Original subtitles

Awesome.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We're going to be starting this lesson talking

about defining your photographic style.

When it came time for me to start

preparing for this course, I have to admit

that this particular section left me a little

bit overwhelmed, because I don't pretend to be

like an authority of defining photographic style.

In fact, it's the complete opposite.

It took me a really long time to

find what my photography style was.

So in light of saving you time, in

light of you really honing in your focus,

I'm going to be talking about what that

means.

Now, I came across an article about a

few months ago on The Knot magazine, and

they had defined photographic styles for brides, but

when I was looking through it, I couldn't

help but see it through the lens of

a photographer, and that pun was totally intended.

Okay, and there's a gem at the end

of this article.

Now, we have to understand that the framework

in which they're writing the article is for

brides, but if we were to take a

step back and think, how can this apply

to my business, I actually think it would

be beneficial.

So, before we get there, I have to

just come out and quickly say that it

is a struggle to define what your style

is.

If you are pretty confident in what your

style is, I think that you can look

back with grace to other people who are

just starting in the industry, being like, I've

been there, I've done that, I totally get

it.

Or you might be at a place in

your business, you're like, photographic style?

I just realized that aperture and f-stop

were the same thing.

Like, we're all at different walks of this

trajectory, but knowing your style, if it comes

in your first year or third year or

maybe in your fifth year, it's knowing that

will help change the trajectory in getting the

types of clients that you want, shooting the

types of weddings you want, getting your work

featured and marketed in a way that you

want.

So, what happens, what I see happen quite

often is that photographers can get re-inspired,

and re-inspiration is a wonderful thing, but

if re-inspiration happens again, and then again,

and then again, and every time you're re

-inspired, you completely shift the perspective in which

you approach a photo shoot, approach your post

-processing, approach your marketing, what happens, and what

could potentially be a really tough situation, is

that when a prospective client sees your work

online, it looks like six different photographers all

contributed to that portfolio.

I see people nodding their heads, thank you.

I don't know if you guys grew up

in like maybe private schools, or church, or

having a lot of conversations with your family,

but when you nod, it makes me feel

like, good, I'm not alone in this.

This is great.

I'm not the only person who had multiple

personalities in Photoshop my first year, because sometimes

my photos would look really dark and moody,

and then other times I was happy, and

they were punchy, and wow, I really loved

glossy and blur year one.

I thought it was like the coolest thing

in a Photoshop action, and it was fun

to experiment, but the last thing that we

want is for a client to come and

wonder what she will get when it comes

to her wedding, which is why it's really

important to say what your style is.

Now, it's valuable to take a step back,

and really just be okay in your own

skin.

It's okay to say, this is what I

want, this is who I am, and this

is what I do.

That is entirely okay, because when you say

those things, it allows the recipient, the viewer,

the potential client to look at you and

say, I see what you do, I see

who you are, and I want what you

do.

That's a powerful shift in the types of

weddings and work that we start getting.

Now, you will always grow.

I know as photographers, that's the thing that

we do, and I encourage you to grow,

and I even encourage you to change, but

the thing that I'm going to ask of

you is to tether yourself to small incremental

changes, because the thing you want to do

is you want to invite your viewers along

through what that process looks like for you,

because you might go to a conference, or

you might go to a summit, and let's

just say it's a Lightroom summit, or a

Photoshop summit, and you're so inspired that you

come back, and you completely shift the entire

trajectory.

You might say, I have found myself.

I know who I am.

That is great, but just like with any

relationship, you can't simply show up and say,

I'm 100% different, deal with it.

You got to bring those people along with

you for the ride, and even if you

know ultimately where you want to go perfect,

you just have to make the small changes

to get there.

Now, one thing is the sooner you define

your photographic style, it's going to be easier

to book the right client.

Now, some of the greatest benefits of knowing

what your style is, is to look and

have the freedom to shoot the things that

you want.

Now, it's a temptation to shoot everything extensively.

Now, my first year, I was not thinking

about photographic style.

I'm just going to be honest.

I was like, oh my God, somebody hired

me to shoot a wedding.

I had my camera.

I shot digital.

I just wanted to shoot everything so that

I didn't miss anything.

I was more concerned with being held responsible

for somebody's most cherished day, than I really

was trying to take a really strategic perspective

about how I was supposed to approach my

style, my curation for their day.

So the minute that I started actually taking

a step back and thinking, okay, I'm a

little bit more confident with my approach now.

Now I need to hone in on that

style.

And once I honed in on that style,

I completely saw a complete shift in the

types of clients that I was attracting.

So if you're at a point in your

business and you're very happy and you're thankful

that people are hiring you, but you walk

away from a wedding and you wonder, why

did they hire me?

It's not their fault.

The onus is on you.

Perhaps you're not putting enough of your style,

enough of yourself, enough on your curation to

know, to say to them, this is what

my portfolio looks like and this is what

you can expect.

Now, I want to get into an article

from The Knot Magazine, and it's written by

Lauren Kay.

And she writes, quote, the type of photography

you prefer will help determine which kind of

photographer you should hire.

