July 11, 2023 • 33 mins
Are you ready to ride shotgun on our wild and whacky adventure this week? As with any good rollercoaster, we start with the steep climb of Chris's seemingly insurmountable schedule, from preparing for a photography workshop and wrapping up weddings to gearing up for a launch party for Lens & Light 2024 Summit speakers.
Ever had a brush with the wild that left you scarred, quite literally? Well, buckle up as Brooke shares her unexpected tryst with a rare form of poison ivy that turned her world upside down. But it's not all doom and gloom, as we take a scenic detour through her recent trip to Sayulita and her decision to cut down on weddings to spend more quality time with Brookes better half.
And for the main conversation we delve into the fascinating world of in-home photography sessions, covering everything from choosing the right photographer to making the most of your home's natural setting. We'll also unwrap the importance of getting to know the personalities of people before photographing them in their homes. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride! We promise you an episode chock-full of stories, advice, and laughs you won't want to miss.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
aggressive.
Yeah, they count on a scary Yo.
what's up Hey?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
we are here Fantastic .
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So today we're going to have to run through this one
a little bit quick, becauseChris has a lot going on this
week.
Not that I don't, but Chris,his whole schedule is nuts Do
you want to tell them a littlebit about what's going on this
week before we start.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Sure.
So I am currently here in thestudio and actually I'm going to
get a little bit of aninterview with the director.
Give a little wave.
My studio Me Jamie's right backthere.
I don't know if she wants to beseen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I don't think so She can't hear you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
She can't hear me, that's OK, so she's back there.
We're in the studio right now.
Beautiful, like it's just so.
It's so much better.
Last week I was struggling withwhere to do this in my home and
it was like just shifting froma spot to spot, and even in the
end I looked back at it Thatthis is this, however, beautiful
light.
When we talk about photography,it means everything, and this
is this is much better.
(00:57):
So it's just very easy Why I'mso busy, why I'm here in the
studio.
We are doing our photographyworkshop this week.
We've got our awesome nineinstructors Jamie, one of them,
in the background right nowgoing to be talking about
headshots, everything about thatGot a bunch of topics, had a
wedding yesterday.
All focuses, this workshop, andthen on Thursday I will
(01:22):
collapse, completely collapse.
I'm not even sure what I'mgoing to do yet, but I
absolutely have to take.
Oh, we just got a little meow.
That was cute.
Oh my God, sorry, perfect, no,no, no, that's adorable.
I like the the additional inputfrom the cat here.
So that's that.
That was Gremlin, correct.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
No, that was cricket, Oh cricket.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I know that name too.
So yeah, we are.
I am busy, i'm very busy, butI'm on the sort of the tail end
of busy.
The past three weeks I've had abunch of weddings, i've got a
ton of editing to do And it hasjust been a nonstop game for
this prep for our workshop.
And then next week that's assoon as I get my one day break
(02:02):
we push for we're doing a launchparty in Southington Well,
actually it's considered amiddle day, but it's at a
kinsman brewery And we'll betalking about and releasing some
of our speakers for 2024.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Some of the mystic Mariah.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So that's.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
OK.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Next thing, But the main focus today is all prep for
Lens and Light and the workshopover the next two days.
So Tuesday and Wednesday, twofull days.
So it's going to be reallyexciting, Yeah, really really
pumped.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that's awesome, good stuff.
So that's Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday you're
going to just pass out Thursday,I will cease to exist.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So actually, if you want to talk about cease to
exist, Wednesday evening,Wednesday night, whenever I get
home and drop my bag justcollapse full on the floor, even
last night actually.
Kelly took a photo of me lastnight because I finished the
wedding yesterday, got home andwas she, was she was doing some
some prepping, some mealprepping, And I was just I just
laid down on the couch and I wasout in like seconds And so I
(03:00):
have, you know, beautifulpicture of me that she took as
one as a married spouse would do, as for each other Is there you
go sleeping in mouth open.
Got to.
Got to grab that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Of course you do, of course.
So is this your busiest seasonever?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's the weird.
The word season is interestingat this point because it's if I
was only doing weddings I wouldfeel that word would be more
applicable, but this is the most.
this is the most busy in thephotography industry
entrepreneurship, whatever youwant to call it that I have ever
been in my life, for sure.
And there's no one to blame butmyself.
(03:34):
I've put, i've taken on a lotof jobs and, but I wanted to.
So this is so you know.
You get that advice from peoplethat you know you're young.
While you're young, i hear fromyou know, grandparents and such
like do it now get bored.
So I'm wondering now if I did.
I take on too much.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Did you write off more than you can chew?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's potentially, as we're sitting here, you know,
podcast also included in that.
I'm very excited for this, so,but it's good, because we will
push the limits and find outwhere my limits are, what I can
do and always learningexperience.
Do a lot of failures before youhave a lot of successes.
Yeah, but it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I'm excited to see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
What about you?
I think you've got a story toshare.
I think that's what we justtalked about, I mean it's not
like a story, it's just so.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I've shared with a lot of my followers and I've
asked for all of the ideas andsuggestions on how to get rid of
our poison ivy.
So what we have in our yard iscalled well, i don't think it's.
I don't think the plant itselfis called this, but what my skin
does when the plant touches myskin is called black spot,
(04:43):
poison ivy, and what itbasically is.
Yeah, it's crazy.
So last year, maybe two yearsago No, i think it was two years
ago, because then last year Iwas like I'm not touching it.
Two years ago I we were playingwith sparklers outside with my
niece and nephew And when theyleft I noticed that I had this
like black dot on my on my skinAnd I was like, oh my God, like
(05:03):
did I get burnt, you know?
So I'm looking at it and I'mlike what the heck?
Like it literally burnt a pieceof my skin And even to this day
I still have a scar.
But the next day, the black spotthat I mean.
So basically, when it grazesyour skin, the toxicity of the
chemicals that are poison ivyburns your skin, it literally
(05:24):
burns it, and then the next day,that black spot is raised and
surrounded by a bunch of littleregular poison ivy spots.
So you kind of just have tolike go through the process And
if somebody is really allergicwhich I am, but I guess I
touched it just ever so slightlyyou can go to the hospital to
get like steroids for it andstuff like that.
(05:44):
I didn't, because I just don'tsee doctors ever.
So you wait for that piece ofskin to fall off and then you
just have the most awful poisonivy ever.
But what I was trying, what Iwas gonna, yeah, yeah it's
terrible.
So I basically I didn't know,this existed?
I didn't either, until I lookedit up and it said that it's a
very rare condition, that onlycertain amount of poison ivy
(06:09):
plants that have that specifictoxicity will do like.
It'll create that effect oncertain people who have the
right skin whatever that willmake it turn black.
So it doesn't.
So if you walked in my yard andyou touched the poison ivy,
there's a pretty good chancethat your skin would not turn
black and you wouldn't get thatspecific type of poison ivy, but
you would get a pretty angrypoison ivy.
(06:29):
The one that I get is like.
I literally looked it up and itwas like a very rare condition
And I'm like okay, cool, Yeah,you're like sweet, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whenever you get it Like awesome, Yeah, cool Yeah.
No, of course it's me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The chances were low for me and I have this great
Right so I've asked a bunch ofpeople like how do I get rid of
this?
What do I do?
Everybody's like get goats,like hire goats, to come and eat
it, cause I guess the goatsreally like the root of poison
ivy.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's also specific Right, but I also, i know.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
but I also live in an area where, like I don't think
a farmer is just gonna, like youknow, case off my yard and drop
them off and be like bye, causethere are things in my area
that would definitely harm goats.
So I haven't been able to finda company that would do the
goats I don't really want to payfor.
I mean, listen, i'll pay forsome goats to eat, cause like
(07:19):
that's cute, you know, like Iwould love to have the goats in
my yard.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, 100% pay for that.
