Original subtitles

So we are back again and we're going

to be talking about an extension of something

that we had spoken about in the previous

lesson and that is shooting with intention.

So in the last section I talked about

my approach of shooting with intention and in

case you missed it, this is the entire

course summed up, the entire lesson summed up

in about two sentences.

Early on I chose three words to define

my photographic style as I navigated my journey

and every time I approach a shoot I

think distinctively in those terms, those words instead

of poses.

Every time I pose a client I must

think does it adhere to either being fun,

fresh or editorial and if it does not

I must modify it so that it does.

Now this is going to guide our outline

and approach as we go into this next

section and it's going to act as a

foundation as you start selecting the photos that

you want to keep as part of the

overall cull from a shoot.

Yesterday we focused on shooting with intention in

regards to editorial and romantic photos and today

I'm going to be delving into natural and

fun photos.

So the core tenet, the foundation of a

natural photo is to create natural posing by

way of moving.

What you will see me do quite often

in this video is to position position my

subjects where I want them and then I

will say okay guys peel away from each

other, relax the shoulders, now come into that

pose because so often we get our clients

into a pose that we like and then

we step back and they've been holding it

for one, two seconds, three seconds and then

it becomes stiff, stiff, stiff, stiff and it

looks insincere and you look at this photo

and it's like it started off right and

somehow we diverted.

It's actually moving in them to a pose

that creates natural movements.

Now few things matter as much as your

clients bodies in motion.

Part of natural posing ensures that you're going

to get the type of photo that you

set out to get but you're going to

have them, you're going to coach them in

very specific ways.

On a wedding day I will pose the

bride by herself and the groom by himself

and then the couple together.

So I'm going to talk about a few

posing tips in regards to the bride, a

few posing tips in regards to the groom

and a few posing tips in regards to

them together.

So for the bride what I want you

to do and what you'll see me do

a lot in this upcoming video is to

view your bride with a stylist's perspective.

You will see me taking a look and

adjusting her dress.

You will see me ensuring that everything is

neat, that her hands look the way they

are.

You will see me constantly readjusting her hair

and I say that yes I readjust her

hair because it will save me time in

Photoshop because it will but at the same

time what I want to do is I

want to do as much of that fixing

on the front end to save me time

on the back end.

What I want to do is I want

to talk behind my camera.

This is something that I have said before

and I will continue saying.

It's extraordinarily difficult for an average bride to

be standing in front of a professional camera

for multiple hours on one of the most

important days of her life considering she's never

done it before.

So the more you can talk to her

the easier it'll come to loosen her up

and to get these really natural and organic

smiles.

Thirdly I want you to give the bride

something to do with her hands.

You are creating an action specifically from the

lower part of her upper appendages.

Now I just don't want one option for

her hands.

I want to give her four options for

her hands because as I'm leading her through

what I want her to do with her

hands things happen naturally to her that I

end up preferring because it's a division of

her.

So for instance what four hand poses might

look.

I'm gonna do this as if because I'm

not holding a bouquet I'm going to do

this as if I was on an engagement

session.

Sometimes and you will see me do this

at an engagement session in a future lesson.

I put my camera down and then I

look and if I was posing Tara I

want to create a mirror to us.

So I align my shoulders close to her

and I say great what I want you

to do is copy what I'm doing.

Pose one we'll have your hands here.

Pose two I want you to address your

hair touch it here.

Pose three I kind of want you to

look down have your hand in your pocket

eyes here.

Pose four I want you looking this way

and because I do not have a camera

in my hand and then I feel awkward

doing that.

I felt very awkward doing that right now.

I feel awkward doing it on a shoot

but by me saying I'm okay with my

awkwardness and if she just kind of follows

me and she says okay I got it

and she doesn't tell me that she's got

it what I'll do then is like okay

perfect.

Now why don't you do it with me

so we can walk you through it so

then when I start shooting you're ready.

So here we go like one two three

four and she's like oh okay okay okay.

I pick up my camera then I gave

her exactly what I wanted to do and

what's going to happen is I might not

nail one two three or four but maybe

pose 2.5 is the thing that I

really like and that's the one that I'm

gonna keep.

So what I want you to do is

to stay away from dangling arms dangling hands

and give her up to four options if

possible.

Now a few posing tips for the groom.

I want you to study poses specifically female

photographers.

It would behoove you, it would make you

a stronger photographer to look through poses from

GQ, from Esquire and J.Crew. J.Crew

does a phenomenal job at posing men in

very casual poses but in formal wear.

They do a great job with that.

Now once you understand how the male body

works and now this is gonna be addressed

to any gender photographer.

It's just because you're a guy doesn't mean

that you know or understand how a guy

body works.

Once you start studying the poses and then

you have an understanding you can rearrange the

male figure in a way that keeps the

masculinity about the pose and still chase true

to the integrity of how he stands just

naturally.

