Q + A:

I wanted to say “thank you” to all of the gals who put in questions for me to answer. There were quite a bit and I picked some I thought would be great to answer today.

Here is a nice random assortment and this first one is a very common question
Q1: “How do you balance kiddos/working from home?”

Oh the great balancing act of working and motherhood! This is probably my toughest challenge. Not only as a business owner, but as someone who wants to learn, grow, become more creative and focused. Throw in the desire to be a fun and engaged mom as well as a prompt and professional photographer to my clients. As the years have passed and we keep adding more to our brood it certainly gets more difficult! There are times I am simple envious (or perhaps jealous) of friends going on all of these shooting excursions, workshops, etc. I want to do that – I want to capture all of these flawless beautiful (and staged) photos… or do I? My reality is a lot different than many of my peers. I have chosen to be a mom first – period. Here are a few tips on how to be a more efficient work from home mom and believe me I don’t follow these all of the time, but there is always time to change that and focus on being more efficient in life. *Truth is I could get WAY better, couldn’t we all? 🙂

-Answer emails quickly! I have scored jobs for the simple fact of being one of the only photographers that emailed wedding inquiries back quickly. I am sure I have lost jobs for the opposite reason as well. If you answer emails quickly, you are telling your client or potential client that you are listening and ready to work with them.

-Have templates for email. Awh, this is one I have been working on for FOREVER. Last month I joined 17 Hats, a new company that is supposed to help photographers have a super efficient business. It will take time to set up and i am ready to do that, since it’s slow season! Being able to send the same email to inquiries will save you so much time!

-HIRE HELP! Alright, you are just about to find out the kind of diva I am. 🙂 Working from home can be so hard when you have little ones. They continually desire attention and somehow FOOD. I know in order for me to be a better woman (mother, wife, photographer, and just being me) I need help. I have a weekly laundry lady, housekeeper, and my kiddos now ALL have school (maybe not every day, but some days). This certainly adds up and may not seem like it has to do with my business, but it absolutely does. How am I going to edit a wedding if the house is a disaster, the laundry is piling up and my kids are tugging on my shirt for something every.single.day? I need help doing the “wife-mommy” things so I can focus on the photographer tasks! We also have a CPA to help us on the business end. This year we are hiring a book keeper to keep our books super tight. Our = Husband and Me

   —-How about an assistant? Oh boy, how I miss my girls! I had assistants for over two years, until this fall. It takes time to train an assistant, but they can be SO worth it. Whether you hire an assistant to answer emails, build albums, schedule shoots, edit photos, order, sell, etc. – they will be a life saver! While you have to be able to “afford one,” you can also think of it as helping you bring in more business. This allows you to work more on the shooting end, which means more sessions and more money! 🙂 I almost always had my sweet college girls, the only con – they graduate and move away. Boo!

-Communicate Clearly and Perhaps on the phone! I say this because so much can get lost in translation nowadays and it saves you (and your client) from heartache and frustration. The last thing you want is ten emails trying to explain something back and forth, when one simple phone call could have solved it. TIME IS MONEY and talking can show that there is no tension or motives. 🙂

-Take time off of work and even set hours for yourself. This is one of the most difficult things. I can check my email all day and all night. There are days where I must run errands or simply want to take the kids to the park or have three hour long doctor appointments for Lake. Those times I rarely check my email. I may be gone from 9-4pm on a certain day. Checking my email periodically can help me make sure I am not missing a super important email, but I have to remember that I am a human just like everyone else. My company isn’t like every other company and I certainly cannot be available 24-7. It is hard as clients can start to get ancy and we all know 2015 – we expect INSTANT feedback. There is a time for answering and there is a time for simply living. Choose wisely.

-Play and be YOU (not the photographer you, but the mommy, wife, and simply the human that you were prior to photography/working). Make sure to make time for yourself. If you are focusing too much on your business, your clients, your shoots, your work, you may get lost in there. Not to mention bitter, sad, angry and without creativity! Also if you are a mama – make those kiddos happy – as much as you possibly can. Christmas Day my daughter said, “Mommy, you have not been on the computer at all! Did you not work today?” That speaks volumes huh?

-Date Night! Simple one, if you are someone’s partner… make sure to protect your relationship and make time for one another. Who doesn’t love a good date and one on one time? You must keep that connection and spark alive. What is more important – work or marriage? *also GO TO BED together… don’t stay up late editing. That’s very important time to be with one another, every day. You are the one person who gets to sleep next to your spouse, make it count. 🙂

-Make the most of your free time. If you have two hours of kidless or focus time – get off of social media! This is so hard for me. Being at home so much I feel like social media is my “connection to the outside.” 🙂 I don’t think we will ever say, “Man, I really wish I would have checked FB more today.” Wouldn’t you rather say, “Man, I knocked out those two family sessions and can go out and enjoy this beautiful day now!”

