Creating Bad Work on Purpose to Strengthen your Creativity

What the heck was I doing? This was a terrible idea. The sun was too bright across half of her face, the background looked hella weird and I'm pretty sure I took 200 pictures of the same pose. This was a bad idea and I can't believe I ever thought it would work.

I haven't seen the pictures from this morning's photo shoot yet but there's no way I could describe them as amazing. And yet, I'm so happy. I had an idea and I brought it to life. I hauled a table into the forest with my bare hands. I spend $10 on a kind-of -ugly kind-of-awesome bedsheet. I got a freshly cleaned pair of jean shorts covered in dirt. I'll probably wake up tomorrow with bug bites. So worth it.  

The beauty of the experiment is that it gives your imagination a chance to come to life. Daydreams and visions leave your mind and materialize into the world before you. Sometimes they look exactly how you envisioned. Sometimes they are the next best #pinterestfail - Either way, you are liberating your ideas and strengthening your creativity. One experiment at a time you are becoming better at your craft. An artist. An expert. (This is what I'm telling myself, anyway. lol)

This is the "behind the scenes" before photo.
I can't wait to dive into the edit of the actual photo shoot and see if there's anything good in there. ha!
Have a wonderful day experimenting :D
xoxo
Chamonix

The Purple Dress and Why Do I Want to Take Nude Portraits of Women

There is was... the most beautiful purple ball gown with sparkles I've ever seen. I paid $30 and took it home to my studio, hoping that one day I'd find the Cinderella who would actually fit into this tiny garment. Last summer, I photographed my friend Alena in this beautiful dress and I was amazed at how beautiful she looked. That bone structure is killer and just wearing the dress seemed to bring out a new side to her personality.

As much as I love beautiful dresses and all the wonderful things they do for the female figure (and confidence), I think that sometimes clothes get in the way of us actually seeing the woman inside them. We love dressing up but when the camera joins the party, dressing up seems to turn into a fashion photo shoot — women cross their fingers and hope they'll at least resemble the women in magazines, in the fancy clothes, in the broken doll poses. Frankly, I'm sick of the fashion. Our world has gone a bit overboard with how much importance we place on clothing.

Clothes say so much about who we are and what we like. That said, I also like that without clothes we are all on an equal playing field. I like the idea that when you see a photo of a naked woman, you can't make the same judgements about her that you could if she were wearing clothes. You don't know if she's preppy or grungy or hipster or retro. She's just naked. All you can look at is her face and the shape of her body and the texture of her skin. It's extremely vulnerable and I love that.

Most women aren't comfortable being seen naked, let alone being photographed that way.  I'm in that camp too. The idea of having my nude portrait taken makes me feel so shy and embarrassed. I think this is probably because I don't like how I look when I see myself naked in the mirror. I know I'm not alone with this. I also know that being photographed nude is a great way to overcome this fear and take one step closer to embracing your own body however it looks. So maybe one day soon I'll challenge myself to this experience.

What I can do right now though is offer my photography skills to other women who are ready to be photographed nude. I want to take photos that show a woman looking her most beautiful without the distraction of clothing. Photos that can't be dated by clothing. Photos that aren't all about the awesome dress. I want to take photos that are so simple and focused on a woman's body, her face and how she feels about herself. I want my photos to be honest. I want them to embrace the reality of how women look and what makes women beautiful (and the answer to that questions is not clothing).

Having said all of that, I do think that these photos of Alena in this purple dress are an incredible example of clothing at its best. Both Alena and the dress look gorgeous and Iw on't lie — I'm so proud of these photos. I feel like they may be my best work. Thank you beautiful purple dress for adding a little sparkle to this shoot. (So maybe sometimes I'll use clothing haha)

xoxo

Chamonix

When Pricing Your Photography Don't Forget About the Hidden Costs

Our jaws probably dropped to the floor. Cheryl and I looked at each other, shook our heads and then looked at Cindy and said, "We can help you." haha

This morning, I went to coffee (which always means Zen Green Tea) with Cheryl (my best photography buddy) & Cindy (a photographer we've been mentoring together for a couple years). Our conversation wiggled its way to the all encumbering topic of PRICING. Cindy shocked us when she told us how many (too many) hours she's been spending editing her photos. Just the costs of her time & labor would force her prices up through the roof.

