Fresh from our trip to check out Louisville, with its blend of pet-friendly spaces, hospitable hotels, and a convention center that has us pumped for Imaging USA in January, was a delight to explore. Not to mention the culinary paradise the city is - take it from us, you don't want to miss out on the Mexican restaurant with the out-of-this-world color harmonies in their dishes.
Switching gears, let's talk mood boards for photography styling, something we've been immersing ourselves in lately. It's been a journey of creative exploration - thanks to Canva, we're putting together inspired family looks, drumming up style themes that range from an edgy looks to formal. But don't think we're resting on our laurels. Staying current in the ever-evolving photography field is a tricky task, and that's where artist projects come in - an effective platform to test out fresh ideas. Remember, it's all about showing the clients what they want, and we're here to help you do just that! So sit back, get comfortable, and let's jump right into this creative whirl!
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
Fresh from our trip to check out Louisville, with its blend of pet-friendly spaces, hospitable hotels, and a convention center that has us pumped for Imaging USA in January, was a delight to explore. Not to mention the culinary paradise the city is - take it from us, you don't want to miss out on the Mexican restaurant with the out-of-this-world color harmonies in their dishes.
Switching gears, let's talk mood boards for photography styling, something we've been immersing ourselves in lately. It's been a journey of creative exploration - thanks to Canva, we're putting together inspired family looks, drumming up style themes that range from an edgy looks to formal. But don't think we're resting on our laurels. Staying current in the ever-evolving photography field is a tricky task, and that's where artist projects come in - an effective platform to test out fresh ideas. Remember, it's all about showing the clients what they want, and we're here to help you do just that! So sit back, get comfortable, and let's jump right into this creative whirl!
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at retouchup. Retouchup works smarter, not harder. Welcome to Get your Shoot Together. The photographer's podcast. We discuss studio business life and keeping it all in line. I am Jared Ayrebury and I'm Mary Fitz-Taylor. I had a smoothie before we started and so now I'm all flimmy.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I'm not sure if anybody ever needed to hear that I'm sorry, it's just the truth.
Speaker 1:I'm living my truth.
Speaker 2:You are living your truth. Indeed, I'm living my truth at home. So yeah, at typical Mary Fitz-Taylor fashion Waffles. You know my dog Waffles. I just got back from literally chasing him down. He busted through the invisible fence and was like trying chasing a blind dog.
Speaker 1:So when you say busted through the invisible fence, he's just like doesn't care, he's no, he normally does.
Speaker 2:But something about this dog irritated him to death and I went out there because he was barking and I'm like Waffles. I know it's really hard. It's really hard to be a good boy. I know it's tough. And he sat there and you know how somebody's like they want to run and they kind of just they kind of rock back and forth.
Speaker 1:He was rocking back and forth because he knows where the line is oh, he's doing it, get up and get ready, kind of rock.
Speaker 2:And he let it go. I saw it in his eyes. He was going, he was going through the fence and he just went up and he wanted to say hi, I mean he really. But for some reason let me say I'm sorry, it's okay, but he's blind and I'm like, oh, so sorry. Anyway, I had to carry Waffles back and care. Waffles is not a. He's not. He's a big boy, he's pointy, he's pointy, he's thick and yeah, so he's. He's still aggravated, he's. He's still out, looking out the window waiting for that poor little blind dog to come by.
Speaker 1:What a saint you were for taking in that dog.
Speaker 2:He's special he's, so you love him.
Speaker 1:I do love him.
Speaker 2:And he can be very sweet and he, I do love him. But my goodness, you know how it is like. You know how people say oh they, you know, I was fooled, I, my first kid, was so amazing and so I had they killed. I had a second and done it and done it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's Waffles, because my first corgi was just a second, and the second kid was a terror yeah, so anyway.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, so, yeah, so, um, what's going on with you?
