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Nicholas W. Alexander for #askSeniorsIgnite

Nicholas gives his advice on how to find the perfect location!

Music provided by Song Freedom - the best licensed music for photographers.

Have a question about the business of senior photography? Leave it in the comments below and it may featured in an upcoming episode of #askSeniorsIgnite

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Today I am going to be chatting with you about time management and how to stop over-working.

I used to think that I was so busy… As in, I couldn’t possibly leave work before 6 PM because I could never get everything done. Then I started running three more businesses. I was doing 100 shoots and 15 weddings, launching a restaurant, building a clothing boutique and running a concierge business. (Disclaimer: this was an insane period of my life that I will never return to- I wasn’t able to do any of these things particularly well, and wasn’t happy.) My point being, it made me think… if I can keep that many balls in the air, what the heck was I doing with my time when I was just running one business?? An old management adage says, work expands to fill the available time. If you dont set boundaries, all of your time becomes available time.

I’m now back to operating two businesses, my studio and the boutique, on approximately 60% of the time that I used to spend on just photography. So how am I doing this? By setting boundaries on my time, eliminating time-wasters, prioritizing, delegating, and forcing myself to leave work at a reasonable time by creating alternative activities.

1. Start by assessing a normal day. Journal your day and what is filling it- actual work, distractions, etc. How much time are you wasting on Facebook, reading completely asinine status updates and stalking other photographers?

2. Set boundaries on your time

- Establish 1-2 hours of every day that you are not available to employees or clients. This is project time. Knock out the new price guide you’ve been procrastinating on, tackle your marketing plan, recruit senior models, etc.

- Only check your email on 2-3 scheduled times per day. Turn off the automatic notifications! People can wait five hours for a response.

- Pick a time when you must leave for the day. If you work from home, mark the end of your workday with a daily ritual–a clear signal that your work day is complete. It can be as simple as turning off your computer and the lights. Whether it’s 3 PM or 7 PM, be diligent about following this. Your health, your family, your friends need you to do this.

- Choose one day out of the week when you will not do any work. No email, no shoots, nothing work related.

3. Prioritize. Spend 15 Minutes at the beginning of your day to determine what is important. Rather then just diving into your email, and the infinite number of distractions that follow, determine what you need to accomplish that day.

4. Delegate. This starts with proper training and systems for employees- giving them tools to be productive without coming to you to answer 50 Q’s. If you don’t have employees, look into options for outsourcing. Elance.com has thousands of graphic designers, marketers, even virtual assistants for hire.

5. Make yourself leave work at a reasonable time every day by creating alternate activities. If the only thing in life that you really enjoy doing is your work, you will forever be a workaholic. Yes, you may be completely passionate about photography and adore your profession, but you still need things that work your mind and soul in other ways. Start doing yoga, do weekend trips, volunteer, or actually cook at home!

Entrepreneurs are notorious over-workers.

seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

Guys need senior pics too and although the majority of our senior sessions are girls, every year our list of guys grows.  One can’t always assume that a guy showing up for senior pics is at your studio because Mom is dragging him there.  Guys (whether they admit it or not) want to look good in a picture.  And my goal for any senior session if to create images that parents and the senior are beyond thrilled with.

This session with Dylan and his family was an all around great senior session.  I like this  senior session for several reasons and the first reason is the variety.  Although we aren’t dealing with hair, makeup, shoes, jewelry, accessories, etc (like a girl’s senior session) it is still challenging and fun to incorporate senior style with our guy seniors. I’m a guy that loves fashion so since I wear a lot of the same looks as our senior guys this helps.  Dylan makes the bow tie and polo look good which is a staple of the southern gentlemen look.

The second reason this was a great session is because of the different locations we visited.  For guys I like it to be just hanging out and getting some great images.  We started downtown and even the opportunity to incorporate a little baseball into it.  Dylan is a senior catcher on his baseball team and we traveled to the field for some on location shots in his full gear.  The Panthers are having an outstanding season this year and I even got to drop in on one of the games last week.

