As we said our goodbyes to the family this weekend, the mother of the groom gave me the most amazing compliment I’ve ever received. She reached out her hands to me and said, “When you were near me with the camera, I felt beautiful. I wanted my picture to be taken because of how you made me feel. You made me feel at such ease. You and Brian were not only the photographers, but you became a part of our family. Thank you for making the experience of being photographed so wonderful.”

This is a woman who has had her picture taken hundreds of times. I was speechless. I was so moved, I couldn’t help but cry. The mother of the groom experienced what we work so hard at. She experienced safety. She experienced herself wanting to be photographed. In the midst of all the craziness a four day event can bring, in the midst of a big black camera pointing at her all the time, she felt beautiful.

It’s one thing to photograph someone, but to make them feel beautiful in front of the camera…that is our goal and a whole different ball game. This is where the term Photo Coaching comes into play.

Day Three of the Discovery Workshop: Photo Coaching: Helping Your Subjects Relax in Front of the Camera!

You ready?

The way I, Rick, Garrett, and Brian built the Discovery Workshop was so every day would build on itself. Day One: was Self Portrait focused. It was abstract and pushed the ladies outside of their comfort zone on many levels. Day Two with Rick became a little more concrete, but Rick and his work still lives in that abstract land. That’s why we love him. 🙂 And, we wanted all the Self Discovery stuff from the first day to simmer as they worked with their Stinson Beach models. Day Three was coming into the end of our time together and focusing on the practical techniques and tips to lighting, branding, but most importantly, helping your clients relax in front of the camera.

Brian and I showed the women how we model our ideas to our clients when we’re working with them. We give them different ideas and then those ideas often evolve into feeling relaxed in front of the camera. To tell our clients “just go ahead, ignore me and be yourself”…that hasn’t ever worked well for us.

We try to take the pressure off them by involving ourselves As you can see below, Brian totally gets into it. He gets so into it that he starts trying to be Mr. Romantic with me, and I start to freak out b/c I feel like he is not staying focused, and so the story goes. He kisses me, I push him away. Our clients laugh, I get embarrassed. I hit him. He says “ouch” when it didn’t hurt…you get the picture. 🙂

Part of what Brian and I are doing is entertaining our clients, drawing the nervous attention away from them. I think the same entertainment dynamic happened with the women attendees. These next few shots are great! Brian and I especially love making people laugh when we teach, and seeing these shots made my day!

We’ve had a lot of Mother/Daughter teams come through our workshops. It’s an amazing way for them to spend the weekend together. Addie and her daughter, Chelsea, took our first workshop over a year ago. They were back for more!

Here is Addie cracking up. And below Addie is her daughter Chelsea!

FYI, Chelsea missed her Senior Prom to attend this workshop. Is she AMAZING or what! She is going to blow her clients away! Can you imagine being 18 and already dialed into your talent and dreams?

Brian and I taught and modeled over twenty of our Photo Coaching Strategies for Weddings and Portrait Shoots. After lunch we brought in seven or eight families with children and half a dozen couples. The attendees had the assignment of working with both a family and a couple and implementing 3-4 of the Photo Coaching Strategies we taught. Their amazing results from Stinson Beach and Photo Coaching goes live in the next couple days!

What do I mean by Photo Coaching?

Almost two years ago, Brian and I were having a heart to heart talk with each other about our work. Our work really isn’t “photojournalism”. The ceremony, toasts, cake cutting, etc is photo-journalistic, but the images we showcase on our website aren’t from photojournalism. Even though the word “photojournalism” is a buzz word in the industry, truth be told, we have never been flies on the wall. It just doesn’t fit our personalities. Brian and I talk with our clients, we model ideas for them, we make fools of ourselves, we compete for the best shot, and we even get into little arguments in front of them (and then we reassure them that we’ve been in marriage counseling for 15 years and married for 13 yrs. We have the tools to get this worked out fast. :)) Our clients love it. As I said above, it takes the nervous attention off them, and they feel more engaged with us.

But here is another piece to helping people relax in front of the camera. This is probably the most important piece of all. Whether you have an assistant, shoot with your spouse or by yourself, everyone can do this.

When Brian and I are shooting an event, we are always smiling. No matter how stressed, no matter how tired or hungry–we are smiling. One of our biggest trademarks is the fact that our clients and their guests feel like we were enjoying ourselves as much as everyone else. We looked happy whenever they noticed us. We look like we are enjoying our work NOT being the “serious” photographer but enjoying our work, in essence, enjoying the process of capturing them. Brian and I are very intentional about this. A stressful face can spread negative energy like wild fire. But if the family and guests see that you are always upbeat and enjoying your time with them, they are drawn to you, feel safe with you. This energy pulls them to you, and they find themselves wanting to be photographed by you. We have yet to leave a wedding w
here people didn’t share these feelings with us. And I’m not saying that to toot our horn, but to show how hard we work at this one piece throughout the whole event. And how this one piece pays off so much. This, if nothing else, is our signature emotion that we leave them with. And I can’t tell you how many referrals we’ve received b/c this was the emotion former clients communicated to their friends. You could know all the Photo Coaching techniques and tips in the world, but if you don’t look like your enjoying yourself (spider bite or no spider bite :)), none of it matters. Your clients will not fully relax with you.

Does that make sense? Can you tell I’m passionate about the topic? 🙂 Back to the workshop tie up.

Cavallo Point was an amazing setting for our workshop to begin and end. When we first started publicizing the workshop, we had the image of the line of rocking chairs on the front porch.

But I love looking at this image below even more! The women having lunch together, filling the rocking chairs, laughing and making friendships for a lifetime.

Now, I have a question for the ladies of the Discovery Workshop,

I came across two photos that Garrett took when I wasn’t around. Both of these images are of Brian. Can anyone please tell me what the heck Brian was doing?!

This second one especially gets me. He said he was doing “ballet” for you during the “flash techniques” focus group. That YOU needed him to do this? Is that true! And was this helpful for all of you? 🙂 I don’t think you needed him to do this. I think he willingly jumped at an opportunity to dance for you.

But Brian’s not the only one I caught! Garrett, you are BUSTED! 🙂

We have TWO SPOTS left for the Seattle Workshop in two weeks! The Early Bird Discount is over, but you can still grab one of the last two seats! Hope to see you there for an AMAZING weekend! For details and registration, CLICK HERE!

***The Women’s World magazine/Sony Camera Contest winners will be announced this Tuesday, JUNE 2nd!!! Don’t miss it! You may have one a beautiful, new, Sony Alpha DSLR camera my friend!!!***