So this is what the writer is writing

to brides.

Now, if this magazine is educating brides on

photographer style, and you yourself cannot define what

your style is, you're going to be behind

the curve.

So now, today is a great day to

become accountable, for you to say, this is

where I define myself.

You can change in the future, that's okay,

but it's important to actually come and say,

this is the thing that I am.

Brides are very informed today.

Social media, online presence has completely changed that.

So you don't want your business to fall

behind what the bridal curve is.

So, The Knot Magazine divided photography styles into

five categories.

Now, from a photographer's perspective, you and I

both know that there are more than five

different types of photography styles.

But, if push came to shove, and we

had to make it as easy and as

simple as possible for brides, I actually would

agree to the five categories in which they

have broken up photographers.

Now, I'm going to get to that in

a second, but the five types, I'm going

to break it down one, a classic photographer.

Two, an artistic photographer.

Three, a lifestyle photographer.

Four, a dramatic photographer.

And five, a documentary photographer.

Now, I'm going to be showing you excerpts

from The Knot Magazine article.

Now, I'm using these with permission, but as

I was going through the presentation last night

with JD to kind of like throw over

ideas, when I put up that slide, he's

like, you took that photo?

And I was like, no, can't you just

figure out and assume that that's on my

work?

And he said, no, not at all.

You need to clarify that what you're putting

up is not necessarily your style, but when

you get to your style, to make sure

and point that out.

So, let's go and define what a classic

photographer might be.

First up, the writer, Lauren Kay, writes that

these photos are the types of photos that

you have seen your entire life.

If anything, you might have seen your parents

have these types of wedding photographs, your grandparents

have these types of photographs, and they have

a tendency to being a little bit more

formal than what we, than, not than what

we, they're just a little bit more formal,

period.

And if that's your bent, that's awesome, own

it.

Now, classic photos reflect reality, but there are

small modifications that the photographer might step into

and change, which is different than the documentary

style photographer, we're gonna get to that in

a minute, but that type of photographer is

completely 100% hands off in his or

her approach.

Classic photographer, a little bit closer to documentary,

but they might step in and say, Mom,

step over here, instead of a documentary photographer

who might just say, Mom is there, and

this is a situation in which I shoot.

Now, there's a little bit more artistic license,

this is what, that's another, the fancy way

of saying they change thing is artistic license,

and I believe that a classic photographer makes

ordinary moments absolutely beautiful.

Second type of photographer would be the artistic

photographer.

Now, on a personal note, completely away from

the Knot Magazine article, I am the most

inspired, and I am the most impressed by

artistic wedding photographers.

They see the world so different than I

ever could see it, and they take photographs

that are so beautiful and so stunning on

a wedding day that I myself, given the

exact same situation with the exact same clients

at the exact same time of day, time

of year, place in the world, would never

see it the way that they saw it.

Now, some of the most inspiring work I

see from an artistic photographer perspective come from

photographers like Jonas Peterson, Max Wagner, and a

litany of other amazing people who are doing

crazy things, and they're shooting photographs that you

don't really see a lot of on Pinterest,

that when you do a Google search for

wedding photography, they're not necessarily up at the

top because it's not what a lot of

people are doing, but from an artistic perspective,

the artist, the tiny artist in me, I

love it.

Now, having said that, I also, even though

I'm inspired by it, I can't be something

I'm not.

I need to know who I am.

I need to know, ultimately, the type of

client I'm going after.

Now, an artistic photographer has a tendency to

attract adventurous couples, untraditional couples.

They have a tendency of shooting with wide

lenses because they like to set the scene

and put people within that frame in a

very different way.

I really don't shoot a lot with wide

lenses.

I don't attract adventurous or untraditional couples, and

if I tried being something I'm not, it

shows itself online.

People online are so intuitive that they can

see this person's trying too hard to be

somebody that they're not, so in light of

that, I can look at it and say,

I am inspired.

You push me in a very different direction,

but you own that space, and I applaud

you for it.

Thirdly, this is the style that I resonate

with the most, and I'm incredibly inspired to

be listed amongst some of the peers listed

in The Knot magazine underneath this category.

Lifestyle photography is capturing natural moments that have

been refined.

For so long, I used to shy away

from the fact that I really did approach

a wedding day like a photographer, like a

curator, and like an art director, and I

felt like it was a liability and now

after years of doing this and having somebody

define it as taking this type of artistic

license and refinement, I'm like, yeah, that's exactly

where I am.

Lifestyle photographers set up cure-rated photos, and

they shoot the day, and they let things

unfold naturally, but not without doing the work

before, so it's very common for lifestyle photographers

to scope a location to find the best

light and then organize the day around what

they want to unfold.

It's very common for a lifestyle photographer to

pause something and say, this isn't working, let

me fix it, and then they step back,

and then you move them into a pose,

so a lot of times what brides are

looking when they see a wedding photographer's portfolio

is, I think, I call it the girl

next door quality, so that when people, when

brides, not people, because I'm targeting brides, not

photographers, not moms, not dads, not grooms, my

target audience is a bride, so what I

want her to do is to look at

my portfolio and think that this bride I

could potentially be friends with, that the brides

look approachable, that the brides look sincere, and

that the photos look carefully constructed, but without

being too directorial.

