Today is our last day on Nantucket & we are about to hop the ferry home. When we woke up this morning, the rain was coming down after having incredible weather all week.
But like I said to my favorite little preppy island: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened!"
Happy Friday y'all!
M:)
And now we have to have our LAST birthday giveaway! Just leave us a comment below saying hi & we're going to pick one lucky winner to receive a $50 gift card to Adorama! We'll announce both the Yankee & Adorama winners early next week! And....GO!!
We sat around a long table and sipped on the last of our pink drinks, as the lemonade gave way to the ice cubes. We took turns casting our hopes and dreams for the years ahead like a line into the velvet grey water, a true north amidst the ever-changing tumult. We sat buoyed up together in that wooden raft for the longest while as time seemed to slow down, and when the question found its way to me...my answer was simple.
We came out to Nantucket this week with six of our closest friends for a sort of birthday adventure. An adventure that began a few weeks back with the words, Why Not? as almost all of the best adventures do. Well today is my actual birthday, and as I look out at the year ahead this is what I wish for my life:
*I want to spend more time thinking about what could go right than what could go wrong.
*I want to get started on all of those things I've been meaning to do. There's a reason I've been meaning to do them.
*I want to lean in to who I was called to be, no matter how scary it is.
*I want to choose purpose over popularity, and substance over celebrity.
*I want to give thanks every day for the beautiful place that I woke up one day to find my life in: incredible friends who are family, a family that are also friends, a wonderful home, a husband who is my best friend and always looks out in the same direction with me, and the world's fluffiest dog.
*I want to ask "Why Not" and ask it often. I want to live life as if every dream is a possibility, and the craziest of adventures are already a memory. I want to be open to every good thing that could happen. And see every good thing that already has as nothing short of a miracle. Those miracles make up my life.
*I want to laugh until my stomach hurts from laughing. And see every laugh line as proof that we must be doing something right.
*I want to ask myself what the 80 year old me would think of what I'm doing and follow her every word of advice. After all, she's a lot wiser than I am.
Here's to the next year friends! And every great adventure it brings with it. I'm so thankful to each and every one of you for being along for the ride.
So much love,
M:)
Today is one of my favorite days ever because today we have some of our favorite PEOPLE ever on to guest blog for us! We first came to know Malika & Arjun as our clients when they hired us to do their Seattle engagement shoot/ DC wedding a couple years ago. Since then they have become amazing friends, fellow photographers and now Walk Through a Wedding alums. These guys came to us when they were first getting started, so we thought it would be awesome to hear how someone who was brand new on how they were able to put Walk Through to use. Enjoy!
Hi there!
We're SO incredibly honored to be guest blogging for Justin and Mary today! When J&M first asked us to do a guest blog post for them, I sort of sat there in utter disbelief for a few minutes. Really? Us?? The newbies? What could we possibly have to say that any of the established photographers who read their blog would be interested in reading? And that's when I realized that *we* regularly read their blog and we're not at all established yet. And that maybe, just maybe, we can help some other newer photographers out there realize that Walk Through a Wedding is an invaluable experience that isn't just for photographers who've been in the business for a few years!
Arjun and I attended WTAW last June and it's helped us tremendously since! Initially, we were afraid that we didn't have enough experience under our belts to attend. We started out the year before doing mostly lifestyle family portraits and wanted to get into shooting couples and weddings but had yet to shoot a single wedding. When a friend of ours took a leap of faith and hired us to shoot his wedding last summer, we knew it was a major opportunity. We had discussed attending WTAW before but thought we needed to be further along in our business to do so. Fortunately, we reached out to J&M to see if we would be a good fit and we're both so glad we did! They reassured us that photographers at any stage of their business could benefit from the workshop and well, we definitely did to say the least! I strongly believe we avoided making some major mistakes while shooting that very first wedding (and everything thereafter!) thanks to everything we learned at the workshop!
Walk Through a Wedding provides such an amazing treasure trove of information, it's impossible to highlight just a few main points. But attending as photographers who were relatively new to the world of wedding photography, there were three significant things they covered that really gave us the confidence to move forward over the last year towards building the brand and business we want.