The final reason I think this session is special is because both of Dylan’s parents were there for the entire session.  They are a wonderful close family and it was special to have everyone on the shoot. For a lot of parents, time with their senior is limited.  Kids are rushing around, going to ball practice, hanging with friends, and parents are busy as well.  Sessions can be 1-3 hours of quality time that parents and seniors haven’t spent together in a while.  The kids are going off to college next year and the session becomes a time to reconnect, relax, and have fun together.  Not only is the experience special but the images that came from the day are special as well.

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

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Dustin & Missy Sinner for #askSeniorsIgnite

Dustin & Missy Sinner give their advice on what to do when a senior client brings in an unflattering outfit!

Music provided by Song Freedom - the best licensed music for photographers.

Have a question about the business of senior photography? Leave it in the comments below and it may featured in an upcoming episode of #askSeniorsIgnite

seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

Check out the first half of Nicholas Alexander’s “Stress-Free Senior Session” here!

THE EXPERIENCE

If you haven’t got the gist of this yet, here it is, when your with your client… its all about your client and the experience they are having! I think more so than the finished product itself, as I say time and time again start with creating an amazing time for your client and everything else will fall into place, it won’t be as hard to sell to them as the price resistance will go down, they will return and be more willing to refer you to their friends and family. Leave your ego at the door and make everything you do about them. When writing this I wanted to show you the perspective from the seniors point of view on their experience and what they thought first hand.  Testimonials are powerful tools and this is another thing you should be having your seniors give you. Not only should you be posting this stuff on your blog and website, but this information shows you what made the experience for them and shows you what your seniors want.  It also shows your strengths and can sometimes reveal your weaknesses too, I reached out to a handful of my senior clients and noticed that a lot of them were saying the same thing, here are some of the responses I received:

“The things that I loved most was that you were up for any ideas that I had for our scenes and that you just knew how to make me feel comfortable and have fun and I think the background pictures(behind the scenes) helped too because you could just be goofy in those! And you just make it a fun experience for everyone!!!”

“You gave me good positive tips on how to position my self and where to look which made it super easy and fun. I enjoyed your style of shooting and how you were open for all ideas.”

“The experience of creating the portraits was just as amazing as the portraits themselves, my entire family was able to be there, it was more like just a day for me as there was no pressure, i was never worrying if i was going to look good in my portraits or what to do for poses, you made it very easy and very much about me. then when i viewed my portraits of the first time i was amazed and it was so fun showing my friend and family the portraits that you created, I loved the entire experience.”

“I really enjoyed how you told me what to do with positioning and where to look, you made it super fun & easy. I had never modeled before and was scared that I wouldn’t know what to do but you made it so simple!! I had a lot of fun with you & loved how my pictures turned out.”

“You showed me how photogenic I really am! I was super nervous about taking my pictures and wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to loosen up enough to make my photos look good and not cheesy, you made me feel so comfortable my senior portrait experience was fun and when I view my images for the first time it definitely showed!”

“What I loved most was how unique my portraits were, I loved all of them, My portraits are one of kind, no one else will ever have portraits like mine.”

“Getting my senior photos done with you was fantastic because of how you brought my personality out in the photos, how comfortable and fun you made the experience, and just how awesome the pictures were as well. The fact that you had a bunch of questions for me to answer to get a better idea of what would fit me was great. And, it wasn’t just a formality like some places do, you actually took all my answers into consideration and used them, like my gamer side. You also made the experience comfortable and fun. Im not exactly sure how.. It could’ve just been because you’re a charismatic person, or because you were just openly friendly and kept conversation going without it being awkward. You also were fantastic about helping and directing me on the poses, and how to look, every single image was unique. And the time you put into personalizing or putting an extra “something” into pictures is appreciated.”

