What Clients should know about Photographers (me specifically)
For the Family person, photos are important to you. They give you something to look back on, to create scrapbook things and they are great storytelling things for when your kids bring over their current significant others.
For the couples, photos catalog the time spent together, the authenticity of the smiles and intimate moments, and they can be a perfect date on a day at the park. They can be a retelling of a story of the first meeting, on the bridge during a sunset holding hands, or through the glass window of the first date.
For the solo, this is a time in your life that is momentous, and highlights this point in time that things are looking great. graduation, loss of weight, new job, and even costume modeling. This will be the photo that everyone will like on Facebook and think "Wow, they look great!" and be inspired to rise up to the occasion.
I'm a Shoot and Share Photographer, which means I deliver Hi-Res Digital Images. I want to help you feel comfortable with me, so before you even inquire about my session and you're reading this first, here are some things you should know:
1. I Want to be your friend
My friends are the people that I love being myself around, we laugh, we play and we love wholeheartedly and genuinely. That's why I want to be your friend. I believe we're the most comfortable around our family and friends who know and accept us for who we are. Those are the photos that you want to have for the rest of your life and the ones you want to hand down and share. In my experience, the photos of all my friends are the ones I love the most, They're not afraid to show me their more intimate moments, and they aren't afraid to be silly and have some unplanned poses that are unique to them.
2. I want to create beautiful photos and strive to provide them
I love to create awesome photos, and deliver them for you to enjoy. Light, colors, composition, texture, these are some the things I consider when making beautiful photos; take note because a learned appreciation for these things will give you an insight about great photos and photographers. Since I love for you to enjoy these photos as much as I do, I strive to give you photos that I take in my styles for you to enjoy! Sometimes, I have a great set of photos that are more than what I originally agreed to, I deliver them because they were probably too good to be kept for myself.
3. Light, its like crack
This go along the lines of creating beautiful photos, because light contributes to amazing photos. Our eyes adjust our vision of how we see the world, in the photography world, we have to obtain the right conditions so that our cameras can capture the same vision that we see. That is why most of my scheduled sessions will be during the sunrise hours or the sunset hours. These are usually the best hours to get some wickedly awesome lighting conditions. Winter time is one of my favorite months for lighting because of the angle of the sun, but its usually the time when people are hibernating, these are the best times to schedule a lifestyle shoot inside your home where its nice and warm.
4. I'm always looking at your best angle
I can probably say this in confidence, that as we're talking, I'm already thinking, "Wow, this person's really good looking, I want to photograph them." I look for your best angle and highlight some if not all of the things you love about yourself because self confidence is a healthy. I think the most flattering things someone can say to me from an individual session would be that they never thought they were good looking or attractive until they've taken my session and have gotten my photos. This is me giving back to the people who love my photography because it gives them more confidence in themselves that they didn't have before.
5. I love spoiling clients
Other than possible extra photos from your session, I love sending out Christmas gifts, a small 4x6 of your session that you did with me for the year, or a personal Christmas card from yours truely which I have done before. Ordering from a professional print lab, they send out a card that tells me who has worked on my order, and I plan to send them a photo of all the cards I collected this year as an appreciation of my gratitude for always giving me great service. In term, I do the same for my clients and friends, When I can, I will give deals of prints, canvases and even sessions so they can enjoy my work. I will personally deliver photos if I had to in custom made boxes with USBs. I create a different connection with different clients because everyone has their unique differences and different things that make up their personalities, so most of the time i gear my gifts towards what they would enjoy.
6. I worry about your likes on facebook
I post sneak peek photos not only to let others know what I'm doing but also to get you excited about getting all your photos. I usually start getting worried when they haven't liked the photo that was posted and start doubting myself until that moment in my news feed that pops up "Annette liked my photo", then I jump for joy. Nailed it. In many service industries that are involved in social media, we're in the mind set of pleasing our clients through ourselves, designers, artists and photographers are in that category. We put so much into the work that instant rejection is almost like death to us. If you like the work and our session together, click that like button, it will give me a peace of mind, it also tells me that you want to be kept engaged.
7. I'm going to ask a lot of questions for your session.
We booked your session, and its much more planning than you think it is, so I want to be prepared when it happens. I want to know everything about you, the things you like, what time of day would be best, what kind of outfit you're wearing for the shoot, how many people are involved, what are things that you love about yourself and maybe even what kind of food you love to eat. these questions are exaggerated, but its more to make aware that I'm trying to gather information so that I can be best prepared for our session together, some people are better at emails and texts than others. I try to respond to an email inquiry within the hour that its sent so that there's enough time to let it all soak in, get back to me with more questions and answer them with questions of my own. Phone interviews and inquiries are usually the best for this because this is the moment where I'm trying to make sure I know everything before our session starts and gets the information gathering out of the way.
8. I love when you use my photos as your profile pic, watermark and all
Not going to lie, when you use our photos, I'm elated. When you keep my watermark, photo credit me and also link to my facebook or website, I'm even more elated, why? because that means you love me, you really do love me! You love me so much, you're helping others find out about me, and would love for my business to flourish. Most photographers will be offended when you crop out the watermark because it doesn't tell people who took the photo. Personally, it doesn't bother me, I try to place the watermark in a place that is non-distracting and aims to remind people that a photographer took up this session and it wasn't just any one with a point and shoot but a professional with a non-entry level DSLR.
9. I want to use the best equipment I can get my hands on
I'm always reinvesting into my business, so if you think I'm making a big profit from my sessions, I'm definitely not. As much as I invest in my business and equipment, clients invest in me and grow with me as my equipment gets better, I have things I want to experiment with and I need a model. For each session, I'm renting higher tiered equipment until I can fund my own specified lens or camera body. I want you to have the best photos so that you can invest in me and our future together and so that I can create beautiful photos that we both will enjoy.
10. I want to help you as much as I can.
Photos are eternal and last for a long time, and photographers all over the world know, and understand this. To most photographers, photos are one of the most important things in their own lives not even mentioning the clients that they shoot for. I'm always taking photos of my parents and my dogs, one day I want to look back and remember them as they were. I want the same for my clients. I want them to have photos they can look back on and say "Yea, we had fun that day and I wish we can do it again." This is why I don't have a set price list and will quote my services to each individual session because each situation is different. If a price is something that is not going to work for you, I will work with you to find a solution that might work in both our favors so that you can get photos that you can enjoy and keep forever and I have the opportunity to create them for you. Always always always ask if there are other options and always be genuine about your situation, aint no body got time to dance around an issue or situation. Keep an open dialogue.
If you enjoyed the read, go ahead and like the post above the comments. Comment with some things maybe you want to know or want me to cover next time!
