Lesson Info
33. Concluding Thoughts
Lessons
Class Introduction
09:12 2Favorite Family Group Poses
12:45 3Plan the Photo Shoot
04:08 4Meet Three Person Family for Shoot
04:02 5Shoot: Get Family in Front of Camera
15:23 6Review Images from Shoot
04:37 7Shoot: Get Family Comfortable
14:45 8Family of Three Shoot Recap
10:05Tips & Tricks For Family Group Posing
03:30 10The Art Of Unposing
02:46 11Using Furniture In Family Portraits
07:47 12Demo: Using Furniture
04:24 13Shoot: Family With Furniture
24:28 14Shoot: Combine Family Members on Furniture
08:01 15Shoot: Siblings Laying On Rug
06:21 16Shoot: Close Family Image on Furniture
08:48 17Creative Shooting Spaces
05:59 18Tips For Photographing With Dogs
05:54 19Demo: Studio Lighting
04:07 20Shoot: Introduction to Shooting With Dogs
09:17 21Shoot: Favorite Poses With Dogs
18:41 22Introduction to Generational Photography
06:23 23Large Group Posing Options
06:51 24Demo: Large Group Posing
11:29 25Shoot: Favorite Poses For Multigenerational Families
15:29 26Shoot: Incorporate Ring Light
09:05 27Shoot: Colorful Generational Family Images
13:38 28Shoot To Sell Products
05:52 29Photoshop®️ CC Efficient Workflow
06:09 30Post Processing Before The Sales
10:40 31Sales Templates in Photoshop®️ CC
09:06 32Post Processing After The Sale
06:31 33Concluding Thoughts
09:02Lesson Info
Concluding Thoughts
We are now gonna just close up, with about 10 minutes, take some questions, kind of close out the day and family week. One of the things that we found has been really awesome is giving your clients ways to share the love, that they love your studio. I know we keep talking about selling the experience, and these clients, they keep coming back after all these years. This image is great, I was on location shooting a couple weeks ago, and it was just, it's so fun, I love going into client's homes and seeing images like, that's that image of that girl when she's a little girl. And so, just taking my iPhone and grabbing a couple quick snaps and being able to use that to post on social media. It just makes it more personable, and it's about the relationships, and it's just so fun to see people through the years. Loving their images, sharing the images. This is something I've done a couple times, what's kind of fun is just kind of, throw a little shout-out on social media and on Facebook. Like...
, hey, share your images, I'm gonna give away a free session, or do something, if you post images of V gallery images hanging in your home. And it's really fun cause it starts all these fun feeds of people posting images from, you know, 15 years ago, five years ago, and then all their family's seeing them and getting excited about it. and it's just such an easy way, an easy way, and a fun way, it feels good, too, like as the owner and the photographer of the studio to see these people-- Yeah, that was neat to watch. Loving on us, and there were people coming out of the woodwork like, oh, I gotta get back in to do a session, like this reminder, oh my gosh, wow, my kids were babies then, and now they're in high school. You know, this little gentle reminder. The other thing that was really cool, and this is, I'm trying to think, we did this, well, I had to be at least, I'm trying to think, it's over in 2020, We did it in 2010. So, we did it seven years ago. So, I went through, we use a program called Successware for our business that we can track who our top clients are. And for me, top clients does not necessarily mean, like of course, yeah, I know, the big orders, but it's like the consistent clients, the clients just that we love. And you know, we can categorize it however we want. Clients who spent a lot, and we loved, who haven't been in for five years, like who are these people. So, I took all our clients over the years, this was seven years ago now, and I think we picked the top, based on just, different parameters. But like, 20 to 30 people, and we treated it kind of like how we get excited when we get our airline miles, and our Starbucks points, and you are a VIP, a V Gallery VIP. And that's gonna give you 10% off of everything with our studio until 2020. And so, that's crazy, that's in three years now. So, we've been doing this for seven years. But, the ones that, the sessions I was super excited about are some of these people who had spent quite a bit and come in, but we haven't seen them for a while, and literally, the moment we sent those out, we had a few of those people booking with us. I don't know, would they have booked again or not? What was the reason they were staying away? Was it just a reminder to them? But, these are your top clients and so, just giving them a reason to stay, just keep, you know, gifting people, showering people with some love. I mean, those little Christmas ornaments I showed you from many years, oftentimes we've done different gifting to our top clients, so those ornaments would be great. Like, they don't know they're getting it. Maybe it's your top 10 clients, maybe it's your top 100 clients, but doing something little extra and special for them, because that's worth the investment for them to come back that next year. And then I love to show just some of the other, like images through the years, I just love seeing this stuff. And this is really fun for those of you who have been doing this for a while, if you haven't, to share images like this on social media. So, when you get a client who comes in after a long time, and like, oh my gosh, we have these images, pull them up from 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, and you can post those with their permission of sharing kind of the before and afters, or the then and the nows. So, this is actually our god daughter, but when she was a a sweet little baby, and now she's a senior in high school. It's crazy. And like this next one, I love, this was just this year. This was great. So, these people, I think they actually came to me one or two times, I haven't seen them since these little guys, you know, were little. We did a