Friday morning started the way I'd love to have all my friday start. Three beautiful girls, lots of pretty dresses, some lovely flowers and killer morning light. Here is a little peek at what Meg Simone and the ladies of Assets Jean Co and I were up to. More to come :)
XOXO Spring
I call them "My Newbies" like they are my children or something. In reality these guys are a group of awesome, fantastic, sweet and super special photographers. We started the day hanging out in my studio talking. We talked a lot... We went over all kinds of basic business info. I tried to teach from my personal experiences and give these guys valuable info to take home and apply to their business. My Awesome sponsors gave me lots of goodies to give away including some discount codes, special offers and even a coffee mug (we all need our coffee to get through the day). We talked about pricing, we talked about contracts and we talked about workflow. We took a mini break for some flatbread pizza and lemonade and then kept on chugging. We made it through the whole talking portion by 4pm and then we headed north.
The Inn at Jackson was awesome and allowed me to set up some fun details on their side porch (I had planned to be outside but with threats of rain the porch was the perfect spot). We had some tasty treats to photograph and then eat from The White Mountain Cupckery and some beautiful flowers from Dutch Bloemen Winkel rounded out the table-scapes. My good friend Aly and her boyfriend Ken were sweet enough to come hang out for a few hours and be our models for our couples shoot. They are so stinking cute that I think they may have made it a little too easy on these guys- giving them a million good poses and smiles to work with.
Here are some of my favorite shots that I grabbed throughout the workshop:
I had a great time with all my Newbies and am looking forward to following up with each of them soon to check in on their goals list and make sure they are taking their new ideas and putting them to use. These guys really helped me bring one of my biggest goals and dreams to life last weekend and I want to thank them for that. Here are a few of the attendee's shots that they were so nice as to let me share:
The workshop was a huge success and because of that I'm working on planning the next one!!! I'm hoping to squeeze one in this summer but it will depend on my wedding schedule (both one's I'm shooting for clients and my own). Fingers crossed that I'll be able to announce the next workshop dates soon!!
Thanks again to my awesome sponsors: Adorama, ShootQ, ShootSac, and Couture Book. And to my fabulous Newbies!!!! XOXO Spring
You might remember that Ryan and Chelsea were actually married last April. Ryan was shipped over seas just after their small wedding last year so they saved the big wedding until he was back state side. On a warm day in March these two were married... again. This time with all of their friends and family present! It was great to watch these two restate their love and spend a day re-living their incredible love story. Much love to both of you!!! Hope to see you guys when you come back to ME soon :) XOXO Spring
Caterer- Mariner's Church Florist- Bride & Mother's Cake- Family Friend Dress- David's Bridal Hair- Sarah at Studio 114 Photographer- Spring Smith Studios Second Shooter- Jaime Connolly Parker
"Say Cheese!!!" How many professional photographers say that? None that I know of and you want to know why? Because that is what mom has been saying to you since you were a kid. It's what she said to you when you were blowing out your candles on your 5th birthday cake, what she told you on the first day of school and most likely every time she took a photo of you all dressed up for a middle school or high school dance.
Now no matter how much you love your mom the last thing you want to be told on your wedding day or at your engagement or portrait session is "Say Cheese". You want to feel like you; the most beautiful, amazing version of you. When you say "cheese" trust me it's not a natural smile and my goal is to capture the naturally happy you not the cheesy version. When you point a camera at someone 99% of people become at least a little self conscious.
"does my hair look ok?" "is there something in my teeth?" "do I look fat?"
There are three main things that I do as a photographer to help avoid these self conscious questions.
1. I get to know my clients. Before I ever put a camera in a clients face I'm going to talk to them. Hopefully I've met them before the day of the shoot and not only have we chatted about the shoot details but we went off on some crazy tangent about our mutual love of dogs, wine or even cupcakes. We have built a relationship, however simple. They know that I am not going to ask them to balance on one foot and touch their nose while crossing their eyes to create a photo. All my clients have seen my images and can see the natural feel that they have. This instantly puts them at ease knowing that my expectations are not of some high fashion, over the top look.
2. I give positive reinforcement. When we are shooting and the images are beautiful I cant' help but blurt out things like "WOW" "You guys are SOOO CUTE" "uggh I love this". The moment I tell my clients that they are ROCKING it they smile, they take a deep breath and feel immediately more secure. If they anyone is stiff or having a hard time realizing I tell a joke, make a funny face and often ask them to just take a deep breath. Especially brides and bride and grooms together. Often times they forget to breath!!! So just telling them to snuggle and relax into one another and take a deep breath can make all the difference between stiff and romantic, authentic images.
