfada because there is a gap on the page. If you ever shoot two events in one day, you mark that yourself. The assistant does not discover it.

A single call can hold two of these. “A family sitting next week, and are you free on the 14th of June?” is a sitting and a wedding. “We booked the engagement last month, can we hold the wedding Saturday?” is a hold, even if they also ask about a studio hour for the parents. Hear both. Write both. Confirm neither until the right book has spoken.

Write the first question the way you would for a new person on the phone. One sentence. Wedding, christening, or studio. Skip it and the wrong day goes in.

A sitting is an hour, not a Saturday

Four people in the studio is not two people outdoors. A newborn hour is not a family sitting. A headshot is not a name-day set. The assistant takes the facts in that order, then looks at the book you already use.

It offers an hour only if that book shows one free, for that kind of work, at that moment. If the last Tuesday at five was taken while you were still photographing, that hour is already gone. The assistant does not fill the gap with a yes. It takes what they want and a number and stops.

Do not give it a hopeful sentence. “Tuesday is usually quiet” will be read out. If an hour is not free until you have looked, do not leave a sentence that sounds as if it is.

A Saturday you left open for portraits — a winter Saturday, a Sunday you actually shoot — has to be marked, or the assistant will refuse a sitting you wanted, or accept one you did not. An event Saturday has to be marked as the whole day, or it will offer 16:00 for a maternity sitting while you are still at a reception in Glyfada.

Two families for one hour are two sittings. Connecting them because they are cousins is a wish, not a booking. If the book does not show two hours, the assistant does not promise both.

A couple who rings about a sitting and a couple who already have a wedding hold are not the same people. The first needs a free hour. The second needs the date that is already there. Ask which they are before anyone talks about writing a new sitting.

A wedding is a whole Saturday

The studio book does not know whether 14 June is a wedding until someone has said so. That is why the first question exists.

If they mean a wedding, the next fact is the date, then what the calendar actually shows. The assistant does not say yes from last week’s memory. It does not say “probably” to sound quick. If that Saturday is already booked, it says so. If it has not seen the book, it takes a callback.

A free mark on that Saturday is still not a package and it is still not a contract. It is a date that is not already marked. What you allow next is a hold until you call, or a meeting, or a straight “Maris will ring you today.” Write that rule down. An assistant that is not told the difference will lock a June Saturday for a couple you have never spoken to, or it will leave the date open while they book someone else.

Do not let a wedding become a sitting because the sitting questions are the ones it knows. “Are you free the 14th of June?” is not “do you have Tuesday at five?”. Answer the question they asked, after you know what the date is for.

A package is not a booking. Hours, a second shooter, an island, an album — those wait for you. The assistant may repeat a published studio item you typed in. It must not read out a wedding number from a description. If you type a wedding figure into the notes, it will say that number. Leave the number off until you have the hours and the place in front of you.

A hold is only the rule you wrote

A couple who likes you will ask you to hold the date. Some of you hold for forty-eight hours pending a conversation. Some of you never hold, and only mark the Saturday once you have spoken. The assistant follows the rule you wrote. It does not invent a hold because the caller sounded ready.

If you do not hold, say so in one line. The assistant repeats it. It takes the names and a number. It does not say “I will keep 14 June for you” to keep them on the line. A couple who heard a hold will stop ringing other photographers. Then you spend Sunday unsaying it.

If you do hold, write how long, what releases it, and whether a second couple can be noted behind the first. The assistant does not discover a waiting list. It does not extend a hold because they asked nicely.

A hold that expires has to go back on the book the same hour, or the next caller is told that Saturday is taken and the day sits empty. That is the same work as a cancelled sitting, on a more expensive day.

One call, two requests

“Do you have Tuesday at five for a family sitting, and are you free on the 14th of June?” Sitting and wedding.

“We booked the engagement last month, can we hold the wedding Saturday, and can the parents come in for a portrait?” Hold, then a sitting.

“Can we do the sitting outdoors if it is fine, or in the studio if it rains?” That is still one sitting, with a weather line you already use. The assistant may repeat the rule. It may not decide the weather, and it may not invent a second hour you do not have.

Hear every request. Write each one against the thing it belongs to. Confirm each one only when that thing allows it. A single friendly yes that covers the sitting, the Saturday, and the package is how the week goes wrong.

If the sitting can be confirmed and the wedding cannot, say that. If the Saturday is marked free and the package is not yours to quote, say that. The caller can wait for you if they know. They cannot if they were told the day is theirs.

Moving an hour is one change

Find the sitting. Release the old hour. Write the new one. Then text. That is one change, in that order.

Split it — cancel first, then hunt — and their own hour is still blocking the Tuesday they are asking for. That hour still shows as taken under their name. If the new time is gone, they have lost the old one too.

The new hour still has to exist. Four people moving from a studio set to an outdoor hour are not moving the same sitting. The assistant asks what changed, then looks at the book, then offers. If the new kind of work is not free, the old hour stays until they agree to let it go.

A wedding date that was only an enquiry is not something the assistant moves on the phone. “Can we do the 21st instead” on a date you have not confirmed is a request. You decide. The assistant takes the names and the new date and stops.

Weather on an outdoor sitting is a request to move, not a decision the assistant makes. It checks the next free hour and offers that, or it takes a callback if the week is tight. It does not decide the weather.

