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Client Testimonial: Trica and Drew

Lesson 15 from: From Images to Art: Storytelling in Wedding Photography

Jim Garner

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Lesson Info

15. Client Testimonial: Trica and Drew

Next Lesson: Refine Your Craft

Lesson Info

Client Testimonial: Trica and Drew

Trish andrew it as you're about to see a lovely, wonderful sweet couple and they were just just normal clients think they called us to photograph their wedding and I wanted teo have an opportunity for you guys to meet and understand the client experience that that we provide interested you volunteer to come and just describe a little bit so here they are I want to say hi to you like I love you look today so great to see uh uh hey, brother how are you? Welcome, welcome have a seat how's your day going so far good. Good. So tricia drew came to us. It was three years ago now wasn't it? Yeah, I think we met in two thousand eleven. Our wedding within two thousand twelve two thousand twelve yeah way had such a great day that the rainiest seattle wedding possibly imagine it just unloaded on us did that was the end of june two we thought we'd be safe and it was the rock n roll marathon so all the streets were closed. Of course the way it works it's a wedding day we all know how wedding day's w...

ork, right? You can never plan for everything to go perfectly but that's our job with harper's right to deal with that and so I wanted to talk to you first about before we we talked about how he dealt with the rainy day which actually turned out to be the great best blessing ever, right? Yeah so it literally like the clouds came in okay it's time to go do outdoor photo on the second we got back in yeah wass just during the three hours way had to shoot it was raining so tell us about the process of finding a wedding photographer what was that like for you? Um why had worked in the bridal industry for a few years and working with bridesmaids and mothers and other brides and after they got married they always come in and show their photos and you could just tell over the course of five years seeing hundreds of photos certain one stand out so I had a client that came in and she had had tim shoot her wedding and his photos were phenomenal and they were so different and so artistic that I kind of was like thiss photographers so I went to his website looked it up and in the back this was before we were even together in the back of my head I'm like that's who's gonna shoot my wedding. I am not going to throw that out of the first person I date, but so I kind of kept out in the back of my head and then when drew and I were engaged and everything I kind of told him about this is the guy I'd really love but just for him, I thought, well, maybe we'll just set appointment with a couple just to be fair, but I booked jim first because I knew we wouldn't need to meet with anybody else and to spin off of that. I had asked her, actually, what is the most important aspect of the wedding to you? Hands down, she said, the photographer in the photos that we will have because she wanted it to be artwork, not just photos, and, uh, and I know that we'll talk a little bit more about that, but I had no idea I'm an only child, I don't have anybody before we get married, so so really, really I was just stepping into ok, I trust, which think and let me see that girl, but but I would have already been married, but I wanted to see multiple vendors. I wanted to see a lot of different things, and and then when we met jim, it was it was amazing. It's so nice. So once you've been with us, what was it? Was it the art that you're interested in experience that we're talking about? During that meeting? Um, we met at your house, which was so fun cause you walk in and you see all this beautiful photos and artwork, and then we met you, and I believe we met your wife too, and it's just it's, a click it's a personality when you know that you get along with the vendor so well, and on top of that the photos they're amazing. It just makes that big of a difference, and the meeting went so well and we got along great and we didn't need to meet with anybody else. It was done and sold, and we I wanted to plan our wedding day around. Your availability definitely had to make sense, and there was a lot of questions or is there's a clear, detailed outline of what he expected, what we expected and there was a lot of communication and going through many different vendors in other aspects of our wedding. Not everyone was like that and that's and that's, an important aspect and in life and in business. And and I really appreciated that because it was it was our first meeting, and it was so personal was at his home and it wasn't ah, high pressure deal. It was just ah wonderful experience, a lot of questions, and we really knew what we were getting when we left. Andi couldn't have been more happy. That's great. That's perfect is what we want. We talked about this yesterday too. Just connecting its more important, connecting as people with our client's showing who will be there and who, although they will represent your day, is almost more important than actual pictures itself. It sure helps to be shown beautiful art along the way. And so, as we're talking here, I want to