So oftentimes during a shoot you will see

me do this throughout the course of the

30 days.

I will start off with a pose and

then I will tell him this is where

I want you to start but if it

doesn't feel natural then I want you just

to change it and if it works fantastic

and if it doesn't work we're gonna fix

it.

So I'm giving myself a back door I'm

giving him a starting spot and then I

once I figure out what his body does

naturally I can make the small poses and

measure it against the poses that I have

seen in articles and magazines that I have

studied before.

Secondly I want you to give your groom

an action.

When working with men I have discovered that

when I want them to when I give

them something to do like look at your

watch, adjust your tie, run your hand through

your hair.

They follow these pointed purposes and they result

in a very clean result.

Like same way that with a with a

girl.

One, two, three, four.

If I'm with a groom and he's just

not giving me what I want I will

put my camera down.

Like awesome.

Can you um spread your feet open a

tiny bit because I'm short.

So if he lowers his body a tiny

bit that's great.

Open your legs a little bit.

Great.

Can I have your hands in your pockets?

We're gonna start here.

Okay you have the suit.

He opens up the suit.

I don't want him to crumple the suit

right.

Open up the suit.

Rest your hands here starting off in this

position.

I kind of just want you to look

at me like you're at a bus stop

waiting.

So what that just changes posture into but

kind of waited I'm chilling.

Now I'm gonna say perfect.

Now what I want you to do is

I want you to adjust your tie.

And once you adjust your tie when you

look up as you adjust your tie then

I want you to button the top button

of your coat.

Not both.

It takes too long.

It doesn't look neat.

Top button of your coat.

Fantastic.

Once you do your top button because you're

buttoning I want you looking up at me.

I want you looking back down.

I gave him four.

So one, two, three, what was the fourth?

But thank you.

Thank you.

That was it was a test.

You guys are paying attention.

So when you give them something to do

they deliver on those results far stronger than

just saying hey just just stand there and

look nice.

Third thing that I want my my my

groom to to pursue is or what I

need to pursue as a photographer to get

the room what I want how I want

him to pose is I need to act

like a mirror.

As a female I feel a lot more

comfortable once I've established a relationship and a

rapport with my brides that I can say

oh let me shift your shoulders.

Let me stand here.

When it comes to guys I feel less

comfortable doing that.

I want to respect their space.

So if I am talking to them I'm

saying okay so what I want you to

do is mirror me.

So shift your shoulders towards me.

Shift them this way.

Perfect.

Now stand this way.

Now turn your hips out this way.

Now turn out that way.

Can you comb?

And so I'll show them how I want

them to comb.

Comb your jacket this way.

Stick the four fingers of your hand and

leave your thumbs out.

If they have a longer arm what I

want them to do is can have your

thumb in your pocket and have your four

fingers out.

That'll rest the shoulder a little bit more.

So when I say act like a mirror

I really mean say follow with me.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Perfect.

That's the thing that I need to do

as a female photographer.

Now if you feel confident you have a

rapport with your clients great.

Fuck it.

Own it.

But me I kind of like to keep

a professional distance.

Now we're gonna move on to three posing

tips when it comes to natural posing for

a couple.

One.

Be aware of their fingers.

We've kind of said this before and I'm

gonna say it again.

Fingers betray the reality of a photo.

It can be the most romantic photo but

if she has her hands on his chin

like this it does not look as romantic

as her having her hands like this.

Small tiny changes.

His hands too.

And when I say I often encourage a

groom can you put your hands on her

waist and a guy will go like this.

We don't want that right?

Like cool.

Can you just bring your elbows in?

Can you just put your hands lower?

Can you put them around her booty?

All the time guys were just like okay

and it's there it's them and that works

because they see themselves in that photo.

So that's like a cue and probably not

something I don't know if I would really

if I should have said that one but

you know you do what it takes to

get the photo.

Be aware of their fingers.

Now one thing I want them to do

is to be aware of prom poses when

it comes to natural photos.

The key like I had started and now

we're getting towards the end of it is

start them off in the pose.

Peel them away and bring them back in.

Now we can set up a pose that

looks pretty natural but the minute they kind

of have their brides back to his chest.

So if a groom is here it's so

easy.

It's two moves.

It's two poses removed from being a prom

pose right?

So if his hand is either in his

pocket or on her hip and then her

hand is here or with the bouquet we

went to prom right?

So it's like kind of like I want

her to bring her bouquet down to this

hand.

I want her holding his hand her thumb

and his hands here and I want him

leaning into her and she leans forward.

What we just changed from here to changes

here.

Then we made it more of into a

natural flow.

Then I say perfect guys peel away from

that.

Now come back into that.

Perfect guys peel away from that and come

back into that.

You will see me draw that cadence.

Lastly I want you to encourage them to

relax their smiles.

