So what did I do? Well, I ventured out (excuse the pun), producing images that I thought people wanted. Back then it was the white and black backdrops - the contemporary studio look which was so 'in vogue'. I do think I still gave it my 'take' but was it totally original? Did it show off what I love most about my work ... the kids, their personalities and unique characters? Hmm, maybe not as much as I would have liked.
As my confidence built it soon dawned on me that parents were opting for this look because they didn't realise there were other options - that's what there is so that's what they'll have. I set out to show parents that you could get creative and natural shots that were still funky and fresh whilst at the same time getting service and not having to take out a second mortgage in the process. I spend a long time building up my portfolio which is an ongoing organic process - it has to be. I find most people are visual animals ... well they kinds of people who book me tend to be. They need to see ideas. they need visual inspiration.
Today, I am delighted when my customers are not only creative and open to my suggestions but those who know exactly what they want me to achieve down to pre-planning the rooms for display and co-ordinating their clothing choices with their decor. Many of my customers come to me with cuttings from publications such as Junior magazine - full of excitement and inspiration.
How things have moved on and how I look forward to being challenged to come up with fresh new ideas for the future. My head is spinning ... it's all very exciting.
I love this family, they were one of my first customers back in the day when I did shoot against very plain backdrops in customers homes. I don't do that (apart from with newborns) anymore but this customer had very specific ideas about what she wanted. Now with their second child (who I wanted to eat by the way!) they wanted to match the style of images that I captured for their first son. They knew exactly what they wanted to do with the images, they knew how they wanted them to look and where they were going to put it etc. etc. etc. How could I say no?
1 comments:
What a handsome little boy I've not seen you do images like this before Sarah but I can still see your style stamped all over it. Your customer is very lucky to have a photographer that will work with her so many these days would just say no. I bet they just love them maybe you'll have to sneak back to their house and photograph them up so we can all see how good they look on a wall !
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