Owning Your Photo Session

Once upon a time (i.e. yesterday), there was a girl who owned her photo session.

She said yes to a planning meeting with me, in which I asked her, "What are you envisioning?"

"Flowers!" she replied. "And also, fields."

"Flowers!" I thought. "I love them too!" 

So I suggested my favorite garden, because it has all these beautiful flowers. And also an adjacent field. The best of both worlds! We scheduled it. I mentioned to her that if she happened to be a Pinterest fan, she might start a board with photos she liked and share it with me. Which she did.  It looked like this:

Not at all like the garden I recommended.  Rather, wildflowers and a lot of grasses, with glowy light. And also dogs.

I looked hard at her board, and emailed her a few photos of the flowers and fields in my mind's eye. I asked if she thought it was a good match, or whether she might like some other options to consider. And also whether she might want to bring her dog. She wisely chose to shift gears and go for another location option that better fit the vision she was showing me on her board--which called for rescheduling as well. And she did decide to bring her dog, who has been her constant COVID companion.  So he was perfect for helping tell the story of her senior year.

This is a girl who got what she wanted. As I showed her the back of my camera to see what she thought so we could adjust along the way, she said, "If Pinterest showed these to me, I would have pinned them too!"

Lessons learned:

1. Taking time to communicate--really listen, ask questions and dialogue back and forth, increases understanding and yields better results for everyone involved.

2. It's OK to ask for what you really want.

3. A picture really is worth a thousand words.