Nearing Summer’s End…

Last week’s cool(er) morning breezes have almost helped me forget how hot and humid this summer has been, almost. If you live in Atlanta, I don’t have to tell you; if you’re lucky enough to live in not-so-humid climates during summer, well then, just imagine 90+ degrees, 90+ percent humidity AND standing next to a raging BBQ grill for 8 hours and you get the picture.

When it’s this hot, there’s not a lot you can do outside, unless you work before the sun comes up or after it goes down, like I said, not a lot you can do, so we played in the river quite a bit, but most of my time has been spent thinking, planning and obsessing on how to really start my portrait business.Tons of studying, shooting and maybe, too much thinking and not enough action. That’s all about to change. Like the change in the weather, and coming up on my favorite time of year, I’m feeling giddy again.

I shot my first two weddings, as gifts to friends, and learned a great deal from those experiences, then I didn’t think about wedding photography much afterward, not as a business. I was concentrating more on family and in particular, children’s portrait photography. Then I caught parts of the Creative Live sessions, featuring Jasmine Star, wedding photographer. Oh, my! What a whirlwind she is! That girl pinned down what she wanted and went for it in a big way, and what a great teaching session she gave! A live wedding, and everything from A to Z! Needless to say, I was inspired, and it got me to thinking about the two weddings I did for my friends, and how much I loved doing them. Thinking further brought me to the realization of why I loved doing those weddings. As Jasmine points out in her sessions, part of her branding, her style, is to connect with people like her, clients she would be friends with outside the business relationship. Now, at first this was a bit of a trap for me, because I was seeing this beautiful woman, who looks like a model herself, who is bubbly and fun, almost to the point of obnoxiousness, note I did say almost ;) , and works with more upscale, corporate types, with loads of cash. Nothing wrong with that, but I was trying to see me, like that, and man, that threw me for quite a loop. I almost let that alone, scare me off from thinking about it ever again, but then I realized, I don’t have to be a Jasmine Star, or anyone else, to give what I really got out of those sessions, the real, the deep stuff. This is where I really connected with her and what she was relaying… Sure it’s about building a career, a business, making the money we all need to make to survive, and let me tell ya’, she covers it all in an intelligent, insightful and no-nonsense way, but the thing that struck me most was that it’s about giving, the girl gives, even played down, on a really humble,non-boastful level, you can tell, she gives. Giving beautiful, precious memories of a very special day, memories documented, hopefully forever, for brides, families and their generations to come. THAT is what I want to do, and more than just that, I want to do it for people “I” connect with, your average working class folks, who can’t afford the grand spectacle, but still deserve a photographer that will treat their day like a grand spectacle, and shoot it as though it were to be featured in Bride’s Monthly, or better yet, as though it were a royal wedding, and all at an affordable and reasonable price.

Easy Peasy? I think not. There are things to consider… Folks still have to pay for what they want, as far as fixed expenses, but it’s my job to give my time and compensate for quite a bit. No outsourcing edits for this gal!  Finding just the right way to showcase those precious photos, affordably, again, up to me. The things I have going for me are that simplicity, elegance and tradition are words I would use to describe the style in which I want to shoot, and I don’t see that a far stretch at keeping pricing simple and affordable. On the contrary, I think keeping it simple goes very well with elegance and tradition, and hand in hand with affordability.

Things are about to heat up. I can feel the temp. rising, so it’s a real good thing falls cooler weather is on the way.