normal session that wasn't like this, but at the end, it kind of triggered this thing of like, ooh, let's do these recreate sessions. So, totally had the same suitcases, I had that same backdrop still. And these kids, they were these teenage and 20-something year-old boys, they were giving me hugs, and this was just so fun. They were so into this and so we had to pull up the images, and like okay, who was on which side. And so actually now, the shorter one is actually taller now. You know, the younger one, but mom just loved this and sent us just a beautiful note and testimonial, just about that. So, it's just those little extra things you can do. We would have never had to do that, like she came in for a session, we could have been done, but it was like, ooh, I remember we did this and we got talking, and I find that the last five minutes of a session, and I think I said this earlier, but sometimes I hear that voice, that's like, oh, you can do this, you can try this, oh! And you know, I either can listen to that and try it, and maybe it won't work, or it'll fail, or they won't like it, but a lot of times, those are some of the coolest things. Rather than just, oh, I'm not gonna do it, I'm too tired. So, I think that's that little extra you can give your clients is by listening to that voice and trying those things, and going a little bit above and beyond. Like that one. Yeah, so this was one of my favorite sessions. So, these guys, we've shot actually, well, I'm trying to think. No, one of them's already married, and it's just these sweet little kids I've known since, you know, in our town, just since little, and just beautiful, beautiful clothes. We were doing this session and that was that little voice I had of like, okay, guys, so, my in-laws have this mud pit. We already did all the pretty stuff and curly hair and I'm like-- It's actually a lake. Well, but your dad had drained the lake, so it was a mud pit. That's where I did it, so yeah. So, there was this big mud pit, and I'm like, what do you think about this idea? They were all over it. There was this whole series of fun images. So, they're on my list, I've already, they've come in now for other sessions, and these kids know it, I will get you guys doing this session again. I want these children as adults all covered in mud, we've got just some other fun poses from that. But, I think it just reiterates that whole just, having fun, you know? Otherwise, it's not worth it, have fun with your clients. I love to show this, so, this was one of my first high school seniors. So, this is before I was really in business. So, this was when it was definitely the whole, oh, I've got a friend who, you know, this was film days, I was developing my own black and whites, and I had my parents old camera, I got a camera for graduation, and I didn't know what I was doing. And she was, I think she was my first high school senior, either my very first, or very second. And then it ended up, over the years, it evolved into, I shot their wedding, and their children, and their little guy, and just, it's just fun. I just love that whole, like, I'm part of their family, I do feel like that and I feel like, if I feel like that, it's part of that namaste theory of photography. I feel like they feel that way. Of course, that's not gonna probably be every client, you do have clients who maybe come in one time. But, I really hope that I'm building a business, or I've built a business that, like these are people who love what we do. And like I said, the last five years, I've been doing remotely from Minnesota to Illinois, and it's worked. And it's been really fun. The last time I was home I was able to share with people that we're actually going back to Illinois. Still doing work for White House, but remotely. But, I'm super excited to see how can we... What's ahead of us? It's so exciting. We've done the, build this big thing and then we scaled back, and then we had kids, and then we kinda built this other thing in Minnesota, and now we're going back, to where there's all these people that have loved on us, they were so excited every session I shot. That last trip home, I was like, I gotta tell you guys something, and people were just so great and gracious. And it made us really excited. And really, now, I'll just do the reverse. We'll travel back to Minnesota to shoot those clients, cause now I have clients there. So, I've sort of stuck myself to still traveling on a plane to go shoot portraits. And really, I think we just wanna end with this little slide. I actually have this hanging up in our laundry room, I saw it at some home store, I bought this little canvas I thought was cute. But, I think it's totally true, so. "Life is like a camera, just focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if they don't turn out, take another shot." But that's us, that's what we do. Thank you. So, thank you guys, so much, it was super fun.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
DOlores RUsso
All I have to say is - Vicki you are a saint. To handle four kids, dog and their parents too, not to mention a class of students watching...AND YOU'RE TAKING PHOTOS, GOOD ONES!! All I know is, I could not handle that as you have even though I was a teacher for 25 years (K-12, all of them) - and wonderful people like you are far and few between. May you stay healthy and happy and continue interacting with kids and parents - you really have a talent! (I had to turn the sound off on the vid because it was driving me crazy,, with kids, dog, etc etc!)
Marla GIbson
It was true to life and yes, a bit chaotic. But I enjoyed it, it shows the work that often does go into a session with all the multitasking. I got some great ideas for poses, and learned some new way to interact with younger children. Thank you for a honest session and not a perfect planned one.
Lee Boddington
Awesome class, really informative, and loved how you handled all the chaos. Great sales and promotional advice from your hubby too. Fantastic, well rounded :)