In this particular case I needed to bring

out more smiles and AV and the thing

that I needed to stay away from because

her natural big smile just didn't work and

so I needed to tell her to smile

with her eyes and for some reason that

kind of resonated and so if some people

look you like I don't know how then

you're going to have to show them and

that's very awkward.

It's called smizing.

Smile with your eyes right and so if

somebody asks me how to do it I

will show them like at an engagement session

but we have talked about a previous lesson

how to prepare your clients for an engagement

session and I have sent my clients slideshows

and work so that they when they see

other girls giving me the smize they know

what I'm expecting.

They have either practice it in the mirror

or they have said is this okay or

they just show up feeling fierce and then

they bring it to me.

So the more of the thing that you

show that you want the less you actually

have to explain that when you're when you

are there.

Moving on into the second component of posing

this would be how to pose fun photos.

Now you can't just show up to a

shoot and say okay guys have fun.

If you've been shooting for more than a

year you know that that just doesn't happen.

An engagement session is the most artificial fun

setting that anybody could participate in.

So what we need to do is we

need to do a few things and what

I like to do first tip for posing

is to pre-visualize.

Pre-visualization is thinking of the photo before

it actually happens and then bring it to

life with your clients.

So as you're walking you see the light

you see this and you say oh I

see this happening here.

Now I don't know how to say this

is how you pre-visualize but I can

give you tips.

First what I want you to do is

to feel okay sketching out on a piece

of paper what's going on in your in

your mind.

It sounds really simple and really silly and

I am by no means like sketching have

any sketching ability whatsoever but I can say

that when you think of an idea and

then you transcribe it by words by sketch

there's a higher likelihood of you remembering it.

It's true.

It's a statistic show.

Then what I want you to do is

to collect magazine ads for inspiration.

Pinterest yes is great for this I get

it but there's something awesome about something tactile

something that you could look through something you

could flip to it creates a very different

experience and scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll

okay got it no let me figure out

what's going on in the light what's going

on the poses what's going on with their

ankles what's going on with their knees finding

all of those things by magazine ads are

very valuable.

