Hi friends!!! I want to introduce you to my sweet friend, and previous BRIDE of mine, LISA!
On Friday, Lisa had her second Mentoring Session with me. Her first Mentoring Session was much more along the lines of learning to use her camera.
She came to me with a lot of frustration because her camera wasn’t working for her, and she wanted nothing more than to be taking beautiful images and to feel confident in doing it. So, we tailored her first Mentor Session around learning the ins and out of learning her camera completely on manual. Meaning she would use ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to learn how to use her camera in various lighting situations to always have a gorgeous in-camera result.
Above you are seeing some of Lisa’s first photo shoot right after our first Mentor Session. Right off the bat, these photos aren’t awful photos by means, however, they have some major issues as far as lighting and framing go. Lisa happily admitted that there was a lot more work behind using her camera on manual than she realized. She then put in the time and hard work to really focus on nailing her camera settings.
The one thing a lot of photographers starting out (including myself at the time) don’t realize, is there’s no “one quick” fix or thing you can learn to make your camera just snap beautiful images or just apply a preset while editing that does all the work for you. There’s just not, and I think that’s where a lot of people get frustrated. People always tell me all the time “your camera takes such a beautiful photos”, but I PROMISE you, it’s because I have worked years and years learning and developing my style. I know how to make my camera work for me in multiple lighting situations and I don’t just let my camera sit on auto and do the work for me. I am the one making it happen behind the camera, and that’s something I try to instill in my Mentoring Sessions, which is especially key for developing ones own style.
Above you’re seeing a couple of photo sessions Lisa did after learning her camera even more. What a MAJOR difference!!! You can see she was really starting to learn her camera by seeing she was able to focus on framing and lighting even more. I mean, how gorgeous are those warm sun tones in these shots?! And this was BEFORE the second Mentor Session! SO proud of her!!!
Now, on to the second Mentor Session. The above photo you’re seeing is from the Friday’s Mentor Session with Lisa. She came with a list of all new questions and more focused questions at that. She wanted to learn how to shoot indoors (which is represented in the photo of me above), and how to edit said photos indoors to still look light and airy. I think she NAILED it. And this was like, just one or two shots in. SO GOOD!
Other things she wanted to focus on included more specifics with editing in Lightroom, consistent post processing, finding gorgeous shooting locations and beautiful lighting, and coming up with a pricing structure so she can start charging what she is worth. Which, is exactly what we did!
We also went out and worked one-on-one with a model so I could help Lisa behind the camera more with posing, how to speak to the client, finding those gorgeous locations, and lighting. She seriously CRUSHED it with this too! Other than the photo I took of Lisa behind the scenes, she took all of the following photos herself!
Lisa felt so much more confident and was smiling ear-to-ear after she left. She even had a photo session already scheduled for Sunday after our session, and she went into that feeling WAY more ready to take on the task with ease. She texted me SO proud of herself after her session, and she should be, because she is ROCKING it number one, but number two, she’s shooting completely manual even down to using Kelvin (which means setting your own temperature in camera). Just AMAZING!
From Lisa herself,
“I have had two mentor sessions with Heather so far. After my first mentor session, I gained the confidence to get behind the camera and start exploring family and lifestyle portraits. I struggled to apply all the knowledge I had about using manual mode, finding the right lighting and composition, editing, and forming a business. Photography is truly an art and it takes hundreds of hours of practice. By the time I had my second mentor session, I was ready to focus on specific areas of need and channel Heather’s techniques to form my own style. I now have the confidence to channel this new found understanding into a thriving business and I cannot wait to see what the future brings!”
I can’t wait to see you grow even more, Lisa!!
If you are interested in a Mentoring Session yourself, email me at heatherchipps@gmail.com and I will send you all the goodies for you to determine what session works best for you!