Speaker 1:Well, uh, hit the ground running hard after our fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun weekend in Louisville. Such a great time. Yes, need, need a week off now from the amount of fun that was had. My knee still hurts Like just from standing. I just I just it feels like somebody hit my kneecap with a hammer.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, it was fun. We had an amazing long weekend in Louisville, kentucky. My some of my very best friends lived there, so I got to bring Kira and her husband, kevin, and show him around the town and we did it all. I mean, I don't know oh man. We didn't leave much unturned.
Speaker 1:Now we packed it in and you know the thing is, I never really hung out in Louisville at all and then we're having, you know, image in USA is going to be there in January, and I just felt like really unprepared. So we did go and we started guess what? Guys, it's super fun. Yeah, it's a super fun town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the hotels are amazing, the convention center is great and there are so many options. And right there, walking distance. How many restaurants are literally within walking this? Tons of restaurants.
Speaker 1:Bourbon Row is down.
Speaker 2:Is that what it's called Whiskey Row? Whiskey Row, sorry.
Speaker 1:And then, um, you know, tons of. Everything is very close together. So if you want to explore a little bit while you're down there, you're able to. It's very walkable. I mean it will be cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it will be cold, but it's walkable and still. I mean, and uh, and there's a white castle.
Speaker 1:Man, there is a white castle very close gang. We found that out and we didn't get thrown out.
Speaker 2:No, we did that, we did. We did go to White Castle and did not get thrown out. That was fantastic and, um, it's a very dog friendly city too. So if you're driving in and you, you know, want to bring or pet friendly, I should say a lot of the hotels are because some people they bring their pets, you know, or they want to travel with their pets, and it's a drivable location, um, Indiana's right across the bridge. So if you want to stay in, you know, I mean literally there's so many options. I love the town, we love that area called New Lou, which is a great little walkable area with cute shops and amazing restaurants as well, and just so much fun. So I I'm excited for imaging to be in Louisville. I can't wait for people to experience it for the first time, and those that have already been, you know, get to go back.
Speaker 1:I loved New Lou. I mean that was so much fun shopping, but also like that one. There was that awesome Mexican restaurant. You take Guacamole, guacamole. I mean you know you've had a lot of. I've had so much Mexican. I had another Mexican restaurant this week. I mean I eat Mexican a lot.
Speaker 2:We do too.
Speaker 1:But uh, this is the most delicious and beautifully created dishes I have ever seen. I mean the color harmonies oh, wow. Items they're using together. It's like art.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is the way they like. You know they have like marigolds and I don't even know. In my drink alone I ordered a Paloma Y'all. When I tell you, it had like the entire cone of cotton candy on top. I'm not kidding, like it was, it was the extra. My goddaughter was there, since I gave her the cotton candy, but the drinks, um, it's a great place. Anyway, I could, like we could go on and on, and then we did go to. We go in, our knees hurt because of a music festival, not from Louisville and Perse. It was standing because it's like, oh, I want to get there at 330 to see XYZ, but not really thinking we're going to be standing there till 11 o'clock at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we were holding down a spot. We did, we did a darn good job, and we did. We did until until the chaos of Bruno Mars came through and that was a little chaotic. I mean, the concert was great and, oh my god, can we talk about Debbie Harry? Blondie was Amazing.
Speaker 2:I guys, I I didn't. And Duran Duran I mean there were some in Debbie Harry's, obviously a little bit older than Duran Duran, but there were two groups that I'm like these are this is I'm kicking it. I'm going back to middle school here.
Speaker 1:I'm going and I'm like, oh, but you know, you don't know, they did not disappoint, they did not miss a beat, like it was Debbie's walking out in her heels and her like red, orange, red suit with open with like a mesh top with her bra showing yes, hot as hell, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah beautiful hair.
Speaker 1:She's 78 beautiful hair, just just banging it around, ray blonde.
Speaker 2:So it's still like and she likes. You know she's still a lot of time with you know, If you original music videos where she would like mess with her hair, I'm doing it like y'all can see me, but she would put her hand because I mess with her. She still does it I. Her lipstick was fall.
