6 Things I Learned at WPPI:
A few of these are basic camera and business points but most are powerful lessons I took away that changed my life and philosophy of photography forever and I can’t wait to share them with you! I learned SO much more business points and techniques but I am only going to be sharing a few of those for the time being because I want the things that changed my life to have more of an impact! I hope you enjoy and maybe you can learn a thing or too as well! Make sure to stay tuned for my favorite point, 6! 🙂
1.) In camera artistry
Don’t waste time on the computer editing for hours post a session. Stop, breath, and take the time to get the picture right in camera. Down to the exposure, color, cropping, and composition. Give people the wow factor from looking at a shot right from your camera. Shoot as if photoshop doesn’t exist and is not an option to go to after you shoot. Just like the days of film, don’t get lazy with your work. Now thankfully I started on film so I was taught that discipline from the beginning but I can’t deny that the thought of just fixing something later in photoshop has never crept in. All photographers sometimes need to be encouraged to shoot the best that they can right in camera and trust me it will save you so much more time!
2.) Find the Pockets of Light
At first this sounds quite weird and a bit odd but this is a concept that goes along with getting shots right in camera. Don’t be afraid of light, see the available light that you have a USE it!! You can do so much with shadows, backlights, reflections etc. that will give your photos such a dramatic and deep look right out of camera! So go search for the unique light shinning through and instead of running from it, use it!
3.) Show Yourself
It is so easy as a photographer to hide behind your camera. Some people go as far as not even having a picture of themselves in their about me section! haha (I laugh because this was totally me not that long ago!) People need to see you! They want to know who they are hiring and want to be able to feel like they can relate and connect with you.
Your images may be amazing but that is not always good enough. What? Did I really just say that? Yes, your work needs to still be the best possible but the whole other aspect of your business is YOU. They are hiring YOU, they have come to YOU, they want to know and work with YOU, they want the experience that only YOU can offer. Only one person can be you so don’t be afraid to show that to your clients! Give them the experience of you!
So stop hiding behind your pretty pictures and show them who you are! This is something that I am currently still working on a ton because if I had the choice I would totally just hide completely. I promise you though that if a client is meeting with two photographers in the same price range with the same quality of pictures the client will choose the one that is most personable and that they have the biggest connection with every time. Much more then just pictures on their wedding day they want an experience and a pleasant one at that, if you know how to show yourself well an experience with you is something they just won’t be able to pass up! Some meeting with brides can leave you feeling discouraged and like you are not good enough and so maybe for them you are not the right fit for their wedding day but I promise when you meet the perfect couple it will all click. I have left so many meeting feeling like I have known these people my whole life and that we are actually close friends! Why? Because I showed them who I was and they latched on because they connected with me on some level that wasn’t just my talent in photography!
4.) Find Your Why
One of the greatest things about WPPI was that I got to meet and hear from some of the photographers that I look up to most in the industry! Each one brought this point up. Why…why do you do what you do? Why are you a wedding photographer? So photographers or anyone in business, start with your why, figure it out, and let it fuel your business!
For me a couple things greatly define my business.
1) Love. First, I have been loved in the most pure and full way from my Savior, God. Second, I have not only experienced this great love from my Spiritual Father but also here on earth. It is powerful and I have felt and experienced it change my life. Love is something for me that first fueled everything from the very start. Because I have been loved I can therefore love in return. Third, I have an ongoing unconditional love in my marriage. My marriage has fueled so much of where I am today. And even now I feel tears coming because every time I think about my husband I think about how blessed I am. He makes my heart flutter everyday. In all the ordinary and simple moments as he goes gets me drinks, takes care of my car, rubs my back, drives me places, sends me good morning texts; for all the romantic moments, when he kisses me and holds me close for every hello and every goodbye, writes me love notes, holds my hands when as we take our adventures; and for all the big moments, building me a website, editing my articles, researching the very best options for me, surprising me with a new camera, praying for me, gently leading me, always putting me first and choosing to love me, coming along on my shoots even when he doesn’t want to, and SO many other ones. Because I have and still to this day am experiencing such a great love I have so much love to give. Why do I do it, because of love. I know it is real and one of my favorite things is meeting couples completely in love. I love to be the one that gets to capture that story and put it on a beautiful display for celebration! I love being an example of a loving marriage for my couples by the way I talk about and to my husband, to the way we support each other, and the way they see us interact and deal with each other on the spot while we are working. I love investing and cultivating that love for their new marriage. This is one of my whys!