You really need to come overand see the goats.
that is so funny.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right, yes I also now envision.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
The big question is is Nellie gonna be a goat herder
?
Can we have Nellie do that?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Dude.
Okay, so at the last HOAmeeting, chad, he's the vice.
He's, is he the vice president?
I think he's the vice president.
I don't even remember because Iwas like I'm not doing it, but
if you want to do it, that'sfine.
He was asking them.
He was like Brooke wants to getchickens and goats And they
were like, oh my God, we wouldlove for her to have them.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And he's like don't tell her that I didn't want you
wanting chickens too.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh man, i would love it.
The thing is, though, is thatthey attract rats because of the
food and stuff.
So it's like but anyway, so Iwould pay for goats.
I wouldn't pay.
I mean, i don't know, I don'twant to say I wouldn't pay for
somebody to come and pull it out, but I don't want somebody like
spraying pesticides around theyard.
No Long story short it's goingbuck wild in my yard.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Like it is like growing everywhere.
I'm afraid to do any gardening,anything like that.
So Chad and I went to Sayulitaon Saturday, cause I'm trying to
take less weddings so that Ican have more time with my
husband and, like, do the thing.
So we went to Sayulita onSaturday, the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Have you been?
Yes, so we went frompreventative measures to get rid
of this rare plant that's goingto kill you And you're like,
i'm going to get Mexican foodnow.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, okay, so we go and we, we have lunch on
Saturday and I am too margaritasin when I decide you know what
I'm going to do it I'm going toput on.
That sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, that's the answer Just get the two
margaritas.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That was it, i thought that's where you were.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I don't know how to make a decision with this, so
two margaritas it is.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Two margaritas.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What were the margaritas?
That's what we need tonight.
They're just the classic, arethey?
You get the seasonal ones.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
No one.
I love a spicy marg.
One was called a hot andJalisco, jalisco, jalisco,
something.
It was delicious, and then theother one.
No, i had the same thing, butChad had a different one, but
anyway.
So on our way home I was likeyou know what, chad?
I'm really feeling this.
I'm tired of not being able towalk around our yard and feel
like I'm going to have blackspots all over me.
(09:31):
So I had him get me some reallylong kitchen gloves and I put
on some clothes that I willnever, ever touch again And I
threw away immediately after Iwas done And I got in the poison
ivy patch and I pulled it fromthe root And I pulled just about
as much of it as I could untilI thought I was going to pass
out because of the heat.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But I'm really feeling gross.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I have only one, one tiny little spot.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There one spot I'm like.
I woke up this morning and Iwas like, oh my God.
And then I started thinkingabout it and I'm like you know
what, you know what For a rashdecision on a random Saturday,
with nothing but really longkitchen gloves, i'll take it,
i'll take it, and it's not ablack spot, it's just a regular
spot.
So I don't know if it just likelightly grazed, i'm not really
(10:24):
sure, but it's just right on myneck and I'm fine.
But I'm not like, you know, i'mnot like.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Errr, but I have You managed to escape.
So you're basically thecommercial when they say like
kills 99.99% of germs.
So you were like the 99.99%,you recovered.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, and I was like okay, like because for the rest
of the night when I came in youknow my anxiety, so like I
probably don't even know how toexplain this to you, but when I
came, in that night.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
You were brave to go out there with that, knowing
that you know the repercussionsof if you slipped up for.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Well, i, literally, as I was laying in bed and I was
fine, i wasn't, but my braingoes you're itchy, you're itchy
everywhere.
And I was just like thinkinglike oh my god, it's coming, yep
.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm going to be covering it in black.
And, side note, one of thebiggest reasons why I knew
Brooke would be amazing for thispodcast is because when she
tells stories, she tells themwith these voice inflections
that just go into the crazyvoices that, oh, it's hilarious,
it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Oh my god, I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, you're just like, just like making a sound
effect, so we don't even needthe board.
We don't need a sound effectboard.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Wow, i didn't even know that I did that, but I'm
glad that you're enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It's hilarious.
Yeah, that's yeah.
Kelly agreed to listen to someof your stories, just from like
some of the voice messages whenI've showed her.
When Brooke and I are chattingback and forth, sometimes we use
the, which we can talk aboutthat Instagram Shit.
get rid of the one minute cueon your voice.
Oh yeah, That's so much.
And I sit there and you're busyand you're talking and it just
(11:52):
stops a woman and you're likeshit.
So I'm sure they heard And thenI got to read back listen.
but anyway I'm glad you guyslove my voices.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I'm noticing on this now that we're like actually
recording.
When I watch it back I'm like Inoticed now that my face does a
lot of things that are totallyinvoluntary, Like totally
involuntary.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The Toe story last week.
Your facial reactions was youdidn't even have to hear the
story.
It was.
That was hilarious.
I've had multiple comments saylike Brooke's face was was so
funny watching this story.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So but I didn't even know that I do that.
So you saying that about likethe stories and stuff when I go
through and I listen to this, tookay it to post.
I'm going to be focusing now onthe inflection of my voice.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
No, it's, but that's wonderful.
Yeah, that's Oh hilarious.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But yeah, we're probably a third of the poison
Ivy down.
We have another pair of gloves,i have some more extra clothes
that I'm going to throw awayonce the spot stops.
And me, but yeah, i'm, i bravedit and I'm very proud of myself
for only walking away with oneteensy, weensy little spot.
Thank you, thank you, i am.
I am truly the goat As someonewho appreciates, get that joke.
(13:11):
Okay so today's podcast, we weretalking about how to properly
prepare for sessions.
This is a podcast that you andI have talked about, kind of
like attacking this or notattacking.
Tackling this subject, becauseI feel like a lot of people have
a lot of anxiety when it comesto planning how to plan the
(13:32):
perfect session that doesn'tfeel cheesy and it's not sit
there and posey.
So we have some tips today thatI wanted to, that we wanted to
talk about.
As far as prepping for yoursession and it's an engagement
session, newborn session, inhome session This one is not
about the weddings, so this isjust every other session besides
your wedding, because on yourwedding you're mostly candid
(13:52):
anyway.
You're kind of like doing, youknow, you're walking through the
day doing what you do Andhopefully we're capturing it as
it is.
Hence the realism.
But for today, we're talkingabout sessions that are
everything but the wedding.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Everything but the wedding.
No, i've, i've the pause there.
I'm not serious listening to myvoice.
I'm going to listen back andsee if I hear I'm trying to,
which is great for video.
I'm going to be taking my sipof coffee here and I'm like you
know, trying to swallow it onthe side here, but they're being
occasionally going to miss.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Goal.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, attractive, so let's go into that.
So, nick's the wedding for themoment Let's talk about.
so, brooke, we've talked aboutthis.
You, you know you're really biginto you start with in-home
sessions.
I think that's a good place tostart.
In-home sessions, you've got aspecial spot in your heart for
the in-home sessions with thefamilies.
And they look beautiful.
(14:42):
They look great.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So I think that's one of your style of I.
Rarely you do a lot of naturallight.
You do more than I think mostpeople think they can do, and
then in in.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
In.
In home session.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So so that's in session, but I've seen the
photos and I I've seen yours andI think back to myself and I've
I've had to do some recentlyand I do think of your account,
so you are coming top of mindand I'm like what do I need to
do to kind of not replicated perse but get that though?
It's all about light, it's allabout light.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Absolutely So tell us , tell us a little prep about
that.
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
on that.
Okay, well, first things first,something that you just said
kind of like, stood out to me asfar as like you're, like you do
a lot more with natural lightthan you know that you even
thought was possible.
Is that what you just said?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
That's what I said, okay.
I know we need to be like runit back, run it back record.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
No, cricket's just destroying the couch.
