My Idea for Maui Mini-Movies — Family Portrait Shoot with Maile

So I have a crazy new idea..... family video portraits.

I want to try creating 2-3 minute video portraits for families. Like family portraits but instead of still pictures, it's moving video. And don't worry, I'm not visualizing like wedding style videos. It's not going to be a slow documentary of them staring at the camera or anything painfully boring like that. I'm visualizing fast-paced, flashy, colorful fun videos of families playing together on the beach. Quick shots that capture the feeling of being together and having fun.

Is this a slightly random project? Perhaps. haha I've just been wondering about this for a couple weeks now. It's been on my mind. I have this inkling to just try it. No harm done if I hate it or completely suck at it. I've booked a few shoots with some families who are volunteering to be my Guinea Pigs. I'm going to meet them at the beach, run in the sand, splash in the waves, have tickle-fests and play peek-a-boo with the camera. We'll see how it goes. If it's fun and I'm good at it, who knows where this will lead. Maybe I'll start a sister company. I'll shoot women & their families. Maybe the mom's I photograph will be enticed to come to me for beauty portraits too! For now thought, it's just a fun weekend project to get this idea out of my head and onto 'film'. I think I'll call these family mini-movies.

I experimented on my first family last week. I met Maile and her two children at a very local beach near the bird sanctuary in Waiehu, Maui. We splashed in the wee stream and spun around LOTS. I've just started digging through the video footage and of course I'll be sharing it once I finished their mini-movie. The soundtrack I've selected for them is "Let's Be Young" by Evan McHugh. Check it out, it's super fun. For now, enjoy these sweet still portraits that I captured along the way...

Thank you so much Maile for reaching out to me and helping me get started on the island. It was a delight to meet you and your kiddos. You're so sweet and I hope to see you again soon!

{My Happiness Project} Letter Chains

So the month of November was supposed to be all about loving BUT all I can think about so far is letter writing. Last week I wrote about my spreadsheet for organizing my letters to friends who live all around the world. Some of you (wink wink Naomi, my new friend here in Maui) think this is an absolutely ridiculous type-A behavior but to you I say pooh-pooh. ;) I'm changing November's theme to Letter Writing. 

This week I've finally decided to take action and start a chain letter. Thanks to my friend Shona who gave me this idea a couple years ago! The idea is simple and beautiful. Pick a group of friends that you want to stay in touch with. Buy an envelope and create a rotation list that sends that envelope around the globe hoping from one person to the next, going in circles, around and around. When you receive the envelope, you can check out all the notes and funky things people before you have put in. You add something to the envelope and send it on it's marry way. When the envelope returns to your mailbox, you take out your last contribution and replace it with something new. Every time the envelope goes around it's filled with new items and everyone gets a chance to see them.

Ug this is such an ugly photo - it pains me to see it on my blog. I wish I had taken the time to be all crafty and taken a Pinterest-worthy photo BUT I didn't have time. My apologies and I beg you to just deal with it ;) 

I think it's a fabulous way for a group of friends to stay in touch. I've been talking about doing this for over a year and this is the week that I'm FINALLY making it happen. Inside the envelope I'm going to include a list of everyone's addresses, the order that the envelope gets posted (which person sends it to which person), and blank sticker address-labels to make it easier for people to address the envelope (making tasks easier increases the likelihood that they'd get done). Shona also mentioned that we should have a set time-limit for posting the envelope — once you receive it, you have 2-3 weeks to send it forward. This keeps the process flowing and avoids the envelope being neglected beneath someone's bed.

This morning on my way to work I pulled into the Drugs Store and purchased a perfectly medium sized yellow envelope. I'm so excited to start this chain letter! Anybody else out there ever done something like this?

Sales Tips Series Part 5: Guerrilla Marketing to Increase Sales

Welcome to part 5 of this wonderfully exciting Sales Tips series! Check out previous tips:

Part 1: Start Selling at HELLO 

Part 2: Salesmanship Begins at NO 

Part 3: Directing Sales Conversations with Probes & Closes
Part 4: Inflating Your Prices to Make Room for Volume Discounts

We're not talking about monkeys and we're not talking about pasting stickers around the city. We're talking about lowering our clients' stress, opening their minds to possibilities and making more money.

• Have a nice clean simple price list that only includes your favorite, best selling, most wonderful products. This is what you present to your clients. These are the products that you place in their laps.
• Constantly be coming up with new products & new ways to arrange photos.
• When you have new products, blog about it. Clients may see your blog post, get excited about the idea and request it.
• Print off some samples or this new product and use them to decorate your studio or sales room. Remember, they aren't studio samples ... they're 'decoration.' Maybe a client will admire your 'decoration' and ask if they could have something like that.
• The key is to not overwhelm your client with choices while simultaneously exposing them to all the possibilities.
• When they do ask about a 'decorative' print "Oh....could you maybe make something like that for me?" — Oblige and say something like, "Of course, I can do something like that FOR YOU."
• Have a second hidden price list that includes ALL the prices for EVERYTHING you sell. Try and have this memorized. This will make you look super prepared when you know the prices to things that aren't even "for sale"! 

How to Change your Photography Style & Create a New Portfolio

Q: Should I be afraid of changing my photography style? I'm tired of shooting the same thing over and over. I want to try something new but I'm afraid of how this will affect my business. Will it confuse clients? Do I have to build a whole new portfolio? 

Definitely not. Well, on second thought, I guess we really don't have much control over what we're afraid of, BUT we do have control over how we react to our fear, right? As artists, our style is always changing. Sometimes we take matters into our own hands and we make this change happened faster or we control where we want it to go. Whether you work with clients or just enjoy photography as a hobby, I think you should always be pushing the limits of your skills and searching for fresh ideas — doing both of these things will change your style (probably in a good way) whether you like it or not. As long as you're creating, you're growing. The more you create, the more you grow. With quantity, comes quality.

The only thing you have to look out for is if your clients are hiring you for a particular style that you have promised them through the images they’ve advertised on your website or blog. They are expecting a certain product from you and you need to deliver that. If you’re not loving your current “image” (the style you’re being hired to shoot), you need to do some underground revolution work! Shoot with models on the weekend and create a new, updated portfolio that represents your new style. Slowly integrate these new photos onto your blog, let people know you’re headed in a new direction, and eventually completely overhaul your website portfolio.

Just in the first two years of my business I’ve watched 3 or 4 major styles waves come and go (in my own work and the work of my photography friends). Each time I was nervous about how it would affect things but each time I felt so happy when I let my creativity run free and I could look back and see how I was evolving. I say "feel the fear and do it anyways - go for it and watch what happens”!

Here's a little look at how my style has changed over the past 2 years.
August 2011: My first photo shoot I ever organized. It was at Promenade Beach in Edinburgh. Check it out here.
October 2012: This was the first photo shoot I did in Seattle. I photographed my brother's girlfriend in my parent's living room. Check it out here.
October 2012 (2nd collage): This was one of the last photo shoots I did in Scotland. I was shooting with my friend Rhiannon. Check it out here. 
October 2013: This is my most recent photo shoot on a beach in South Maui, Hawaii. Check it out here 

What do you think? Are you going through a change of style right now?
Have you seen your photography style go through changes? Any advice for other readers?