I want you to on that note I

want you to study and dissect what is

going on in the photo where they're using

artificial light where they using reflectors if they

were using reflectors were they artificial reflectors or

were they natural reflectors what is going on

what do I think the photographer told the

models in this magazine ad to do what

do I think he or she told them

can I find the words to actually get

them to to emulate this type of emotion

or pose lastly I want you to keep

all of your inspiration in one place so

often we're just like I clip that out

at the doctor's office what did I do

with that if you find fonts typography photos

clips like anything that you like that will

help you pre-visualize a photo keep a

folder of it do it old-school bring

it up before shoot and be like I

am ready for fun posing tips what I

want you to do is to create movement

and tension and what I really mean is

tension is by legitimately pulling their hands because

you can have like what you want to

do is create a fun photo and if

their hands lay limp it totally betrays that

it was that it was a fake now

even as we go through and I shot

the not dream engagement session Taylor and I

had just met and I had just told

you right now that I'd like to respect

my client space but because I was working

in such a small area on such a

limited time in crazy gnarly wind and crazy

bright light I actually asked him Taylor can

you give me your hand it was going

to take me so much longer to articulate

what I wanted and to me a hand

is the most space that I want to

engage in because I would shake Taylor's hand

I shook it when I met it so

I said Taylor can you give me your

hand said yes I said Taylor grab my

hand I said Taylor grab my hand really

tight and he grabbed it and I said

Samantha do you see how much tension is

there between this I want you to trust

that he will not let you go so

that when I ask her to walk in

front of Taylor when I ask him to

lead him that their arms are not betraying

any type of slack that that tension works

for them lastly pay attention to appendages I've

said this a thousand times before but we

have all gone through gone through edits and

calls we're like this photo works but oh

my gosh why was he locking both his

knees I have been there I continue to

be there but it's an active process and

you'll see me as we go through the

shoots softening body line softening body lines now

the thing that I need to say is

that sometimes despite my best efforts to get

what I need it doesn't work I have

started this and I've been doing this about

ten years and I put my business out

online in such a personal capacity that it's

easy for me to assume that when people

come to me for a shoot they know

what's in store wrong of me when we

started a cast in that casting when we

asked for people to come and be a

part of the creative live photo shoots I

put it out on Facebook and then they

contacted the producers and the producers outlined everything

that they would need and that they would

show up and I was a very hands

-off of that process so when AV came

to shoot with Zach and they woke up

at 4 o'clock in the morning they

drove from San Diego to be at the

studio by 515 for hair and makeup because

just because creative is all creative life is

awesome that way we put my intentionally put

myself in very difficult lighting situations so we

did one in a really overcast day we

did one at a sunset then we did

one at bright sunrise and so they happen

to be the lucky sunrise shoot so I

appreciate them epically I could not do what

I do without them but I know that

this particular shoot pushed me to extreme limits

I didn't do enough to prepare them because

I assumed so the thing that we need

to walk away with is never assume that

your clients will know what you want you

must tell them so the very thing that

I preached and have been preaching I failed

to do with this shoot and I think

that it actually showed itself so the thing

that I want to point out is you

will see me struggle there will be a

point in time where I say I'm stuck

I cannot I ever I'm trying every trick

in the book and it's not really working

the way that I need to but I

know that if I tried my best if

I did everything that at least her portfolio

will be diverse in such a way that

it would be more had I not tried

that hard with all my efforts so now

what I want to do is we're going

to take this idea a little bit further

to actually show you how things fared this

is the second lesson in shooting with intention

we now have a full gallery of images

because it was a slightly longer session this

gallery to the best of my recollection I

wrote it down has about a hundred and

twenty-five images of the hundred twenty-five

images more than half of them squelch fell

squarely into the editorial category usually my shoots

will be broken up between my three main

words equally and then we have a romantic

kind of thrown in there to have such

a large proportion of editorial kind of just

goes to show definitely this client wanted one

specific thing she came in with a vision

for what she wanted and I hope that

I did my best to diversify the portfolio

in a way that she's happy and proud

of at a later point in time so

having said that we're gonna go into what

that video is right now so you can

see precisely what I'm talking about yesterday you

might have noticed that we were shooting romantic

editorial photos today this is kind of my

judge we're gonna be shooting fun and natural

photos to join me as we focus on

how to make our clients comfortable have fun

bring up natural smiles up low posing and

really focus on highlighting what makes the couple

unique and totally special to their left now

the idea to show up to shoot and

say I just want my clients to have

fun is great in theory but it's not

great in practicality the thing that I want

to focus on the most is that you

must give your clients things to do and

hope that fun transpires as a result you

want natural posing to transpire as a result

of the instruction that you are giving and

the thoughts that you have in your mind

in this particular situation in order for me

to create a fun photo I must give

them something fun to do now I understand

that with video it's going to betray my

pathetic attempts at having my couples have fun

but what I know I can do is

deliver on a result I might shoot 10

frames and of those 10 frames only one

or two might work and that is something

I'm totally okay with because when people look

at the photos they think that couple looks

like they're having fun if that is what

results then I'm totally okay looking and acting

the fool I'm gonna start Zacky a Zacky

I'm just gonna call you guys Zacky, Zack