So it's fantastic, it's fine.
So so first things first.
Before we even get into the inhome session, i think like where
we should start with this isbasically before you even reach
out to your photographer, likeyour prep starts before you even
reach out to us.
Your prep starts when you aretrying to figure out who is the
(15:59):
photographer for me and what doI want them to capture for me.
You know, with that comes a fewdifferent things.
So one reading yourphotographers about me is really
really, really important.
It's really important tounderstand where your
photographer kind of stands intheir life, but also with what
they're trying to capture.
So I know for my about me, iliterally right in there, like
(16:23):
I'm not about the picture,perfect posey shot.
Like I'm not going to haveclients who or I have had
clients.
I'm discouraging the clientswho want to yell at their
children, to sit down and smileat the camera.
I'm discouraging those types ofsessions.
It doesn't mean that we won'tget a photo where all of you
might be looking at the cameraand smiling.
(16:43):
That's not what it means.
What it means is that I don'twant for your session to turn
into okay.
Now we're really aggravated andeverybody's sitting and you're
kind of like smiling throughyour teeth, like okay, but when
we leave it's probably going tobe a fight.
When you leave my session, idon't want you to be fighting
with your spouse and I don'twant you to be fighting with
your children.
I don't want you to be focusingon how poorly they behaved
(17:06):
because they don't know how tobehave in front of a camera, in
front of a stranger.
Like that is a hard thing to dofor a little person, you know,
for a little human that doesn'treally understand, like what is
this big black thing thatthey're holding in front of
their face to capture ourmemories?
Like no, it's.
In my case I have like a littlelens buddy, like a little toy
(17:26):
on the front so that I can likesqueak it at them and stuff like
that.
All that to say is like in myabout me, when I say you know
I'm not going to tryspecifically hard to capture the
picture perfect photo What Imean is that we're not going to
have an angsty session to beable to capture that one
(17:49):
Christmas card.
I want for your photos to beabout capturing memories and it
says that right in my about me,if you have low lighting in your
home, your session likely willbe a little bit darker and a
little bit moodier than somebodywho's setting up light like
Chris.
So, number one, read the aboutme I love natural light.
I'm gonna focus on that.
(18:10):
It's not that I can't set upthe extra lights or anything
like that, it's that I'mfocusing on what your home looks
like in its natural form Also.
Well, so for the next one is askyour photographer for a gallery
or two Like that's.
The next step is like ask yourphotographer Can I see a full
(18:31):
gallery of what you've deliveredin homes with, you know, good
lighting, poor lighting.
In homes with nurseries nonurseries, if you're talking
about maybe like a newbornsession or something like that.
If you don't have a nurserysetup look at what the you know
you can ask me what are somesessions that you've had where
you've done a newborn sessionand we don't necessarily have a
nursery fully set up and wedon't anticipate we're going to
(18:54):
be having that set up by thetime you get here.
I feel like I'm rambling, butit's kind of like it's these
steps where it's like Yeah, soyou want to learn about your
photographer, but then also youwant to learn exactly what they
have delivered in certainsituations that you might
already anticipate, like I justhad a client say like please
don't expect your you know,don't expect to walk into like
(19:16):
the picture perfect pottery barncat, like, oh my gosh, magazine
pottery barn Sure, no catalogis what I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
The catalog.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're not walking into a pottery barn catalog, And
it was funny because itactually kind of got me thinking
OK, well, how can I be creativein the smaller spaces in their
home?
How can I, you know, kind ofset something up minimally where
we take a few things away andit still feels very clean, very
fresh, decluttered things likethat?
Do you have anything to add onthat?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I just feel like I'm rambling, totally taking over as
you're talking, i'm likeformulating thoughts and what's
sticking out to me.
So there's two, two thoughts,and one is for the photographer
and one is for the individual orpeople looking for said
photographer.
So for the photographer, goodidea If you haven't done this.
If you're, it doesn't matter ifyou're doing weddings or
(20:08):
whatnot, but if you're, ifyou're still in especially like
beginning to mid level stages ofgrowing your business and
you're kind of taking on avariety of different types of
work, which would be engagementsession, weddings in home,
seniors It's a good idea to, asBrooke pointed out she's having
her the advice for theindividuals to ask the
photographer for some samplegalleries of what they're
(20:30):
looking for.
So it would be a good idea forthe photographer to have some
sample galleries that are premade, ready to go, that maybe
you could just update a littlebit here and there, but
generally speaking, one that'sin home, one that's maybe at a
beach, one that's in a darkplace, whatever the, wherever
your client is, have thatgallery ready to go to save some
time.
I'm always thinking aboutsaving time.
You know how do I make thisefficient.
(20:50):
And then, secondly, for theindividual and you were talking,
brooke, about take a look atthe about keep hitting my mic
and literally I'm going to bethe amount of times in this
video.
I'm going to make a clip ofevery video, of every time I
pulled this mic.
It's like so, if you are theindividual, the importance of
looking at that, that about mepage or the any anything that
(21:15):
you can scour that showcases thepersonality that you're hiring,
versus solely the photos evenif you only really care about
the photos and you're like Idon't really need to know about
the person, i would disagree.
Yeah, you kind of do.
But yeah, you, because ifyou're an individual or your
family, that's someone who youknow you don't maybe you like
(21:40):
are very quiet and you knowyou've got a very introverted
space and you hire somebodywhose photos are, you know,
stunning And then they come overjust like bash open the door
and they just got a really loudpersonality which works for some
people, works really well Infact, but not everybody.
You wouldn't want that And itmay completely destroy the vibe.
(22:01):
So the experience with theactual photographer and what to
expect from them is just asimportant as the photos.
So right making sure to do yourresearch is good, and sometimes
there's a lot of photographersthat don't know what they want
to put on their website.
So you'll find that it feelsvery.
It feels feels very similar asyou go through pages.
And if that's the case, but youreally like that person or
(22:23):
whatnot, continue to do a littlebit more research.
You can scour their, theirsocial media.
You can scour there.
You know there's a lot ofoutlets nowadays to truly sounds
creepy.
Find out about a person or atleast the vibe that they're
giving Right, and it should bepretty easy to find.
So well, also my thoughts and Ithe last thing I was thinking as
you were talking and I hadthese thoughts I'm thinking of.
(22:44):
I'm going to show my age.
There was a.
There was a show a long timeago on MTV or VH.
One thing was MTV And it waslike it was like music videos
that would play And during whilethey played, little bubbles
would pop up of information.
That was, like you know, atthis scene.
This like thing happened.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
This blooper is behind the music, or something.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I think behind the music was a VH one show where
they like interviewed the Okay.
The this cannot remember thename of it for me.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I remember it.
I just don't remember the nameof it.
I remember what you're talkingabout.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, i've.
So we need that for us rightnow, like as we're talking, like
my thoughts need to have onhand the page.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, if you do the YouTube thing, you could totally
we could like type in littlesnippets, but the other thing
that I was going to say, though,is, you know, you said you
could scour their social media,stuff like that.
My next point on what to dobefore you even reach out is ask
for their package prices andread reviews.
So if you are viewing theirpackage prices and you're like,
whoa, that's not, as you know,that's more than I was hoping to
(23:48):
spend for this specific session, or something like that, But
then you look at the reviews andyou see how helpful the
photographer was.
You see, you know all of theseraving reviews from people who
have paid that same exact priceto be able to take advantage of
these services, then maybe itwon't feel so strange for you to
go.
Oh well, you know all the route.
(24:09):
All of the reviews say thatthis person is great, so they
must be doing you know somesomething amazing with this.
Like, let's give it a go.
Similarly, though, if you arenot comfortable with spending
the money, just don't.
