Lessons

Lesson Info

Portfolio Building Clients & Shadowing Other Photographers

during this segment we're going to talk about put follow building clients and this is something I did a lot when I was first starting out it's helps you get that practice up and it helps you you also share the word about what you're doing because like I've been saying you know you create this amazing experience again until everyone about it and you take some really great photos for people and they're gonna share them as well so yeah portfolio building for may in the beginning I just meant that you know I could actually practice I could practise on my stunt baby but there's nothing like holding a real baby in your hands and working with um and feeling the way that they move and you know I'm a mom so I was used teo holding my own babies so but I wasn't used to holding somebody else's baby and it's like that little bit of fear that comes in life somebody else's baby when it's your own at your own so you don't have to have kids to be able to be a newborn photographer you can you can never ...

have held you know well actually no I do recommend you practice holding real babies before you try posing them there's a big bust but you don't have to have your own kids at all you just have to learn to work with them and hold them in a way that term you know is is endearing I suppose it's gentle it's soft but you don't get that unless you get to practice and put follow building sessions for your clients should be called put forget portfolio building sessions so we're going to go over a few things as to why I think you should do them and talk about that because you know a lot of the mentoring sessions that I do in the workshops I duel with photographers who were just starting out in your born photography and there are so many babies born out there every single day like it's ridiculous or you have to do is google how many babies are born in the united states every day it will blow your mind so I do it regularly in my city at home when I'm doing private mentoring sessions because I want other photographers to know you know even though there's a lot of new war photographers in my city and I'm booked down tto october with what I'm capable of doing so you have to be able teo you know understand that there's not a shortage of babies there's plenty out there for you and then you're going to find some to practice on but it's knowing where to find them as well so recruiting of friends and family when my children were younger it was easy to know other people who are having children but you know I would still go up to pregnant women in the strait and hand them a business card it scared the living daylights out of me but you know sometimes you just got to get that dutch courage up and you've got to approach people and say hi you know I'm I'm knew the newborn photography I've been a photographer for x many years or I'm just new to photography whatever your situation is and and explain to them you know I would love to photograph your baby I'm building my portfolio blah blah blah but if you've got friends and family tell them helps spread the word give them some business cards and you don't have to go on have two hundred fifty business cards printed have twenty five printed when you're first starting out it doesn't actually cost that much money you can go to w h c c and gets a beautiful little boutique they said beauty cards and they sell them in packs of twenty five you know so handing those out to potential clients will be a really incredible way to spread the word get your prince and family to put them in their pockets put them in their purse today my assistant melissa who is incredible she carries my business cards and she approaches pregnant people as well how all of that so she's still building my boat value for me all these years later because once I started doing it I just continued to do it so my client base is continually growing so it's founded by doing portfolio building sessions moving along to using social media when I obviously may I use to approach people in the street we didn't have facebook and things like that back then we had flicka but you know the photographers that I followed on there were photographers on social media we've got actual real live people who just you know what they have the babies with their families photographed in accessing them through social media is really easy ask your friends and family to share that on their social media posts and give them you know give them an incentive to do it so friends and family like you could do a twenty five minute photo shoot for a family member and give them beautiful photos for a family member you could do a family I mean for a friend you could do a family portrait sitting it doesn't have to be a newborn's route just to say thank you for helping to spread spread the word and it's not gonna cost you anything teo to help your friend your closest friends and family out I've been doing that for years I don't charge my family I never will because I'm documenting my family for me and my generations to come so you don't have to charge your friends and family for spreading you know for giving them something back for spreading the word um social media sorry just going back there I should also add um with social media I'm gonna cover that in my marketing segment a lot more in depth but when you are posting on there just keep in mind that it has to be engaging if you are posting on social media and it's not engaging people are just going to miss it they're gonna bypass it so you know post one incredible photo that you have that you've taken and then share on there you know I'm portfolio building create a little a little you know like flyer online flyer with all the information and get them to share that not just you know twenty words off I'm new I'm new born portfolio building make it engaging make it beautiful and eye catching so