Get in the nitty gritty

When you strategize with your photographer…

…get into the nitty gritty.

The other day, I had a strategy call with a team to talk about their branded lifestyle portrait session. 

The call went for 90 minutes, and we spent every second diving deep into the weeds so that I could get a sense of who they are, who they serve, the problems they solve and how. 

After asking 754 questions to each team member, my list of notes was quite long…

…I mean, you’d think I was writing a biography on these people!

Regardless of the obscene amount of words on the screen, a comprehensive list of shots that need to be captured was laid out, lifestyle scenario by lifestyle scenario. 

At the conclusion of the call, I checked with everyone to see how they were feeling. 

The consensus? 

This is going to be a great shoot but this is a lot of detail to take into account. 

And that, my friends, is music to my ears :) 

You see, this same group had a bad experience with their last photographer where they had zero strategy prior to their session. 

It was one of those, “show up to this street corner with some outfits in hand, and we’ll figure it out as we walk around” type of session.

And the results were disastrous.

I know those types of figure-it-out-on-the-fly sessions because this is how I ran my sessions for years. And then, when I chose to work exclusively with experts, I realized this approach wasn’t going to work. 

Experts have limited time and they want certainty when it comes to investing in their business. This is why experts hire other experts for a reason. 

I knew I needed to ask better questions prior to the session to learn more about them and how they serve. These answers lay out the specific types of lifestyle and promotional photos that they need in their portfolios. 

Is it a lot of talking? Yup.

Is it a deep, nitty gritty conversation? Oh yeah.

Does it force the Expert to really think about themselves, their process and brand? From beginning to end. 

But, the result is an opportunity to trim out the fat, focus on what’s most important to capture, and provide a level of certainty that they’ll get exactly what they need…and then some. 

When qualifying photographers for your next lifestyle portrait session, make sure you ask them in the discovery call about their strategy process. 

First, do they have a process? 

If so, do they ask questions that will help them understand your personality, process, lifestyle, business structure and brand? And how do they translate this information into photos?

Will they help point you in the right direction regarding locations, outfit selection and other materials that you need to bring to the session? 

Does their strategy call help you understand the flow of the session, from the first to the last shot that needs to be captured?

And, will this call help you understand what you need to do to prepare for the session?

If not, then this photographer is not a fit for you.  

Your investment of time and money is too important to roll the dice on simply walking around the neighborhood and making it work. 

Over to you…

Have you had an experience with a photographer where you just winged it on the fly? How’d it go? What were the results? Please share in the comment section below.