Speaker 1:Everything about her was fall her makeup, the precision, I mean every, I mean I know it's probably, you know, for camera, so it was probably looks a lot different in person. But like nothing melted nothing, she was flawless the whole time, I and and I appreciated that she came out in the stilettos but then she finished the show in the divas.
Speaker 2:I you know what she sat down. At one point I thought, oh no, she's down.
Speaker 2:I was really concerned but she was changing her shoes and she put on her divas and she strutted and strutted and her guitarists were Amazing and she just did a great job. And as we talked about a lot of time, women, as we get older, our voices, our voices we do lose the ability to To hit certain notes or pitches. So if you're a singer, that becomes a problem. But she, I think there were areas where she would kind of like put the microphone to the audience or she had a Another singers to kind of I want to say, quote-unquote cover. For 78 years old, she hit almost every one of those she did.
Speaker 1:I mean like hard of glass, I mean that's, that's a hot that's hard to like, just like make it sound breathy and airy and you know high, yeah, and then she was wailing out some of those notes high to tie Perfect, it was just perfect.
Speaker 2:I mean we knew all the words and you know all the rap song Mm-hmm yeah we did, yeah, we did, um, we killed it and we did hold our spot and the groups were amazing and we saw some new people that we didn't even know we love best deal black.
Speaker 2:I love black. Well, I think we had heard of them, but I don't have even heard of best deal. So it was great. Bourbon and beyond was the name of the festival actually have on my shirt today that I got, but, um, it was fun, and we also spent an enormous, enormous amount of time on FaceTime Talking about what to pack, and we're very concerned about getting cold.
Speaker 1:Guess what? Yeah, it wasn't cold?
Speaker 2:It was not cold at all, as a matter of fact, we should have been way more concerned about being hot.
Speaker 1:But it was actually really beautiful. It was, I mean, the weather was beautiful and we looked really cool with our jackets tied.
Speaker 2:We looked so cute and yeah, we did. We looked real cute and for you know, for 55 years old me not cure obviously. Um, yeah, I stood there for hours on end and I did two full days and I would go back. I enjoyed it, I loved it.
Speaker 1:It was great. It was very, very, very fun and I'm thank you for inviting us. I'm so glad. It was such a great way to one check out the town and just kind of see the convention center and see the hotels. You know we looked at the Marriott and we looked at the Omni.
Speaker 1:Both are great, I'm gorgeous, if you're looking at for a place to stay and you haven't, you know, already booked your hotel. Those are host hotels for imaging USA. So both are awesome, yeah, and very close together. And if you stay in the Marriott, you are connected to the convention center. If you stay in the Omni, it's a. It's a hop skip and a jump to the yeah about a block. About a block and not about within three blocks.
Speaker 2:There's an aloft, a Hampton Inn, a Fairfield Suites.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of hotels so many options so so many options.
Speaker 2:The Omni has a food hall which is like a really cool looking food court kind of situation and again so many restaurants. We all love imaging, but let's be honest, we all end up standing in line trying to get food. I don't think that's gonna be a problem in Louisville at all.
Speaker 2:I think there's so many walkable places that you're not kind of quote-unquote, stuck in a One big space that you can get out, get some fresh air and it's gonna be just amazing. I'm excited to go back and, if you want to go in earlier, stay late. We also did an amazing dinner at a place that's also walkable from the convention center called Jeff Rebes. Some of you guys may have heard of Jeff Rebes. It's a. It's a restaurant that's got a few different locations.
Speaker 1:It was Fantastic fantastic and really cool on the inside, really beautiful kind of art deco, but like a like a gothic art deco kind of vibe, very like reds and emerald greens and gold. It's beautiful and and the they had. They actually have sushi in addition to being, you know, have a wonderful steak. Yeah, and I had sushi because I we haven't had a pork chop. Yeah, we all had something different. We all loved it.
Speaker 2:It was, it was service was amazing and there was a. There was a star there, remember, there was that guy.