If you're not comfortable withspending that money, it's okay
to say that somebody is out ofyour price point.
It's okay, because the otherthing that you don't want to do
is you don't want to almost like, let your guard down and go.
(24:31):
Well, everybody else says thatit's, you know it's worth it.
And then what you were lookingfor in that specific session may
or may not be captured in theway that you were hoping.
So you know as much as readingreviews and looking at the
package prices, you need to kindof weigh it out for yourself.
What is this worth to me?
What am I willing to spend?
And then, if the reviews arethat teetering point where it's
(24:53):
just pushing you over the edgejust a little bit like you know
what, yeah, okay, it's a littlebit more than we wanted to spend
, but it sounds like thesessions are great, then take
the jump, take the leap.
I mean, worst case scenario youhave moments of your family
that are, in my case, anyway,the.
What I try to capture arememories.
So that's what I would sayabout that.
And then, after you arereaching out, or while you're
(25:16):
reaching out, give as muchdetail as humanly possible about
you, your spouse, your family,whoever's gonna be captured in
this session, talk about them,and talk about them in the light
that you're hoping that they'llbe captured.
You know, i know that it's very, very, very tempting to go to a
contact page and just go yep,this is my budget, yep, this is
where I live, this is where thisis gonna be.
(25:37):
Tell me what your pricing is.
It's very, very it's enticingto do that, especially if you're
reaching out to multiplephotographers for the same event
to be captured or the samefamily session to be captured.
But you really wanna at leastbe telling your photographer
what it is that you're hoping tobe captured in, the light that
you're hoping to have itcaptured in, if that makes sense
(25:58):
.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
That's incredibly importantknowledge.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Cause I might get the same inquiry as you.
But I might say you know whatmy services I don't think that
they're going to speak to whatyou're hoping to capture at this
point in time You know youcould reach out to my friend, my
colleague, who, like you saidbefore, a lot of my moments are
about the quiet moments that arecaptured.
You might want a photographerthat's a little bit louder, you
might want a photographer that'sa little bit more colorful than
(26:28):
me.
You know, and being upfront andhonest about what you're hoping
to capture and who your familyis will help you do that
infinitely and it'll help yourphotographer understand if
they're right for you or not.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Deep thoughts, deep thoughts on this.
That's right.
We need like a like, some sortof a wrap up on this, not wrap
up on the topic, but like a likea end vote or something on this
.
Is this good or is this notgood?
Like, what's your thoughts onthis?
So I'm trying to figure out howto put into words and I can't
(27:01):
like.
that was such a nice good deepthought.
We need to encapsulate thatsomehow in like.
I can't think of a, i don'tknow.
Like a poll, maybe like a poll,i don't know.
I need more coffee.
This is my busy brain's running, running, life Running life.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
My brain is like running and I think I'm doing
like a run on because I'm not.
I'm not here right now.
Does that make sense?
I'm like, i'm like because Ikeep this going like I'm like
and then and then.
What do you think?
Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh, and then, unfortunately me, i'm up here
going like, oh yeah, yeah, thatmakes sense, perfect.
So together we're doing reallygreat.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, we're coming off of a long weekend.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So We are.
I'm sure a lot of people are,And I'm sure a lot of, because
this is July.
This is a very busy month forindividuals for like vacations,
Just general summer plans.
If you've got kids, I know that, just you know you're
constantly thinking aboutactivities.
And if they're not going tolike camp or something because
they're maybe too young and thenor or they're just not going,
there's it's there's a lock, SoYeah, Everybody's a little busy,
(28:05):
which is so funny because inthe winter we're like, yeah,
summer we're ready, like it'sgoing to be, it's going to be
awesome break.
We talked about this.
We are so trained with a Kthrough 12 mentality for the
beginning part of our life thatwhen summer comes here we're
like, you know, no work, justlike all fun, can't wait.
And then summer comes whenyou're an adult and you're
(28:26):
somehow even busier than everAnd you're like when do I get a
break?
Do I get to enjoy this?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like I X'd out of light room to be able to come
into this Like so it's just likework, work, work, work, work.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Okay, that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So you asked me about in-home sessions.
Is there anything that you tellyour clients specifically
before I go into I just I don'twant this to be all me talking.
I feel like I'm just running on.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So do you have anything that you?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
specifically tell your clients about in-home
sessions, and then I'll get intoa little bit of what I do.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You know it's interesting because in-home
sessions is not my, you knowit's not my primary business.
I like to say it's not or it'swhat I'm what I'm doing majority
of the time.
So I always feel I usually doin-home sessions for any of my
wedding couples or people thatyou know are specifically
inquiring, asking.
you know I'll be up in frontand say this is not my, it's not
(29:19):
my main business, but I can doit And I would.
if you really want me to do it,i will absolutely do it.
So it's fun because then when Iget to do it I'm like oh, i
love doing this because it's ait's just, you know, it
challenges me in new ways.
So it's like a totallydifferent mindset.
So one of the pieces of advicethat I give, which always kind
of shifts as I continue to dothese just because I don't do
(29:40):
them as much, is that breakfast.
it's always always about thebefore, communication and
setting up the expectations, andI'm always learning that.
I'm always reminding myself ofthat, and One of the big things
is making sure to ask the rightquestions.
So some of those questionswould be like do you have a?
(30:02):
what's your space look like?
Is there a window?
Is there a big enough window?
Is the space clean?
Can you clean it?
And I totally understand if youcan't, because you've got a
newborn and it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Do you outwardly just say is your home clean?
Like do you say that I don'tsay is it clean?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I say I preface it with the photos are gonna look
great if the space is justtidied up.
And I specifically say if youare in chaos, we all we need to
do is just move all the stuff.
But it helps me know ahead oftime, like, if I get there, do I
need to set aside time fortidying up?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Do I need to do that?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So I'm not jumping into it and going like, oh, this
room is a mess, like I'm okaywith it looking.
I don't wanna say messy, butlike a little bit more natural.
It doesn't have to beeverything straight perfect
Lived in is a great way todescribe this, yeah, lived in.
But if there's water, like Ialways think of, cause the
wedding.
I think of the hotel room andthe most annoying The water
(31:00):
bottles, the water bottles.
They look, there's nothing thatthey look terrible.
They look terrible.
I hate that And they're justcause they're crinkled a little
bit And it's just like itliterally looks like trash.
It's like there's nothing I cando about that Other than that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, that's cause, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It's trash, It's trash.
So you know, blankets, toys forkids, like that looks lived in.
But if it's like, if it's likea million Legos everywhere, like
tiny weird pieces, like I justI'm just gauging What am I
expecting when I walk in,Because that will help me
understand what I need to do andhow much time I need and things
(31:34):
like that.
So I'm, i'm.
I said I always preface it withif you, you don't need to, you
know, go crazy, dust everythingyou don't need to.
that's not what I'm asking,literally asking for.
Is it possible that the room istheir space?
Can?
we just move stuff out of theway if we need to.
So that's always a goodquestion, and and then I just go
(31:55):
into, and the best way to getthe most amount of information
from people is to get them totalk about themselves, which
sounds like an obvious thing,but sometimes it's hard to do.
So I kind of just ask questionslike literally, things like you
know what's the home life likeright now?
Is there you know?
are you guys?
is it?
(32:16):
is it a quiet vibe?
Are you guys?
as a rambunctious?
Do you have a?
you know the two year old isgoing to be running around What?
what time of day is?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
the most exciting.
I like some of these questions.
I like seeing these questionsthat you're asking.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I'm going to so And it entices.
all I'm looking for is peopleto talk about themselves,
because it gives me I get tohear a how they talk which tells
me their personality a littlebit.
I'll have them tell me aboutthemselves.
What do you guys like?
What do you like to do?
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
What do you, what do you like to do right now?