and Avey I'm gonna bring them back right

over here so Avey you can just walk

backwards I'm gonna put you guys center to

this beautiful beautiful beautiful gorgeous so let's see

I'm gonna keep you here Avey and Zack

I'm gonna have you right about here kind

of just want your hands and your pockets

are gonna be squaring off towards that parking

lot right about there great I like this

I like that let's have both your hands

so Avey what I want you to do

is I want you I'm gonna be shooting

Zack and then I'm gonna count to three

and then what I want you to do

is go over to his side and then

just put your arm around him like this

so he's not gonna expect you okay so

it's gonna be the element it'll be the

element of surprise just where you're at bring

him in have fun you're not gonna be

looking at the camera I'm gonna be shooting

portraits of Zack first cool beautiful so one

thing I want to point out is that

there is a sign in this area it's

called the butterfly sanctuary what I want to

do is use Zack's body to cover that

sign to help me avoid post-processing later

so I'm gonna shoot a couple portraits of

Zack first I'm gonna get my light and

settings right I'm shooting at a 1.4

1250th of a second 200 ISO I see

and feel the Sun coming out so I'm

going to start shooting and working faster that

can I have your let's see left hand

in your pocket and your pants excuse me

your pant pocket yeah yeah yeah great perfect

open up the coat nice great can I

have can I have your eyes here I'm

sorry I like your body there and then

yeah that's great nice okay great so in

three two and one nice I love it

I love this I love this good good

nice okay so I'm gonna bring you back

this way turn towards yeah great good

let's see Zack I'm going to have your

feet come underneath her dress like this just

as you get your feet under yep you're

gonna get even closer closer closer closer closer

nice put your arms around beautiful and then

maybe let me get your hair so right

now I'm just adjusting her hair because I

think later on in post it would be

difficult to kind of fill in those like

empty spots so I just want to make

sure that as I'm giving my clients at

action actions for fun and natural photos that

I'm gonna kind of try to get things

that I want in place before I actually

move them into it the romantic photo will

quickly transition into a fun or natural photo

after the direction that I give them and

I'm not gonna say what the direction is

quite yet because then they'll have time to

think about it and I don't want them

to do that in order to get natural

poses you want to keep your clients on

their toes talk to them behind the camera

a hundred percent of the time so that

they don't feel alone and I feel confident

with what they're doing I'm still going to

keep my aperture at a 1.4 eyes

down baby relax take a deep breath good

and then Scott what I want you to

do baby can you open your open your

legs there we go but don't come back

there we go and then Zach come in

I want you just getting nice nice nice

and close beautiful now what I want you

to do is I want you to kiss

a be wherever your lips land if it's

beautiful beautiful peel away from each other good

no AVI is here good now what I

want you to do a B is I

want you to get away from Zach Zach

don't let her go don't let her go

baby fight fight fight this way this way

this is towards me towards me towards me

towards this way this way this way this

way they get away get away good good

good good good good good thank you beautiful

good so all we did was create created

tension and energy between the couple one thing

I want to point out is that with

this particular pose you have to be very

careful on how you fire up the frame

because AVI I'm gonna have you lean out

towards me lean out towards me lean out

towards me if this then becomes the angle

and the bride is leaning towards me but

her booty is back towards her groom in

a way I think it could lead to

a different type of implication implication in the

photo so that's one thing I want to

avoid I don't want my bride this way

I don't my groom directly behind her I

want to pull away I want to position

my body right in front of them so

that there's an angle between them now AV

turn towards me and that's why when I

was shooting I was like 80 towards me

80 towards me because she was coming out

this way leaning her body back this way

and he was here and that's not the

type of photo I want to take I

want to make it look like it's fun

and natural not anything otherwise I'm gonna try

that just one more time our lighting has

changed and because our lighting has changed I'm

gonna give the same type of instruction but

in a slightly different position only because part

of the reason why I'm doing that is

now that I'm fighting the Sun the Sun

is coming up my clients are in shade

the Sun is behind them it's going to

be a distraction I want to have full

and clear light at any given point in

time by simply moving my subjects back a

tiny bit I'm gonna be changing the background

but I'm not gonna have the light source

behind them illuminating what's going on behind in

the behind the situation which could then be

a distraction there's a light post in the

background so what I'm going to do is

I'm going to shoot and crop it out

which means that I would not be shooting

with the 35 or vertical so I'm gonna

stay with the 35 and shoot horizontal what

I'm going to do is I'm going to

have AV pull away wait not yet you

guys can't do that so AV no pull

your body towards me towards me towards me

get away get away get away come towards

me come to shift your body this way

AV there you go beautiful beautiful good roll

it good now instead of coming this way

come towards me come towards me good eyes

down cute there's a car in the background

which is making me so upset but dang

it good good thank you when it comes

to shooting fun and natural sometimes just natural

photos are the couple walking towards you enjoying

themselves and looking good at the same time

that's gonna be my entire cue for this

portion of natural if for instance I can

talk to them behind the camera and get

them to laugh that'd be great cuz I'm

killing two birds with one stone if it

happens awesome if it doesn't nothing's missed I

just have to work a little harder on

the next go around so here we go

can I have you guys both face me

can I have your hands together perfect nice

and actually for this frame that can have

you just do the button the top button

so I have people in the background and

there's nothing that I could do about that

I'm just gonna try to work with what

I am given my settings are at 2

.5 this light is great can I have

your hand in your pocket beautiful now what