show you a little bit of something, something new, something we do with your artwork. I'm gonna set it on the table here and then at the end, I'm gonna have you open it. All right, so, so weii, I love to hear what tell us a little bit about the experience that you had image from the time we met through your wedding day. How did that look for you? Well, we had first scheduled our engagement shoe, and that was so fun. I mean, we knew when we first met with them what we were getting, um, and we knew the engagement shoot was part of it. And, you know, we thought it was going to be just two or three hours, you know, quick. Well he's such a he's so good at taking photos in such a perfectionist we ended up spending what was almost five hours way kept going, but he was like no, this is the last shot this is great no, wait one more one more time we just need to get and we were having so much fun and buy that were like eleven o'clock at night by the time we finish and it was so fun and we had to drive to portland that night too, but we're having such a great time that were like, I don't care we'll go until four in the morning it was so neat to is you really explained a lot of the shots you were trying to capture it wasn't just shots here, shots there and here we go but you were really explained to us this is what I'm really looking to do and I was it's just very when it was your first experience with, like taking photos and you were kind of like, why do I need to be like this? And my head tilted in this and I'm finally you see the photo you sent me an excellent okay that makes so much then you want another thing that was really need about the experience and I've never had photos taken of me before but is is um it was not opposed if that makes sense if there was a lot of interaction and movement and it was fun and people were laughing and when you when you don't think those photos being shot that was the best shot that we wanted after we saw that post production on and I didn't really fully understand that until we came into the studio and I'm like, wow, I didn't even realize that that photo was taken and now that was an amazing so you saw your slide show of you're engaged you for the first time on what was that what that feels like just seeing that it was the first time seems your photos but then were in them so it was kind of it was weird to see that we were like oh that's us way looks like that but it just the way the lighting is and just a lot of drama and romantic and and that's what we were looking for really captured that there's something we really wanted to have so just talk a little bit about what we did uh you know, I think I spoke to about this yesterday we start our engagement shoots at sunset and then we move into evening shots and we go way like darkness we like to think that's a movie for the type of shots we want to produce, we use the video lights that I just showed you and off camera flash and we have the opportunity of having an entire venue pike place market I think we ended up at right entire venue to ourselves because nobody's around there's neon lights here and there there's the big pie place market sign all of this uh becomes part of their engagement story beautiful and then they're able tto worked about ten thirty right and then after we had a glass of champagne together at the bar and you guys have made a date out of it what a wonderful experience you have it's all good news we got to show you a sampling of that eventually here and we did another engagement shoot that emulated exactly what we did for tricia andrews and gave it shoot for you as the bonus material for this program I think russell miller will tell you about that later but I'm just so excited to see you guys by the way we've become dear friends through this entire process I have to say that it it's so mutual mystic about when when you connect with somebody if it's mutual you just want do you think stressful for them? You know and you talked about our sales process a little bit yesterday and it certainly was the same process we used with trish andrew and you guys end up with a double volume book somehow absolute very large very beautiful book the rainy day that we had was a massive blessing talk to us about what happened there so I'm one of those you know the movie twenty seven dresses basically my life story I've been a bridesmaid sixteen times I don't think there was ever one wedding and you know bride's maid groups from like just three all the way I was one of sixteen bridesmaids once in a group and I don't think I was ever part of a group where the photographer kept it fun I mean it was you know it was okay but I knew jim would keep it so much fun for us and so when we were out on our day we had fourteen fifteen sixteen of us sixteen of us be rented a limo bus it was pouring down rain and you know the girls could get angry because their hair was gonna be wet and I was getting drips and everybody was what we had umbrellas and he made it so much fun nobody even realized that it was raining and then he just says you know what? Everybody's soaking wet we're just goingto get what we can get and then I'm gonna offer you guys a complimentary photo shoot later after the wedding and it took so much stress off of me and drew because here we're thinking this is our only chance