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Scratching Things off the Board

Yes, Let's get to the checking and seeing what we've done. We we talked a little bit about outfits and location. I'm kind of strike that off and that I sort of talked about it all. Sort of. Reiterate that again. What you saw on the rooftop was a very squared off spot. I mean, if that was really I would've went up, then maybe did two shots. I'm shooting six shots in each outfit. I would not have shot is many images as I actually shot up there. Two shots, maybe one on the Lini edge. One me, that splashy thing. You know whom we have been out of there, Not to mention it have been hard to get permission to go up on a roof like I didn't even do that in the first place. But you know, so it is. It is. It is what it is. It gave you an idea of how I used the lighting and how all that kind of stuff happened. But in reality I would have been walking like I said down the street, not had a doorway. And I have had a garage and I had a green park and I had all sorts of different scenarios to do, and i...

t's just kind of a problem kind of down here in the, you know, bringing the cameras down the street with us. They got to be connected, so it just it just doesn't happen. But you can kind of get a visual of what I did, but just with different backgrounds going on behind me, so that's when it comes to different outfits and locations and things like that. Maybe also that question was that when you're out on location, where do they change their outfits? Well, we're stopping Inn and a McDonald's somewhere and using the bathroom. I have one of the first things I ask a high school senior when she says some about going toe on location and there's multiple outfits involved. If it is, for example, Downtown Homa, Well, I will. That's really near my studio, so I'll say, Well, we're gonna go down here, we're gonna do the shot and we ended back in. The studio will change clothes and then we'll go over here and we'll do the shot. Well, if it's downtown, say New Orleans, which is an hour and change from my studio. But we've got to find places to change our She has to change in the car, and that's the first question. Are you comfortable changing in the car? Not 60 65% of them are like juror on a problem with that. No problem. Let's change in the car. I do have one of those changing tenants. I'm a little creeped out by that. But some people are not, in which case, I'll send him off into the change in 10. And then, of course, like I said, there's the McDonald's in the Burger Kings and the different places you can step into get a water or Coke or something while you're doing that, sent him to the restroom and change clothes. So that was kind of the angle of that outfit versus locations kind of thing. That's kind of the way we handle that. Another question that was asked was about buying stuff, and I'll scratch it off, too, because I sort of talked about that in the second segment. About buying stuff is for is what you can afford, getting the very best equipment that you can't afford and doing the very best job that you can, then using what you have to make money to upgrade yourself and using what you have as it makes money to pay for the stuff that you already have. Don't get yourself too far extended because it's one of the worst things that can do. It could be an absolute killer to your business. How much time do I spend doing high school? Senior portrait? Usually what you saw was pretty real. Pretty much it's 15 20 minutes per outfit. That's about how much time it takes me to do something outside and kind of sometimes goes faster. And then it kind of sometimes goes slower. Another thing that happens a lot with me is I'm you know, I'm a shoot the breeze kind of guy. I start telling jokes, I'll tell him a Boudreau joke and I'll say, Oh, yeah, show You heard the one about Boudreau and his friend Thibodeau. When Thibodaux come over to the house and he said, made Boudreau was that thing with that tree leg pig you got and Boudreaux says, Man, that tree leg pig, that's some good big, he says. I know that's a good pig, but why that pig and got. But for tree legs, he says, Man, let me tell you how that pig save my whole family's life. When the house was burning down, that pig blew out the far with that hose pipe, he said. Man, that's a good pig, he says. And then when my little girl was drowning out back, he dove in, pulled it to the side. Multi mile brought her back to life. He says. Man, that's some good pig, he says. And then there was the time that there was this man. He was burglarizing my house and that pig grabbed him, threw him to the ground, sat on him, called the police and waited there to the police came, Thibodeaux says. Man, that's some good pig. But Boudreau wanted pig angle. But for tree legs, he says, Well, you know a good pig like that. You can eat him all. It wants to take you down as corny. But you know, you tell him a job, and here's the thing about telling jokes with people, because it believe it or not, I can hear Ryan in the next room going. What does that have to do with content? Let me tell you what it has to do with content. If you tell somebody a joke and they laugh, you