A lifestyle photographer does the work in advance

to ensure that everything works the way that

he or she wants.

Now, this is the fourth type of photographer.

The fourth type of photographer is dramatic photographer.

The writer states it's very straightforward.

Lighting is the key component of dramatic photography.

Regardless of the lighting situation, these photographers bring

in their own light, they navigate their light,

so regardless of what the sun is doing,

regardless of what the weather is doing, regardless

of what the location is doing, they are

in control, so that the lighting that they

bring can completely change how and what people

are seeing.

Now, from a personal perspective, this type of

photography was really, really prevalent when I came

into the industry about 10 years ago.

Now, it was about at 10 years that

I got in and I saw that people

were using so many types of off-camera

light, and it was so very dramatic, and

I liked it, but at the same time,

it didn't resonate with me on a personal

level, having just gotten married.

I wanted things with natural light.

I wanted things that were airy, and so

about a year and a half into my

business, I had an opportunity to meet with

somebody from a formal photo organization, and I

was really excited, and he said, hey, you

should bring your album, and I'll take a

look at it, and at that time, I

didn't even have an album to show clients,

so I was like, oh, my God, it's

time to break the bank.

I went and got a sample album done.

I was about a year and a half

into it.

I needed to show clients something anyway, and

I showed up with my sample album, like,

yeah, all right, I'm gonna meet somebody.

We're gonna have some fun, and so we

had lunch, and then he looked through the

album, and as he flipped the page, I

felt like my stomach dropped deeper and deeper

because it was like, hmm.

Like, nothing.

It was like a series of hmms and

flips of an album, and then he closed

it and got to the end, and he's

like, well, you know, I think it's good,

but if you could stop blowing out your

skies, it would just be so much better,

and I thought to myself, okay, I may

or may not agree that maybe according to

the existing canon of how photographs work, I

might not be where you think I should

be, but I think that I'm okay with

that, and I made that decision.

I made the decision to defend my approach,

and technically, he's right.

I shouldn't be blowing out skies.

I should be having some sort of fill

flash, reflectors, something that will make the photo

look a lot more X.

Now, what he technically said was right.

Maybe I was technically wrong.

Maybe I never would win awards, and maybe

people would never take me seriously.

Maybe all those things would happen, but I

stayed true to what I thought brides of

my age, my demographic, my geographic location wanted,

and it ended up paying off pretty well

in dividends, but the thing that I realized

the most was that he wasn't right, and

I wasn't wrong, and I wasn't right, and

he wasn't wrong.

What I realized is that the industry is

big enough for different types of photographers to

suit different types of styles.

I may never book a bride who wants

artistic photography, and I'm okay with that.

In fact, I think it's better for your

brand, because if a bride really wants artistic

photography, and she comes to you, and you

say, yes, yes, yes, there's a really high

chance that you're going to under-deliver, and

she's going to feel disappointed, and you're going

to feel awful, and it's going to eat

at you.

Know what you want.

Let me save you some time.

Know what you want, show who you are,

and for the people who it does not

resonate with, awesome.

Move on from there.

The last type is a documentary style photographer.

Now, this is also known as wedding photojournalism.

This type of photography also is wildly inspiring

to me.

With this type of photography, you will not

see anything highly posed.

You will see a lot of candid photography.

Now, what you see is what you get.

There are beautiful moments, and even the not

-so-beautiful moments are documented in such a

way that makes it look even really kind

of pretty.

There are spontaneous bursts of emotion.

There's a lot of excitement, and most of

the photos represent the moment exactly as it

was.

These types of photographers, they work really hard

at finding the best angles and the best

locations because their entire goal is realness of

a moment.

They're not aspiring for perfection.

They're aspiring to see the world exactly as

it was.

Now, there has been a heavy emphasis on

interaction, so you will see a wedding photojournalist

when he or she sees a moment, they

run over to that, and they're so good

at anticipating moments.

Wedding photojournalists, they're very close to maybe a

newspaper photojournalist.

They know a moment right before it's gonna

happen, and because they have this seventh sense,

it's not a sense, it's actually an art

form that they've worked really hard at.

They can anticipate where they have to be.

When they know a moment's going to happen,

they might go out of their way to

position themselves in the right light, in the

right angle, in the right location to get

what they want.

Their minds are working three times as fast

as I ever could.

I joke that these types of photographers are

like the ghost of the wedding world because

they are undetectable, they are sly, and they

just wait there and waiting, ready to capture

that moment.

Now, their actions really prove how hard they

work to do what it is that they

do.

If that's the penchant that you see, that

you aspire for realness, you aspire to work

very, very, very hard to be anticipatory of

those amazing moments, then maybe this is more

of your style.

Now, I just talked to you about the

five photography styles, and like I mentioned before,

we know that there are more styles than

just five, but picking a style helps define

our approach, and it helps us define our

approach as we go into a shoot, and

we're going to talk more about that in

a future lesson, but having a style is

the foundation to a business, and it is

the cornerstone of this lesson.