I want you to do is AV turn

towards me a little bit more beautiful what

I want you to do is I want

you to start walking towards me when I

count for you at 3 2 1 but

with your left foot forward so we're gonna

walk of the cadence you guys are just

gonna relax you're no rush so 1 2

3 and maybe if you can make sure

that you're putting your feet right in front

of each other we can't see your feet

underneath your dress but it changes the position

of your hips so in 3 looking at

each other in 3 2 and 1 and

we're walking beautiful oh that's good nice beautiful

AV take one big step towards me Zach

pause beautiful beautiful now what I want you

guys to do is to continue walking now

AV walk a little closer to Zach nice

now I'm gonna call for it in 3

2 and 1 gorgeous you guys are looking

at each other AV eyes down at the

floor in front of you nice good now

pause AV walk towards me walk towards me

walk towards me beautiful eyes down relax the

bouquet around your waistline gorgeous beautiful now pull

Zach from behind just wise good now looking

down nice at the floor you beautiful okay

so what I want to do is I

really want to keep my clients on their

toes anytime that I'm gonna be shooting for

like a run a fun or natural kind

of photo I really want to do a

few things that were gonna shake things up

so that I can kind of get a

truer reaction what I've seen so far is

that AV is a gorgeous girl but what

I want to do is kind of get

this warm and fuzzy laughable face what I

think we have to do is to give

Zach things to do along the way to

actually extract that from her so let's try

it okay so AV can I have you

hold your bouquet right here in front of

your belly you're gonna be looking right over

there now I'm gonna have Zach you're gonna

be coming from behind but I'm gonna have

you walk into it okay so let's back

up a tiny bit you're gonna walk up

from behind AV you're gonna wrap your arms

around her and then just whisper something to

her that you think might make her laugh

or smile just keep her on her toes

a little bit even if it's inappropriate we're

not gonna hear it okay so hang on

one second I'd like you right there so

Zach's gonna come from behind you AV but

I'm gonna be shooting from the waist up

so I can have your dress off to

the side and so that Zach can feel

nice and comfortable to squeeze you on in

I'm gonna get the settings to what I

want first right now I'm gonna be shooting

at a 2.0 I'm at 500th of

a second 160 ISO and I'm ready for

you Zach nice

so what just happened here this is fantastic

that was so so good one thing I

want to point out was that I had

asked Zach to come in and whisper something

into AV's ear that might make her laugh

it could potentially it could potentially it could

potentially make her laugh be silly whatever it

was so her reaction just kind of came

just through and I wanted just to kind

of get a pose that was really revealing

of who she was there are cars coming

by and that's all good that's what we're

going to do I'm gonna do one last

pose before we kind of get into so

I don't know what you said but it

was totally great because she really laughed in

a way that was good now what I

want you to do is that can you

pick at the back of her dress cool

so you're gonna be picking up her the

dress with your left hand and then with

your right hand around her waist so this

is what I want you to do let

me just show you can you hold my

camera cool so you're gonna have you're gonna

be holding her just like this so you're

gonna make sure you're nice and comfortable holding

it above your feet so you're not gonna

be walking on her and then you're gonna

wrap your arm around AV and yes this

is what I do with my clients I

will grab the bride we're gonna walk this

way and you'll be holding her just like

this shaking with her you know kind of

moving keeping your bodies connected and whatever transpires

if we get one photo as a result

I just want you keeping her nice and

close beautiful beautiful so why I just chose

that to show is that I can show

it quicker than I can explain it and

let's see that relax the left hand a

tiny bit and all I'm going to be

doing something shooting a little bit kind of

a little a little bit close I want

to shoot it a little bit close actually

Zach I like how you had rested your

chin on her yep cute good so now

what I'm gonna do is I keep the

focal point on AV and they're gonna be

walking towards me now you guys can peel

away from each other it's all good now

bring her in bring her in bring her

in bring her in oh cute eyes at

her eyes at her good thank you cool

we're gonna do it one more time good

good job guys I'm loving what's going on

so kind of just take a deep breath

relax your left shoulder beautiful now you're gonna

be just focusing entirely on each other you

need slipping a slightly slower cadence until I

call for you to change how quickly or

slowly you guys are walking towards me this

is beautiful relax that front shoulder and guys

gonna start walking and you're smiling good maybe

eyes on your bouquet good thank you cool

so now that I got like a natural

pose now they're gonna be walking in these

frames on video but what actually photos just

going to show is their bodies formation I

need one single frame of them that actually

looks at their bodies are melding together for

that nice natural appeal we're gonna start this

portion of the fun and natural posing in

a different location and I've intentionally chosen my

my location based strictly on light because I

would much prefer getting great light in a

not-so-great location instead of a great

location and not so great light so I

found the light that I like I like

this beautiful halo light that is might that's

coming from my bride it's absolutely stunning what

I'm going to do is I'm gonna get

a portrait of her and then I'm going

to add different layers now I'm not going

to explain to the camera what those layers

are going to be because then it's going

to tip off what my bride and groom

are what their reactions are going to be

so I want to just keep them on

their toes this is the thing I come

back all the time to and I'm going

to state the obvious this is going to

look and feel stupid and I'm not doubting

whatsoever I'm gonna look back at this footage

and just cringe but I'm gonna own it

I'm gonna say this is what I do

to get the reactions that I get so

whatever so Avie I'm gonna get the camera

settings to where I want I'm gonna be

shooting this at a 2.5 I'm at

160 ISO oh I'll have some haze coming

through to the back and I'm just going

to own that I'm gonna be putting up

my hand to be using it as a

ghetto fab lens hood yep and that's what

I want I'm a shooting is 2.5

