Spring Cuteness
…when the snow all melts and the flowers are beginning to bloom, I’d love to come over and have a family session with you!
Locations don’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to leave your home!
A lot of people spent lots of time at their homes between the spring of 2020 to the spring of 2021. I did this sweet families photos right at their home in the Village. They were the first family I shot after a long winter of surgery, crutches, building my website, and planning but not working.
Their session was difficult for me because it was shot in the middle of the day. Too much light can be a hard thing to overcome. I love to be able to manipulate the available light with location changes, naturally occurring shade and sometimes (only when needed) reflectors and off camera flash. I couldn’t find shade in the yard, which was super cute. My flash was too much because of the very bright overhead light and reflectors were also blowing out this cute family.
Another difficulty I faced was not knowing exactly “what” my business would look like during the year. I didn’t have my pricing where I wanted it. I didn’t have my delivery system, or my client communication system in place so I felt like I was doing a lot of back and forth with all of my jobs and leads and had a hard time remembering to do “all the things” you need to have a consistent photography business.
I wasn’t completely sure exactly what kind of photographer I wanted to be. I didn’t know what types of jobs I liked the best and I felt like I was really still taking ALL the jobs of any kind: just to try out different things.
After their shoot, I culled (went though and picked the favorites) and deleted the “mishaps”. I take a lot of photos during a family session. The sessions can last up to an hour and I normally have around 700 photos. I panicked when I had to delete more than 80% of their session from malfunctions in my lighting, and harshness of the natural lighting of the day.
But you know what? I still caught their love. I may not have done it to the caliper (and definitely not to the amount of finished images) as I give my family sessions now, but it was there.
I learned 3 major lessons that day:
1 Use God’s given light: don’t add UNLESS there isn’t enough available (which is only when I do some of my senior Portraits headshot stuff.) Also I choose my working hours now. Your session will be one hour before sunset. If that time really doesn’t work for your family: we can talk about very early morning or locations that work in more “midday” type sun. I have only used flash on one other family session all year: and it was because it was a VERY grey nearly raining day: (it actually started during the session.)
2 Automate my communication and photo delivery. There are so many great applications out there and web tools to help photographers, and now I utilize them and don’t miss communication. My whole process is very streamlined and simple now: and when you book me, you will never feel uninformed or like you’re dealing with someone who’s emails will head right into your junk folder (LOL yup that was happening!)
3 I LOVE FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY. At the start of 2021 I didn’t know. I was doing a lot of things. I liked all the things.. or at least I thought I did. I didn’t have a niche: and I was afraid to claim one (or two) because I thought I’d be turning away business that I needed to pay for my website and equipment. After the “K” families gallery was in their hands I knew no matter what: I loved working with families and kids and that would be the base of my business.
I would later discover my second niche in Senior Photography, but thats for another post.
If I’ve had the privilege of working with you or your family in the past, and especially during 2020 or early 2021 I’d love a repeat booking from you in the upcoming year. I’ve learned so much and would love to show off my new skills!
So Long 2021, it’s been a wild ride! I can’t wait to see what 2022 brings for me in my own family, and especially in my family photography business.
Cheers!