And again, I'm always thinkingof in-home session, I'm thinking
of young children are usuallyin the mixture And that's a new
word in the picture and Imixture So Mixture is a word.
It is, but I was like mixedpicture.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I said I don't know what I said In the picture In
the picture.
All right, guys.
That's part one of today'sepisode.
Just a quick reminder that werecord these episodes and divide
them into two parts to dropevery Tuesday.
If you want to continue thisconversation with us, we'll see
you in part two.
aggressive.
Yeah, they count on a scary Yo.
what's up Hey?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
we are here Fantastic .
Speaker 1 (00:09):
So today we're going to have to run through this one
a little bit quick, becauseChris has a lot going on this
week.
Not that I don't, but Chris,his whole schedule is nuts Do
you want to tell them a littlebit about what's going on this
week before we start.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Sure.
So I am currently here in thestudio and actually I'm going to
get a little bit of aninterview with the director.
Give a little wave.
My studio Me Jamie's right backthere.
I don't know if she wants to beseen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I don't think so She can't hear you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
She can't hear me, that's OK, so she's back there.
We're in the studio right now.
Beautiful, like it's just so.
It's so much better.
Last week I was struggling withwhere to do this in my home and
it was like just shifting froma spot to spot, and even in the
end I looked back at it Thatthis is this, however, beautiful
light.
When we talk about photography,it means everything, and this
is this is much better.
(00:57):
So it's just very easy Why I'mso busy, why I'm here in the
studio.
We are doing our photographyworkshop this week.
We've got our awesome nineinstructors Jamie, one of them,
in the background right nowgoing to be talking about
headshots, everything about thatGot a bunch of topics, had a
wedding yesterday.
All focuses, this workshop, andthen on Thursday I will
(01:22):
collapse, completely collapse.
I'm not even sure what I'mgoing to do yet, but I
absolutely have to take.
Oh, we just got a little meow.
That was cute.
Oh my God, sorry, perfect, no,no, no, that's adorable.
I like the the additional inputfrom the cat here.
So that's that.
That was Gremlin, correct.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
No, that was cricket, Oh cricket.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I know that name too.
So yeah, we are.
I am busy, i'm very busy, butI'm on the sort of the tail end
of busy.
The past three weeks I've had abunch of weddings, i've got a
ton of editing to do And it hasjust been a nonstop game for
this prep for our workshop.
And then next week that's assoon as I get my one day break
(02:02):
we push for we're doing a launchparty in Southington Well,
actually it's considered amiddle day, but it's at a
kinsman brewery And we'll betalking about and releasing some
of our speakers for 2024.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Some of the mystic Mariah.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So that's.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
OK.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Next thing, But the main focus today is all prep for
Lens and Light and the workshopover the next two days.
So Tuesday and Wednesday, twofull days.
So it's going to be reallyexciting, Yeah, really really
pumped.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that's awesome, good stuff.
So that's Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday you're
going to just pass out Thursday,I will cease to exist.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So actually, if you want to talk about cease to
exist, Wednesday evening,Wednesday night, whenever I get
home and drop my bag justcollapse full on the floor, even
last night actually.
Kelly took a photo of me lastnight because I finished the
wedding yesterday, got home andwas she, was she was doing some
some prepping, some mealprepping, And I was just I just
laid down on the couch and I wasout in like seconds And so I
(03:00):
have, you know, beautifulpicture of me that she took as
one as a married spouse would do, as for each other Is there you
go sleeping in mouth open.
Got to.
Got to grab that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Of course you do, of course.
So is this your busiest seasonever?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's the weird.
The word season is interestingat this point because it's if I
was only doing weddings I wouldfeel that word would be more
applicable, but this is the most.
this is the most busy in thephotography industry
entrepreneurship, whatever youwant to call it that I have ever
been in my life, for sure.
And there's no one to blame butmyself.
(03:34):
I've put, i've taken on a lotof jobs and, but I wanted to.
So this is so you know.
You get that advice from peoplethat you know you're young.
While you're young, i hear fromyou know, grandparents and such
like do it now get bored.
So I'm wondering now if I did.
I take on too much.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Did you write off more than you can chew?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's potentially, as we're sitting here, you know,
podcast also included in that.
I'm very excited for this, so,but it's good, because we will
push the limits and find outwhere my limits are, what I can
do and always learningexperience.
Do a lot of failures before youhave a lot of successes.
Yeah, but it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I'm excited to see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
What about you?
I think you've got a story toshare.
I think that's what we justtalked about, I mean it's not
like a story, it's just so.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I've shared with a lot of my followers and I've
asked for all of the ideas andsuggestions on how to get rid of
our poison ivy.
So what we have in our yard iscalled well, i don't think it's.
I don't think the plant itselfis called this, but what my skin
does when the plant touches myskin is called black spot,
(04:43):
poison ivy, and what itbasically is.
Yeah, it's crazy.
So last year, maybe two yearsago No, i think it was two years
ago, because then last year Iwas like I'm not touching it.
Two years ago I we were playingwith sparklers outside with my
niece and nephew And when theyleft I noticed that I had this
like black dot on my on my skinAnd I was like, oh my God, like
(05:03):
did I get burnt, you know?
So I'm looking at it and I'mlike what the heck?
Like it literally burnt a pieceof my skin And even to this day
I still have a scar.
But the next day, the black spotthat I mean.
So basically, when it grazesyour skin, the toxicity of the
chemicals that are poison ivyburns your skin, it literally
(05:24):
burns it, and then the next day,that black spot is raised and
surrounded by a bunch of littleregular poison ivy spots.
So you kind of just have tolike go through the process And
if somebody is really allergicwhich I am, but I guess I
touched it just ever so slightlyyou can go to the hospital to
get like steroids for it andstuff like that.
(05:44):
I didn't, because I just don'tsee doctors ever.
So you wait for that piece ofskin to fall off and then you
just have the most awful poisonivy ever.
But what I was trying, what Iwas gonna, yeah, yeah it's
terrible.
So I basically I didn't know,this existed?
I didn't either, until I lookedit up and it said that it's a
very rare condition, that onlycertain amount of poison ivy
(06:09):
plants that have that specifictoxicity will do like.
It'll create that effect oncertain people who have the
right skin whatever that willmake it turn black.
So it doesn't.
So if you walked in my yard andyou touched the poison ivy,
there's a pretty good chancethat your skin would not turn
black and you wouldn't get thatspecific type of poison ivy, but
you would get a pretty angrypoison ivy.
(06:29):
The one that I get is like.
I literally looked it up and itwas like a very rare condition
And I'm like okay, cool, Yeah,you're like sweet, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whenever you get it Like awesome, Yeah, cool Yeah.
No, of course it's me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The chances were low for me and I have this great
Right so I've asked a bunch ofpeople like how do I get rid of
this?
What do I do?
Everybody's like get goats,like hire goats, to come and eat
it, cause I guess the goatsreally like the root of poison
ivy.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's also specific Right, but I also, i know.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
but I also live in an area where, like I don't think
a farmer is just gonna, like youknow, case off my yard and drop
them off and be like bye, causethere are things in my area
that would definitely harm goats.
So I haven't been able to finda company that would do the
goats I don't really want to payfor.
I mean, listen, i'll pay forsome goats to eat, cause like
(07:19):
that's cute, you know, like Iwould love to have the goats in
my yard.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, 100% pay for that.
You really need to come overand see the goats.
that is so funny.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right, yes I also now envision.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
The big question is is Nellie gonna be a goat herder
?
Can we have Nellie do that?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Dude.
Okay, so at the last HOAmeeting, chad, he's the vice.
He's, is he the vice president?
I think he's the vice president.
I don't even remember because Iwas like I'm not doing it, but
if you want to do it, that'sfine.