Knowing where you are now and then knowing

where you want to go makes the absolute

biggest difference.

Your style will help you make decisions as

you go through the next 30 days, and

I look forward to seeing how your style

evolves over this time, and if your style

itself does not evolve, but your goal for

that style evolves, awesome.

Work your clients slowly through what that process

looks like so ultimately you end up where

you want to be.

Now, I started this session by saying that

there was a gem in this article.

The article was written for brides.

We totally get it.

I read it through a perspective of a

wedding photographer, and that's what I kind of

want to share with today.

This is also taken from the magazine.

The magazine included a sample shot list, and

it stated, We make a shot list before

every big shoot to ensure we capture all

the must-have moments.

Okay, I get it.

They're saying, Brides, if you want your photos,

your day to be documented, here are a

list of things that you need.

I looked at it, and I thought, the

photo editor for the not magazine just gave

me a shortcut to the types of photos

that I should be submitting during the submission

process.

That's what she just told me, that yes,

she does care about a lot of candids,

but no, she wants boutonniere shots.

She wants getting ready shots.

She wants jewelry and family heirlooms.

She wants the ceremony from several angles.

She wants posed portraits of the band, of

the DJ.

So to me, when I read it, I

was saying, you saved me a lot of

time.

I now know how to curate a submission

if I decide to send it to a

magazine, if I decide to send it to

a blog.

This is, at minimum, what they're looking for.

So a lot of times, as we try

to market our work, we want to go

in one direction, and these editors are saying,

Nah, nah, boutonnieres and bouquets is where it's

at.

So we know, though, like having said that,

we know as photographers, we take photographs of

the entire day.

We know it is so much more complex

than just boutonnieres and bouquets and jewelries and

candles at the ceremony.

We get that.

But the best part of this course is

that this list, what they've outlined for us,

we're gonna go through step by step, and

I'm gonna show you.

I'm gonna show you how I take those

types of photographs for editors.

I'm gonna show you how I document a

ceremony.

I'm gonna show you how I document a

reception.

And we've created pre-shoots.

So we had the CreativeLive crew come down

to Southern California and film me as I

do that at a shoot.

But I think it's gonna get a little

bit crazier in that the CreativeLive and The

Knot magazine are joining forces for The Knot

Dream Wedding.

Now, I was really excited.

I was honored to be asked to document

The Knot Dream Wedding, and then I asked

to see if we can bring CreativeLive into

that kind of crazy cauldron.

But the best part is that you guys

are gonna see what I do before.

I'm gonna walk you through that process on

a shoot at my own cadence, what I'm

doing in my own time.

And then we're gonna totally flip the script,

and we're gonna put me in a real

-life situation to see if what I'm talking

is true.

Unless I'm talking trash, right?

I'm gonna be like, oh, I have all

the time in the world.

And then on a wedding day, if you

see me being like, oh my God!

Okay, we're gonna see.

We're gonna see the approach that I take.

Can it be applied in a pseudo-situation?

And can it be applied in a real

-life situation?

Now, the goal for that on a wedding

day, outside of this whole project, is can

I shoot the wedding in a way that

suits what the editors for the magazine want?

And can I shoot the wedding in a

way that my clients want?

And then thirdly, just because it's just not

complex enough, I need to shoot, I need

to think in my mind, can I shoot

this wedding in a way that makes sense

for being on CreativeLive?

So if you guys are, I just wanna

say thank you for joining that journey, because

it sounds like a crazy hot mess.

And, but it's exciting.

It's exciting.

I'm going to admit that it makes me

very, very nervous, but at the same time,

I think that I'm up for the challenge.

Because I don't think it's gonna be a

walk in the park, and I don't think

that it's gonna be easy.

I think that it is an extraordinarily stressful

situation.

And I want to just come out and

say that it is not a matter of

if, it is a matter of when.

When I make mistakes on the wedding day,

I'm asking you to deal with me with

grace, to deal with me with support.

That if you happen to be watching the

live broadcast as it's going to be broadcasted

live on The Knot, and you see me

forget a bouquet shot, hit me up on

Twitter being like, hey girl, boutonniere.

Hey girl, did you get the rings?

Like, hook a sister up, because there's a

lot of stuff going on.

Like, I really mean it.

Now, I may forget things.

I might talk too loud.

I might laugh too loud.

I might miss a shot.

I might knock over the wedding altar.

Yes, that happened in real life.

We could talk about it during Q&A.

That is not a made-up story.

It was a horrifying experience.

But I'm still here.

And the bride was really happy.

And that bride's wedding got featured in The

Knot as well.

So obviously, I didn't ruin it to such

a degree.

I was like, oh my God.

But in spite of it all, I really

believe in the process.

I believe in the process of amazing organizations

coming together for the benefit, yes, of an

amazing deserving couple, but for the benefit of

hundreds of thousands, if not just one photographer,

who can benefit from watching what that experience

looks like.