Speaker 1:I mean Luke.
Speaker 2:Grimes. Luke Grimes. He was on a show I don't even know Luke Flimes, luke Grimes.
Speaker 1:Luke flew fly. Nope, luke Grimes. So none of us knew who he was, but our waiter was like Luke Grimes, you know, one of the performers because he was performing it for him to be on. Yes, he was in the next room and we're looking over and then we're having to look up what the guy looks like and then looking back in the room, we're like is that him?
Speaker 2:but I think most people knew him from like either a TV show or a movie, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he's on Yellowstone, which I also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what somebody said. I don't watch Yellowstone, so that's why I would not know that. But yeah, yellowstone and in in some other things, but that was really cool. We did not meet him, so I don't even know why I'm talking about it, but it we did, we did lurk, we did line adjacent.
Speaker 2:We did. We did time adjacent, but it was a great time Like highly recommend. If you guys need any recommendations for Louisville, I'm pretty I've been going there for a long time. I I know, I know a bit probably not as much as someone like Marnie Claggett who actually lives in Kentucky, but but I know a few things, so ask. And anyway, we're gonna take a quick little pause because I'm excited to get an update on Something we talked about a couple podcasts ago that Kira just showed me. I'm very excited to talk about it.
Speaker 1:So let's take a pause from our amazing sponsors, retouch up and be right back hey you is, it 2 am and you're still up retouching that one-year-old's cake smash session because there's just not enough hours to get it all done. Stop what you're doing right now and upload that session to retouch up. Never tried retouch up? No problem. Sign up for a free account at retouchupcom and use the referral code GYST to tell them you're one of our loyal listeners. With retouch up, there are no contracts, no minimums, no complications and nothing to lose. For a limited time, all listeners of this podcast can save $10 with the coupon code GISTFALL10. That's G-Y-S-T-F-A-L-L-1-0 for all customers. That's enough to retouch like four headshots or get five extractions or remove all the leaves out of the pool and the cards out of the parking lot on that real estate shot you just took. Get your life back with retouchup at retouchupcom and we are back.
Speaker 1:So yes, we are Just an update. I don't know. We started talking. You're like what are you doing? And I was like well, I've been working on these mood boards. And then we started talking about it. I was like wait, we have to stop talking about this because we probably want to talk about it on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Right, because we sometimes well, let's be honest, I mean, sometimes we talk about things and we forget, or things you know, things happen and we don't always follow through, just like you guys. You'll hear something you know that's great idea, and then you do nothing. But this was. I'm loving this mood board idea and this is something that I've not super familiar with, so I'm really excited to see it actually done. Now, you did not use the software. That's more for, like you said, the posing and lighting, which maybe would be more for a corporate software that we talked about before.
Speaker 1:I thought would be great and in fact, well, I've gotten some thoughts, so put a pin on that.
Speaker 2:We're gonna come back to that software, yeah didn't end up using that software.
Speaker 1:Here's a couple of things that I tried Mm-hmm Is that software, and I thought this is gonna be better for later stage planning Okay, once we've got some things ironed out. So put a put a hold on that, so in case you didn't hear the podcast episode.
Speaker 2:Sorry, Kara. This is when we talked about creating a mood board that would kind of inspire and become a path or like a map for your client through the session, and then it could become something that it becomes personalized for me. I think I would use my paints and I would do things like that. It would go with the delivery of the final product. So if you missed that part, we kind of went off on a tangent about that a couple weeks ago and now let's now let's hear what you've done, because I've done absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1:Well then I realized that you know I'm hoping okay, let's, let's start back with the premise. We decided that something that takes, like a family portrait, from good to great is not just the lighting and the posing, but the styling. Like really tuned in styling, the outfits have to be on point, they have to go together, there has to be some sort of color scheme or theme going on, and without it being too matchy-matchy. And so one of the things that I was saying from you know the past I usually give people guidance and we do consults, and then they share stuff with me, but, like I, you know, sometimes I'll send them a Pinterest board, but Pinterest can be overwhelming because you just start pinning all kinds of stuff, and so we said we're going to put together a mood board. So I've come up with four different kind of themes. You know, one was inspired by our weekend in Louisville, which is Rockshow right.