“I really enjoyed how you listened to my unique ideas and took them into consideration for a look to shoot (like the mirror and water!) and would be dedicated to capture exactly what I was hoping for no matter if it was pouring with rain in the cold. you made it easy to accomplish what I was aiming for with the poses and miscellaneous locations!”

“I enjoyed how you never turned down any of my ideas and put up with my dog not closing his mouth lol. I think you photos are the best around this area and what I thought was cool was that none of my pictures looked like anyone else’s. They were all fantastic and unique! I’ve gotten many compliments on them and wish I could do it again You are very comfortable to be around and made the experience so much fun.”

“I absolutely loved the whole process of my senior pictures. You gave great direction and led me into more styles and scenes that I would have never thought of. I felt extremely comfortable and that allowed a lot of my personality to show which became evident in my photos.The quality of your product doesn’t even compare to the other local competitors. I am so glad that I chose you to share such a unique experience with and I left the shoot feeling good and with art that will last forever!”

Do you see the resemblance in all of the responses? – the experience, unique poses and locations, one of a kind portraits, good directions, easy to work with, made me comfortable, made it unique and personalized to me, and actually worked with my ideas. The seniors want something new and different and they want their portraits to be personalized to them they don’t want what everyone else has. Now a days everyone can create a “good” or “acceptable” portrait but can you create the experience that they are going to remember forever?

STAYING IN TOUCH

Last but not least don’t let the client interaction end after they pick up their portraits.  Are you staying in touch with you clients after the order? If you don’t stay in touch it is kind of saying that you don’t care if you build and emotional connection.  Staying in touch can create repeat clients and we all know it costs you less to keep current clients coming back than to search and spend money to bring in new clients.  I’m not saying write them messages and tell them whats going on in your everyday life, but there are so many ways to stay in contact with clients, here are just a few ideas: newsletter – great way to keep your work in the minds of your clients and reach the masses, your blog – post your clients images to your blog and then post about the blog post being posted and finally social media.   How I use social media was hugely inspired by social media rockstar John Pyle.  Facebook and instagram are amazing ways to keep in contact with your clients, post a portrait from their session on their birthday to instagram or post your favorite portrait of them on throwback Thursday, or if you see them while out and about take a selfie with them and post it – make it fun and keep it real. Where do your clients and ideal clients hang out?  Maybe it’s time you started hanging out there, community events, sports games? Staying active, being seen and keeping in touch always keeps your work at the forefront of their minds and they won’t go anywhere else for portraits.

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

When I first starting shooting I used to stress out in my sessions, I was always worrying about whether the client would like their images, are they having fun, and worrying about the gear I had and how it was inadequate.  When digital first came out I was always thinking that maybe I wasn’t ready for it.  I would look at what other photographers were doing and the gear they were using and I’d ask myself “How can I even compete with that?!”  These insecurities showed in my work and how I interacted with my clients.  My insecurities were taking away from the the client experience.  We as artists tend to be very self-critical, let’s look at some ways to overcome these fears, worries, and insecurities and focus on creating an awesome time for you client.

THE GEAR

First lets address the gear, there will always be those photographers that say they could have done it better if they had better gear…blah blah blah… I think some photographers focus their attention more on their gear and process and forget about the client.  Is your client happy?  We as photographers love our gear!  However, we can get caught up and worried about what f stops and lenses to use and forget about the client.  I admit I used to be the biggest culprit of getting too focused on gear.  A lot of times online I see people post an image on a social media platform and the first thing I see are questions like: “ What was the camera setting?”  “What lens?”   I think photographers need to get their mind off the gear and start thinking about your clients needs, and the experience they are having.  You will get more clients and repeat clients by just being real and genuine, rather than making sure you photograph them with that 85 1.2 at F 3.5 at approximately 5.26 pm with 3 lights, reflectors and scrims and your cto gels. Your clients DONT CARE about the gear you use to create their images. They care about being a part of something real, they care about feeling connected having an amazing experience with the end result being images that truly show their personality and individuality.  Get your client to relax FIRST, focus on the experience FISRT, and then you will be able to create amazing images of them.  Quit focusing so much on the gear you use.  However,  I’m not saying that you don’t need to know how to use your gear or how to properly light your subjects.  It is  vitally  important to understand your gear and know how to use it but then forget about and go have fun and experiment.  If you’re starting out and don’t know much about lighting and shooting there are so many resources online for FREE.  You can find a plethora of videos about lighting and shooting, you could literally spend weeks watching You Tube videos; but until you get out and start actually working with your clients working with lights in real everyday practical situations, its only head knowledge.  You really don’t have to have the best lights to create amazing portraits, light is light… you can create awesome images with a camera, a reflector, and natural light.  Don’t let not having a certain piece of gear get in the way of your creativity. Fear and worry is crippling to creativity, so relax, and stop worrying.  If you’re starting out and you feel insecure, get out and practice with friends and family until you feel confident in effectively communicating with your subjects.