He was asking them.
He was like Brooke wants to getchickens and goats And they
were like, oh my God, we wouldlove for her to have them.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And he's like don't tell her that I didn't want you
wanting chickens too.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh man, i would love it.
The thing is, though, is thatthey attract rats because of the
food and stuff.
So it's like but anyway, so Iwould pay for goats.
I wouldn't pay.
I mean, i don't know, I don'twant to say I wouldn't pay for
somebody to come and pull it out, but I don't want somebody like
spraying pesticides around theyard.
No Long story short it's goingbuck wild in my yard.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Like it is like growing everywhere.
I'm afraid to do any gardening,anything like that.
So Chad and I went to Sayulitaon Saturday, cause I'm trying to
take less weddings so that Ican have more time with my
husband and, like, do the thing.
So we went to Sayulita onSaturday, the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Have you been?
Yes, so we went frompreventative measures to get rid
of this rare plant that's goingto kill you And you're like,
i'm going to get Mexican foodnow.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, okay, so we go and we, we have lunch on
Saturday and I am too margaritasin when I decide you know what
I'm going to do it I'm going toput on.
That sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, that's the answer Just get the two
margaritas.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That was it, i thought that's where you were.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I don't know how to make a decision with this, so
two margaritas it is.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Two margaritas.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What were the margaritas?
That's what we need tonight.
They're just the classic, arethey?
You get the seasonal ones.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
No one.
I love a spicy marg.
One was called a hot andJalisco, jalisco, jalisco,
something.
It was delicious, and then theother one.
No, i had the same thing, butChad had a different one, but
anyway.
So on our way home I was likeyou know what, chad?
I'm really feeling this.
I'm tired of not being able towalk around our yard and feel
like I'm going to have blackspots all over me.
(09:31):
So I had him get me some reallylong kitchen gloves and I put
on some clothes that I willnever, ever touch again And I
threw away immediately after Iwas done And I got in the poison
ivy patch and I pulled it fromthe root And I pulled just about
as much of it as I could untilI thought I was going to pass
out because of the heat.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But I'm really feeling gross.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I have only one, one tiny little spot.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There one spot I'm like.
I woke up this morning and Iwas like, oh my God.
And then I started thinkingabout it and I'm like you know
what, you know what For a rashdecision on a random Saturday,
with nothing but really longkitchen gloves, i'll take it,
i'll take it, and it's not ablack spot, it's just a regular
spot.
So I don't know if it just likelightly grazed, i'm not really
(10:24):
sure, but it's just right on myneck and I'm fine.
But I'm not like, you know, i'mnot like.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Errr, but I have You managed to escape.
So you're basically thecommercial when they say like
kills 99.99% of germs.
So you were like the 99.99%,you recovered.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, and I was like okay, like because for the rest
of the night when I came in youknow my anxiety, so like I
probably don't even know how toexplain this to you, but when I
came, in that night.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
You were brave to go out there with that, knowing
that you know the repercussionsof if you slipped up for.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Well, i, literally, as I was laying in bed and I was
fine, i wasn't, but my braingoes you're itchy, you're itchy
everywhere.
And I was just like thinkinglike oh my god, it's coming, yep
.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm going to be covering it in black.
And, side note, one of thebiggest reasons why I knew
Brooke would be amazing for thispodcast is because when she
tells stories, she tells themwith these voice inflections
that just go into the crazyvoices that, oh, it's hilarious,
it's so funny.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Oh my god, I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, you're just like, just like making a sound
effect, so we don't even needthe board.
We don't need a sound effectboard.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Wow, i didn't even know that I did that, but I'm
glad that you're enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It's hilarious.
Yeah, that's yeah.
Kelly agreed to listen to someof your stories, just from like
some of the voice messages whenI've showed her.
When Brooke and I are chattingback and forth, sometimes we use
the, which we can talk aboutthat Instagram Shit.
get rid of the one minute cueon your voice.
Oh yeah, That's so much.
And I sit there and you're busyand you're talking and it just
(11:52):
stops a woman and you're likeshit.
So I'm sure they heard And thenI got to read back listen.
but anyway I'm glad you guyslove my voices.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I'm noticing on this now that we're like actually
recording.
When I watch it back I'm like Inoticed now that my face does a
lot of things that are totallyinvoluntary, Like totally
involuntary.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The Toe story last week.
Your facial reactions was youdidn't even have to hear the
story.
It was.
That was hilarious.
I've had multiple comments saylike Brooke's face was was so
funny watching this story.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So but I didn't even know that I do that.
So you saying that about likethe stories and stuff when I go
through and I listen to this, tookay it to post.
I'm going to be focusing now onthe inflection of my voice.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
No, it's, but that's wonderful.
Yeah, that's Oh hilarious.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But yeah, we're probably a third of the poison
Ivy down.
We have another pair of gloves,i have some more extra clothes
that I'm going to throw awayonce the spot stops.
And me, but yeah, i'm, i bravedit and I'm very proud of myself
for only walking away with oneteensy, weensy little spot.
Thank you, thank you, i am.
I am truly the goat As someonewho appreciates, get that joke.
(13:11):
Okay so today's podcast, we weretalking about how to properly
prepare for sessions.
This is a podcast that you andI have talked about, kind of
like attacking this or notattacking.
Tackling this subject, becauseI feel like a lot of people have
a lot of anxiety when it comesto planning how to plan the
(13:32):
perfect session that doesn'tfeel cheesy and it's not sit
there and posey.
So we have some tips today thatI wanted to, that we wanted to
talk about.
As far as prepping for yoursession and it's an engagement
session, newborn session, inhome session This one is not
about the weddings, so this isjust every other session besides
your wedding, because on yourwedding you're mostly candid
(13:52):
anyway.
You're kind of like doing, youknow, you're walking through the
day doing what you do Andhopefully we're capturing it as
it is.
Hence the realism.
But for today, we're talkingabout sessions that are
everything but the wedding.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Everything but the wedding.
No, i've, i've the pause there.
I'm not serious listening to myvoice.
I'm going to listen back andsee if I hear I'm trying to,
which is great for video.
I'm going to be taking my sipof coffee here and I'm like you
know, trying to swallow it onthe side here, but they're being
occasionally going to miss.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Goal.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, attractive, so let's go into that.
So, nick's the wedding for themoment Let's talk about.
so, brooke, we've talked aboutthis.
You, you know you're really biginto you start with in-home
sessions.
I think that's a good place tostart.
In-home sessions, you've got aspecial spot in your heart for
the in-home sessions with thefamilies.
And they look beautiful.
(14:42):
They look great.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So I think that's one of your style of I.
Rarely you do a lot of naturallight.
You do more than I think mostpeople think they can do, and
then in in.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
In.
In home session.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So so that's in session, but I've seen the
photos and I I've seen yours andI think back to myself and I've
I've had to do some recentlyand I do think of your account,
so you are coming top of mindand I'm like what do I need to
do to kind of not replicated perse but get that though?
It's all about light, it's allabout light.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Absolutely So tell us , tell us a little prep about
that.
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
on that.
Okay, well, first things first,something that you just said
kind of like, stood out to me asfar as like you're, like you do
a lot more with natural lightthan you know that you even
thought was possible.
Is that what you just said?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
That's what I said, okay.
I know we need to be like runit back, run it back record.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
No, cricket's just destroying the couch.
So it's fantastic, it's fine.
So so first things first.
Before we even get into the inhome session, i think like where
we should start with this isbasically before you even reach
out to your photographer, likeyour prep starts before you even
reach out to us.
Your prep starts when you aretrying to figure out who is the
(15:59):
photographer for me and what doI want them to capture for me.
You know, with that comes a fewdifferent things.
So one reading yourphotographers about me is really
really, really important.