people have something to stop and look at in share which is what you want all right instead of time limit for your position when I first started put follow a building I made every mistake there was I thought I had to do every single pose that there was I thought I had to send four hours because back then you know when you talk to people how long do you in your bon sessions go for they take four hours I'd be like okay right my portfolio building sessions is going to take four hours I didn't know that it should only take a small amount of time and I was doing it for free as well so I was spending four hours doing a portfolio building session for free and trying to do fifty photos for these people put so many expectations on myself at the end of it I was either crying already to pull my hair out and I'm lucky I didn't turn into an alcoholic like my nerves was so shocked I was so stressed out about it and I thought you know this is not worth it so I had to rethink about this I didn't have social media back then to be able to talk to other people about it and see what they were doing I had to make those mistakes to learn from them um so set a time frame for your session make it one hour and charge people but we'll talk about that a little bit but yeah you don't when you out practicing you know it you are sort of handling the baby a little bit more than you normally would when you've got experience but practice it for a small amount of time and another thing that's really important is limit the number of images that you provide we've just been through out my flow posing technique and when I am entering um other photographers I say to them a k right we've done four poses in your portfolio building session due to start in the back and go to the side to poses don't pick that baby up don't put it down that's it get five images from them five images that your client's gonna love and perfect them do five portfolio building fishing doing two poses once you feel confident enough in the way that you are doing them move on to the next two poses and then practice going from you know decide to the tummy and then from the tummy like the bum up around to the front so practice all those get that experience doing those and and limit the number of images that you're giving your clients you know when you when you think about the back pose and I can get three images and then the side pose I could get to promise them five images that's it and if the baby's not cooperating wrap their feeding some wall and get some foot shots get some detail shots and then you're still giving them those images and your expectations of yourself will reduce and you can start to relax and calm down and not be like oh my god I've got to give them fifty images they're expecting so much from mei if you set out guidelines in your portfolio building flyer session's gonna go for one to two hours max you know and I say to because sometimes they arrive they want to feed for a little bit you're chatting then you do the work and then they stay in the chair a little bit longer you don't want them sort of booking in an appointment an hour later going I've gotta run like you want them tio come relax and have that time that you're also giving that giving your client that that time to get to know them as well and create that experience and that relationship with them so lower the expectations on yourself because you know I just went through so much stress with that and my own family started to suffer because I was spending so much time editing all those ridiculous photos I took because I thought that's what my clients for expecting because I never actually put those guidelines in place um limit the number of poses which we've already talked about so to pose is when you start to get more practice do it do three poses if you've got a really sleepy baby like we had and now flow posing you know you could possibly get through more but it all depends on the situation but if you if you limited and you give more that's better isn't it whereas if you say we're gonna get this money and you don't get that many that's not so good so you know exceed their expectations but don't you don't put too many expectations on yourself and having a specific agreement as well so we have like a client agreement a contract that we have our clients sign at the beginning of every session and it should be the same for your portfolio building clients as well um you know so that they agreed to session is going to go for this amount of time see you're going to get this amount of images the images can be used for advertising purposes because it is a portfolio building session all of those things you've got to get advice on creating contracts for your clients and klein agreement so I highly recommend that but you need to have one in place because it's going to cover you and when you are charging a fee for something it's it's the right thing to do is tow have a have a contract in place and it's also professional and what we do we're professional photographers or if you're not quite there yet that's where you're headed so start at the beginning and set some standards for yourself a swell um and put an expiry date on it so on your flyer that you're going to create for social media or have printed on a little five by seven card postcard or something like that that you can hand out or a business card put follow your building sessions one to two hours five images these portfolio building sessions will expire on what are we in now much in june offer them for a period of time because unlike myself he learned the hard way I would have a client come back twelve to eighteen months later who after I had done my freeport falling I went on to charge some really ridiculously low amount and then you know eighteen twelve to eighteen months later they came back and there are no we'll just we'll just have what we had last time all right well you know I don't charge