2) What I can leave behind. For me photography is such a great opportunity to create a timeless memory for each of my couples. I don’t just capture someones wedding day for them but also for generations to come. For them to one day show their children and even grandkids. Something for them to look back on on their 10 year anniversary, something that can rekindle their love when times get hard or the memory starts to fade. Creating quality and creative art that they will have for the rest of their lives that celebrate their love story. They could have had an amazing wedding but memory will one day fade, one of the things I value most is creating that timeless memory that is going to keep that love going strong for generations to come! In addition that that I want to leave a part of my love with every person I come in contact with! I want to leave people better then I found them. I want to change people’s lives.
5.) Build Boundaries
While it’s important to show who you are to your clients, be available to them, and to be personable with them you need to place boundaries. You still need to stand for your policies and contracts and not be a pushover about when you can answer phone calls or e-mails or how many hours you agreed to work for them, pricing etc. You have a life outside of your work and just like any other person who has a day job you have to “leave the office” at some point.
It is harder to balance your work life with your regular life when you are a freelancer and in the arts but it can be done and is very important so you do not burn out! To help against this I have specific hours that I work. Scotty and I have regular date nights, even if its just eating take-out on the couch while watching Netflix, we set aside time to spend with each other. I let Willow cuddle beside me all day as I work from my computer, more because I need it for my sanity (I don’t like to be alone all day long and sometime my cute dog is all I need to get through long days on the computer) but I also like to believe she loves it too! I have coffee with friends. Scotty and I have people over, we go out to church and other social events. We separate our work and social life!
*6.) Community Over Competition
I have found this to be true in life not just with photography so I am going to talk in a more general terms. This can apply to anyones everyday life, either with your friendships, talents, work, church community, etc. It is SO easy to put up a wall up towards people you feel threatened by. To the core we can be pretty selfish people, people who want glory for ourselves, so when something comes in the way of that or there is an opportunity for someone to outshine us we feel threatened and sometimes the only thing left for us to do is hold on to bitterness and take them down.
As best said by Mary Marantz…
“I think in our industry (every industry… the world), when we see someone else who is absolutely on fire and burning up everything that they touch, there are three responses that we get to choose from: 1) we can get afraid that their light will overshadow ours, so we pull away from them, create distance between us & them, so that we seem brighter by comparison, 2) even worse, we can start to resent their fire and do everything in our power to try to extinguish it and throw water on what they’re doing, or 3) We can go throw up our arms and dance around it like crazy because we know they are lighting up the whole world and we just love to feel that warmth on our faces. And… we also know that if we spend enough time surrounding ourselves with people who are on fire, sooner or later we’re going to catch our own spark.”
Isn’t that crazy that we have a choice on how we are going to respond? We can resent people and do everything we can to put out their fire or we can go dance by their flames! So GO, “go stand near the fire. Do everything you can to fuel someone else’s flames. And just see if you don’t feel that light in your grow brighter to!”
One of the biggest blessings of WPPI was getting to witness this first hand and this is what I honestly took away most from my trip! It was something that I did not even go into thinking I would learn but at the end of the trip it was the one thing that changed me most! I saw a specific group of WPPI teachers that displayed this idea so perfectly, Katelyn James, Justin and Mary Marantz. Matt and Carissa Kennedy, and Amy and Jordan Demos. Each of these are technically competitors in the industry, each teaching at the same conference, each having their own photography businesses, yet each of these people were in the front row of each other’s sessions cheering one another on. Praying with each other and encouraging each other before they went on to talk.
Before this I had never seen this type of community displayed so well in a secular and competing environment and it only drew me further in. Not only do these people display this when in community with each other but also throughout their business websites and social media accounts. They truly celebrate each other’s successes and achievements. They are open and obvious about their faith in God and let that great love flood out of their lives.
Before meeting them and getting a glimpse into their philosophies I had never know that it was possible for a photography business, a seemly secular business, could literally change the lives of others around them. I had never realized the amount of people that could be reached and I had never seen it done so well. I always viewed my photography business as completely separate from me and my values but when I met them I realized it was possible. And I finally had people I looked up to not only for their talent in photography but for how they live out their faith and lives! You can be a business person, very talented at the service you offer, and show who you are, your faith, your values and impact peoples lives.
Thank you guys for putting a very real example in front of me of good community over competition and a perfect blend of talent creative and business minds with a love of God and people! You have changed how I view so many things now! Thanks for being lights of this world!