see, I just saw everyone in Y'all's real laugh and you're really expression, not smile, not that one. I saw the real one. And when do you see the real one? And it helps you know when it's really when its not really. Another thing it does is it connects you if you get someone to laugh. And they are way more comfortable with you than if they're in this photography situation with the lights and all these people around. Yeah, it just it just takes it to Oh, wow, this is gonna be fun. Yeah, And it is, It is is intimidating as this is in this studio with all the stuff around you and the cameras swinging in is winging out. It's the same thing in a portrait studio, and they're they're not used to being in that scenario. They take their picture in their 10 stuff, get him the laugh, it relaxes. Um, so how much time? It depends so much. I got to relax sometimes. What I got to do with him, it kind of lets me talk about shy kids to because, you know, with shy kids, what do you do? I sort of sort of touched on it, but you can tell from their body language. They come in, they got their chest all poking about their shoulders back. They're looking around. They just think Sean was shy. I don't know. That do was out there, dude. I mean, he was popping in and jumping in and going Okay, Western, you know? And he was into it, man. He was into it. Okay. And how about how about Alexis? Um, raising? Was she shy? No Jewish. I bet she was. This is proud of because she could be with her self, so you could see that you can pick up on that with people. What? Who shy who is not showing? You could get a little bit of personality. What do you do in their shot? Warm him up, man. Just take a little bit of time, give him a little bit of confidence. You looking good? This is gonna be so fun. I can't warning to take your picture and use the back of the camera at your disposal. It is unbelievably powerful. Go get your cam ranger or something like that so that you can shoot into your IPad if necessary. And use the IPad as your buddy click. Let me. Oh, my God. You have got to see this. Look how awesome you look. Looks your eyes. Can you believe that is that is you should and so just build him up a little bit. Give him a little bit of self confidence, and that's what it's all about. If they air feeling good about themselves, it's gonna translate into the pictures. Okay, pose oil. Let's get back on the jump back on the underwater. Want to talk about in a few minutes? Um, getting cool props. Let's talk about that real fast. When it comes to getting cool props, I find that just about anything can be ah, prop. It depends on how you use it. You actually saw me shoot three different seniors on three different backgrounds. Ah, guy. A girl on overweight senior and I never use one single problem. Did you catch that? And that is very common with me. I do not have a ton of props. One thing I do have that I did not get the use is I have opposing table, and all it is is a table that comes up and comes down and I lean them on the table and various things like that. Okay, I do have ah, plexi glass mirror on that table that shoots light back into the face. And I like the effect that that gives me. I use that a lot. I have a posing stool that looks very much like this stool except a push a button and it comes up and push a button and it goes down. That's the only difference. But it looks just like this, and I will sometimes sit them on the stool. Or maybe if I put up a foot on a stool or whatever, but I'm not a real big prop guy. But now when I go outside, I do have, like, the old truck, and I've got a area that kind of has a Hawaiian scene. I got a old born, I've got a waterfall. I've got all kinds of things like that in my backyard and that could be deemed props. Okay, and all I'm looking for when it comes to those types of things is things that are real and natural and at the same time makes for good image. I'll use my old truck area. You'll see those pictures all over my website. Katie photo dot com Go look at him right now if you want, but all over my website, I love the old truck because I can lay them on the truck. I can stand them on the truck. I can sit him on the edge of the truck and put him in back of the truck. I could have looked through the window of the truck, and I mean, I'm telling you I could probably go around the truck five times and never twice take the same picture. I got probably 2025 30 different images I could do all around the truck. And here's a little thing I'd love for. You do. Maybe in your spare time, Gather up a couple of your buddy photographers. Have them come over to your studio on get together, you know, have a couple of beers or something like that. And then everybody sit around in the backyard and whoever studio you are at your job is to be quiet, they have to go do stuff in your backyard or your portrait area that you may have and you will be shocked. You will be absolutely shocked that the stuff that they come up with because everybody sees things differently. Everybody. So let them go off and use that area over there and use this area over here and see and watch carefully what they do when they do something. Don't say don't ever say, Well, you see, the way