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Working with Kids

all right so today it's all about working with kids and the one thing that I always have to say before I start is everybody feels like you know when you see images and you see a slide show like this and you go oh that's pretty that's pretty I think a lot of times students feel like you know speakers just do all these beautiful things I wish you could see my everyday work I mean I certainly put my heart into it and try to do the best I can but you know what looks like these things actually really feels more like this make way I think you need a way no way so that's what feels like every day that's kind of the world I live in and so it's kind of funny have thousands and thousands of those out takes I've been collecting them since I started even back in the film days and it's just funny to see you know some of those kids those air some of the little ones that are now high school seniors so it's kind of fun to see that that progress and what people really go through every day we have a who...

le collection of baby's peeing on their parents and babies throwing up mid uh mid session so it's kind of funny all right I just wanna welcome everybody back thank you for being here again it's exciting thank you to the virtual audience as well we're glad to be back uh all the quick reminders just follow us on facebook we are giving away this morning all the prizes from yesterday we promised and so today if you post on our facebook we're also going to be giving away a bunch of the crisis that we're giving out here so just go to facebook or google plus um and tell us what you think I just like to hear what was the thing that really meant something to you we call them libeled moments the reason we call him that is as I'm watching you and I see you go uh kind of for me looks like a little light old going off and it's kind of fun to watch then I gotta watch you guys nod your heads and that's where I sort of get in get on my energy as well we already talked about the hands on workshop but just want to invite you all out it's going to be really fun this is like going to be a very interactive very different I mentioned yesterday we have a ton of instructors you can see them on the website in fact there's six more that just jumped on board it's kind of one of those things that we just want as many people as possible so that we can just play hard and really give people an experience that they're not going to forget for us as instructors we want to make sure that you understand the equipment that was one of the hardest things when you go to buy lights or strobes or flashes or whatever a lot of times you don't know what to buy and I know with my students half of them walk up to me to say what do you use and they'll just go by that so I think it's really important that we're very honest I know a lot of people are concerned that you know we talk about what sponsors want us too and in my case I know that's not the truth I mean I definitely on ly speak about things that I really use my studio that's ah hard festival and the other thing is everything all the all the lighting equipment and things that I used I've used them long before I ever was speaker so these are things that I truly believe in it doesn't mean they're the only options but it's definitely something that I can stand by and get put my seal of approval if that means anything onto it so we do have that big prize package there over ten thousand fact a lot of the equipment you see today that we're gonna be using the studio strobes from photogenic big shout out to them on a lot of the clothing the backgrounds a lot of the backgrounds from silver lake all of that is going to be put into that big price package so somebody's going to get a really nice studio you want that okay so somebody's gonna walk away with the whole studio I wanted somebody you know we always do these shows and they always do well but I just thought it would be fun to create something we've got great generous vendors and speakers this time as well so I thought you know we might as well reward one person out there for their loyalty to what we do um I mentioned this yesterday we do only have one in studio workshop next year we may put one in the fall but this is all I want to schedule out so these are a lot of fun if you like this and you want five days I know monica has been to one already she's hung out with us yeah thank you so she knows it's kind of like a brain soaker though it's all day every day it's worth every penny oh thank you so she's been too that you tell you little bit about that as always we do have educational materials and there was some confusion on the offer so I wanted to clarify that honestly if I were to say you know obviously I'd love for you to show up with the tour but spu to me this is sort of my baby this is where I get one on one with my students and the offer is if you join for three months you'll get the entire tossed a teen's kit that is everything we did to build the toxin teens business says about twenty seven video is just like you're going to see today of me shooting live in addition to the templates and brushes and all the marketing materials and things that we use if you do the six month you'll get both kids you'll get the tots to teens as well well as creative edge kid creative edge kids was the tour we did last year and it was sort of the next generation new products new concepts new temples brushes ah lots of new marketing including the sweet moments that we showed you yesterday the video fusion there's some maternity campaigns I mean they're just a ton of campaigns wall products are products things that you can sell to your client so each of those kids on tour sold for three ninety nine each we're just given it away today because my theory is you know what those products in grade but the time I could spend on spu with people that's where I feel like I really get to know my students and they get to know me intimately they get toe you know ask questions and have fun so those were the two offers and I know we're going to be giving away some of these today and s o just in case you and we are going to include the bonus items as well with that so with your permission as always I try teo in in my own way we do have some awesome products so the way I handle that is I just like to give them away free and that way people I get a chance to mention them because we do work really hard to produce really nice products but um when I give them way at least I feel like there's some benefit out there for somebody so we're gonna be doing a