Focusing on Past Clients: One of the toughest parts of starting a new business is developing a constant flow of clients that are excited about having you as their photographer. It doesn't happen overnight and it's easy to get lost in the frustrations of why there aren't more people lining up, just waiting to hire you. While we were at the workshop, Mary said one sentence that was a huge game-changer for us: " Ok, well what have you done for your past clients?" It was such a simple question with a major impact. If we didn't have a steady stream of clients waiting to sign up, that was okay. She explained that instead, focus on the clients you already have and forge stronger relationships with them. Do something for them; Something to make them feel special, something to make them feel like they matter, something to make them feel like they simply HAVE to recommend you to anyone looking for a photographer. Channeling your energies on ensuring your clients feel like you really care will pay off in the long run and before you know it, that steady stream will start to flow all on it's own.
Saying No: On that note, starting a new business makes it easy to think that you have to take on just about any client that comes your way. At the end of the day, it's work, it's something to keep the business moving and the thought of turning down clients probably sounds insane. And you're right. However, is it moving your business in the direction you want? Are you getting the kind of work and clients you want? Are you excited about each and every client? These are the questions Mary posed during the workshop that really made us stop and think. Why weren't we consistently getting the kind of work we wanted? We realized it was in large part due to the fact that we were taking almost any client that came our way, regardless of whether it was going to help boost us in the direction we wanted to go. And as a result, it was breeding more work just like it. If we didn't want to shoot birthday parties and baby showers, we needed to stop agreeing to shoot birthday parties and baby showers. We needed to learn to start saying "no." As a new photographer, or anyone with a new business, this is quite possibly one of the most difficult things to do. Turning down business when you're just getting started sounds absolutely backwards. But, it's also quite possibly one of the biggest things that will help your business and brand grow in the direction you want, giving you the clients you want and breeding more clients like them. In just one year, we're already reaping the benefits of having learnt this early on.
Building a Timeline that Works: As I said earlier, when we attended WTAW last year, we had yet to shoot a single wedding. We ourselves had gotten married the year before but we knew very little of what to expect being on the opposite side as part of a wedding's creative team for the very first time. One of the things that really helped us that J&M really honed in on was building a timeline for the wedding day that works. The average couple isn't always aware of how much time is ideal for a photographer to tell the story of each part of their wedding day and working with them in advance to build a timeline that makes sense is one of the first steps to success. We were able to take this knowledge from the workshop and work with our couple on that very first wedding last summer to ensure that we had built in enough time throughout the day for bridal portraits, couple portraits and family portraits. Conversations were had a couple months before their big day to walk through the timeline and guarantee we were all on the same page. Of course, as Mary always says, there's real time and then there's wedding time. Things go wrong and that timeline often gets pushed back and squeezed down. But having the knowledge to educate your clients beforehand and set expectations to at least attempt to create an ideal wedding timeline, gives both you and your clients the confidence that you are a professional who will be able to handle their wedding day with the utmost polish and ease.
Of course, these are just a select, few things that we've highlighted from WTAW. It's amazing just how much information J&M share over the course of two days and we are SO grateful to have had the opportunity to go when we did! Attending it while we were still in the wee early stages of developing our brand and business was a priceless experience that has helped us to avoid making some major mistakes and pushed us in the right direction from the very start. While we're still newbies and haven't quite been able to put everything we learned from them into practice, thanks to their generosity and willingness to open both their home and hearts to us, we know we're equipped with the right tools to build a successful brand and business that we'll be proud to call ours. And that? Well, that makes WTAW one of the most valuable assets in any photographer's toolbox.
Short Stack: Prepping Clients for the Engagement Shoot
Good morning & Happy Pancake Day!!
On our way up to Nantucket yesterday, I was emailing with our bride Jamie, whose wedding we'll be shooting up in Maine later this year, about scheduling their engagement shoot and what all they should do/bring. We've sent a lot of emails just like this to get our couples ready for their engagement shoots. And at this point, we've SHOT a lot of engagement shoots, so we've learned what really helps make for the best shoots. So a while back (sometime last year) we finally just put together an email signature of everything, so we could make sure we were getting all that same info to each of our couples.
Because what we realized is that if we were getting couples who were just showing up without putting a lot of thought into what to wear or bring, in part that was our fault for not at least planting that seed. We're a lot more experienced in engagement shoots than they are, and as the experts it's our job to help them out with some recommendations and a little inspiration. So in our email signature we address things like what to wear, what to bring, "golden hour" and what time to show up, leaving extra time for getting there, and the possibility of getting hair & makeup professionally done.