that I do it is your job is to shut up and let them go and just take notes about what they do in your area, and you then go do the same thing in their area and everybody will benefit and learn from it. So I don't know if that sort of helps you with this, you know, outdoor blends, cameras, all that kind of stuff. But there you go. Montague had a question. What I was asking with that one was, how do you get them to bring? They're interested in like their horn, like if they play instruments or if they're bring their football books there enough. I'll answer that whenever they whenever they call to make up the appointment, we always tell them if there's anything that's very special to you. If there's anything that makes a statement about yourself, you know, if you end to something, musical instruments sort of, you know, sporting equipment, anything like that that you were into That says unless I'm talking to Patrick Smith, that just really says it for Patrick Smith. Then by all means, make sure you bring that. And it is. No, there is no such thing. There's no such thing too big or too small. I tell you what, Pat, if you got an airplane, I want to photograph you. Buy it, okay? Whether it's, ah, realize airplane or one that you fit in your front pocket. I mean, I'm serious. Whatever it is, bring it. Okay, but and they're gonna they're gonna think of it. And, man, I have They have come up with some crazy stuff, Jack, I've done jet skis in the inner notes in a coastal canal. I've done horses and pigs and everything. You can imagine that lives snakes, Yes, snakes, everything. You know, all kinds of Eritrea. Okay, but I'm a work on that next week yet. Okay, So that sort of help. I think it's it's getting them excited. And if they don't get excited about something, I'll tell you something. It has been several years since I did it, but go get a teen magazine, this month's teen 17 magazine or something like that, Right? Start flipping through it. Let's say you got an appointment next week. Today, this month. 17 magazine. Flip the refining image. That's kind of cool. You want to create a buzz? This will create 11 Crazy buzz. Open up that magazine finding image. It's cool. Note the Page call ups. Susie Q. Hastens que. Do you happen to subscribe to 17 magazine? No. Well, I tell you what. Write this down from a Here's what I want you to do. Go run to Wal Mart, Go pick you up. 17 magazine. Turn to Page 34 is a picture of girls stand in the middle of the street. She's kind of twist and her dress around when you come for your senior portrait's no extra charge or anything like that day. But what I want you to do is make sure you have a dress that's similar to that, and you know the shoes. The whole bit. And we are going to do an image of you that looks just like that. The picture that you see on page page 34. Is that cool? Anyway, if it's not cool, give me a call back. If it is cool, just bring it, and I'm gonna be ready to go. OK? Now, what do you think she's gonna do? Number one? Do you think she's not going to do it? Oh, yeah. She's going to go get the magazine, if necessary. She's going by the dress. Okay. Now, when you she comes to your studio, what are the odds of her looking like the picture of the 70? The girl on 17 magazine? What are the odds? Very low. Why she and a model. And if she waas, she would be in the magazine, right? And then it happened. It ain't gonna happen. However, all you have to do is get it close. Let's, for example, middle of the street. She's got her hands on her dress. It looked like maybe she's flipping it like this and she's laughing looking away from the camera. That's the picture right here. Look. Okay. Got that? So is it gonna look the same note. Is it gonna feel the same? Yes. Is gonna feel like it looks the same. Yes. Okay. You do the image. Show her first of all, you know, she saw it if she didn't see it when she comes in, show it to her and said, Come on, let's go dealing Go do it. What do you think she's gonna didn't do for you? Are we reverting to yesterday right now? Dog on it? Yes, we are on. Wait. What is she gonna do? She's gonna tell everybody she's going to show him the picture. She's gonna tell everybody. It is gonna be awesome. Pr for you. Awesome. And once again focusing on the things that generate word of mouth. That's what it is. It is absolutely going toe work. And it will. It would be a It will be a way of We're just combined yesterday and today you go and I will get you some cool props. Cool. Alright, Awesome. Yes, Underwater. We're about to talk about I talked about that Cool problems, getting cool, props. There we go. WiFi. I wanted to talk about that before we moved off because we're kind of getting away from a equipment. I do have a WiFi unit that I could buy from Canon. Many of the newer cameras are starting to have that built in the one D exit. It's an extra piece that screws onto the side of the camera. Um, they're not inexpensive at all. They're expensive, but it saves me no less than an hour to two hours a day member. One of things we're gonna talk about tomorrow is part of our workflow is a way to literally speed up your workflow and how what I want you to literally do in your studio. And if you do