Having said that, we're going to move into

the homework portion from this particular section.

There will be homework assigned almost every single

lesson because I want you to have an

active process of what this looks like because

it's so easy for us to come and

sit here and be like, I agree.

We all need a photographic style.

And if I ask you, what do you

think your photographic style is?

I don't know.

I'm just kind of working on it.

No, no, we're going to make some hard

decisions because you have to know if you

don't know where you're going, you will never

get there.

So homework, to please define your photographic style.

Secondly, once you have defined your style, I

want you to start making small changes so

that your clients can grow with you, so

that you can invite them to enjoy the

journey.

Thirdly, I want you to create a profile

of your ideal client.

Now when I talk about creating a profile

for an ideal client, I really just don't

mean any girl getting married because that's a

temptation.

Like when we start, like I will be

the first to admit that when I first

started, my approach to attracting the right client

was what I call the wedding superhero.

Where there's a wedding, I'll be there.

Like I didn't care.

Like I was like every wedding, girl, you're

wearing a white dress.

I'll just shoot you.

But as I started growing the business, I

started thinking, who is my ideal client?

If I'm going to be giving away a

weekend, a lot of weekends for my family,

for my friends, from personal time, I want

to spend it with people who see the

world the way that I do, who can

appreciate me as an artist or as a

curator on their wedding day.

But if I didn't know the types of

shows she watched, her age demographic, her lifestyle

demographic, her geographic location, where she shopped, the

shoes that she wore, like how she spends

her free time, is she educated?

Like I'm not just spewing these facts as

in things that I'm pulling out.

I really know the age between the bride

that I'm getting married.

I know that my ideal client doesn't come

from old money.

I'm very fortunate now to be shooting weddings,

these beautiful, amazing weddings for beautiful and amazing

clients, but I'm going to say it in

the most traditional sense, this is new money.

I'm working with new doctors and new lawyers.

I'm working from children of immigrants, people who

have devoted their entire lives and sacrificed everything,

everything so that their children can have everything

they didn't have and then their children paid

it off in dividends.

And now this wedding, the wedding is a

huge part of their lifestyle budget.

But they're going to say, we're going to

make this sacrifice.

We're going to spend this amount of money

because this is what our family deserves.

That is where I know I squarely reside.

For some reason, my branding, my personality, something

doesn't resonate with that kind of like society

life, like the old money, the blue blood

money, and I'm okay with that.

Now that I know where I'm resonating and

who my current client is, I know that

my clients are educated.

Most of my clients will have advanced degrees

beyond college.

I know that.

I know that most of my brides pay

for the wedding on their own.

So they're between the ages of 28 and

38.

When I first started my business, my ideal

client was in that 23 age range.

You know, her parents were helping her pay.

My fees as a photographer were a lot

lower.

I know that my clients like to read.

When I make these intentional decisions about what

I'm putting out on social media, if you

follow me on Instagram, I update the books

that I'm reading.

On my blog, I do book updates.

Why?

Because I want to attract a person who

finds the value in the things that I

find value.

I casually joke, but I mean this with

all sincerity, that the brides that I attract

are animal lovers.

I have booked weddings because of my dog.

That is not a stretch of any sort

of exaggeration.

I kid you not.

There was one story in particular.

I met with a client.

She was meeting with two other photographers.

At the end of our session, she said,

thank you so much.

We talked about our dogs, and I come

to find out that we live in the

same neighborhood, and we walked our dogs on

the same dog trail.

Well, that just did it.

Because the following day, we lived in the

same neighborhood, and she dropped off a contract,

a retainer, a 50% retainer, and a

dog biscuit for Polo.

And the note was, I can't wait for

Nala and Polo to see each other on

the trail.

So excited.

And I was like, Polo, you're gonna get

a big treat.

That was amazing.

And here's the thing.

I now know, I know that because of

my ideal client, we're so hungry, just please,

please, can someone please book me?

Why not say, this is who I am.

Let's connect.

I wanna be there on your date in

such a deep and profound way.

And I'm telling you, almost 10 years into

it, it really, really works.

Now, once you have your ideal client profile,

what I want you to do is to

create a wedding day shot list.

Because as we approach a wedding day, we're

going to step away from that theory of,

I'm gonna hold down the trigger, and I'm

gonna shoot everything because I can't miss a

moment.

Right?

Because once you now know your style, you're

gonna feel less, less responsible for documenting the

bride putting on deodorant.

Okay.

If you have shot weddings, you know that

there's always somebody in the room when the

bride picks up her armpit, and she picks

up her little secret or dove, and she's

doing this bit, and someone's like, get a

photo of that.

And I think to myself, if I was,

if I was a documentary photographer, I might,

but I know who I am.

And so I just smile and nod.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Cool.

Cool.

And so I just wait.

I was like, aren't those just the funniest

photos?

I know.

They're so great.

How many seconds does it take?

One, two.

If I can have a conversation between the

one and two, like, right?

That's not my style.

I don't attract that client.

So when you know what your style is,

you feel the less pressure to say, I'm

in control of my day.