for a hundredth of a second I'm at

160 beautiful ISO nice Avie Avie can you

look over towards the cop at the other

end yes beautiful now move your chin towards

the cop beautiful good now um Zach I'm

gonna bring you in right here now I

understand that there is cactus behind Avie I

don't want her to be put in front

of the cactus bush I'm actually using the

cactus as a frame around her head I'm

gonna be positioning Zach Zach I want you

to stand actually right shoulder to shoulder you're

gonna turn this way nice cool now can

you have your hands just right about here

perfect I'm gonna back up a tiny bit

to accommodate for them for both of them

in the frame now what I'm going to

do see Avie just worked it she just

looked up at Zach and just made the

best of this photo now what I want

you to do I'm going to actually so

Avie you yes your hair looks gorgeous relax

okay a tiny bit around your abdomen gorgeous

now if you guys can both look at

the camera on the count of three I

want you guys to give me the weirdest

funniest face that you guys can think of

so just give me a weird a weird

face good you guys look hot that's not

weird a funny face a funny face I

said weird my bad my bad okay so

give me a funny face in one two

three funny good now look at each other

and give each other the funniest face good

nice nice nice so I wanted to step

away from the scene what just happened was

I gave my amazing beautiful wonderful clients an

opportunity to I gave them a prompt and

I think that they did the best they

could and it was my job my failure

to articulate what I wanted from the frame

so I shot that and it's beautiful light

my clients look great but I didn't get

the ultimate reaction so I'm not a funny

face photographer but what I wanted as a

result was for them to laugh and I

don't think that they laughed in a way

that actually comes across as something that I

would put in my portfolio so the educational

learning in this particular situation is that not

every prompt will work so now that I

know that it didn't work I need to

give them something else to actually fulfill this

particular portion of the shoot I'm going to

go back I'm going to try something different

to see if I can get a natural

reaction because what I've noticed so far from

this beautiful amazing gorgeous couple is that they're

beautiful and they're amazing but they're not as

emotive when it comes to just laughing and

natural photos now it's they're not it's not

their inability as subjects it's my inability as

photographer so I need to try twice as

hard to get the results that I want

so here we go attempt number two in

really crazy light with non emotive clients let's

see if we can get one frame that

I'm really proud of let's go back I

want you to get up on your tippy

toes I want to come around him and

I want you to cover his eyes I

want you to be sassy fun I'm going

to be a little bit of a brat

like anything that's going to to to keep

to keep Zach on his toes so I

just prompted AV to come over now um

you see so in just a span of

a few minutes the Sun has come out

in such to such a degree that I

might have to change a couple things because

it's so strong within my camera okay cool

I actually will just kind of say try

to save what we have going on I

might make some minor adjustments cool I just

prompted AV to come up from behind Zach

and kind of cover his eyes to kind

of see what's going to happen but I

want you to sell it I want you

to be saucy or you be sassy and

in the count of three and you're gonna

get up on your tippy toes and you're

gonna wrap your arms around his eyes in

three two and one good good good good

good good no peel back peel back beautiful

AV now this time what I want which

is everything that was perfect I want you

to cover Zach's eyes kind of be like

a brat and then I want to want

you to look at the camera as you

get in three and two and one Zach

you're looking good too don't worry cute one

more time now instead of peeling Zach back

instead of so I I love what you

did but you peeled him back peel him

to the side and kind of just like

peel up and look at the camera back

at me in three in two in one

cute good AV can I have you pick

up the side of your dress and I'm

gonna get the bouquet and hold that yep

okay cool so it's gonna feel silly but

if we put in our mind like an

idea of what was actually happening during this

point so the idea is you guys just

got married you guys just walked out of

the church and you're excited to get away

from everybody for one quick break I don't

want you in a full-out sprint but

I don't want you to walk either I'm

going to talk to you and then I

will change your cadence as I need it

I'm gonna look behind me to make sure

that nothing is behind me that I can

trip over although there is a strong possibility

that I possibly could because that's just how

I roll I'm gonna get my settings right

I'm at a 2.5 four hundredth of

a second 160 ISO and come towards me

come come come come run run run run

run run run run you guys are excited

thank you thank you thank you I'm gonna

do that one more time that was great

guys one more time thank you thank you

thank you but AV I mean let's just

have a moment cuz your hair is looking

so good right here beautiful right here turn

towards me beautiful you're gonna pick up one

side of your dress you're gonna be holding

the other hand let me take adjust the

hair I'm adjusting the hair outside of the

dress line great Zach step in a little

bit closer to AV beautiful and you guys

are running towards me looking at each other

keeping the faces nice and light good thank

you perfect perfect okay so let's continue shooting

some more fun photos at a different location

we're coming into the last parts of capturing

making sure that my portfolio reflects fun and

natural poses now I'm going to give my

clients something to do and again I give

them an action and I hope that one

or two frames yield what I want and

so in this particular case I'm going to

guide my my clients in to simply showcasing

the bride but in a way that there's

movement so Zach it's at all possible can

I have your hand AV I want you

to mirror on when it comes to it

so making sure that you're holding AV's hand

nice and firm because she's going to be

pulling on you so can I have your

hand in your pocket nice and so AV

I kind of just want you to lean

back or actually you're gonna stay positioned Zach

so you're gonna stay positioned kind of want

you leaning back and then Zach you're gonna

pull her in close you guys are gonna

get nice and close and you're gonna peel

back again and then AV you're gonna show

him the back of your dress because it

looks fierce and fabulous and then if you