this, you're gonna find that this WiFi unit is gonna allow you to do sort of what we're doing here. Scratch off steps from your workflow. Okay, that's one again. Talk about this tomorrow, but what it does is it transmits my images from the camera into the main computer, and it saves me rendering time. I do everything in bridge. So when I go click, it shoots over to the computer bridge is already set to look at that hot folder. And just like what you saw happen here, whether images will pop it onto the screen that's happening on my main computer. So the images air coming in there being rendered I'm getting to look, you know, if I want to go look at him, I can. We'll be talking more about workflow and how that WiFi thing works, but just want you to understand that this is a very, very important part of my system in my equipment that allows me to go so fast. Okay, raw files of shooting to my computer. Now, if you are an over shooter, if you are the click click guy or girl, could they could click, click, click guy or Girl, you're gonna have problems. You're gonna have problems because it just can't keep up. My daughter does a lot of the baby stuff for us, and she two shoots in my humble opinion too much. She's probably listening right now, saying, I can't believe that I just did that. But whatever she does, she shoots too much, and she we had to take the WiFi unit off of her camera because she just can't. She cleaned, click, click, click, click, and she jams up the buffer. And then the baby is doing the most cutest thing. And she can't pull the trigger because the cameras has to finish transmitting. So if you are that person, you're gonna have problems. But I just shoot six shots. I never run into a buffer problem, so, you know, there you go. That's just a little bit of equipment conversation. One last thing before we get into a little bit more of today. Stuff is assistance. You Someone asked me about that. Where do you get your assistance? How do you get assistance? That type of stuff. And my assistant, if you saw me on the roof, I kept calling her mom. That's because my assistant most of the time is the mom, okay? Even when dad hold the reflector, I call him Mom. No, not really, anyway. But those very, very off if it isn't Mom, it is so rare, so very rare that I'm photographing a senior by myself that is so very rare. But when I do that reflector that you saw me use, it's one of the reasons I use it is it has this neat little handle that allows me the one hand that thing over here while I take the picture there. You know, I don't know if you caught that, but it has this little handle, things very cool. So But mostly I don't ever have that problem. Another thing that I have been known to do, if I am by myself, is I would just take a stand in a clamp. And, you know, I don't know if you saw me what you saw there. But you know how to hold the reflector right here. And she was just kind of holding it like that. Well, that could be done with a stand and a clamp. And so the stand and the clamp becomes my mom, you know? So that's another thing. When it comes to assistance most of the time, it is my my mom. Someone asked, I think, somewhere either. It's not on here. Someone asked me privately and I would just discuss it. How do you handle the annoying mom? You know? What do you do? Is that somewhere up here? Did I miss it? No, no, no. You've seen that coming in? Yeah. What do you do with the annoying mom? Well, a buddy of mine, I loved it. He calls those reflectors the mom blockers. Okay, if you have a really annoying mom, what you can do is you could say Oh, Mom, here, hold this way over here and she's not really doing anything. It's just to get her blocked out. And so that's one thing you could Really Oh, Mom, Wait, wait, wait Here. I need your help. Hold this boom and she will once you have her, hold it right here. She will just hold that thing and hold that thing and then blocker right out. That's one thing a lot of people do Something that I have been known to do to is understand that you cannot at that very moment in time, when you're doing a high school senior who is your best friend, Mom or the senior, Do you think? OK, Mom. Mom, while she is extremely important, is not your most important person at that very moment Time. Here's why would he if you was to turn to the mom moms doing something and you would go get Mom and the senior sets up like mom? Shut up, Mom. Shut up! Do they ever treat your mom? Do you have a catch? Senior Street near Mom like that. I do. Okay. And I would be like, How dare you talk to your mother like that? Okay, what just happened right there? And the friend senior don't like me anymore, and I'm gonna get the expressions I need. Am I gonna get the cooperation I need now? No, I've been known to go. Yeah, I'm shut up. And Mom would be like, Okay, because in the senior thanks. And he's on my side. We're best buds. Okay? Mom gets all mad and go sit on the sofa in the bag. I can't believe you treat me like that Click. I just did the last picture at this point. The senior is out. Mom coming a baby. Come in. I can't believe she treats you like that. That's a shame. Mom, can you believe she does that to you? I know I seemed rude, but