So for this Short Stack, I thought it would be helpful to go ahead and share the exact language of the email signature we put together to help get you guys started! Feel free to use/adjust as needed! :)
Hey {Bride}!
Oh that's awesome! We'll put you guys down for the 16th then! What we'll do is have you guys meet us at our place before we head out, so we can help style everything. Here is our addy:
Justin & Mary Marantz
700 Nikon Lane
New Haven, CT D4D4D
Also, here are few of our tips for having the best shoot!
In general for clothes, gray, navy, light blues, cream and pink paired with brown leather make for the best pictures. Stay away from anything with patterns or colors too heavy in the red/orange range b/c they don't register as well on camera. We recommend one "dressed up casual look" like a sundress & cardigan and one "fancy" look like a cocktail hour sort of dress. Would love to see {Groom} in a button down & vest/ blazer with dark jeans or gray pants. But above all we want these pictures to feel like you guys, so think of it as your style just dressed up a little. We've included a board for a little inspiration! And finally, think about a few of your favorite things that you could bring with you like wine, maps for travel, a picnic basket, desserts, books, records, etc. Just whatever feels like you!
What we'll do is have you guys meet us at our place first with a few different options for outfits, and we can help you style it! To be able to get the best light (the hour leading up to sunset which right now is around 8pm) we'll have you meet us at 6pm so we have plenty of time to style it before we have to head out. To get that golden, pretty light we do have to time it right....so be sure to leave extra time for traffic and hair emergencies in getting here! :) And finally, speaking of hair, my last tip is that {Bride}, you go ahead and get your hair & makeup professionally done on the day of the shoot. I know it's an extra cost and more to think about, but in our experience it makes a HUGE difference in how the pictures turn out/how confident you feel during the shoot. And you can also use it as your makeup trial for the wedding day! Let me know if you need any recommendations for someone!
We can't wait to see you guys!
xo
M:)
PS: If you can find a horse to bring, that would be AWESOME! :) j/k!!
As always, we hope that was at least a little bit helpful to someone out there! And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment box! Or just say hi!
Today we are off for a birthday adventure with some of our closest friends (you can follow along on Instagram to see what all we're up to!). But before we take off I wanted to share some images from last week's J&M Lighting Intensive in Rochester!
First of all, I have to say that our group in Rochester was of of my favorites of all time! I have never seen a group of more kind, welcoming, and just excited to be there people. These guys were on fire, asking all of the right questions and just really rocking the light. I am SO excited for what this year holds for them!
Before we get to the pictures, I did just want to say one thing. It's become a pretty common misconception that the Lighting Intensive is only for people who want to get into more studio/editorial work. And I could totally see where that comes from, since the pictures of our models are almost always in front of Justin's hand-painted backdrop. But the fact is, nothing could be further from the truth! We do shoot our models in a studio set up, mostly because the gray background really helps show off what the light is doing as we teach (and Justin worked really hard on it, so he loves to break it out!). But the whole day is really all about how to light and shoot on the fly at a wedding day or portrait session.
It's about studying and learning from the greats in studio/editorial portraiture, and learning how to use the light like that in the snap decisions we have to make at a wedding/portrait shoot when things are happening a mile a minute. And I truly believe that when you learn to use light like that, it's one of those game changers that sets people apart in a saturated market and makes it really hard for anyone else to catch up!
In addition to studying the different ways to use light and how to make that go to work for you, we also just spend a lot of time getting people comfortable (ahem, not afraid anymore!) of their flashes! You'll see in that first image below that we had a big studio set up with an octo & full length scrim. But several of the pictures in the post, we got with just one on-camera, bounced flash. Who knew on camera flash could be this pretty, right?? If you & your flash aren't friends like that yet, we'd love to see you at one of our upcoming Lighting Intensive in Chapel Hill, NC or Minneapolis!
We also want to give a HUGE thank you to Tim Toal for allowing us to use his studio for the workshop, as well as getting us our gorgeous models Mary & Kat . Tim was the first photographer to give Justin a chance right out of college, and he second shot with him for a year and a half before moving to CT to start his own business. I might not be typing this to you today if it weren't for Tim....we owe him so much!
Life with J&M