3. I always tell couples to "Just be cute" and families to just "be yourself" mostly this tip applies to couples at engagements shots or on the wedding day. A lot of times they kind of look at me like "umm thats not much for directions" and if they give me that look sometimes I'll give them a little something to do like: hug, hold hands, give her a kiss on the cheek. Most of the time saying things like "just be cute" can work wonders. They end up snuggling up together in each others arms and stop paying attention to me. I also will sometimes put them in a great spot with killer light and tell them to just relax while I get my setting right- then I never tell them when I start shooting and they don't even realize I'm taking photos of them for real (not just testing light) until I've already grabbed 10 or so great images of them just being THEM. When it comes to families- The last thing I want is mom's and dad's telling their kids to smile and look at me. Of course we want to try to grab at least one image of everyone looking at the camera but most of the time when the kid is actually looking and smiling mom is looking at them trying to make sure they are looking at me. My goal for all my family portrait and lifestyle sessions is to capture the family as a family. Smiling, laughing, playing and interacting. Thats the true beauty of a family and the same goes for couples- their interaction IS the photograph not the forced smile.
The key for my style of photography is to capture moments and emotion. For me to be able to do that I have to have my clients comfortable with me camera in hand. There are lots of good tricks out there and these just happen to be the three that I use all the time. Clients love to feel beautiful and confident and the more time they feel good about themselves while in front of the camera the better images I'm going to get- so my goal is to get time comfortable with me from the start.
If you are a photographer what are some of your favorite tricks to get people to loosen up and be themselves in front of the camera? Leave a comment below and one lucky person will win a Starbucks gift card- which you should totally use to try their new Blond roast... soooo good :)
XOXO Spring
My hair does not grow. Well thats a little exaggeration but really, in all honesty, my hair grows so slowly that you would think it doesn't grow at all. I have been 'growing' my hair out for at least 3 years and it's only about 4 inches longer. I haven't cut more then an inch and a half off at a time in more then 3 years and I only get my hair cut 4 -5 times a year. Needless to say when Silas proposed one of the first things I was thinking about (after date, venue and photographer) was needing to grow my hair out as long as possible to have options when it came to styling. Over the past year I've spent hours with my maid of honor looking at wedding hair styles. We've scoured google images, pinterest and many other wedding and red carpet blogs looking for that perfect style. I have yet to find something that I'm sure is "IT" but at least I finally have some ideas of the direction I want to go. My actual hair style is one of those details that I hadn't thought a whole lot about early on. I just wanted to have something nice that I liked and would work with the style of my dress. Now that I'm one day before my hair trial I'm starting to realize maybe I should have thought this through a little more. The thing about wedding hair and makeup is they are two things that although may not seem like the most important part of the day but are two things that can defiantly ruin a day if done wrong. Think about it- your hair and make up show up in EVERY photo, on the video and defiantly have an affect on your self-esteem for the day. If you hate your hair it could put you in a funk all day long and who wants to be in a funk over something as silly as hair on their wedding day? Not me. But that doesn't change the fact that realistically if I hated my hair there is a very good chance I'd be in a total funk- at least for the first part of the day. The last thing I want to think about is not looking my best. Which is why my goal has been to hire people that I trust to make me look my best so that that is one fear I wont have to worry about.
Tomorrow is the day when I'm checking a lot of things off my wedding to-d0 list. My maid of honor and I are headed to the coast for a meeting at French's Point with the awesome staff there to go over details then on to a hair trial appointment and lastly off to meet with Capt Barns, who Silas and I have chosen to preform our ceremony and play bagpipes at our wedding (we figured if we are going to scotland on our honeymoon it's a fun way to bring that into our wedding day- plus who doesn't love bagpipes). So the search for the perfect hair style begins again and here are a few ideas I've come across that really excite me:
I want to go for something that feels elegant but simple. I am not a fussy girl, I almost never blow dry my hair or do much more then throw it into a ponytail so going for an over the top curled up-do just isn't me. I've been trying also to choose something that shows the length of my hair that I've worked so hard to grow but I don't want a style that will be too hot for late July, and of course something that the wind wont destroy if there is a serious breeze as there is known to be on the Maine coast. I think all these styles are soft, simple and classic. I do have a vail so we'll see how that factors in and I'm still on the lookout for a fun vintage hair comb that I think would be fun to include.
If you are married please share some ideas and advice on how you picked your hair style? If you are not married but have any thoughts or ideas for me please share them below!!! The more input I have the better.
XOXO Spring