want you can raise your hand and she's

gonna kind of flip around and she's gonna

do this I'll talk you through it but

the goal is to kind of get a

little bit of distance between you and I

have to understand as a photographer I'm going

to probably get a couple frames from this

and then I'm just gonna be okay with

that now my light source to the best

of my ability is in front of them

but I still want that dynamic lighting behind

them square your shoulders a little bit more

towards me Zach bring your ankles in a

tiny bit I am losing bits of the

ground in front of them and I'm just

gonna be okay with it so then AV

go ahead start pulling nice beautiful good now

Zach bring her on in bring her on

in that's cute that's cute pull her on

out you can yes good now AV turn

relax your hand relax your hand beautiful now

relax that shoulder you're overextending I want you

to pull your there you go nice hang

on one second let me adjust there you

go Zach and then I'm we're getting a

lot of we're getting a lot of this

I kind of want to tuck it on

in and I just want you to look

back so bring the shoulders back the torso

and kind of lean back I'm not lean

back so you do not lean back I

want you to turn back beautiful and then

Zach hand in your pocket because you're just

admiring your gorgeous wife nice beautiful now why

don't you give her a nice little twist

all the way around beautiful good now just

come in bring it in nice and close

nice and close nice and close nice and

close nice and close nice and close good

now what I want you to do is

AV no no I loved where it was

I love where it was maybe you're just

perfect now flip the bouquet in the other

hand AV at a girl at a girl

at a girl beautiful now AV lean back

lean back lean back lean back Zach go

in for her try not to let her

try not to let her get away and

then Zach you're leaning in for a kiss

you're leaning in for a kiss okay okay

okay okay we're going deep we're going deep

y'all yeah let's do this it let's

do that one more time but um AV

you don't have to lean all the way

back just kind of lean lean from the

chest up so keep your hips stationary this

will be it this will be it this

will be it beautiful thank you friends that's

it that's it hang out there hang out

there AV look down at the ground in

front of you and over your left shoulder

AV in the ground yes thank you thank

you lean back a tiny bit lean back

a tiny bit Zach stay with her thank

you oh okay okay okay okay thanks guys

for hustling you guys are doing this so

that's how we're gonna close this particular lesson

with fun and natural poses thanks you guys

for following along a few tips to remember

as you go along you want to create

natural movements you want to talk behind your

camera you want to keep your camera if

you guys noticed I was talking a lot

behind my camera keep your camera up and

shoot simultaneously that's how you're gonna get these

natural fun photos yes I did have the

clients come into some like weird contortion like

poses and sometimes they worked and sometimes they

didn't and that's okay that wasn't what I

was going after the going after for the

natural poses was them actually coming out of

the moment laughing at each other enjoying it

some prompts that I gave them worked some

prompts that I gave them didn't work and

I'm okay with that so don't hesitate to

act like a fool on behalf of your

clients and thanks for tuning in today I

appreciate it what

is a bird without its wings what is

a kite without its string what is a

city with no people what is a hand

without a hold what is the world with

no love love love keeps us all connected

love love love when you least expect it

love love love everybody it's a beautiful

what is a bus without a street what

is a heart without a beat what is

a church without a steeple what is the

sky without the sea what would we be

with no love love love keeps us all

connected love love love when you least expect

it love love love everybody it's a

beautiful so

I'm gonna tie up what we just saw

I'm gonna review some of the things that

we just went through you saw me adjust

Avey's dress and her hair on countless occasions

I was thinking from I was thinking about

her appearance from a stylist perspective and from

a creatives perspective and a curators perspective I

had to work extra hard to get Avey

to smile in a way that was a

half smile and have her look pleasant and

fun you saw me work at particular angles

and work them into a pose and when

a pose wasn't working I would try fighting

extra hard for it and the way that

I would try extra hard was keeping the

camera in front of my face the entire

time because I would see a break in

her facial expression every so often and I

noticed that it happened every blue moon that

I had to be ready I did not

want to miss that small break of getting

that natural light fun pose that could that

can manifest itself so having seen me implement

the tips for posing a bride posing the

groom and posing a couple what I want

to do now is work into our homework

now the homework is I want you to

arrange a shoot for intention so free yourself

of expectations of payment free yourself of expectations

of sharing them online free yourself of any

sort of expectations this is this is homework

this is creativity this is fun now I

don't want you to go back and shoot

the sessions like you are shooting them now

if you set up the shoot for intention

and you shoot the session exactly how you

shoot it now you did it wrong the

idea is to say what are my words

how can I shoot my clients to get

there and if I'm going back to the

thing like my safety zone you need to

invite your friends or perspective yeah your friends

somebody you trust and say I need to

experiment with something will you guys work with

me so now you feel no pressure to

kind of put on the show from this

I'm professional I got it together all the

time it's let me find the right words

to say let me work with you through

that secondly um I think that it's easy

to think that money is the form of

a successful transaction but I will say that

money is the last thing when it comes

to other things that you get as a

benefit from doing what you do so sure

you might not have gotten paid for a

shoot but what you walk away with having

learned is so much more valuable than what

you've gotten paid for the shoot outside of

that opportunity and lastly when you set up

the shoot the thing that I want is

about learning how to do the thing that

you need to do it's not about payment

it's not expectations it's just doing what you

set out to do and walking away from

the shoot having become stronger and knowing that

you're shooting with intentionality for your brand on

that note we're done