One of the things we found to be true early on in our business is that having a process yields consistent results. It’s a truth we have applied to every facet of our business. When we first started we had no process for communicating with our clients. We didn’t have a process for invoicing or delivering the photos we had taken. Everything happened on a whim and based on whatever felt right. We were doing our best, but always felt like we were creating and recreating and we were never totally happy with the results. It wasn’t that we didn’t care, we just didn’t slow down enough to realize that a process would bring us consistency in every one of those areas. So we started to develop a system, a consistent process, for everything we were doing. And it worked. We started seeing the consistent results we were always hoping for. Today, we fine tune as we need to, but the process stays the same.
One part of that process is in how we prepare ourselves before a session. No matter what we are shooting, whether it’s families, engagements, seniors or weddings, we always stick to our process.
We will never forget something we saw happen to a fellow photographer when we were getting ready to photograph a family in the Scottsdale desert. Her clients arrived about the same time as ours and we were close enough that we heard it unfold. Her clients were looking their best and eagerly ready to go. She was too!…until she realized she had forgotten her camera card wallet at home!! Our hearts broke for her as we listened to her deliver the news to her clients. Luckily, she had her husband bring them by and they didn’t live far from the location, so it only resulted in a slightly delayed start time.
As we left our session that night, we recalled what had happened with the other photographer. We thought about how terrible that must have felt for her. How embarrassing it must have felt to deliver that news to her clients. And how even after her cards were delivered it must have rattled her confidence for the rest of the evening. We knew right then and there that we wanted to do everything in our power to make sure that never happened to us.
We put into place what we already knew – that a good process led to consistency. And consistency would ensure we had done everything we could to avoid a situation like our friend went through. So here is how we prepare before any session.
Get Some Rest
Being well rested is absolutely crucial to performing at our best. Some people are able to operate on very little sleep. We simply are not those people! 🙂 We both need some solid rest the night before a session in order to be well prepared. That means we’ve had to turn down invites on occasion to make sure we got the rest we needed. But to us there’s no compromising a great experience for our client, and we always want to be able to give our clients our very best.
Full Bellies
Along with being well rested, neither one of us can function with empty stomachs. Jon rarely has a problem with this one! He loves pretty much any food, so it is easy for his to get a meal in before a session. Erica on the other hand is more particular about what she eats, so this one can surprise us once in a while if we aren’t thinking ahead and going prepared. If it’s going to be along day shooting multiple sessions or a wedding, we make sure to bring a protein bar so that we can get a quick boost between working!
Well Hydrated
You may think it’s obvious since we live in the desert, but this is sound advice no matter where you live! You body can technically go for up to three weeks with food (we disagree!!) but couldn’t survive more than about three days without water! It is so crucial to the balance of your body and has a direct effect on how your body functions. Living in the desert, we need it more than others! We try to make sure we’ve had plenty of liquids before our session and bring along water to top off along the way!
Knowing Our Client
In the time leading up to the session, we do our best to learn as much as we can about our clients – most importantly their names! People love to be called by their first name. It makes a person feel valued and important and speaks to them directly! We make sure we know our clients names and their story. If they have children we learn their children’s names. If it is a wedding, we do our best to learn immediate family and bridal party names. It goes a long way to establishing trust and definitely makes a difference in our time together.
Prepping the Gear
This one usually falls in Jon’s bucket. As the natural gear head, he goes through our gear the night before our session to make sure we have everything together. Notice, we said the night before. We find that if we assume, ‘I’ll do it first thing tomorrow’ and leave it until the day of our session to prepare, ‘first thing tomorrow’ turns into ‘right before we need to leave.’ That’s just real life. Things happen and time slips away! So the night before, Jon organizes our bags. He cleans lenses, clears memory cards, charges batteries and makes sure everything is working just right. It helps us sleep so much easier and makes the time before we leave a lot less stressful!
That’s it guys! Again, for us it is all about a process and consistency. We may make tweaks in our process over time as we learn something new or as technology changes, but having a process is the foundational principle that won’t change. After all, if our client is trusting us to capture their special life moment, we have to take that responsibility to serve them at our very best.
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