I had to treat you like that because I couldn't lost myself. I lose my senior. I don't get my expressions. Come over here. You know a man. You are best friends now. Okay, So I'm serious. You have to be. You have to be careful at the very moment in time Whose side. You want to be on? Okay? Always remember, ultimately, as my buddy Dean Collins, the late Dean Collins, used to say, beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder. Okay, so when it's appropriate, when you got it and after you've got the image, keep Mom happy, OK? Do whatever it takes to keep her happy. So I don't know if that that was kind of not on the thing, but last ball before we get in. And I want to talk about the age appropriate expressions and things of that. There are there is sexy clothing. There is sexy expression. And then there is sexy poses. With a high school senior, you could never have all three. Okay, you can have one of the three. She comes in, she has a shirt, but belly Oh, hanging out shorts, legs, You bet. Oppose her like this. Big, cheesy smiles and none of this. Okay, none of these kinds of poses. Okay, you can have a sexy outfit, but you do not want a sexy expression and you do not want a sexy pose. She comes in, she's got a turtleneck and address that drags the floor. Not sexy. at all. Okay, You might be out of Put her in a sexy pose. What a big, cheesy smile. Okay, but never to Does that make sense. Same thing you could. You know, the dress. The outfit is very conservative, The poses very conservative. Okay, we'll slip in one of them sexy shots with the liberal hanging. Okay, sexy expressions. But do you dog on? Just to never have two of the three. Never have three of the three. One of the three. No problem. None of the three. No problem. Okay. And so, bottle and the been, Of course, the bottom line with that will win. Kirk, when would you have to? Out of the three. That depends on the personality of the subject. It also depends on the mom. A lot of times, the moms is the one pushing this sexy stuff. So you gotta be. It's a constant juggling act with this, and you got to remember who you're dealing with and all those types of things. So I think that answers the age appropriateness, but so I'll scratch that. It wasn't. You know, Kirk, I'm really isn't like, how much of your job is like part Dr Phil, When you have the families in the heart, photography is a lot. Dr. Phil's psychology must be so important when dealing with family dynamic thinking of it. OK, good deal. Going to get to some of this stuff as we sort of go down the line So more of these things. So let's get into a slide show. This is a current senior. I did this girl this year. Let's watch a little slide show. This is again this just like the very first segment. Except it's a senior girl. All of the images I did of her better than watching you ain't nothing better than watching you Ain't nothing better than right now in your eyes A lot of secrets Woman Miss Return demand Make a fist amateur career live because if you know stemming back in I don't know what I know what I know what it is that you really, really want On your knee Hate every moment waiting from you season I know that nothing better than watching you allow baby No better way can take away the pain If you don't know you're hurting again I can't leaving on your own If you know you kind of in my heart's pumping black and moves its that would feel when I'm not with you A 1,000,000 years pass every day losing the time the way I don't know what I know what you know what to do I hope you understand that I'm gone Always come back home for you Open your eyes to a brand new door Bell washing use nothing better than watching you allowed, baby Better watching you. All right, so there you go. That was one senior senior girl all the way through. That was every picture I shot of her. And that was this past year. That was that was her entire senior session. So when it comes to senior portrait and it comes toe making images when I say the benefits of great photography to me, the product we have is the eighth attends in the Five Sevens and the Wall portrait's and all that stuff that we make money on. Those are the products. If you have great photography and you make models and in your customers look like models and they look good in the product in the product and the product simply markets itself. Okay? um the product sells itself, and it's less postproduction. The better the photography, the less time you're going to spend postproduction and work and stuff, and it becomes way more fun. The better photography, the better you can make it, the more fun it then becomes so those are some of the benefits of great photography. We sort of eluded to it at the very, very beginning, and I talked about about photographer, a photographer. Be photographer. B is a great photographer, but had zero marketing photographer, a great marketer but lousy of photography. But just imagine what happens when you put them to puppies together. If you have a great marketer and then you have someone who does really great photography, then what happens then you make really good money. So that's the benefit. That's the wonderful part about being a great photographer.