I photographed a session yesterday for a friend of mine. Her sons, Lucas and Liam are just adorable and we had so much fun….even if Liam didn’t smile much (I think he knew what we were trying to do, the lil’ bugger! HAHA). But I hope they had as much fun as I did….here are a bunch of my faves from the session:
This sweet little girl is Aria. She is our friends’ daughter and I also have the pleasure of babysitting this lil’ peanut during the week as well. 😉 On Friday, we decided to take some photos of Aria in her christening gown. It was so cute as her dress was one great big POOF. Man, if only every baby was as easy as her…all you had to do was just talk to her and she’d just break out in huge smiles. EVERY photographer’s dream, I tell ya! Aria definitely made my job easy that day! lol Here are a few of my faves:
I had the honor of being a Guest Blogger for Jodi Friedman, of MCP Actions (who is well known in the photography world for her photoshop training, editing, photoshop actions and workshops). You can see more of Jodi’s blog here: http://mcpactions.com/blog/, comments from the post on both her site and from her MCP Facebook Page (as they were posted both places so many people responded in different places). But I also wanted to share my post here with my readers as well. 🙂
Wedding Photography: Standing Out from Others and Capturing the Emotion
Being a photographer is more than just buying a fancy camera and going out photographing. Heck, anyone can do that. But becoming a wedding photographer and standing out from everyone else who is photographing weddings, is another story. Whether you specialize in weddings, families, newborn…..you can put yourself in this situation. There are a TON of photographers in each state, many doing the same kind of work as you. Some people only photograph weddings. Some photographers specialize in one field but photograph a little bit of everything. My question to you is this…..HOW do you stand out from those other photographers? What makes you different from them?
The first answer that may pop into a photographer’s head is….I’m the cheapest one in my area. Scratch that off your list. The worst thing you can do is be just that. It is one thing to be less expensive IF you are JUST starting out in a field and you need to gain experience. But if you know exactly what you are doing and heck, been photographing something for years, being known as the “cheap photographer” is the worst thing you can do. Potential clients may look at your work, like it, but wonder why you are so much less expensive than the others in your area and pass you by. Does that make sense? Price your work and time accordingly. Your work should be the one speaking for itself. Your work is what will make you stand out from the rest of the photographers.
You need to find your style…your own “look”. If your photography looks like the photographer down the street or the local chain studio, people may pass you by and you wouldn’t have caught their eye. It’s ok if it takes you a while to find out what your style is, no one would expect you to know EXACTLY what you want to do or achieve. Only you will figure it out and when you come across a series of images of yours that WOWs you…you’ll know. After you know what you are looking for, you will keep that in your mind and will make sure to achieve that look, even if it’s just a few images with each wedding. It’s those images that will speak for you and your business. To be honest, it took me probably almost a year with photographing weddings until I really knew what look I was going for. Was I happy with the images I have previously photographed? Yes. But it took a lot of work, practice and creative thinking and processing to accomplish what I wanted.
No one can tell you what look to go for but I’ll give you my thoughts. I am always checking out other photographer’s work: Local, National and International. We all look for inspiration, knowledge and networking. I have found that more and more photographers (and clients) are looking for the more “lifestyle” photography. The “modern” look, so to speak. People in their natural surroundings, families at a park playing and exploring…and of course, to achieve this look, you have to connect with the families or the couple you are photographing. So even if you are photographing in a studio, it’s the feeling and emotions that will show through. That is what you need to show in your images because when a potential client is browsing through your website or blog, if they can connect with a certain image or images that you are presenting to them and say to themselves “WOW! I want this for my wedding!” Or “I have GOT to have this look for my family portrait!”
As I mentioned earlier, I am mainly a wedding photographer. I would say that about 80% of my work is Weddings and the rest is between Families, Newborns, Trash the Dress and everything else that falls in between. With each wedding or portrait session I photograph, there is at least one image that I can say “WOW!” and know that I truly captured the emotion of that couple, their true personalities or a certain moment that happened. For the first image, it is a baby girl hanging in a cocoon. This image is dear to my heart and I think it always will be. It certainly isn’t a “Carrie Sandoval” or “Anne Geddes”, image but even as I progress with my experience with this type of portrait, this one is special. The parents’ of this baby was the very first couple that I met with and booked me as their wedding photographer when I started my own business. Being able to capture the two very important things in their life (their wedding day and their first born child), is an amazing feeling!