lot of giveaway there is a free catalogue on you can do dot com and this catalog I was approving it last night I'm not going to send it out till thursday though because already last night I was like and add this and this and this so this catalog is full of articles everything from all the tips and tricks we're gonna cover today it's all in there so it'll kind of help you out a cz well as my emergency kit list everything that I have in my little toolbox when I go it also has some senior information some things that I cannot put in this show just because you know we just even though we have a ton of time there's always more we could pack in there so that's totally free just need to go to you can do dot com and you khun subscribe to it and it will be e mailed to you on thursday today are free item at the end of the show this is a twenty dollar value and it's a facebook campaign it is for high school seniors so we're gonna cover after our sessions today we're gonna come back and cover high school seniors this is a very popular campaign it's definitely something that we used to generate business it's definitely organic marketing it's getting kids in getting them talking about us I think there are five choices that you can pick from their worth twenty dollars each so the code we will give you at the end of the night which I just realized I forgot to put the code in so somebody remind me to do that on the brake but that will give you your choice there are senior campaigns and they're also I threw these in there their business headshot campaign so in case you don't do seniors you have another option for getting adult business people in as well so enjoy that that's totally free all right we're going to go right to work and talk about working with children I think this quote is awesome you could learn many things from children how much patients you have for instance that truly is what it's all about I mean for me you know I have always adored children so I have never looked at my job is hard if the worse situation ever the most difficult child in the world I'm still laughing the whole time I mean sometimes I'm rolling my eyes and wondering why the parents aren't jumping in but for me it's just about that relationship and I'm definitely a challenge junkie so the harder the child the more challenge I feel the more I'm I really want to get it for the parents so when I said that yesterday that I hope we get tough children I actually really do last time for some reason when we did billy's two babies we got one of everything it was literally perfect we had one that was shy and one that was out of control and one that was you know wouldn't go to sleep and I was able tio I couldn't think of anything that I didn't cover and it really wasn't because of me it was because of the personalities kids so I'm hoping today we can get through a lot of that we have a little one closer to eighteen to twenty months we have to we have two three year olds we have a forty five year old and those stages the ages and stages were going to talk about them they are pretty true to form I can tell you and every eighteen month old will do these certain things every four year old will do these certain things and as they get older they have two types of personalities it's either shy a rambunctious but the shy one will always do these things and the rambunctious one will always do these things so so for me it's a matter of understanding the dynamics some of the really critical dynamics are things like between the ages of two and three because a two year old is closer to a one year old where a three year old is closer to a four year old if that makes sense as faras where they are there's a huge change that goes between two and three and a lot of things planned to effect if they're the oldest child they tend to be more articulate and more confident if their middle child they tend to be more rambunctious sin crazy and if they're the youngest child they tend to be really shy and reserved so there are several things that were going to talk about dynamically now I really believe photographing children is really twenty percent photography and honestly eighty percent psychology I think it's something that you have to be willing to get down on your knees get on their level and really trying to understand what they're saying and children are very pure they don't they don't mix words they don't you know they don't really have the filters that we have so they're pretty honest and sometimes it's actually hilarious the stuff that comes out of their mind if we get a chance I'll tell you some of the great stories of of things children have said to me and things that you know hopefully they're not too off color but when they come out of a child's mouth you can't really hold it against them so there's just been some fun stories that when you know when it happens you're you're like okay well we'll just roll with that one and just keep moving so we'll hopefully share a little bit of those today when it comes to children's photography this is something that I think is really horton I believe it's a need I don't think parents can skip that part of their children's life however clients have choices now and they have a lot of choices I've been teaching this for you know twelve years but now more than ever this you know now what I say it I'm just like you thinking about the fifty photographers in my community as opposed to thie three or four studios that were in my community when I started so it's a much more challenging situation to try to get those clients too why should they come to you what is the thing that separates he was at your marketing is that your skill set you know how how did these people pick and choose you so you have to create a reason for your client to need you we know who our client is we talked about her judy yesterday and we know who she is but why does she need you how do you find her those were really the keys here um what is the most important component in an image for a parent what is the parent honestly looking for when they when they're having a session what would you guys think smile the cheese right they want the cheese and and sometimes that can be really frustrating because we spend all this time is artists creating these beautiful images you know what I'll go out in the field and have the little girl in the wheat field with a little white dress running through the field you know big sun and big trees and she's this little thing and it is the most beautiful our print and then mom comes in and she buys a big eight by ten of a face and a big cheesy smile you know and the