THE SESSION

Plan the session.  Communication is so important for a successful session!  If your first communication with the senior or parent is at the session, you may as well reschedule for another day.  There needs to be some sort of commutation between you and your client before the session! I highly recommend in-person consultations; however, a consult over the phone or email can be sufficient, but some sort of communication is vital.  Educate your client on what to bring for clothing, create a style guide, explain or show a video of what a session is like so they know a little bit about what to expect.  Get as much information about them as possible so that if they are shy you have lots to talk to them about. Talk to them about ideas for specific portraits you would like to create and also any ideas they have for portraits they had envisioned. Talk to them about the locations you will be going to and what locations that they have seen that they like.  Start to think ahead where you will be going instead of just randomly selecting locations the day of. Make sure you do everything possible to create an amazing experience for your clients. The more you plan your session ahead of time the more relaxed you will be during the session.

Be ready for the unexpected and be flexible.  As a kid whenever we traveled as a family, on vacation or just out for a family hike, my mother always packed for the unexpected.  She was always was ready for anything, and she always seemed to have exactly what you needed if a situation arose.  I actually now find myself doing the same thing, I love living in the Inland Northwest but the weather here is so unpredictable it will be sunny and 60 one moment and raining or snowing and windy the next.  I have a bag packed in my car with some essential items that you might need if your plans change. Here are a few items I always carry:  a couple of towels – incase the ground is wet or we randomly decided to jump in the water for a few poses; plastic bags – to cover my gear in rain;  rubber bands – to hold the plastic on my gear; a couple of umbrellas; a first aid kit- just a good thing to have; small clips – incase we need to adjust the clothing; extra batteries -for flashes and cameras; an extra tripod mount – I always seem to forget mine when I need it; extra sync cords – incase the transmitters just stop working; and deodorant – for those moments when you realize you forgot to put deodorant on and its 100 degrees outside. I also pack extra socks because at my sessions I always seem to be standing in water for some reason and I get my feet wet all the time.  I always carry a couple of sandbags with me in my Jeep –  I have a new rule about sandbags as I work alone, I’m not always standing close enough to my light to catch it if the wind was to blow it over, so what I do is check the radar on the app “Weather Bug” as it will show you the wind speed where you are located.  If the wind speed is in the “orange” sandbags go on my light stands, of course unless, I have someone holding the light.  Too many times I have broken my modifiers and it starts to get expensive when your equipment falls over and smashes to pieces.  It also disrupts the flow of the shoot and takes your mind away from your client’s experience. Being prepared and having a planned out session helps me enter my session with clarity of thought and helps me focus on the client and not worry about the details or if I left something at home.

Push yourself at each session to try something different, something new and unique.  Doing the same thing over and over again can cause you to burnout fast which will lead to lack of creativity, which will ultimately lead to stress and lack of self confidence. One easy way to change things up while shooting is to move your lights!  Change up your light modifiers, too many times we get stuck shooting with the same modifier or placing our lights in the same place over and over again because its safe, because we know it, or because we like the look.  Step out of your comfort zone and move your lights!