that much anymore um and then that way if somebody has been for a portfolio building session with you and they have paid a certain amount for that and then you've done an incredible job for them they've told their friends I'd only cost this much they're friends aren't going to come to you you know six months down the road or three months down the road because you've had a time from it you've had a limit to that which is really really important and sit not only boundaries for yourself but for your clients so you gotta have all that information on your um flyer as well as a price um I know a lot of you are probably thinking well how much should I charge for a portfolio building session you know in the beginning I sed to charge two hundred fifty dollars and I would give my clients like fifty to seventy five images of their baby and so many of them looked the same it was ridiculous so you know if you're only offering somebody five images you know have a talk with other people and see how much they're charging if you're doing one to two hours what is that time frame then you're not having to spend hours upon hours upon hours editing all of those photos because you've only got five to get it it's so easy so you're your time and time invested into your portfolio sessions is law but you're getting something back in return because your time away from your family or if you don't have children away from your friends away from your life is valuable and if you don't put a dollar amount to that you're not going to set the standard for yourself to grow I learned the hard way and I thought you know I'm just gonna duel this and they love it and because I love it I can do it for free because I'm really enjoying what I'm doing and then I got so busy I was under charging and I was neglecting my family I was neglecting myself and it's getting nothing in return nothing financially and I spend all this money on my equipment spends money on props and I wasn't getting paid anything my husband was paying for my hobby and for my time to be taken up by somebody else so paid get paid don't feel bad about getting paid you're worth it your time on this planet is worth it and I can't emphasize that enough I don't know if we've got any more slides after this one we go before we go to that next part of the lesson thank you for the showing that I I think it's something that we all struggle with it and is a common theme here on creative love of not valuing our time um and not valuing our art let's take a few questions on that portfolio building clients and if we have any in here I'm curious about your are you using that term portfolio building clients or what have you when you're advertising that so and on my inclination was to do like many sessions or to do two d'oh intro sessions or something but is there something about calling it a portfolio building that works differently in people's minds yes definitely when you offer someone a mini session they're expecting images from that mini session when its portfolio building and you're sitting the ground you know you're building your portfolio that's an assumption people have to make that you obviously haven't done this enough to have enough images for your portfolio and it's not a bad thing to do portfolio building sessions we all start somewhere you know I'm proud to say I was a mum with camera in the beginning and I did a lot of images for free for people and I learned the hard way so when you're saying portfolio building you know be proud of the fact that you are building your portfolio you had doing it the right way you're not I mean I know some of my portfolio building clients continued to come back to me for years and that's what I loved about it because when I started to value may they started to value may so the air I do think the wording off many sessions because I've got some photographer friends that do many family sessions for like thirty minutes forty minutes and they offer x amount of photos in an x amount of time frame so the wording is very similar but you know they're expecting a shoot they're expecting some images to be out of blow upon their war whereas put follow building they're kind of getting that idea that yes we're still learning and I think it's really important that you are honest with your with your clients and telling them that as well we have a question when you are portfolio building even if it's like after you've become established but you're wanting to do newer ideas or fill in time maybe that you have that's empty are you looking for a specific kind of client to offer the portfolio too or are you just looking for anybody just to get the images yeah so when I did my flower image this is a really good good point and a good question I've built my portfolio but when I created my new prop for example my flower I needed to know that I could photograph a baby inside it I've tried with my my fake baby and it worked so does went great because she wasn't very curly but I wanted to make sure I could actually put a real baby in there and how I would work with them with the way that they move and put their arms and all that kind of stuff so you'll see that in the video but I did a model call out so I've built my portfolio now I'm doing a model cool out and they get something in exchange for their time because I'm also benefiting from that now help market my business and things like that so yeah you could do like a mini newborn session just to try things but if you've built your portfolio and you want to try and your technique or something like that you can still say portfolio building if it's something you've never done before but if you are just you know wanting tio teo practice this a little bit more on something like that but you see I already have your portfolio and you're kind of in between that I think I would I would then start offer many sessions that that type of thing because when they go to your website