truth is and after twenty four years I can honestly say that parents by smiles they buy headshots I mean the majority of the package will be a face with a smile and so you know the challenges do we continue to be creative do we try to push ourselves knowing that the client is probably going to buy some five by sevens and some eight by tens and and you know through the sales process weaken we could help guide them into those art portrait's and educate them about art but really what we see when we look at our own work and what a client sees is totally different they're not you know they're not going to look at the art as the most important piece right out of the gate usually it's the smile they're zooming in on that oh my gosh that's that's who he is that's his expression and sometimes it's nowhere near wait where you want them to go and uk by educating them you can swing them back and have really nice sales but it does take a little bit of effort so it's always that challenged the big grin the big cheesy smile versus the portrait to me the eyes are the window to the soul I don't even like big smiley portrait so I mean my preference it's funny I don't mean to be that way but when I'm editing and I always choose my favorites and we put them in a folder called icu so it's I always make random folders have you ever you know made a folder and then just like typed in words just are typing letters just to name it something originally about twelve years ago in digital I types a couple letters and ended up being the word icu so in our studio when we say it's an icu everybody knows that's our studio samples that's where favorites are sometimes I forget that nobody else knows what that is so if I say anything about icu you guys know what it what I'm talking about but it's I ko so what I'm putting things in icu you know I'll go back and look at what I've picked and it's serious serious serious serious serious very seriously and no smiles that just is my personality that's the work that I like but a lot of times for marketing that's a bad thing I have to go back and say okay there has to be smiley and I mean that's the majority of what I shoot a smiling images but just naturally if I'm not thinking about it I will always select the more somber when a child is serious their eyes are more open to me it's more deep in more meaningful but it's not what clients bye I mean that's not what they're looking for so it's something that you have to have balance I think the artistic pieces are what brings them in the door the smiley pieces are what they go home with and hopefully if we do our jobs right we could have a balance between the between the two I think that working with kids I mean to me it's the whole thing is a big game I still to this day and very honestly feel that it's honestly hard for me to believe that I get paid to do this you have to understand I never had a real job this is all I've ever done I built it from the ground up and so for me I you know I wouldn't at this point know what it would feel like to go work for somebody and to have to you know punching a clock and to do that but every day I show up I get you know these gorgeous little children they come in I wind them up I mess with them I bribed them I load him up with sugar about the time they're freaking out I send them home I get a brand new fresh clean one and you know I start all over again so I have this perfect ideal situation I getto you know enjoy children babies I mean I would have had fifty kids if I could have I'm surprised I don't have thirteen more but you know I get my feel every day I see these beautiful babies and you know when I get all excited and I get to play with him in about the time they're peeing and going and throwing up in my studio I got to say oh yeah that's why I don't have fifty games and I get to give them back and take the next fresh clean ones so so it's something that you know I love what I do and it gives me every day gives me a reminder of you know the beauty that there is in this world there really is a man here we go well by the way for those of you there's ah group out there that has a drinking game every time I cry they take a drink I apologize for having you smashed by two so uh I will do my best today teo keep you coherent so uh so for me you know knowing that I get the opportunity to be with the most pure people on the earth I think it's a lot of fun but you have to understand this is also my income and I won't apologize for that either I had no idea starting photography how successful I would be obviously I had no idea that we could generate the income just like almost everybody I've ever met in photography I started for fun I started with passion and I do just like you figure out the business side of it how to figure out how to turn it into a profitable business and I do have sympathy for people starting out now because it is ten times harder than it ever was I got so lucky I caught the wave early and got a ride the whole thing through the process of being ah young female through the process of being you know the first out there with children that really specialising in newborns and babies and I really got to take advantage of that and I'm very grateful for that but now just like you I have to work harder at it it doesn't I just don't sit there and wait for clients to come to me I mean I have to push and pull and try as hard as you do to make this happen but it's so worth it and when I tell people that they can be successful I really mean that but I also know when I speak to hundreds of people when I have three hundred people in audience when I say that I realize that there's a very small percent that actually will become successful and it's not because everybody can't it's because only a few will choose that success it does not come in a seminar it doesn't come with a product that we sell it doesn't come with any of those things that comes inside of you um there are lots of tools there are lots of things you can use to generate that but ultimately it's your choice if you don't make it it's your choice it's not anybody's fault and that's really important so so yes I make really good money photographing kids and I'm proud of that because it took me a lot of years and a lot of sacrifice to get there it didn't come easy and nothing nothing has come easy to me but it did come because I just didn't give up um children are definitely not impressed with your equipment don't care if you have you know the latest greatest anything uh they don't care how long you've been in business so for those of you who are worried that you're just starting