THE EMOTIONS

There are so many emotions going on with your senior at the session,  they are probably nervous as this isn’t something they do every day.  I know some of them worry that they’re not photogenic or if their portraits are going to be a good as their friends.  Its your job to take their mind off of these negative emotions and help them relax and have fun.  How do you do this?  It’s simple - genuinely care about them and be likable.  Ask them questions about themselves and be genuinely interested, because they will pick up if you are fake!  Let your passion show in your work, and always be happy, be fun and make the experience fun for them, be a little outrageous and stand out from the crowd.  Always be positive in the session even if you are having a bad day.   People want to be a part of something that’s positive more than ever, we all have enough negativity in our lives so be positive and show your clients that you care. This will help you really connect with your clients.  If you do this people are more apt to seek you out, to talk about you more, refer you, and as a result of connecting with your clients emotionally, the price won’t matter to them as much. Take their mind off whats going on and make it a more relaxed atmosphere like they are just hanging out with a friend, they will open up and be more relaxed in front of the camera.

Check out part 2 of Nicholas Alexander’s “Stress-Free Senior Session” tomorrow!

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

Personality is always what makes sessions ‘favorites’ for me.  I have had sessions where the images are creative and beautiful, but the experience of connecting with the senior on a personal level was not as FUN for me, and therefore the beautiful images seem lackluster in comparison to those where the subject made my job just fun!

In this session Rachel is a totally bubbly, polite girl with a fantastic smile that was open for anything!  She wanted to keep her session fairly classic so that she would not look back and feel her images were dated or trendy and that is a great fit for our studio.    We did sneak into an abandoned warehouse ‘factory type’ area to photograph against a rusted metal wall which was fun!  Otherwise we made good use of available greenery and some studio backgrounds too.

To keep things consistent – as we like our images to be able to placed next to one another without significant lighting changes in the event that they want to do a wall grouping – we photographed her entire session with all available natural light, using reflectors and scrims where necessary to add fill (or subtract light) to create dimension.

Rachel has beautiful naturally wavy hair and we were lucky to be able to have had two completely different looks for her hair as well.

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

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Joy Vertz for #askSeniorsIgnite

Our pricing guru Joy Vertz answers questions for #AskSeniorsIgnite regarding the benefits of selling in person.

Want even more killer pricing advice?  Register for Joy’s FREE Pricing Video series!

Music provided by Song Freedom - the best licensed music for photographers.

Have a question about the business of senior photography? Leave it in the comments below and it may featured in an upcoming episode of #askSeniorsIgnite

seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

Click here to view the embedded video.

Being located in the midst of the farmland and pine trees of West Georgia, the word “beach” isn’t part of our everyday vocabulary. It’s four hours away at least, this way or that way, and definitely not a readily available location for photo shoots with our seniors. Once we knew the location of the 2013 Seniors Ignite Event- the amazing Paradise Point Resort in San Diego- we couldn’t wait to capture different fashions and locations with our National Model winner Cassie! With the “beach” ever so wonderfully inserted back into our vocabulary, we started planning. Along with the photo shoots we would be doing in San Diego with Cassie, we also wanted to make the most of it and produce our own beach fashion video while we had the sand and palm trees at our disposal.

Vision, Inspiration, Fashion & Accessories

While still in the cold and rainy Georgia February, our vision for the video was to give our audience a warm-you-up, sun-on-your-back, make-you-feel-good experience. We knew that we needed the perfect fashion styling to give our video that high-key, wind-in-your-hair, flowing kind of feeling. Looking to incorporate some of the upcoming trends, we found several amazing outfits for the beach, including a beige high-low dress with a sheer fabric overlay and “deco” patterned neckline, a tribal skirt from a local boutique paired with a crocheted top, and some awesome swimwear-style, tribal pants. As photographers, you know that accessories can add to the look and feel of a photo in a significant way, and video is no different. With the perfect chain-style, three-piece headband, we couldn’t wait to focus on those Pinterest-worthy accessories in our beach fashion video.