they're going to see a portfolio because you've already done your val you're building you don't want to be portfolio building for too long because then you want to start teo invest your time in your business and making some some decent money I'm just curious if uh we could have a couple of folks share how they built their portfolio for yeah definitely I'd love to hear that um so I am in my first year of business I actually almost dear this month later this month and on the very first baby that I photographed was after watching a re broadcast for literally you're re broadcast was happening the day before I had my first baby and so I have four children of my own I wasn't new to holding babies or soothing babies and what really well I think that seeing how you did things behind the scenes really gave me some extra confidence going into it and I just blasted everywhere I could model call model call mata call I did everything for free initially and after a few months I had photographed a dozen or so babies I felt comfortable starting to charge money and then I kind of gradually bumped up my prices and I just for lack of a better term I worked my butt off any and every baby I could photograph I got them in I was always seeking opportunities tto learn watching videos studying people who are very successful in their business and you know from there I think I'm actually running a decently successful business just from offering my services and getting my name out there um having people like you said spread the word and um even though I did you know do work for free I felt that my time on dh their time we were giving each other something so maybe I wasn't financially gaining but all of the experience that I was building along the way and seeing myself progress in grow I felt was my form of compensation so what you have achieved in nearly twelve months is something that took me I don't know three years like a long time how good is the knowledge that we have available to us today it's incredible it really is and being able to spread the word on social media how incredible is that you know we can access so many people with what we have available today you know back when I was doing it it was a fairly introverted person so it took a lot to sort of you know approach people and and I would do it but there was always like a sense of hesitation so it did actually take me a really long time to build that client base and it took me a long time to practice but I also had you know when I was doing my newborn because prior to that I done weddings and family portrait but anyone side when I really threw myself into it I had twins and a three year old and so I couldn't work but you know what it's like for kids in twelve months how incredible is that that is really impressive and now that you're actually charging for you gradually increased your prices over that twelve months you know that's something I leave it did once a year so that makes me extremely happy to hear that that people you know using the information that's out there and sharing and helping each other that's really cool so I think in addition teo using clients build your portfolio that our next topic is one to talk about how we get even more experience yes so shadowing other photographers you know this concert of mean a range of things because I'm I'm not sure about other photographers out there as to how many times they get emailed and asked if I'm offering work experience and I would love to offer work experienced other photographers so if you've emailed me I'm really sorry that I have said no but you know for me at the moment I'm you know I'm sort of travelling regularly to do things this last year in this year and we're working on a few other things and even though I do my clients they're fairly sort of scattered at the moment in between month it's so we can actually have someone come into my studio for a period of time to do work experience because I don't know when I'm sort of you know going to be in and out and things like that and it's just where we're at currently but there are photographers out there that are looking for people to do it to do work experience within they are looking for an assistant I don't work with one but that's not to say that there are other photographers out there that aren't you know a lot of photographers we've got you know two incredible you want photographers that have been on creative live julia and anna they both worked with assistance you know there are other photographers out there that are doing that you know some of my really good friends at home they're using assistant that's great so if somebody wants to do work experience email people in your area ring them if they have a actual shop front go in with your portfolio and introduce yourself in a suitable time get dressed up like a job interview do that that's incredible but if you can't get access inside people studios to do work experience with them you can network with him and networking with other photographers even through social media sometimes it's not made out in australia this uh a group from my previous class and they often have made up for this state's which is so cool it's really interesting seeing friendships develop over something like that so I love watching that and and you know there are certain groups there are certain forums and I think you have to pick the right one as well sometimes on social media things can get a little out of hand people are looking for critiquing and then getting responses back that on exactly you know helping the matter it's not really critiquing people are just getting their opinions and I think if you uh you know trying to network with other photographers to get some feedback on how you're going and direction that you're going in you really need thio resource the photographers that you ask because it only takes one comment to really blow your confidence and shoot you down and