out but you can't charge as much or whatever it doesn't matter to a child and they really don't care about your awards and the things that you've done on all your accolades so you know do I think awards are important absolutely because that is also something that internally teaches you to push yourself I'm a big advocate for print competition and I know print competition is something that sadly very people do anymore but I truly the first time I sat in a print competition and saw my image come up on the screen and started hearing the judge I mean you're just dying you're cringing in the back everywhere they say you hang on it but it spurred me to do better and watching other prince judged and hearing the conversations and learning like oh that's what that means and you know that's what this part of photography is you know that's when I started to figure out things like the rule of thirds and you know things that I didn't honestly know about and that's the impact because something as simple is understanding the rule of thirds could create enough impact in an image to draw a new client in something that you know that would that would change the way a person feels about your work so so I do think competition is important I think I think pushing yourself isn't portend what I think to a child none of that really matters to them but they just want tohave thought and that's honestly all it's about is having fun children are very impressed with a generous smile if you're very genuine if you don't like kids don't do this because they will see right through you cannot fake it with children they do want somebody that's really interested in their name s and their needs air pretty basic they want candy they want thought they want games I mean they don't really need a whole lot and you really do have to have patients in a loving attitude you have to enjoy these moments you know I could tell you absolutely for war stories of you know being spit on and kicked and hit and punched I mean there are kids out there that are attached to parents I never think a child is a problem I do think a lot of parents are problems because that's comes directly from the way their race and believe me I've taken some serious hits over the years and you know when you have a kid I remember one session that every time I've been down this kid with spit on you you nobody would spit and it was like spit and I would wipe it away and hope sweetie you know and and mom was standing right there and the most that we ever got out of ray's honey don't do that and he would spit on me again and it was just one of those wow you know about the second time I'd be all over that child so that's something that you know when those kind of things happen and I always take it back to the parents where are they what are they doing and how much are they contributing to the success of their own session so patients truly is necessary because when you're being spit on you cannot you know you can't say anything you just have to kind of roll with it and and that's okay too I don't mind that now this one I showed last year but for those of you new I have to show this because to me this is really the best version of you know how a child sees I think this makes the point really clearly there was a a child that was asked to do homework it was to ask they were asked to go home and draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up so this is the actual uh picture that she came back to school with and the teacher got it and kind of reviewed it and then sent it home to mom now mom of course saw this it was a little concerned so mom followed up with a little letter said dear miss jones I wish to clarify that I'm not nor not now nor have I ever been an exotic dancer I work at home depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit I told you we sold out of every single shovel we had and then I found one more in the back room and that several people were fighting over who would get it her picture does not show me dancing around a pole is supposed to pick me selling the last snow shovel we had at home depot from now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turned she turns it in now I totally saw snow shovel here I'm not sure what everybody else but I definitely but this to me really does represent how a child sees the word they're very pure they do not have the jaded opinions and the thie attitudes that we have so of course you know when they create things like this is coming from their heart and you know something to a child selling a snow shovel would be you know an admirable goal and tow us you know we see this is a totally different purpose so of course um perception is everything and understanding that what a child says and what they do sometimes are two different things and you you really watched them and watch their body language and watched their words that sometimes don't have to do with a problem but you'll start to see that there's a disconnect when a child is not doing well there's something going on there and it's probably not you it's probably something else that is affecting them now we have a lot of these little video clips so I'm going to just show you a couple helpful tips will come up throughout out here this is just some of the funny things that we deal with one working with kids welcome to hazards of shooting volume one when shooting in the field it is important to wear proper way so bad like the first boat wasn't better I'm pretty sure it is not following steps may lead to unwanted surprises I'm out that this guy might be another important step watch where you're going whoa and I'm gonna sit down si si actually kicking back this way way yet another important step think before you speak heads together cracked his way out of the booth final important step if you are going to lie on camera make sure you reversed all right guys we're gonna go ahead and do a five year old diploma today now tell brandon your name this's oh and how old are you he just turned six you better return that we're gonna say your five today we say you're five today I knew that was gonna happen soon as I said I was gonna go out we're gonna say five okay just today okay lying one oh one we're here to do a five year old diploma today what's your name thiss is o and oh how old are you today five that's a pretty good representation of every day I am the clumsiest craziest you know messiest person there is I don't wear shoes when I shoot usually so of course I step in everything and have a really good time but that's something that you know every day is something different every day is something fun