Test a move on a real name before it runs on the book you use. Pick a sitting that is already in. Ask to shift it by one day. Watch whether their own hour blocks them. If it does, fix the order.

A cancel has to go back on the book

People ring in the morning to say they are not coming this afternoon. On a small studio that is often an hour you can still sell, if the book shows it as free before the next sitting call.

A cancel that sits in a notebook, or in a transcript for the evening, is an hour the next caller is told you do not have. They ring someone else. At six you have an empty stool and a full book on paper.

The assistant writes the cancel into the same book it writes sittings into, the same hour. Then the next person who asks for that time can be offered it. A cancel after you have already left for the church is still worth taking — you would rather know — but it is not a refill you should promise.

Say the cancel rule when the sitting is written, if you have one. Many small studios ask for a day’s notice and do not chase a no-show. Do not let the assistant describe a charge you will not make. A rule you do not enforce is a sentence that will be read back to you at the door, with four people already on the step.

A cancelled wedding hold is the same work on a Saturday. Put the day back. Do not leave it marked because nobody sat down with the diary.

What the confirmation may say

The text goes out after the sitting is in the book. Day, hour, what they booked, name. The language of the call. A caller who rang in English gets the text in English. You do not set a language per sitting. The assistant works in 70+ languages and follows the one they started in.

A wedding that is still a callback does not belong in that text as if the Saturday is theirs. “We have noted 14 June and Maris will call you” is honest. “See you on the 14th” is not, not until you have said so.

A hold can go in a second text once you allow it — how long, what releases it. Do not send a “the 14th is yours” for a date that was never marked.

If the book cannot be reached, there is no text. A callback is not a confirmation. You finish it.

Galleries, albums, and the questions that are not bookings

Not every call is something to write into the book. When the gallery will be ready, whether last week’s sneak peek is coming, where to park for the studio, whether you shoot name-days — those answers live in what you typed in. The assistant may repeat them. It may not invent a delivery day, a sneak peek you did not authorise, or a parking space you do not have.

“Can we come at four instead of five?” on a day they already have a sitting is a move, not a new sitting. The honest answers are the ones you already give: the hour is free, or it is not, or you will call them back. Do not let that call become a second booking.

A complaint about last Saturday’s coverage, a photo they cannot find, a colour they did not like, is a note. It is not a free reshoot and not a new Saturday. Take the name. Take what they said. Put it in front of you. You look at the files.

An engagement sitting, a wedding and an album are three different jobs. The sitting can be booked if an hour is free. The wedding is still a date that has to be checked. The album is not a phone item. The assistant should not join them into one booking to sound finished.

How CITT handles it

1. Wedding, christening, or studio first. Then the facts that belong to that request. A date is not the opening question.
2. It reads the book you already use before it says an hour or a Saturday is free, and writes the sitting into that same book.
3. A wedding is a second check, against a whole day, not against a leftover hour. No invented Saturday.
4. A hold follows the rule you wrote. No invented lock. No invented waiting list.
5. A move is one change on a sitting that started with you. A wedding enquiry is a request.
6. A cancel goes back on the book the same hour, so the next caller can be offered that time.
7. Several calls are answered at once. A Saturday burst is not a stack of busy tones.
8. It texts after the book is written, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and only for what was actually confirmed.
9. What the call cannot finish becomes a tagged note — an unpublished package, a Saturday the book will not confirm, an island, a second shooter, a gallery complaint.

What it will not do

It will not invent a free Saturday. If the book does not show one, the caller gets a request taken, not a yes.

It will not invent a wedding package, a travel fee, a hold, or a second photographer.

It will not put a studio hour onto a Saturday that is already a wedding. It will not treat a christening as a gap before someone else’s ceremony.

It will not move a wedding that is still only an enquiry. It will not offer a free reshoot because the caller is unhappy.

It will not send a confirmation for a sitting that is not in the book. It will not put a hopeful Saturday sentence in that text.

It will not treat four people as two, or an outdoor hour as a studio hour, to make the time fit.

What these calls sound like

The kind of call first. Then the facts. Then the book. Then only the sentence that is true — the sitting is written, the wedding is a request, the hold is the one you use.

There is no “I’m sure the 14th is open” when you have not seen the book. There is no package number from a description. There is no text for a Tuesday the book did not show.

If the assistant is friendly and still writes the last hour twice, two families meet at the stool. Put the person who rang about Tuesday at five on an hour the book actually shows, and keep 14 June on its own line.

What you set up first

Put the assistant on the number on the card with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so you still take the call if you can step out of the studio. Then:

1. The first split. Wedding, christening, studio. One sentence, the way you would say it to a new person on the phone.
2. The book you already use. Event Saturdays as whole days. Weekday hours for sittings. A Saturday you actually leave open for portraits, marked as such.
3. Hold. Yes or no. How long. What releases it. Callback only, if that is what you do.
4. Published studio prices it may repeat, and nothing else. No wedding figure in the notes.
5. How a move and a cancel are written back into the same book, including the line that a wedding enquiry is a request.
6. Studio address, parking, how a sitting is cancelled, the weather line for outdoor hours. Facts it may say. Not bookings.
7. One line that forbids a package price, a free reshoot, or a locked Saturday from the phone.

Then read the first fifty sittings yourself. Kind of call, hour, whether a wedding was promised, whether a christening was stacked on a wedding Saturday. You are looking for the work nobody entered: the second shooter, the island, the hold you do not give, the baptism that was treated as a gap.

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