I truly love each and every one of my bridal couples. I have yet to have a “bridezilla” and hope that I never have to come across one. Sometimes, you’ll get the couples that just call or email you and book your services right off the bat. But in my opinion, I would rather meet with them in person and more-so, would LOVE if every couple booked an engagement session with your services. Why do you ask? It gives you more time to get to know the couple, find out what they love to do together, talk more about their wedding and just create a great relationship with them. However, this can STILL happen if they don’t want an engagement session. Keep in touch with them by phone, email, your blog, Facebook…anything. Don’t be a pest of course, but it’s an awesome feeling on their wedding day when you’re really comfortable with them and I find out, they are more willing to try new things out if you want to experiment. In wedding photography, you MUST try new things. New poses, new lighting (even if it’s finding a different location in a reception area that you’ve photographed a million times), test out some video lights or grab a flashlight for different looks on things. If it doesn’t work the first time, don’t get discouraged. Try to figure out what went wrong and experiment again before your next event. Or it could be a different way you edit. Something new and fresh! For example, my next image. Lots of photographers will have the groom dip the bride to kiss them. It’s always one the client loves, it’s classy. I still do it. But take it up a notch. Have the groom kiss their neck or just below that. It creates a classy, yet playful and more seductive look to it. With this image, I was testing a new way to edit and I think it really worked for this because in my eyes, it added to the romantic look that the image already portrays.
For the last image that I will show you, there’s a little story behind it. With this bride, both her and her sister booked me to be their wedding photographer. However, this bride’s fiancé was in the United States Army. Unfortunately, it turned out that he was going to be deployed sooner than expected and when they had to move up their date, I was double booked for that weekend they had planned it. She came to me at a later time, saying that she wasn’t completely happy with her wedding images and wanted me to photograph a Trash the Dress session with her and her husband when he came home. The beginning of the session, we did some portraits of the two of them and then slowly did some more urban, modern portraits…and finally, ended up IN the ocean for some great photos. This couple was up for ANYTHING that I wanted to do and having a client say that, is like being a kid in a candy store! This image is nice as it was photographed but I felt that it needed something a little more and when I tried this edit, it literally made me go “Ooooooooh!” For my style, it just works. I’m very excited too because this bride has become a good friend of mine now and they are now expecting their first child. I bet you can sense how excited I am about that!
So…to wrap it up…it’s ALL about style, the feel of your photography and capturing those emotions. In wedding photography, constantly keep an eye out for things that are happening around you. Think of ALL the planning, stress and emotional attachments that happen on that day. There’s bound to be tears and screams of excitement. It’s up to you to capture those images for everyone to see in years to come because not only are you creating memories, you’ll be creating more emotions THROUGH your photographs.
I had the pleasure to meet Angela and Aaron’s twins, Adrianna & Austin. I’ve known Angela for quite some time…as we went to high school together. I haven’t seen her in 12 yrs so it was definitely nice to catch up a bit. 🙂
The lil’ ones definitely kept us busy! This was my first twin session and at 6 wks old, I thought maybe I’d get a few of them sleeping because I had sooooo many ideas in my mind that I wanted to do. But they had other plans for me. 😉 So although I didn’t get to try the ideas I wanted, I think we got some great ones! It was awesome to meet and hold them…man, I love that infant stage.
Angela & Aaron, thanks for putting up with me and not minding too much for getting peed on. 😉 It was worth it, I think! 😀 Here are few of my favorites from their session:
I had envisioned them on their bellies on the lil’ couch and then Adrianna laying half on Austin. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. 😛 HAHAHA Still thought this was cute!