to get wedding photos and were soaking wet my hair is wet and and then he totally just threw in the free complimentary shoot all over seattle in his studio wherever we wanted and that whole just like really just diffuse the tension because you could see people being like you've got to be kidding me the hair and makeup we're ready to go she's in her gown my talks and then it's like wow just the monsoon so way still got amazing photos from that really rain time we had a very you know the umbrellas and stuff so it's really neat twenty lemons and eliminate that's what we do is photographers were problem solvers but the neat thing is and why this is such a blessing is his opportunity teo expand our relationship even more we well, I think it was a week after your you returned way did that and even a couple months later because we went on our honeymoon way honey honeymoon so it's a week or so after the honeymoon we have them come to the studio we did hair and makeup there on we did some in studio shots all of which are we're going to show you just a minute here can't wait to show you but way then with same same thing fall the sun fall the sunset we worked a couple locations right and and we filled in the with some areas that we had holes in our album due to the rain we emulated some shots that that would eventually be intermixed into the album which you're about to see so on that subject I want to show you this this's the new style albums that we're producing and this is your book yeah some dropping I'm dropping stuff but I want you to see the quality here oh this's called the cheek oniy this is an exclusive young book that graphic studios making feel the texture here well uh that is so nice isn't that I'm sorry lovely oh that's causing this cool it's just amazing I mean this just goes back to the hole it art it's just not a photo you know it's so much more to it so told and that was taken not on the wedding day in the studio that way on the studio you wouldn't know it was that same thing day of wedding studio studio we're just intermixing averages to tell larger store on and nobody ever questions if it's oh that must have been another day they always know where did you guys get those in the in the hotel where were they I would give to have that there's more there's more time with this but we're gonna bring something for you thank you this is the gift oh my god thank you. We've never seen this before you gotta be kidding me that is so far is that awesome so this is from our we recreated their engagement day for you and the bonus material for this program and we created this piece of art complimentary baby photo lab for you to take come for your house thank you that is an amazing way love how you look at the quality of this image too until this is a metal print okay with lustre finish I believe and it's got the framed edge so it's got a aluminum block feel to it which I absolutely love so hang this in your home okay what again? That is just thank you so we're not expecting I know you're not that's what we do though teo comes with surprises so just let everybody waited this jim wanted to go and do a ton of shooting in different locations for this workshop obviously we couldn't do it live, so what they did was earlier was it last week we had him come in and tricia andrew generously offered to be the couple s o they did a shoot they went to three different locations shot at night so and that'll be included as a bonus video if you purchase the course and we're going to show you a brief teaser when we goto lunch s o you want to stay tuned for that? So that's awesome yeah, I'm very excited I'm god thank you for being so helpful to our program and everything being such dear friends I it's just another reason why this philosophy of art shooting is been such a wonderful thing in our lives, all of our dear friends, here's, all of our dearest friends have come into our life through this business and through this desire to create art for our clients. So I just hope that the people that you could see that this business has his way more than delivering product. Sure, maybe we asked trish andrew a question or two way radio like you should know that darkroom junkie in here said in the chatroom wrote, uh, she's gorgeous and values photography seriously dream and every one of the girls it's true. So yesterday we talked a little bit about jim sales process and kind of how he works with pricing and all that kind of stuff. So when you decided that you were interested in potentially hiring him, did the idea that it was going to be, like, custom pricing, that it wasn't like yes, this is how much it's going to be straight off the bat. Did that scare you at all? No, because I went into the meeting and knowing we're hiring him that it was going to be more expensive, you see the difference in the quality of photos, and I mean, obviously, you know, you see the quality, so I know I knew it was gonna be more expensive. And to me and drew it when there was no, I mean, obviously we're not going to spend a million dollars, but there wasn't really a value on, you know, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do that with the photographer. That was our main purchase, that was what we were going to spend on this is the artwork that's going in our house? This is what everybody's going