Posts Tagged ‘Rochester NY Portrait Photographer’
So. I say this every year.
Are you doing family pictures?
Yes?
Okay.
Here’s my advice — whoever you choose for your photographer — BOOK the SESSION NOW. Seriously. If you have ideas of fall photos, holiday cards, your family with great colors outside — yeah. You know what i’m going to say, right?
Limited. Openings.
So…that being said — this family booked and we had a huge amount of fun running all over their house and yard and just PLAYING (cuz I LOVE to play!) and George (I maintain that “GEORGE” is the best boy’s name ever — just say it to yourself. Right? If I had thought of it then — my son TOTALLY would have been a GEORGE) kept me on my toes running ALL OVER. OMG! ::laughing::
And one small observation — if you made it down to the bottom of this post and didn’t get caught up in — HOW CUTE THESE CHILDREN ARE ::grin:: — I want you to see that you don’t always have to go to crazy locations for photographs – sometimes just playing in the yard makes the best place. Right?
So. First let me show you:
Then let me TELL you:
Jillian and Kevin are getting married in October. In Hilton Head, SC. Think that’s going to be amazing?! yeah. me too. ::grin::
Kevin recently opened this super cool performance and repair shop called The Little Speed Shop — and it was the COOLEST location to shoot in…let’s see…I had a BMW…a Maserati…a workshop…yeah. I was TOTALLY feelin’ it! So we played. And played. And then the sun set in this amazing burst of color…
I felt like I was in a movie. Right?
And it lends itself to the conversation about sessions. Jillian and Kevin had a strong point of view from which they wanted the session to go — and that was unbelievably fun! The more thought you put into a session (with me, fo course, never alone!) — the more personal it becomes. It really is about you. About what’s important to you. And if the MOST important thing is that you are TOGETHER — then we’ll just wander around and find cool spots to shoot in. That’s equally as fun too. Just bring cool clothes. And a Maserati.
I’m kidding about the Maserati. I just like typing Maserati. It’s even more fun to say… (you know you just said it in your mind. bonus if you said it outloud!)
Yeah. It’s alllll good!
xo T
So. Perhaps you’ve noticed that sometimes I like to try new things. No?! Well…I can assure you…it’s true. Take this presentation of Megan’s senior photo shoot sneak peek. It’s HOT, right? Yeah. I thought so too. First of all Megan, amazing member of the class of 2012, came to me for her senior photographs. She brought her best friend and her mom — and we had an AMAZING session. It’s important, those of you considering having your photographs taken, to be THOUGHTFUL about what clothes you should wear — my usual discussion with my clients runs something like this: bring a suitcase. ::grin:: It’s better to bring too much than not enough. Maybe we’ll change our minds or something won’t work the way we thought it would…then you have options.
Megan is allll about options. She brought a terrific array of choices and we ROCKED it out!
Thanks Megan!
My team has learned, much like Pavlov’s dogs, to cringe when they see me come in like a whirlwind, all wound up, and say: “Okay. So I had this idea in the middle of the night…” Typically that means: A. A lot of work. B. Switching directions from what they are doing to focus on something new C. Tammy is obsessed with thinking about this idea. D. Taking a lot of time E. A lot of work. ::laughing::
A lot of times those ideas kind of fade away because they are impractical for whatever reason, or I notice that someone else has done something kind of along the same lines, or…I get bored with it…or it’s too hard to REALLY do. Since I generate a LOT of ideas all the time (who knew this was unusual?) this happens quite often.
Once in a while though, I have a “BIG” one. And this time, not only was it big — but it turned out to exceed my wildest imagination and expectations — and I could NOT have achieved it without the diligent work and dedication of my team, my friends, my clients and my colleagues.
It started with Vanity Fair.
You know how they have that issue with the actors on it? I remember thinking…I’d love to do something like that. How can I do something like that?
And then…in the middle of the night…I woke up with this idea perfectly formed in my head: my clients.
I wonder if my clients would do something like that? And so…an idea was born. The most humbling thing for me, by FAR, is that every single one of my clients we talked to said yes. No hesitation…no maybe’s — just…yep. Tam. That sounds sooo fun! Let’s do it! Tell me when and we’ll be there!
I think I might have cried I was so overwhelmed by that.
As an afterthought i said — hey. let’s videotape it and see if we can’t put a little behind the scenes thingy (yes, I said thingy, it’s the technical term! ::grin::) together. Which turned into: let’s interview each person and ASK (innovative concept, right? ASK our clients to tell us about their experience) — and we maybe might have forgot to mention this to our clients — so when they came in to be photographed, they were surprised and a little nervous to sit in front of a camera. I’m telling you this so you can see what follows was completely unscripted — even when I talk (and it’s SO HARD to hear yourself…ugh. do I REALLY sound like that? OMG) I had things I wanted to say, but I just talked unscripted. I sounded a little strange and disconnected and sometimes I’d have to say it a couple of times — but I wanted it to be more gritty and real — then a perfect beautiful video. Because we want to have fun and play and take photographs — we don’t want to be perfect. It’s too much pressure, right?
Here’s the Vanity Fair cover that inspired me:
Cool ,right? So…what I love about what our final image is that it’s a TOTAL Swales interpretation. I wanted several things — I wanted to show how DIVERSE my clientele is…I wanted to show how COOL they are…and I wanted to be PLAYFUL.
Here’s mine (and clicking it will take you to an online version — that if you click it will make it REALLY BIG. Try it — it’s totally cool!)
Can you BELIEVE this?! I LOVE it sooo much!!!
Finally — we worked on the COOL VIDEO.
I don’t know what to say about it other than it’s the coolest thing I think we’ve done up until this point. I love everything and everyone in it. Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone involved — my amazing clients, Rock Paper Scissors Salon who styled, Bruce Hahn for advising me on lighting, My amazing team, and my family for supporting me through all the madness. I love you all.
So…watch it will ya? And tell me if you like it. really. Cuz it was a LOT of work. And I really wanted you to know how important it is to me that my clients take center stage…because, ultimately, that’s WHY I do what I do. For you. xoxo
lol.
6.02.2011
It’s incredible, Tammy! You are amazing.
6.02.2011
I LOOOOOOOOVE IT! The video is PHENOM!!! Yay, Tammy!!!!
6.02.2011
WOW Tam!!! Awesome. I didn’t expect anything less. All that hard work paid off. Thanks for let me be a part of this.
6.09.2011
I need to come up to New York and just hang out with you! I love every minute of the video!
6.14.2011
are you serious??? what EVER sister. holy crap this is pure genius and I wanna hug you something fierce Swales!!!!!