Now, I created a personal shot list for

my weddings.

I created a personal shot list so that

I wasn't so overwhelmed with what it looked

like.

I've been using it for years, and then

just a bit ago, I decided to post

my shot list online.

If you want to get more information about

it, you can find it at jasminestar.com.

jasminestarstore.com.

Now, I look forward to seeing you as

you develop your style over the next 30

days.

I cannot wait to hear more about your

ideal client, and I cannot wait to hear

about how you're starting to attract the type

of weddings that you dream of shooting.

I'm so excited for this adventure, and thank

you guys for being along for the ride.

Okay.

So, now what we're going to do, there

was kind of that moment.

I saw you going for the clap.

It was like the slow clap.

It was like that after-school clap, like,

and then everyone's supposed to rally in.

I love it.

Thank you.

Thank you for being there for me.

I appreciate it.

We can do Q&A right about now.

Oh, yes, boo.

Bring it on down.

We're going to get you a mic.

So, the way that this works is because

there's so many of us in the room,

just give us a little bit of patience

as we get you a mic because we

want everybody to hear as well as what's

going on in camera.

So, I would like to mention a little

bit about my experience in photography and learning

my style.

My first major wedding that I did was

second shooting with another photographer.

I was actually assisting, and it was a

third photographer.

It was an unpaid gig, and I was

just going there to get the experience.

It was the best wedding I've ever actually

been to, and I have to admit, some

of the best photos that I actually love

from my style were of the bride drinking

a water bottle.

I don't know why this was important, and

it was a beautiful photo, and I still

thought it was important, and to this day,

I never really realized I will never photograph

that photo again.

So, thank you.

Well, that's great, but what is your style?

Oh, well, my style is very beautiful and

washed out, but unfortunately, I have to pick

the right moments to make it look nice.

Great.

So, your style, so what I heard you

say is that your style is light and

washed out, correct?

Yeah.

That's your processing style.

Mm-hmm.

What would be your photographic approach?

Are we talking about artistic?

Are we talking about dramatic?

Because when you talk about the bride drinking

the water bottle, if your approach is documentary,

then you shoot those dang water bottles.

You own it.

You love those shots.

That's great, but if it's not, then you're

right.

Maybe parsing back a little bit, and maybe

when she drops the water bottle, and then

you prop her out from the elbow up,

then it's a great photo.

I think at the time, for me, my

problem was because I was the third shooter,

I couldn't really take over the creative control,

so I actually had no other choice but

to assume the documentary position, and so if

I was the second shooter, it might have

been a more artistic style of documentary because

that's what I actually love.

I'm really artistic with what I do, but

I still try to stick to making sure

that it looks the way that it did

on the wedding day so the bride can

go, I remember that moment rather than, oh,

that's a great photo because that's what's important.

That's good, and I'm glad that this is

the strides that we're making towards getting you

to that point, and I look forward to

seeing what you do when you're the first

shooter, too.

Thank you.

Awesome.

We're going to get a mic right over

here.

Could you pass that over to her?

Awesome.

I see mentioned a lot in business that

we are looking for ideal clients, and you've

mentioned that yours is sort of you.

Your ideal client is in your age bracket

and your style bracket.

Smart.

Not my income bracket, let's just be real.

One day.

One day.

You're walking the walk.

You look like you fit right in.

Oh, thank you.

You're working the hole.

These are my girlfriends.

We hang out a thing.

Okay.

But I see a lot of people that

struggle because their ideal client is not in

their demographic, their bracket.

In my own experience, I'm finding that I'm

approaching closer to the mother of the bride's

age.

I used to be with the bride, so

I was right on target.

I knew exactly who they were.

Now I'm really close to their mom's age,

so I'm finding a little bit of a

struggle in sort of narrowing that down.

You know, there's some gentlemen in the audience

that are obviously not in a bride's head

the same way that a 27-year-old

is going to be.

So do you have any suggestions for really

naming your ideal client if you're not them?

That is a great, that is a great

stinking question.

And it's very, very complex.

I'm like, that's going to be a whole

different, no, no, not at all.

Okay, so, and it was a little bit

long, so I'm going to try to hit

the points, and if I miss one, please,

please, you speak back to me.

So let's take a bigger, bigger step back.

And we have to think that the CEO

of Nordstrom and the CEO of Nike may

not be their target clientele.

Their target clientele is probably the 24-year

-old who's spending his mom's money because he's

at college with aspirations of going to the

NBA, but he's really just finishing his accounting

courses, right?

We have to understand that the CEO of

Nordstrom is not the quintessential Nordstrom shopper.

In her 40s, you know, 2.5 kids,

has a part-time job, but has a

husband who has, like, a very corporate experience.

So we have to understand that ideal clients

rarely look how we look.

And I think on the outside, it may

look that I can identify with my target

clientele.

And maybe now it can to a degree.

I might be within my target age demographic.

I might be on the same gender demographic.

I am not of the same educational demographic.

Yes, I went to college, and yes, I

went to law school, but I dropped out.

So what does that count for?

You know, a lot of loans is what

it counts for.

