faq: round 6

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We spent yesterday at church. Anderson played and I sang, so we were there for ALL THREE services. It was really exciting though-I loved it! What a great way to celebrate all that Jesus has done for us. Then we went to my parents’ house for a yummy lunch… and dinner. What is it about holidays that makes us feel like we can eat 12 meals in one day?!

Rachel asked:
What role do you play in dressing your clients?

I actually stay pretty hands-off in this area. I do encourage them to wear something they are comfortable in; something that expresses who they really are. Not everyone dresses like an Anthropologie ad everyday, so why do it for pictures? Same thing goes for families matching. That sucks a little bit of the fun and personality out of a picture for me. Have you ever watched What Not to Wear? They always talk about how outfits shouldn’t match, but they should go together. That’s how I feel about coordinating multiple people. They should just “go” together… you know?!

I do give a few basic pointers like:
When in doubt go for solids.
One statement piece makes for a bigger “WOW” factor.
Pick bright color over black and white.
Layers make an outfit more interesting. (Although, this is tough to pull off here in the Florida heat!)

Sarah asked:
What kind of archive system (backup) do you use for photos? How do you organize client info and contracts? I keep waffling between a variety of options and I really need to settle down so I can get organized! So…what’s YOUR office looking like? 🙂

All my files are backed up on an external hard drive. When it fills up, I just buy another one. This is the one I’m using right now. And so far, I’m only on my second one. These babies are small and hold A LOT of files. Also, I keep a copy of each session on my computer until the client places an order. It has a huge hard dive, so storing all those files doesn’t slow it down. Then after they place an order, I delete the files on my computer and just save the external hard drive copy. Backing up your images is an absolute MUST, and this process works well for me.

I HATE keeping up with contacts and info. I mean, really just hate it, so I keep it very simple. If you’re TYPE A you might need something more sophisticated. But all my client info is stored in spreadsheets. I use the info from the contract they sign to populate the spreadsheets then just add new info throughout the process as needed. There’s some cool CRM software that does all of this too, but like I said: I keep it simple! Having everything stored in one place has saved me from a lot of headaches. Each tax season gets a little, teeny tiny bit easier. Anderson and I only almost killed each other once this year. I’ll take it!

Rebecca asked:
I like how you sometimes include random people in the background of your images. It makes them feel more real. I noticed it recently in your session with Kristin and Brian. There’s a shot of them at a bus stop and a lady is riding by on her bike. You also do it a lot with your beach sessions. How do you make this happen?

Hmmm… luck?! A lot of my sessions happen on the weekend in high-traffic areas. I used to try not to get anyone in the background, but it was really frustrating at times! Then I had a few surfers show up in the background of a beach session and realized I loved those images. Like you said, it feels more real. So now I just try to be aware of what’s going on around me and catch some of that in the images. Sometimes it makes an image feel more intimate to me. Like, there’s all the chaos going on but the subjects of my picture are unaware of it. Try this-instead of waiting for someone to walk out of your frame, make an effort to catch them in it!

These are from the photo booth at a wedding we went to recently. I love photo booths! Wouldn’t it be fun to have one in your house???!!!