Speaker 1:Which is kind of an edgy. You know band T-shirts, there's flannel, there's cheetah print.
Speaker 2:Doc.
Speaker 1:Martens, doc Martens, blacks, golds, you know that vibe, army Green, you know that kind of vibe. So I've just finished that mood board. I'm going to do another one that's more of a bold color. So color blocks, you know fuchsia, hot pinks, orange, greens, like really really out there bold color, like maybe bright colored suits, that sort of thing, kind of 80s, kind of an 80s vibe.
Speaker 1:Kind of 90s kind of, you know, playing with that color palette, you know. And then I'm going to do a more of a boho, more of a relaxed style. That's going to be your more neutral colors, your denims, your textures, you know, more laid back and then a formal look.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yes.
Speaker 1:And what I've been doing. The first thing I tried to do because I didn't have examples of these images that I have stored in my head and not a lot of time to like go shoot some examples right now. So I thought, wow, maybe this would be a great thing to use Adobe Firefly for, which is the AI image generator. I was like, oh, I can, I can just summon the idea and put it into a mood board, you know. And so I started trying to create like family looks and I was trying to give it prompts as best I knew how. And you know, gee whiz, you should wow. The monstrosities that I created didn't go. It didn't go well. And when it kind of went okay, like you know, when I finally got it better, I stopped trying to do a group of people and started to just try to focus on one person yeah.
Speaker 1:And sometimes and I was trying to make a little girl with like kind of a punk rock vibe and I just got the most mutant looking children and very few things that were usable and it was taking so much time, so I abandoned the idea. I was trying guys, I was trying to find a I appreciate that about you A cool look, a cool thing to do, and maybe if you're better at AI prompts than I am I know a lot of people are maybe that would be a good route, but not for me. So I went back to plain old Pinterest and I got on Pinterest and instead of creating a board on Pinterest, which I find can be kind of overwhelming and a little spammy- yes.
Speaker 1:I wanted to be able to just hand, like an image, over to somebody, a mood board, and so I went on Canva. I screen shot at the looks that I that I liked off of Pinterest, that were all from store websites, and created just a little one pager, little one page graphic that the first one that I showed you, of course, was the Rock Show one that I just finished, and it turned out really cute. So it's just a little collage and if you go on Canva or Adobe Express and you search for mood board, you're going to get a lot of templates for that. My mood board also includes the color palette I love that the little color swatches and pattern swatches too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the leopard. I saw the leopard on there. I did a little leopard.
Speaker 1:I did a little buffalo plaid on there yeah. You know. So they can kind of see what we're looking for. We're not. I don't think buffalo plaid is so much dad plaid like I'm okay with it. You know, it was really hard, really hard to find this. Look for men.
Speaker 2:It doesn't just cross the line.
Speaker 1:Well, well, it doesn't cross the line, but it's just not made for a male model, you know, no, none of my clients are male models. They all have dadbots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. So I literally started typing in dad bod.
Speaker 1:You know dad bod cool outfit. So you shoot it with jeans and a jean jacket.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's what we I was able to get like a t shirt, the jeans and the t shirts Nice jeans and a t shirt, you know, sunglasses, kind of like cool beard, you know. But really I just went with like basic. Yeah, basics got. Sorry, guys, it's just, if you're, I mean, it's so hard to do this with, yeah, but totally fun looks for little kids, fun looks for teens, fun looks for mom, you know.