I'm not in the same, and because I've

been starting to shoot destination weddings, I'm not

in the same geographic demographic.

I'm not in the same financial demographic.

So yes, I can connect with my brides

in a way, but that way is probably

not different than I might be able to

connect with, say, somebody right here.

We like to spend a lot of time

with our family.

We like to walk our dogs.

We enjoy a good meal.

So instead of looking at the ways in

which you're not connecting with the brides, take

a step back and say, I understand I

might not be able to connect with them

on a personal level, but what can I

do to find similarities?

I think that if you have been shooting

and you're now, you said you started at

the age of brides, and now you're approaching

more of the mother of the bride, that's

fantastic.

You can now say you're no longer the

novice.

You're a seasoned pro.

You could shoot a wedding in your sleep.

You could have a confidently shot in, where

are you based?

I'm from Michigan.

Michigan.

So you probably shot in snow.

You probably shot in rain.

You probably shot in sweltering summers.

You have shot on days where there is

no sunset and where there is an eternal

sunset.

Like you have been there.

That is a competitive advantage, not a disadvantage.

Now if you feel like you're still struggling

trying to find where that target market is

and you want to say, start writing things

that are applicable more to the bride's age,

can you maybe interview a past bride about

what her experience was like?

If there's anything different that she could do,

maybe talk every Wednesday because they have these

hashtags WWWweddingWednesday, right?

So if you want to be participating in

the social media conversation and you yourself have

been like, well, it's been about 10 or

15, 20 years since I've been married, the

game has changed, who can I speak to

to help me give prevalence in this sector?

What can I do?

What kind of content can I start building?

And you taking a picture of really great

shoes in really great light at a beautiful

venue automatically puts you in connection because the

shoes that that bride is wearing, and this

goes for guys, is the shoes that that

bride is wearing, if you just put that

single shot up on Facebook and you share

your settings and you say, this is where

I was and you geo tag where the

location was in Michigan, these shoes are fabulous.

A girl of any age would love them,

would feel like a million bucks.

You are neither closer or farther from your

target clientele, but you're creating content that is

applicable to potential clients.

Did I miss something in there?

Anybody?

Conversations?

Are we okay?

Does that answer it in a way or

we can go deeper?

No, I think that's about right.

The only one thing that I have been

doing is my daughter is 23 and every

time we get together, I'm like, so tell

me about social media.

What apps are big?

What are the girls doing?

That is fantastic and that is a competitive

advantage that you should just own.

That is absolutely, positively fantastic.

She will tell you about the hip videos,

the hip things to say, so when you're

on a shoot, you no longer say, oh,

that look, your outfit's on point.

You need to say, oh, that outfit's on

fleek.

I don't think I'll ever feel cool to

kind of say that, but knowing what is

hip and what is cool, yes, that's right,

exactly.

That definitely helps.

Use her and leverage her, but I would

love to take, we're going to bring the

mic two rows up.

Hi.

Would you say that it's kind of a

two-step process in defining your style, you're

making sure the right people that want your

images are coming to see you and defining

the client, you're making sure that you can

actually work together?

Absolutely.

And make that connection?

Yes, work together, make the connection, appreciate and

see your point of view, absolutely.

Now, I don't want, I need to step

back and say that I don't want this

to come across as a misnomer.

Right now, I'm not batting 100 or whatever

you're batting, what are you batting?

Would you bat like, what?

1,000.

1,000.

I was off by a zero.

Okay.

I'm like, clearly, sports ain't my thing.

And poor Tara, Tara's going to be like,

girl.

So, I'm not batting 1,000 when it

comes to booking these clients.

I don't walk away from every wedding and

I'm like, you know, fairies are on my

shoulder.

I'm like, oh, it's such a great wedding.

You know, but I will say in larger

percentages, in larger portions from when I first

started out, I arrived to the wedding and

then I know, oh, I get it.

I get why I was hired.

I'm valued.

You know, there are still some weddings where

I'm just like, okay, maybe not the best

fit.

Maybe I don't feel like I am as

valued as I have been in past weddings,

but that's okay.

Our styles match enough for me to do

our job and I'm going to deliver on

what she's hired me for.

That's the truth of the matter.

My goal for you, my goal for me

is to increase what that percentage is.

In the beginning, it wasn't so much that

I was resonating as well and now it

just seems like most of my brides, I

come to a wedding, I connect with them,

they send me a thank you card or

a gift after the end of the wedding

and I think to myself, yeah, we got

it.

We just got each other and I think

that is so gratifying on a business level

and then on a personal level.

Awesome.

We're going to pop the mic back and

then we'll bring it up here and we're

going to end right about here.

I see another question.

If we have more time, we'll get to

that too.

Hi.

Hi.

Can your styles kind of cross two genres

because I know that there's definitely people who

stick to one genre, but I feel like

when I'm shooting different things, like some of

it's lifestyle and then some of it's documentarian,

so can you bridge two styles or do

you have to just stick to one?

That's a really good question and I don't

have, like, I'm like, please, I'm not standing

up here thinking, I'm like, I'm the guru

of photography styles so the answer's no.