that negativity in some of those groups and forms you know it's not worth your while invest your time somewhere else I have zero tolerance for negativity I won't put up with it I just won't even acknowledge it it really bothers me that there are some people out there sitting behind their keyboards that just feel like they can do that to somebody so focus on the positive groups and things like that if you can't or you're not in an area where you can meet up and network with other photographers and in australia where I live like I mean well author australia but there is an association called the air pp and in queensland you know there's different groups that made up regularly for breakfast for lunches on weekends and they even have a pizza night and it's great to go and talk to these people some of my closest friends are photographers and without that connection with him you know I would be lost in a in an industry that's that's pretty full on like this everybody knows everybody in this industry doesn't matter where you live in the world they've heard of somebody or they know somebody and it's great because of social media but when you're creating little groups and networks and things like that it's it's such a great way tio to just get a feel of how you going or he has somebody else is doing it as well but another thing that I do now and that I'm established and my business is doing really well for me is that I have a great network of photographers around may that I can refer clients too so I've built that trust from the beginning with other photographers you know through communicating and things like that and now when I can't do a session I will gladly refer them to another photographer that I know is going to do a good job but I know that because I've been networking with um which is really important so you start you know in the beginning but then you can build and years later you'll be able to refer people to them when you're busy and you can't photograph every baby that's enquiring with you so that's something that's also fun is your chance to get out from behind the computer gets fresh air if you know someone in the area and just chat it's such a great way to just know how everybody's going in that industry but also give each other a little bit of confidence as well you know encouragement is something that I think we really lacking giving each other don't you reckon kenna so have any of you had any work experience with another photographer actually just right before I found out I got to be here which was opportunity of a lifetime I did I've reached out tio I hadn't I am part of a really supportive group I'm here from the seattle area nor sound photographers on facebook and found a photographer that was active on facebook seemed really nice and I really loved to work and I want becky riley for organic knew more and she is someone that I looked at her work and I say that's that's the look I'm trying to achieve and so I reached out to her and asked if she does mentors she didn't but she was in the process of thinking about it and wanting teo and so she worked with me I got to come into her studio we had model calls we got babies we got you know it and it was such an amazing experience and I paid her I paid her good money worth every cent because it just gave me the opportunity to be more confident get those those little tweaks because I feel I feel confident behind the camera I know aiken I feel confident with my lighting but just those with newborns just those angles and those little tweet x and the tricks of the trade and it was so helpful and now I have a friend in the community and now I have somebody that and she said this isn't over at the end of the day this is this is now a relationship that we have and I'm going to help her build her mentor program as well hopefully so I'm so grateful for it and I'm so glad that I had the nerve to just ask and yes ah having that nerve to ask is so good and you know what I love the fact that you said I paid her and it was worth every single cent so networking doesn't just have to be about creating groups and getting together for social functions you know I should have also touched on the fact that attending workshops and mentoring sessions is a really great way tio tio network with other people because I mean I've talked quite a few workshops now in a lot of different areas in a lot of different countries and every every workshop has its own group and they have continued to communicate with each other which is so great you know they've got that network of friends that they can feed off and that's why we've created the facebook group as well so that people can can network through there and feed off it but I've only ever done one newborn workshop every other workshop I've ever done is with a photographer from another genre so I've met people outside my genres well and so some of my closest friends that are photographers on even baby photographers but I've networked through them and it's funny because like I met teo brought so many years ago you know and at listening to her speak and I just every time she got up at a at a conference or an event that I was out and she spoke the attention that she got from every single person in that crowd it just was incredible you know and the way that she spoke to people in the way that she ran her business it really really you got me I needed to have that time with her so I think I listened to her about three four times before I actually got the courage like you said I got the courage and I e mailed her and I said I want to do a mentoring session with you and some of my friends like what do you want to do a mentoring session with sushi is a glamour photographer I you're a baby photographer I said she's the best business model I've seen plus she's kick us inner and sometimes you need that you really need that that drive that motivation when you are feeling a little bit flat