Speaker 1:And I just put it together and then I just had a further idea. So once you've booked the client, once I here's my, my vision once I booked this client and I have them select for my, for looks, of the direction we're gonna go in, then I'm gonna have them send me the pictures of what they're wearing, like what she's there they found. Yeah, I'm gonna actually use freeform, which is a software that is free on for Apple. It's called freeform and it's a way it's basically like a big whiteboard and so I can put the the mood board that I did. I can start pasting in their images, I could start drawing in freeform poses, stick figures if I wanted to, I could start arranging stuff, and so I could share that with the client.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow you know what I mean, yeah, so I thought that might be a fun way to sort of storyboard out the session and make it feel more collaborative.
Speaker 2:Okay, so your vision is this you're gonna come up with the four or five looks and that's gonna kind of be your Foundation, right like this is what I want to create. So we all you know that this is my, this is my brand. So you, you have that. So when you book a session, you can give them essentially this little mini look book of these are my looks. What do you like? What? What speaks to you? Correct? Yes, that's your vision of this so far.
Speaker 2:Okay, once they have scheduled. Now you're going to create a custom, essentially mood board for them using their clothing. How many people are in their family? Dynamic will you include? Because for me I vision using this for the design part of it as much as the clothing part. That's, that's two part, right like where in the home is gonna go, what that's gonna look like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they can send you their wall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this all on Freeform, and it's a free form that you can share with them, so they can even upload there if they're Apple, or if they're out, have it on their phone or iPad. They can even upload their images to it if they want to, or they can just email it to you and you can put it in. But you could actually drop a Drawing or a sketch on top of the image in free for it's. It's very cool. It allows you to just like mark it up. You know, if you're using a walk-up tablet, I assume you could just write with it or you could type into it. You can draw arrows, you can circle things, you can make notes. It's just like a running stream of consciousness Notebook that you can share with them. That has like their whole session planned in it, starting with the foundation of the, the mood board.
Speaker 1:Yeah you know, so the inspiration board, and I think that that is a really cool. I'm hoping, anyway I've already got like one client that I'm working on it with, yeah and I'm hoping that it's gonna be a really good way to have like that extra sense of hand-holding.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:That I can always come back and refer to easily and quickly, because sometimes you know you've been talking to them on the phone, you've been doing some planning, maybe they check in, maybe they text you stuff, but it's not all really in one place, you know it would be great to look at it and be like is this all gonna be cohesive?
Speaker 1:And then when they come in, you've got, you've right away. You know exactly what you're gonna do, where you're gonna pose them, how this, what the sets gonna look like, because you know where it's gonna go. Yeah, no right.
Speaker 2:I love it, I, I love it. And I just was thinking, as you were talking, like, has any of you have any of you guys like? Hopefully this will ring about with somebody? Either it's a little quiz or a survey or something where they show you something and you go which one of these do you like, and you're gonna pick ABC or D and then it kind of runs through a cycle. Do you know I'm talking about? Yeah, like I remember, I think, when I was with a and bear with me, I think I was with like one of those clothing services, right, like the trunk and everyone's, while they send you an email and say, hey, log in and you would say are you more likely to wear this or this, this or this this?
Speaker 2:and it was helping them curate for me. Uh-huh, wonder if there's a way and it wouldn't be that complicated, but a way that we could kind of poll or survey our clients or create an ad on Facebook asking people to give us their response, to help us see what our ideal or what our avatar likes Does that make interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or like you know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know what you would use, I have no idea how this would work, but it just, I think, helping us because we're out, I mean, we have our style, we know what we like, but if you're targeting your ideal client right and you could get that feedback, I think that would be helpful as we try to come up with our core or our pillars of our Styles. That makes sense. I don't know, because I might be completely off base. I might think, oh, my clients love these little smock dresses and they're like, yeah, that's 2002. I would never put my child in that.
Speaker 2:Now like I feel, like I know, but I only know the people that are coming to me now, what am I missing out on? That's what I want to know, what they like, that maybe I, our brands, will fit like there, they will fit into my business. I'm just, I'm missing them because I'm not Attracting them properly. I don't know if I'm making sense. So example, just little things. Like all of a sudden people are overwhelmed and you, just, you just always do the same thing, but all of a sudden it's like oh, I didn't realize I could order this or go here or do that. I mean, has that ever happened to you? Like you know, I'm thinking about the festival this weekend. All of a sudden we're like we didn't know they had wood fired pizza. How do we just?