The other day, I had the priviledge to photograph some products by Ginny Marsella, owner of Ginny’s Tarts & Treats. I’ve known Ginny for a couple of years now, as she is also a PHENOMENAL massage therapist and I’d highly recommend her to anyone who needs one! 😉
I also had the YUMMY experience to sample many of her creations and they are FABULOUS! To be honest, I am not one for white chocolate, but one of my favorites is the white chocolate covered potato chips. They are awesome!! So you see, even if you prefer one chocolate over the other, you have GOT to try both. Ginny’s Candied Apples are to DIE for and there are so many options for those.
I could go on and on about her products but I would definitely recommend contacting Ginny if you ever need a wonderful gift with a personal touch. Think Holidays, Weddings, Showers, Birthdays, Birthday Favors, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thinking of You, etc etc. The possibilities are endless! Her website is in the works so I will add that once it’s up and running. So for now, if you’d like to contact Ginny, you’re more than welcome to call her at 401-573-2910.
Here are a few of my faves from the product session:
I call these “Every Pregnant Woman’s Dream”…chocolate covered potato chips!
Now that it’s November, we may want to try not to think about it…but yes, holidays are right around the corner! *GASP!* So instead of waiting until it’s too close to Thanksgiving or Christmas where you’re panicking about what to buy that special someone, I’m promoting a “Black Friday” Monthly Sale. Yes, for the entire month of November!
This will be a Collaboration Favorites Album. You, as the client, may choose up to 10 portraits from a past photo session (or wedding) in then I, as the photographer, will choose the remaining photos to complete the album. You will receive a 8×8 photo book album with 20 sides (10 pgs, double-sided) that includes a hard cover on the book with a photo directly on it. This album would make a BEAUTIFUL gift for parents, grandparents, siblings or any loved one at the holidays. But who are we kidding, it’s perfect to display on your mantle or coffee table as well. For those bridal couples that didn’t choose the option for a parent album, you could use this to surprise them as well! The original cost of these photo books is $150 but up until November 30th, all orders placed before then will receive them at $75 plus RI sales tax. If you order more than one copy, you’ll receive 10% off the balance! For those that may have a portrait session from now until the end of November, you are more than welcome to “lock in” this offer by adding it to your session fee.
So for those that may not have purchased prints from past sessions yet or if you want to get a head start on your holiday shopping, just send me a message to snag this great offer! 🙂
I’ve known Jess and her family for a few years now and I was thrilled when she contacted me a couple of months ago to schedule another family session. I had the honor to photograph Shaun’s sister’s wedding back in 2007 and then when Jess & Shaun had their first son, Christopher, I was blessed to capture his newborn photos. So when I heard that Christopher was now a big brother, I was stoked!! I had a blast at our session and I really enjoyed the lil’ conversation that Mr. CJ and I had about the color of his room. 😉 LOL
Hope you enjoy the sneak peek so far!
I was very excited when Doreen from “Delectables By Doreen” contacted me. She asked me to photograph some of her chocolates, goodies and cakes for her business and I was thrilled because…hey, who doesn’t love to be SURROUNDED by chocolate?! HAHA, but also, because this was my very first product to photograph.
Delectables by Doreen is a WONDERFUL idea if you don’t know what to get that special someone for a nice “Thank You” gift, Thinking of You gift, anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, baby & bridal showers, wedding gifts, wedding favors for receptions and the list can go on and on! Why spend a ton of money on little trinkets for favors when you can have a delicious and mouth-watering goodie to savor, right?!
Doreen makes all kinds of beautiful goodies from chocolate truffles, turtles, caramel pyramids, coconut macaroons, little cakes, chocolate bars…man, I could go on forever! Below is a small sample of what she creates and a few of my favorites from the session.
If you are interested in contacting Doreen, a website will be coming in the future so for now, you may contact here at delectablesbydoreen@yahoo.com.
Here is a sneak peek for Christine and her family. I used to work with Christine a few years ago and also had the pleasure of photographing her wedding. So of course, I was stoked when she contacted me to do a family session of Mike, lil’ Cameron and of herself. 😉
Here’s some of my faves from the session:
Couldn’t resist this lil’ pout!
Teresa Sweet Photography
Teresa Sweet Photography 