It's really important tounderstand where your
photographer kind of stands intheir life, but also with what
they're trying to capture.
So I know for my about me, iliterally right in there, like
(16:23):
I'm not about the picture,perfect posey shot.
Like I'm not going to haveclients who or I have had
clients.
I'm discouraging the clientswho want to yell at their
children, to sit down and smileat the camera.
I'm discouraging those types ofsessions.
It doesn't mean that we won'tget a photo where all of you
might be looking at the cameraand smiling.
(16:43):
That's not what it means.
What it means is that I don'twant for your session to turn
into okay.
Now we're really aggravated andeverybody's sitting and you're
kind of like smiling throughyour teeth, like okay, but when
we leave it's probably going tobe a fight.
When you leave my session, idon't want you to be fighting
with your spouse and I don'twant you to be fighting with
your children.
I don't want you to be focusingon how poorly they behaved
(17:06):
because they don't know how tobehave in front of a camera, in
front of a stranger.
Like that is a hard thing to dofor a little person, you know,
for a little human that doesn'treally understand, like what is
this big black thing thatthey're holding in front of
their face to capture ourmemories?
Like no, it's.
In my case I have like a littlelens buddy, like a little toy
(17:26):
on the front so that I can likesqueak it at them and stuff like
that.
All that to say is like in myabout me, when I say you know
I'm not going to tryspecifically hard to capture the
picture perfect photo What Imean is that we're not going to
have an angsty session to beable to capture that one
(17:49):
Christmas card.
I want for your photos to beabout capturing memories and it
says that right in my about me,if you have low lighting in your
home, your session likely willbe a little bit darker and a
little bit moodier than somebodywho's setting up light like
Chris.
So, number one, read the aboutme I love natural light.
I'm gonna focus on that.
(18:10):
It's not that I can't set upthe extra lights or anything
like that, it's that I'mfocusing on what your home looks
like in its natural form Also.
Well, so for the next one is askyour photographer for a gallery
or two Like that's.
The next step is like ask yourphotographer Can I see a full
(18:31):
gallery of what you've deliveredin homes with, you know, good
lighting, poor lighting.
In homes with nurseries nonurseries, if you're talking
about maybe like a newbornsession or something like that.
If you don't have a nurserysetup look at what the you know
you can ask me what are somesessions that you've had where
you've done a newborn sessionand we don't necessarily have a
nursery fully set up and wedon't anticipate we're going to
(18:54):
be having that set up by thetime you get here.
I feel like I'm rambling, butit's kind of like it's these
steps where it's like Yeah, soyou want to learn about your
photographer, but then also youwant to learn exactly what they
have delivered in certainsituations that you might
already anticipate, like I justhad a client say like please
don't expect your you know,don't expect to walk into like
(19:16):
the picture perfect pottery barncat, like, oh my gosh, magazine
pottery barn Sure, no catalogis what I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
The catalog.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're not walking into a pottery barn catalog, And
it was funny because itactually kind of got me thinking
OK, well, how can I be creativein the smaller spaces in their
home?
How can I, you know, kind ofset something up minimally where
we take a few things away andit still feels very clean, very
fresh, decluttered things likethat?
Do you have anything to add onthat?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I just feel like I'm rambling, totally taking over as
you're talking, i'm likeformulating thoughts and what's
sticking out to me.
So there's two, two thoughts,and one is for the photographer
and one is for the individual orpeople looking for said
photographer.
So for the photographer, goodidea If you haven't done this.
If you're, it doesn't matter ifyou're doing weddings or
(20:08):
whatnot, but if you're, ifyou're still in especially like
beginning to mid level stages ofgrowing your business and
you're kind of taking on avariety of different types of
work, which would be engagementsession, weddings in home,
seniors It's a good idea to, asBrooke pointed out she's having
her the advice for theindividuals to ask the
photographer for some samplegalleries of what they're
(20:30):
looking for.
So it would be a good idea forthe photographer to have some
sample galleries that are premade, ready to go, that maybe
you could just update a littlebit here and there, but
generally speaking, one that'sin home, one that's maybe at a
beach, one that's in a darkplace, whatever the, wherever
your client is, have thatgallery ready to go to save some
time.
I'm always thinking aboutsaving time.
You know how do I make thisefficient.
(20:50):
And then, secondly, for theindividual and you were talking,
brooke, about take a look atthe about keep hitting my mic
and literally I'm going to bethe amount of times in this
video.
I'm going to make a clip ofevery video, of every time I
pulled this mic.
It's like so, if you are theindividual, the importance of
looking at that, that about mepage or the any anything that
(21:15):
you can scour that showcases thepersonality that you're hiring,
versus solely the photos evenif you only really care about
the photos and you're like Idon't really need to know about
the person, i would disagree.
Yeah, you kind of do.
But yeah, you, because ifyou're an individual or your
family, that's someone who youknow you don't maybe you like
(21:40):
are very quiet and you knowyou've got a very introverted
space and you hire somebodywhose photos are, you know,
stunning And then they come overjust like bash open the door
and they just got a really loudpersonality which works for some
people, works really well Infact, but not everybody.
You wouldn't want that And itmay completely destroy the vibe.
(22:01):
So the experience with theactual photographer and what to
expect from them is just asimportant as the photos.
So right making sure to do yourresearch is good, and sometimes
there's a lot of photographersthat don't know what they want
to put on their website.
So you'll find that it feelsvery.
It feels feels very similar asyou go through pages.
And if that's the case, but youreally like that person or
(22:23):
whatnot, continue to do a littlebit more research.
You can scour their, theirsocial media.
You can scour there.
You know there's a lot ofoutlets nowadays to truly sounds
creepy.
Find out about a person or atleast the vibe that they're
giving Right, and it should bepretty easy to find.
So well, also my thoughts and Ithe last thing I was thinking as
you were talking and I hadthese thoughts I'm thinking of.
(22:44):
I'm going to show my age.
There was a.
There was a show a long timeago on MTV or VH.
One thing was MTV And it waslike it was like music videos
that would play And during whilethey played, little bubbles
would pop up of information.
That was, like you know, atthis scene.
This like thing happened.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
This blooper is behind the music, or something.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I think behind the music was a VH one show where
they like interviewed the Okay.
The this cannot remember thename of it for me.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I remember it.
I just don't remember the nameof it.
I remember what you're talkingabout.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, i've.
So we need that for us rightnow, like as we're talking, like
my thoughts need to have onhand the page.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, if you do the YouTube thing, you could totally
we could like type in littlesnippets, but the other thing
that I was going to say, though,is, you know, you said you
could scour their social media,stuff like that.
My next point on what to dobefore you even reach out is ask
for their package prices andread reviews.
So if you are viewing theirpackage prices and you're like,
whoa, that's not, as you know,that's more than I was hoping to
(23:48):
spend for this specific session, or something like that, But
then you look at the reviews andyou see how helpful the
photographer was.
You see, you know all of theseraving reviews from people who
have paid that same exact priceto be able to take advantage of
these services, then maybe itwon't feel so strange for you to
go.
Oh well, you know all the route.
(24:09):
All of the reviews say thatthis person is great, so they
must be doing you know somesomething amazing with this.
Like, let's give it a go.
Similarly, though, if you arenot comfortable with spending
the money, just don't.
If you're not comfortable withspending that money, it's okay
to say that somebody is out ofyour price point.
It's okay, because the otherthing that you don't want to do
is you don't want to almost like, let your guard down and go.
(24:31):
Well, everybody else says thatit's, you know it's worth it.
And then what you were lookingfor in that specific session may
or may not be captured in theway that you were hoping.
So you know as much as readingreviews and looking at the
package prices, you need to kindof weigh it out for yourself.
What is this worth to me?
What am I willing to spend?