Speaker 2:assume they only had these things because we didn't you. Just that's all we saw.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, yeah, you didn't know it was a thing until it was a thing. Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I just I, you know, and, and and. For me, kieran, and not as much for you, but for me, because Jamie and I are getting older and we've done this for so long I do worry. Ageism is a real thing and I do worry about aging out and I'm perfectly fine of aging out of some things. And weddings, for example, like I love the ones we still get. I love them. But I understand that some, you know they don't want. You don't want to be the old gray-haired, you know wedding photographer. I understand even high school seniors. You know the ones we get. Or once we photograph their whole lives. But I get that. But family and children, I feel like I don't want to miss out because I'm, because my kids are grown like. I don't know what's hip and cool with kids. You know I'm not in that space in my life anymore. I'm so far away from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean I not to, not to. Hmm, you have a. You do live in a very niche market where that, where that item, what you guys do, is highly sought after. You know what I mean, and it is seen as more of a luxury service you know it's seen as more of like something, for, you know, it's a higher end thing.
Speaker 1:So I mean, I think that you're I don't think that you are falling out of trend or falling out of style, especially where you are, but I do think that maybe there is some sort of artist project, you know small thing, that you could do, maybe as a test. That's a good idea.
Speaker 2:That's a really good idea, like just a test.
Speaker 1:Like I don't want to, like you know, sully the market that I've already got, but what? If I just to kind of see if there is a desire for some of these things, do an artist project where it is themed, you know, like clothing themed or color palette themed, or you know you could just, and it could if you go color palette theme, it's kind of more open to interpretation of what that style is.
Speaker 2:So you're right. You're right. No, that's true, and I mean, and I'm not worried per se, but you know, I do think that. I do think that I'm, I do think there are people out there that I could definitely take care of, but they have a perception of me that isn't necessarily true, because I can only show it so much. Or, let me be honest, I'm barely showing anything right now because I can barely keep up. I feel like I have every tab open.
Speaker 1:I actually posted it.
Speaker 2:I posted it on something today. I was like anybody else feeling this, and it literally says I feel like somebody just dumped a junk drawer on a trampoline, like I I don't even know, that's what my desk looks like, I don't know, um, but you know, I just you know, I don't want to miss out on something. Now. Granted, if they say, we want, you know, like the little babies in the, you know, hanging on branches, you're going to go somewhere else, or they want fairies or angels, that's not going to be me. But I remember, years and years ago, I had someone say, oh my gosh, you go online Location.
Speaker 2:And I'm thinking, how did we not know this? And this has been, this has probably been out 15, 16 years ago, but I was showing everything either in studio or garden, and this was such a meeting. It wasn't quite as big of a deal as it is now, so it wasn't the ability to show as much. But I was like, yeah, dummy, you're not showing that. You know what I mean. And all of a sudden she was like, oh, I need to tell people. We had no idea.
Speaker 2:And I'm thinking how did you not know that cameras can go in a car and they can go places? But it's my job to make sure they know that, not their job to figure it out, or that we only do things super traditional, that we don't do things fun. So I feel like sometimes I need to step back and go. Okay, what am I not showing that perhaps my ideal client, my avatar, would be attracted to if they saw it. So I guess it's something.
Speaker 1:And I'm hoping I mean that's the thing is don't show anything that you don't want to book.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent Right.
Speaker 1:So don't be surprised if no one is booking you for these type of sessions, if you've not got anything out about it.
Speaker 1:So I mean that's that's ground zero, but I'm hoping what will happen after this shooting season is that I'll be able to share and show more stylized things that are still in the realm of like my studio lighting, my pro you know the scenes that I do in the studio but are just look like that much better, that much better, so I can start kind of showing what I want to see out of the client. I just don't have any great examples I have. I have examples that I have coached. That's not true. I have examples that I have coached and some of them are good, but they're, if I haven't been able to like, go shopping for them, right.