to see, and so we knew the price of how much he was going to be for, like, the engagement, shooting the wedding, but we spent more, you know, on getting the albums and getting that double album, and to us, it was so important that it didn't really stress without that much, that it was any more, but I will also spent off of that we got so much more than what we paid for, absolutely with all the extras, whatever the number was, it doesn't it great friends, incredible team life gifts that we don't even know. This's yeah, it's, I'm not even never worried about that. It's, you know, is what is the value in it? And it's just it was priceless, you're nailing, it really was what I didn't tell him to say this way, all right, so now let's pretend jim isn't standing right there it's just us yeah, because right here is there anything that he did that you wish he hadn't done like either on the day or during the process or something that you wish she had done and said something that you were like, oh, this is the experience that I wish I would have had and didn't get no no I think he said, and I would have no problem saying some that we didn't enjoy or expect I legitimately aiken look in the face and say no, absolutely not the effort was there start to finish it wasn't just energy and with us it was you know he would take time away and go get the little kids you know and get he's like when the kids are in their moment I got to get home, you know? And so we'd way he was just good with everybody and so to see that that exceeded my expectations and then throwing the extra photo shoot we weren't expecting that so I could speak to your question I think I wish two times that we could deliver things in a faster manner delivering the artist of the communication process or some back and forth and so in order to avoid some of those problems because I nutrition drew, you know, expected perfection and they deserve it, the solution around that for us was to invite them in invite them in to sit next to us through some design changes instead of doing it online, necessarily that they're the type of place we want to do it side by side to making sure they get exactly what they want. And we did so and that's what we did. Ok, maybe more came in good question and this and this tow the time it's the other way around, jim, pretend they're not here is this is this kind of a typical client for you, for these sort of an ideal, like the best of the best for you? Where do they fit on the spectrum? As far as the type of people that you work with and the people you attract with your work? Best of the best thieves in the type of clients that the art philosophy attracts clean, it's simple it's, right? There are people who value art who wouldn't want to be seen in an artistic view and who value the experience, the service that we could provide and who are willing to spend the extra some extra money on that art that we produce for them, they value it, and so they'll automatically be attracted to your services so fantastic, so let's, check out this slide show so you guys ready to see your wedding again? Yeah, okay here, let's, take a look, wait so love that was so much fun. We had those days, actually, uh, what a beautiful day. Well, so before we, uh, transition out, uh, tell us about the design background that you see throughout that ah, that's a damaged pattern that we had on our invitations on our candy table on our cake, everything with a damaged pattern. And I forded him the file and he I don't know what the word is. Trans posey s so all the background through our entire album behind us, whether it's white, brown, black is our pattern from our wedding. So we really tried to customize these rights are artwork for you? Yeah. That's. The point of bringing that up so you can just so special. I can't thank you enough for coming out today and helping us on a really appreciate your time. Thank you for all the are way. Do me a favor. Take a picture of that in your house and send it to me. Yeah, you know what? You hang up? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, gosh. I want to see that on your wall because, holden, all right. My friends, right. Thank you.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Foldable Field Guide
10 Steps to Success

Ratings and Reviews

Ester Knowlen Photography
 

LOVE LOVE LOVE all the bits on how to create a wow shot without stressing about getting it/catching it by chance. So SPOT on!! A little bit of planning, a little bit of vision, and great ideas/recipe for amazing "wow" shots that are prompted and genuine (unique just like the people we shoot), rather than stressed over and chased. :) Amazing video!! :) Thanks Jim Garner!!

222 N 43rd Pl
 

This is such an amazing course. It is my first purchase that I have made with Creative Live and I couldn't be more pleased. Jim shared so much information and so many insights. It's great to be able to watch the segments over, picking up something new every time. Taking volumes of notes! I am starting to implement Jim's approach to photography—storytelling. I am just starting out in wedding photography and am so excited to have found this gem tutorial! I would highly recommend this to any photographer who wants to take their work from photographs to art.

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