And then, if the reviews arethat teetering point where it's
(24:53):
just pushing you over the edgejust a little bit like you know
what, yeah, okay, it's a littlebit more than we wanted to spend
, but it sounds like thesessions are great, then take
the jump, take the leap.
I mean, worst case scenario youhave moments of your family
that are, in my case, anyway,the.
What I try to capture arememories.
So that's what I would sayabout that.
And then, after you arereaching out, or while you're
(25:16):
reaching out, give as muchdetail as humanly possible about
you, your spouse, your family,whoever's gonna be captured in
this session, talk about them,and talk about them in the light
that you're hoping that they'llbe captured.
You know, i know that it's very, very, very tempting to go to a
contact page and just go yep,this is my budget, yep, this is
where I live, this is where thisis gonna be.
(25:37):
Tell me what your pricing is.
It's very, very it's enticingto do that, especially if you're
reaching out to multiplephotographers for the same event
to be captured or the samefamily session to be captured.
But you really wanna at leastbe telling your photographer
what it is that you're hoping tobe captured in, the light that
you're hoping to have itcaptured in, if that makes sense
(25:58):
.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
That's incredibly importantknowledge.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Cause I might get the same inquiry as you.
But I might say you know whatmy services I don't think that
they're going to speak to whatyou're hoping to capture at this
point in time You know youcould reach out to my friend, my
colleague, who, like you saidbefore, a lot of my moments are
about the quiet moments that arecaptured.
You might want a photographerthat's a little bit louder, you
might want a photographer that'sa little bit more colorful than
(26:28):
me.
You know, and being upfront andhonest about what you're hoping
to capture and who your familyis will help you do that
infinitely and it'll help yourphotographer understand if
they're right for you or not.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Deep thoughts, deep thoughts on this.
That's right.
We need like a like, some sortof a wrap up on this, not wrap
up on the topic, but like a likea end vote or something on this
.
Is this good or is this notgood?
Like, what's your thoughts onthis?
So I'm trying to figure out howto put into words and I can't
(27:01):
like.
that was such a nice good deepthought.
We need to encapsulate thatsomehow in like.
I can't think of a, i don'tknow.
Like a poll, maybe like a poll,i don't know.
I need more coffee.
This is my busy brain's running, running, life Running life.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
My brain is like running and I think I'm doing
like a run on because I'm not.
I'm not here right now.
Does that make sense?
I'm like, i'm like because Ikeep this going like I'm like
and then and then.
What do you think?
Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Oh, and then, unfortunately me, i'm up here
going like, oh yeah, yeah, thatmakes sense, perfect.
So together we're doing reallygreat.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, we're coming off of a long weekend.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So We are.
I'm sure a lot of people are,And I'm sure a lot of, because
this is July.
This is a very busy month forindividuals for like vacations,
Just general summer plans.
If you've got kids, I know that, just you know you're
constantly thinking aboutactivities.
And if they're not going tolike camp or something because
they're maybe too young and thenor or they're just not going,
there's it's there's a lock, SoYeah, Everybody's a little busy,
(28:05):
which is so funny because inthe winter we're like, yeah,
summer we're ready, like it'sgoing to be, it's going to be
awesome break.
We talked about this.
We are so trained with a Kthrough 12 mentality for the
beginning part of our life thatwhen summer comes here we're
like, you know, no work, justlike all fun, can't wait.
And then summer comes whenyou're an adult and you're
(28:26):
somehow even busier than everAnd you're like when do I get a
break?
Do I get to enjoy this?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like I X'd out of light room to be able to come
into this Like so it's just likework, work, work, work, work.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Okay, that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So you asked me about in-home sessions.
Is there anything that you tellyour clients specifically
before I go into I just I don'twant this to be all me talking.
I feel like I'm just running on.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So do you have anything that you?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
specifically tell your clients about in-home
sessions, and then I'll get intoa little bit of what I do.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You know it's interesting because in-home
sessions is not my, you knowit's not my primary business.
I like to say it's not or it'swhat I'm what I'm doing majority
of the time.
So I always feel I usually doin-home sessions for any of my
wedding couples or people thatyou know are specifically
inquiring, asking.
you know I'll be up in frontand say this is not my, it's not
(29:19):
my main business, but I can doit And I would.
if you really want me to do it,i will absolutely do it.
So it's fun because then when Iget to do it I'm like oh, i
love doing this because it's ait's just, you know, it
challenges me in new ways.
So it's like a totallydifferent mindset.
So one of the pieces of advicethat I give, which always kind
of shifts as I continue to dothese just because I don't do
(29:40):
them as much, is that breakfast.
it's always always about thebefore, communication and
setting up the expectations, andI'm always learning that.
I'm always reminding myself ofthat, and One of the big things
is making sure to ask the rightquestions.
So some of those questionswould be like do you have a?
(30:02):
what's your space look like?
Is there a window?
Is there a big enough window?
Is the space clean?
Can you clean it?
And I totally understand if youcan't, because you've got a
newborn and it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Do you outwardly just say is your home clean?
Like do you say that I don'tsay is it clean?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I say I preface it with the photos are gonna look
great if the space is justtidied up.
And I specifically say if youare in chaos, we all we need to
do is just move all the stuff.
But it helps me know ahead oftime, like, if I get there, do I
need to set aside time fortidying up?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Do I need to do that?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So I'm not jumping into it and going like, oh, this
room is a mess, like I'm okaywith it looking.
I don't wanna say messy, butlike a little bit more natural.
It doesn't have to beeverything straight perfect
Lived in is a great way todescribe this, yeah, lived in.
But if there's water, like Ialways think of, cause the
wedding.
I think of the hotel room andthe most annoying The water
(31:00):
bottles, the water bottles.
They look, there's nothing thatthey look terrible.
They look terrible.
I hate that And they're justcause they're crinkled a little
bit And it's just like itliterally looks like trash.
It's like there's nothing I cando about that Other than that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, that's cause, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It's trash, It's trash.
So you know, blankets, toys forkids, like that looks lived in.
But if it's like, if it's likea million Legos everywhere, like
tiny weird pieces, like I justI'm just gauging What am I
expecting when I walk in,Because that will help me
understand what I need to do andhow much time I need and things
(31:34):
like that.
So I'm, i'm.
I said I always preface it withif you, you don't need to, you
know, go crazy, dust everythingyou don't need to.
that's not what I'm asking,literally asking for.
Is it possible that the room istheir space?
Can?
we just move stuff out of theway if we need to.
So that's always a goodquestion, and and then I just go
(31:55):
into, and the best way to getthe most amount of information
from people is to get them totalk about themselves, which
sounds like an obvious thing,but sometimes it's hard to do.
So I kind of just ask questionslike literally, things like you
know what's the home life likeright now?
Is there you know?
are you guys?
is it?
(32:16):
is it a quiet vibe?
Are you guys?
as a rambunctious?
Do you have a?
you know the two year old isgoing to be running around What?
what time of day is?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
the most exciting.
I like some of these questions.
I like seeing these questionsthat you're asking.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I'm going to so And it entices.
all I'm looking for is peopleto talk about themselves,
because it gives me I get tohear a how they talk which tells
me their personality a littlebit.
I'll have them tell me aboutthemselves.
What do you guys like?
What do you like to do?
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
What do you, what do you like to do right now?
And again, I'm always thinkingof in-home session, I'm thinking
of young children are usuallyin the mixture And that's a new
word in the picture and Imixture So Mixture is a word.
It is, but I was like mixedpicture.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I said I don't know what I said In the picture In
the picture.
All right, guys.
That's part one of today'sepisode.
Just a quick reminder that werecord these episodes and divide
them into two parts to dropevery Tuesday.
If you want to continue thisconversation with us, we'll see
you in part two.
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