We grabbed a pen and paper and hashed out the finances of one photo shoot:

Cost of Goods:
Welcome Packet — $8
Shipping Cost for Welcome Packet — $5
Branded USB Flash Drive (for delivering images) — $10
Shipping for USB Flash Drive — $5

Cost of Services:
Hair & Makeup — $140
Photographer's Time — $50 / hr (2hrs)
Photo Editing Time — $50 / hr (2hrs)
or Outsourcing Photo Shoot — $20
Office Stuff (Sending Emailing, Phone Calls, Consultations, Uploading Images to Gallery etc..) — $50 /hr (2hrs)

Total Cost of Goods: $28
Total Cost of Labor: $460
Total Cost: $488

*And this is not even considering the overhead of just running the business. This is just specifically for one shoot — not thinking about more general expenses like paying for your editing software, camera equipment, online gallery subscription etc... We're just trying to keep it simple here. 

So anyway, we realized that we have to be charging about $500 minimum just to cover the costs of doing a photo shoot. We haven't even discussed charging for images/prints yet, which is where many photographers make their profit. If you sell images separately, and you charged $30 / digital image and you sold 30 digital images, now you're making an additional $900 for your shoot. That can pretty much be a large chunk of gross profit. Hooray!

If Cindy felt it was too expensive to charge $500 for a photo shoot and then an additional (up to) $99 for photos afterwards. She could fudge the numbers a little and take a risk. If she charges less for her photo shoot, say $200, then she needs to make sure she makes up the difference ($288) with print sales in order to cover the costs ($488) of producing that shoot.

However she breaks down the price, she has to be aware of the hidden costs that come with time & labor spent on a project. If she spent 30 hours working on a photo shoot, even if she charged $488 for the shoot and sold $900 worth of prints, she would still be in the red, not making enough money to cover her labor costs.

It's easy to brush aside labor costs when you're getting started and I'm actually really comfortable doing it myself. I don't think people should worry about it too much when you're just desperately trying to get experience and build a portfolio. At that beginning stage of your photography career, I think the best action you can take is to work as much as possible (even for free). Work and work and work some more!!! And while you're doing all this working, start getting into efficient habits. If you practice spending no more than 2hrs of editing right from the beginning, then once you graduate to the next levels of business and you really start to value the cost of your own time, you'll already be accustomed to working quickly to preserve your hard-earned money, not letting labor costs suck it away into the black hole that is Lightroom/Photoshop. haha

Set those timers on your phones, start working faster, and stop forgetting that your time is part of the cost of your product. Good luck my friends. :)
xoxo
Chamonix

Almost Ready to Rent a Photography Studio .... but Not

The brick walls and the wood floors are where it's at. I need a big window with lots of beautiful light and it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a lovely view. I'm keepin' my eyes peeled for a studio space to run my photography business(es) and grrr what a challenge. Every other night I lie in bed for 30 minutes scrolling through Craigslist and Loopnet — seein' what's out there. With the right budget, I could have my pick but my budget is incy-wincy. To be in the city or not to be in the city — what a frustrating question!! Shall I have a small space that is only for meeting clients or a space that has room for shooting women too? Shall I sign a contract or go month to month? Will I make enough money to pay for the studio AND the bills? Will it pay for itself or ruin me? I can find spots that are the right price but they definitely don't have the right vibe. I've discovered a couple sweet places I'd love and their pricing is tempting but a little uncomfortable — eeek.  So many factors. I guess I'm not really ready yet, then huh? Sort out your life, Chamonix! Get it together. lol That's what I'm saying to myself tonight as I lie on the couch in my parent's living room, feet propped up on a soft blanket, aching after a long day at a wedding, my hairs up in a towel and I'm in my PJs, wondering when the time will come that I shall find and adopt a beautiful little studio of my own. One day......

Thank you Pinterest for my day dreaming inspiration:

xoxo

Chamonix