Just a couple NY'ers takin' some pics in the sunshine, :)
What do you get when you put two crazy NY’ers in a room with a camera and lights?
Magic, of course, :)
What is the most important aspect of setting yourself up for success in your branded lifestyle portrait session?
Wardrobe?
Locations?
Makeup and hair?
A detailed shot sheet?
Yes, all of these are super important, for sure, and help to contribute to creating photos that will present you in a confident light to those you serve.
But without a fun and lively rapport with the photographer behind the camera, your entire session is in jeopardy of producing mediocre, ehhhhhhhhh results.
Why is rapport so important?
When you work with someone with whom you have a free-flowing conversation, that gets you out of your head, thinking about how you look in front of the camera and into the moment.
The walls you surround yourself with on a daily basis come down, and you’re more engaged and less guarded.
You allow yourself the opportunity to present yourself in a truly natural light.
As a result, your body language and facial muscles loosen up so that you’re able to produce various shades of your personality through the expressions produced by your mouth, eyebrows, and eyes.
And when you do that, it gives your audience an opportunity to truly qualify whether or not they want to get to know you better based on those expressions and how they resonate with them.
Before you book your next branded lifestyle portrait session, don’t simply look at the photographers’ work and rates; get on the phone with them and have an actual conversation and see how it feels.
You might find that while his or her work is awesome, the way in which they communicate doesn’t mesh well with your sensibilities.
In the case of my client, Howie, I knew from the first syllable he uttered to me on the phone that we were going to kick some ass during his session.
Although he currently lives in South Florida, all I could hear dripping from his mouth was a thick Brooklyn accent. Within our initial 20-minute call, we were already busting each other’s chops like we’ve known each other for years.
Howie is an entrepreneur who has built and sold several businesses, and now is a podcaster who is looking to break more into the professional speaker business. His topic is resilience, which is near and dear to my heart since it ties well into my positive psychology background.
As far as his image content needs, he stressed that he wanted to redesign his online presence in order to reflect where he is with his business and life. His current footprint is littered with amateur image content and selfies, and in his opinion, that positions his brand as cheap and unprofessional.
We set out to take care of that, :)
After picking me up at the airport, we were off and running for the next few hours around Miami and the surrounding towns.
Fortunately, he didn’t get tired of me, or vice versa, :)
In fact, after the session, Howie shared some lovely words about his experience:
“As a relatively new speaker and soon to be author I was recommended to John by a colleague/friend who currently has a very successful speaking career. My friend explained to me the importance of my brand and identity and how using the right photographer who understands my mission is critical to my overall success. My original thoughts were that a photographer is a photographer but after meeting John my initial thoughts are the furthest thing from the truth.
The initial call with John was great, he asked me so many questions it made me feel like I was being interviewed for a feature magazine article. He then followed up with another phone call after doing his own due diligence whereby he checked out my website podcast content and all things related to my social media channels. On that call he had location selections, clothing suggestions and was extremely organized to make sure our time together was going to be useful and impactful in order to get my message across all my platforms with images.
The photo shoot was great, we got so much accomplished in the time we were together. John made me feel so comfortable that at times I felt like I knew him my whole life. We were very serious but had lots of fun in the process. He is an artist who takes his craft seriously someone whom I look forward to working with again in the future as my career grows.
Within a few days I received my pictures, they are beyond awesome. Although I have one regret. I wish I had met and used John earlier in my career but the good news is that I did meet and use him and ‘it’s never too late for a good thing.’
Thanks John for being you, looking forward to our next shoot!”
Want to take a peek at the work we created together? Check it out here!
PS - If you found this article valuable, I invite you to join my email list so that you save yourself from commuting to my blog every time I post something new, :)