because you know you've had to learn the hard way so many times and you like I'm not really cut out for this can I do it so I contacted her and like you said you've become friends with this lady that's not over I mean I have such an incredible friend in su four years later after we spent the day together you know she's someone I love dearly and that's if I had never got that courage to do that I wouldn't have that relationship and I wouldn't continue tohave that support that I've got and you know it's so great to to exchange that support for each other in an industry in any industry really so yeah I had not exactly the same experience but I'm jen and I have been in the same facebook facebook group for about almost two years and I was switching to strobe and I'd never shot newborns strobe and I was having a panic attack because I got a new studio and I had to do it so ah friend of mine lived in portland lindsay williams photography she's eighteen but she's been doing it for about I think three years and she's amazing so I would come up and hang out with me we did a model call and just little things that she did that I didn't do it I did and she didn't do and just working with another photographer not necessarily like mentoring with someone or shadowing but just working with someone with such a cool experience just to see how the different tricks of the trade definitely that is that is that it is it is such an incredible way to see all their different little techniques and how you would do it but yeah it's really great and sometimes just doing that it actually gives you a little bit of reassurance that you were doing it okay because sometimes you know we're so so lonely in this industry with editing on our own we're working on their own if we're not working with an assistant and then when you get that chance to just go and hang out with somebody and work like I'm actually it's okay you know I don't need to doubt myself I'm doing all right because everybody is kind of it that you know I have been at that place so there at that place yeah anybody else um I'm personally having actually a bit of trouble doing that um I live in germany and photography is not exactly popular in general at all alone baby photography where people tend to keep their babies in their home for the first month um so I'm lacking that thing off let's meet another photographer I actually haven't found any other new one photographer in my city which is huge so that's the reason I'm here it was like the years I could get teo meeting other photographers and I mean it was the greatest opportunity but yeah I am lacking even like to mentor to learn from just to hang out and ask questions and share things on basically that's why I'm here all the way really cool that is that is actually that's pretty amazing all the way from germany just to come and do that but you know you now have that entire market how good is that because you actually have invested you know your time and money to come here and do that for other photographers in your area aren't doing that and I think that's really important when you are investing in your business you know you get back what you put in that's that's huge so for me whenever I attended a workshop where a mentoring session with another photographer you know I was paying thousands of dollars but I never looked at the dollar figure because it was worth every single cent I didn't didn't bother me how much money I spent because they knew that I would get back what I needed eventually from it and it's only as you only get out what you put in and you only ever um yeah it's it's an incredible thing to experience but thank you for coming you know for me I've worked with wedding photographers and when I when I wanted to become a newborn photographer and I told my husband you know he was like you're a little bit crazy but prior to doing that um I had been working with a photographer and I've mentioned it before how he viewed my portfolio and he said are you it's nice but I don't think you'll ever make it in this industry so he was a wedding a wedding thing winning photographer and he was in need off every touch up but what I really wanted from them like I can bluff my way through this back then I was not a great retouch it but I'm like no I can do this so I went and I learned everything but because he wasn't an incredible um he wasn't a very nice person but he wasn't an incredible photographer and his moderate was so bizarre was you know we might not be great at photography but were great at selling photography and in the beginning you know that really got me because I'm like no I want to be the best goddamn photographer there is but even though I was at the time you know really disillusioned by him I learned so much about business because he was incredible at selling photography that man could sell anything and you know what he wasn't a nice person but that's fine I wasn't there alone how to be a nice person I was already a nice person I learned how to run a successful business and a tight ship I learned how to market myself I learned how to keep clients I don't how to offer good products I learned so many things how to be savvy in an industry you know that's got a lot of people in and it's not regulated so I did learn a lot from him even though in the beginning I was like you know I just want to see have a photograph I was so disillusioned but what I got out of it was so much more than I could have ever intended or got you know things but he was a wedding photographer and anyway in the end after I left there because I got what I needed it was so funny after him telling me that I would never make it because a couple of years later he was sending his staff members to me to train I won I am I got it back so yes I did work my butt off like you and and it's a reward I think that's why we love what we're doing so much when you put so much into it you get back definitely