Once on location at Paradise Point in San Diego, we scouted the potential locations for the look we wanted in the video. Our vision wasn’t so much to show the location fully, but to focus on capturing Cassie, her gorgeous green eyes, and the “beachy” fashions she would be wearing. Walking along the shoreline, we started the shoot with Cassie barefoot in the sand in the high-low dress, with- of course- extra chiffon fabric to flow in the breeze. We had hoped and planned for the wind from the ocean to bring attention to each outfit, which is one of the reasons we chose movable, breathable fabrics and fashions- including the piece of textured chiffon as an additional point of interest. The chiffon was great for shooting through, holding in front of and behind Cassie, and also having her simply hold it and let the wind softly blow it around as she walked down the beach. With the lighter colors and sheer fabrics complimenting the sunny, high-key nature of the beach and sand, these fabrics allowed us to create the soft, subtle motion we wanted in the video, almost a sense of “waves” from the ocean.

Lighting, Gear, & Frame Rate

Often overlooked when shooting video, lighting is key. One of the most important things for our video was getting light into Cassie’s eyes. The advantage of shooting on the beach was, of course, that we were walking on one of the most beautiful, giant reflectors known to mankind. We also used a few “real” reflectors to add that extra kick into her eyes in some of the shots and fill in shadows when necessary. Our gear setup was simple: one camera, one lens, and the ever so useful variable ND filter. We shot all the footage with a Canon 5D mk3 and a 70-200 f2.8 lens. Yes, low aperture lenses like the f1.2 are great, but having a variable zoom lens works wonders in situations when time is limited and you want to get a variety of shots. Also, without ND filters, you can’t shoot at f1.2 outside anyway. When you don’t have an ND filter at your disposal, a longer zoom lens gives you nice compression, blurred backgrounds, and much sharper video. The magic of an ND filter is the way it allows you to use a lower aperture while keeping the correct settings on your camera for properly exposing the video.

We shot all of the footage in 60p in order to get clean slow-motion in post and ensure that the motion of the fabrics came across smoothly in the final video. After finding the perfect music for the footage, we color-graded the clips to enhance the high-key feeling of the production.

Georgia on My Mind

Constantly looking for ways to push our creativity, we find that creating fashion videos inspires us to style, plan, and do something different with a senior shoot. When working on fashion videos, we want to keep harmony among ALL the elements; the outfits, the location, the lighting, color, and movement as well as the way the subjects portray the story or emotion. We may not have the west coast beach in every video, but we’ll find inspiration to do something different, even if it’s capturing “moonlight through the pines” in Georgia.

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education

A week ago, we at Seniors Ignite sent out an email and blog post asking for your help in supporting our neighbors in Moore who were affected by the May 20th tornado. We offered some of our favorite senior business marketing and shooting products with 100% of the proceeds going directly towards Convoy of Hope. Convoy of Hope is here on the ground in the OKC metro hard at work assisting the tornado victims recover and rebuild.

I was able to head out this past Memorial Day weekend, chainsaw in hand, and spent several days helping families in Moore start the recovery process. It was surreal seeing the scenes that I had only been watching on CNN and the local news all week, live and in person. I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to some third world countries, and have documented some pretty devastated areas, but I’ve never seen anything quite like the destruction in Moore.

Luckily, the people of Oklahoma are amazingly strong and have positive attitudes. I met a ton of volunteers who came out to help assist with the recovery,  and quite a few that even drove in from out of state. It was amazing seeing the response of non-profits, churches, and local organizations willing to help out the people of Moore.

FEMA updated their numbers this week and are saying that around 4,000 homes were either destroyed or severely damaged in the tornado. While the network news cameras may leave, the need will be ongoing for support and financial help. Join Seniors Ignite in helping our fellow Oklahomans, while getting great senior business and shooting products. Click here to view the Seniors Ignite Oklahoma Relief page.

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seniors ignite | seniors ignite - senior portrait education