Like, yes, to an extent, right, because the

more that you cross over into different styles.

Now, I understand that on a wedding day,

during a ceremony, I am not a lifestyle

photographer.

I'm 100% documentary, right?

Documentary?

Documentary.

Wrong and fast.

It's on the wrong syllable.

Okay.

I am 100% photojournalistic.

I know that, but the thing, the way

that I'm curating my images out online really

reflects more of one style and I think

that in order to start attracting, I think

it might behoove you to make the best

decision of, do you want to start attracting

more of that documentary or do you want

to start attracting more of that lifestyle?

Where do you think your clients would value

you the most and then kind of, sure,

shoot the day how you want to, fulfill

the artistic desire, but then curate the day,

show the images more towards the center We're

going to bring the mic up right here.

Thanks.

That's actually really close to my question.

So, my base business is editorial portraiture.

So, it's like punchy, like fashion-y, but

the weddings that I've done are like really

breathy and ethereal and lifestyle and I don't

really know if that's kind of doing a

disservice, attracting kind of two separate clients or

if I should say, keep them bridged or

kind of totally separate them?

I think that when somebody goes to your

website, it might be in your best interest

brand-wise to market yourself to two different

audiences and distinguish yourself in those two sectors.

I don't think that you should give up

one or the other.

I just think that you should say, as

a portrait photographer, you are this and as

a wedding photographer, you are this.

Now, if you're shooting these weddings and they're

light and they're ethereal and you find that

it's like a vacuous emotion when you go

through that, then what you should be doing

is maybe branching over, bringing more of that

editorial style, kind of a little bit more

avant-garde, a little bit more forward-thinking

into your wedding approach.

Now, you might have to do that by

setting up shoots on your own because I'm

a firm believer of saying you cannot book

what your clients cannot see.

No one's going to say, ah, I see

nothing in your portfolio that represents you could

do an editorial shoot of me in my

wedding dress, but I'm going to hire you.

No.

They really must see what you do.

So, if you're saying, I want to get

away from the light and airy and I

want to do more edgy stuff, then set

up two to three shoots.

They can be cost effective.

We can get into that, what those numbers

look like too as we talk about building

your portfolio in the future, but saving a

little tiny bit every month, I can put

together a shoot that I feel really proud

of in about $250.

We could talk about what that looks like

on camera, off camera, but depending on where

you want to go with your wedding business,

then you make the decision and then go

in that direction.

But no, I don't think you have to

say, I only do this.

Awesome.

So, I think we have a couple minutes.

We're going to end with one question right

back there.

Was there somebody who had a question?

Yes.

I knew I saw a hand.

All the way to the back.

We'll just pass it all the way back.

Hello.

Hi.

So, I'd like to say that I'm a

lifestyle photographer and that my work speaks to

that sort, but what do you do when

you get a client, you think, hey, this

is my style, this is what they've seen,

they like it, and then they say, oh,

by the way, I don't like any pictures

of myself not looking at the camera.

Like, I was terrified.

I had a bride who did that after

we already did all the booking a week

before our wedding.

She's like, let's just make sure that every

photo, I'm looking at you.

Like, even at the ceremony, she would look

at me.

So, how...

Oh, that's awesome.

I mean...

So, how, other than letting your work speak

for yourself, how do you get that across

to your clients that that's the type of

photography you shoot?

That's great.

And this goes back to that notion of

batting a thousand.

Like, I don't want to show up here

and tell you that, my clients show up

being like, oh, I want to be carefully

curated on my wedding day and I want

to look effortless.

No, I do have brides who are, who

want to micromanage a lot of their poses

because in their mind, they have a way

of saying, oh, no, no, no, this is

my good side.

So, all the family photos, all the bridal

portraits, she can only be on this side.

Right?

Like, we have been there.

I haven't had a bride just want to

look at me directly.

But, I will say, if I was in

your exact situation, my goal, always, is not

to make me have the most amazing portfolio.

Right?

It is ancillary, but my goal is to

make my client happy.

They have hired me.

There must have been something in the, in

the trajection of our relationship that made her

happy.

I only feel comfortable looking at the camera.

In light of that, I would put a

lot more emphasis of her looking at the

camera to ensure that I deliver in a

major way.

But, I would still shoot for me.

90% for them, 10% for me.

And, you can put together, we're going to

talk about what I do for marketing in

a future lesson.

But, you can create two different styles.

So, I create slideshows after every engagement session,

after every wedding.

I'm going to talk about why I do

that in a future lesson.

But, if I was in your situation, I

would create a slideshow that played to things

that she wanted.

A lot of looking at the camera.

A lot of traditional portraits.

But, let's just say that she got married

at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Beach and

you really want to showcase that venue, but

you don't want to showcase the slideshow of

that with the bride.

Create a second slideshow and that then becomes

your marketing piece for future clients.

So, curate the day for her and curate

the day for you.

I think that's going to be a good

place for us to end.

We are going to get to so many

more Q&A.

I just want to say again, thank you

guys so much.

Applause