These five people are my world and we are excited to have ONE MORE to add to our bunch. 🙂 It’s important to remember they are little once and that our marriage needs work – every single day. (photo credit: Charla Storey – amazing gal)

Q2: Do you release digital images or only sell prints?

I do both. I have never been fabulous about pushing print sales. I mostly sell digital files and I am totally okay with that. In session proofing and print selling is something I would LOVE to do, but it takes time and I am expecting number FIVE. Unfortunately as a busy mom, I do not have time to do this. I have heard nothing, but amazing things from my friends who do in session print sales… and hope one day APP can have an assistant running these for me. I do offer a discount on my prints for my clients who purchase the files, so they can get the best of both worlds. I would hate to have my clients spend a nice chunk of change on our session and then hang some low quality prints/canvases in their home. I am changing some things in my business this year, that will help my clients pick and choose prints for their home without being in a one on one meeting with me. One program is called SWIFT GALLERIES by Preveal, that is coming out soon. I am so excited about this!

 

Q3: How many images do you end up giving wedding clients from a full day of shooting?

I say on average 100/hour of shooting. Honestly it depends on the wedding. Sometimes it’s WAY more than that – if there are a ton of details, large wedding party, big family, etc. If it’s a smaller more intimate wedding there are less “things” to capture. Some brides want a photo with EACH bridesmaid and some brides may only want a photo of the maids and groomsmen all together. My full weddings range from 700-1100 images.

-Each of those photos HAS been brought into Lightroom and batch edited through Photoshop. Some of the photos have been polished, retouched and had additional editing to look extra pretty.

 

Q4: What marketing tools did you use to promote yourself in the beginning? Making the initial jump from shooting friends/family to paid clients seems daunting!!

I started way back in 07 – just second shooting and doing small things with my friends. I was a teacher and some other teachers and even students would hire me to document them. Then I had other friends start to hire me. I started a blog and posted my work often. Facebook had just started “pages” in 09 or so and I started my photography page and it just happened! I have never advertised anywhere. I am fortunate enough to have a great network of people here in Fort Worth, TX! I grew up, was a teacher here, waited tables at a nice restaurant for six years here, went to school at Texas Tech, finished school at UTA here, met people through church, my Dad works with a large corporation here AND Paul has a great network of people. I have been hired by a lot of people from EVERY thing I just mentioned and guess what? They have friends!!!! Tagging on FB has been one of my greatest assets and simply my clients sharing my name – THANK YOU TO MY PRECIOUS CLIENTS!!!! It has been {for me} as simple and easy as that. I used to blog a TON, but kept having more children and that was the least of my priorities and helped get my name out there. I am going to really try to focus on that more. I am horrible at SEO, but have photographer friends who are great at it and they get a lot of business by simple web searches. 🙂

 

Q5: What is your most used lens for portraits?

Over this fall season I really found myself keeping my 85mm 1.2 lens on my camera SO much of the time – it’s a great lens and has beautiful bokeh (though not great for fast moving toddlers, as it’s a slower lens – I would go with the 24-70mm or the 50mm for those wild ones!). I am eager to pull out my 35mm 1.4 out more – the color and bright images that lens creates is so pretty! I am a lens hoarder. I have the 24-70mm 2.8 (I want to use that more too, helps me be more creative as far as getting some more artistic shots), 35mm 1.4, the 50mm 1.2 (classic lens), 85mm 1.2, 135mm 2.0, the 70-200mm 2.8, the 100mm 2.8 macro and the 45mm 2.8 Tilt Shift lens. Gosh, It’s ridiculous. I never ever use more than 3 on a portrait session and sometimes only a couple. 🙂

 

Q6: What to say to prospective clients who can’t afford you, or ask you if they can book you w/o product investment, ask if they can just buy digitals, or the worst is when you would love to book the perfect client but you’re booked out and they can only book during the next 3 weeks?

A multi part question. If a prospective client cannot afford me, I understand. I am in the mid range of pricing. I ALWAYS send my pricing up front, so they know what everything costs. The last thing I want to do is reel them in and sticker shock them once their images are ready. That is bad business practice, in my opinion. My clients get my pricing in my initial email and it is very easy to understand. No packages, just a-la-carte. It has become a lot more rare for clients not to purchase either digital files or a fine amount of prints.

As far as booking: Luckily for me, I can typically book within a couple of weeks. Most of my clients book me close to the session during the main part of the year. I get super busy between April-May and then once school starts people start booking for fall and Christmas. I become a workhorse during those months and will schedule 2-4 sessions a week. I also book a lot of seniors in the summer, which is great because families rarely want to shoot in the hot Texas summers!

*****I want to do a separate post on processing because it’s not as simple as answering. I feel like a tutorial is necessary!*****