Top 3 Things Photographers Wish You Already Knew

In the photography industry of photographing people, us photographers get invested the people they work with (myself included). We’re in the business of making people happy. And sometimes it comes at a cost.

With so much information about photographers and how-go guides out there (my blog included), I thought I would do something a little bit different this week and talk about the big elephants in the room. As much as I love my elephants, these are not the elephants I want in my room. (That came out weirder written down than in my head. Oh, well.)
​
I’m talking about things photographers don’t want to say to their clients, and just wish they already knew.
So with that out of the way, let’s get to this week’s blog post…

Booked Someone Else

Not booking with us? Rest assured, that if you do happen to go another route with someone else, let us know. Photographers are humans with beating hearts and are passionate about what we do. So, if you chose someone else--that’s okay. It’s like a date that we thought went well, and the other person just didn’t feel the same way. Honestly, we would rather just know that you’ve decided not to go with us. We just think it’s a nice to thing to do. But if you’re on the fence, we’ll most likely be here--stirring our iced coffee and waiting for you.

Backseat photographers

Just like back seat drivers...there are backseat photographers. When at a shoot, it’s best that you don’t tell us every shot to get. We are the hired professionals who are there to photograph your special day, or your milestone session. We don’t mind if you gave us suggestions on locations, poses or even themes. Those are super helpful tidbits. However, when someone is literally next to us telling us every single shot to take, it’s kind of...well, for a lack of a better word-- annoying. We’ll probably never tell you (or at least I probably won’t), but just know that it’s hard to do our job when there’s someone backseat photographing every shot for us.

Cheerleaders

I live for my friends and family, so I love when I see friends and family cheering each other on and supporting each other all the time. It fills up my soul!
​
What doesn’t fill up my soul, is when there are so many of friends and family members (not being photographed) trying to get the attention of the person photographed. This is particularly prominent with children. When photographing children (and even some adults), they’re attention can be split in different directions and not in the direction of the camera or of the person they need to be paying attention to. With teenagers and young adults, they tend to get shy or get temperamental when too many people are cheering them on when being photographed.

With all that said, if you’re booking a session with your photographer, ask them if bringing the whole family (who are not being photographed) to the shoot is okay. For me, I don’t mind it. Bring them along! Just be sure that there are designated persons who will be calling out for the children’s attention and who will be babysitting while their parents are getting photographed.

​Honestly, there could be more, but that's why I've decided to educate my clients on what to expect when doing a session or booking a wedding. There are ways for photographers to address these topics. So stay tuned as I continue to educate, explain and avoid having any more elephants in our room. Unless of course, they're going to join us for coffee.

​I'm all for that!