Speaker 1:You know, what I mean and that's kind of that's. I'm just short of wanting to just dress them. Yeah, no, you're not wrong.
Speaker 2:I mean, and we already have, I mean, my session tomorrow. She is less. She has texted me. I can't tell you how many outfits and choices and we've got it all curated and narrowed down, but I want to go on it. I want to go on one more little tangent here. First of all, curating that process. Cura from that inspiration piece to the personal piece, to the final product, to the installation. Ok, social media gold, because the real that you can create, or the tick, tock or whatever you're going to use that for the how it started versus how it's going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Lee when that be cool with a testimonial. I mean, you wrap that up in a bow. That is, that is marketing gold, in my opinion, documenting everything, my gosh. And how does that make you stand out in your community as Look how person you've touched every single piece of, I mean like that is that, in my opinion, qualifies you as Hi hi, and you know service and detail and you know chef's kiss number one, number two what can make it even better is if those original pieces are linked back to local stores dot, dot, dot, dot dot, so that now we're tying in additional local businesses when you can, so that you can do a market that, yes, right, because that now you've got a partnership marketing, which we know, our partnership partnership posting or what have you. Now we know we're going to get double or triple the, the Traction when we use, when we post or use it.
Speaker 1:I don't know 100%. Yeah, I mean there's a store actually up the street has already asked me if they, if they could do that, and this would be a great way I could share the mood board. I mean, I could share the, the free form board with the store owner and they can add things to it, simple as just a cell phone picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a cell phone picture of it. And now you have to do is link. I mean, holy moly, now we're supporting local, but I mean, I feel like that is like. I mean I think, are we all tired just listening to us talk about it? Yes, yes, we are. We're all very tired listening to it. However, I think you know you've kind of started the hard part. Just getting started. Number one is the hardest part of all, but now you've already got one piece done. It'll be easy once you get the rhythm of doing it, don't you think what you get?
Speaker 1:the foundation because basically, I'm building, I'm gonna, I'm gonna build out one for like a fake, an archetype, like a client you know what I mean using maybe the rocker one or you know the rock show one, and then putting in I might just go and pull stuff off of the store at the streets, instagram, yeah right, for example and then just start and then put a fake wall up and do a whole thing love it so that I can just show this is what we're trying to do. Yeah, this is.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I love it and you can.
Speaker 2:Even you know you have plenty of people you can cut. You can come take dress like this, come in and we photograph your family and that you could do. You can do your own family, like just getting that original piece done. It's gonna be the hardest part, guys like I. Just there's just a really great idea here. I know there is. I'm excited to actually get started on it. I don't, I don't, I don't know. I'm gonna figure out some time to do it. We're gonna see. You know what.
Speaker 1:We're just gonna stay on the phone after we've podcast and we're gonna, I'm gonna screen share with you everything I'm doing and we're gonna do it. That's the larger you get. Yes, because we are from. Yes, this is true, this is true, this is true, I'm gonna get it done, but I like that, I'm so excited that you started it.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to see where this goes. I hope you guys are excited. I think you guys are excited. I think this is like gold. I really do. I think there's a lot of great ideas and, hey, if you've got something you want to add, let us know. I mean if, or if you're already doing this and you have some great advice for us, we would love to hear it. Share it, you know, share it with us on our get you together page or whatever. But I think, moving into this family portrait season and this is just one more element that helps us stand out in the crowd and you know that's that makes us outstanding. So Beautiful. I like it. I like it a lot. I like it a lot to All. Right, my friend, fabulous. You ready to wrap this up?
Speaker 1:Okay, you guys can follow us on instagram and get your shoot together. You can follow us on facebook and get your shoot together. You can email us at girl get your shoot together, dot com and subscribe to us everywhere we're podcasts are played. We will see you guys next time. Thanks y'all.