Transitional Posing

Transitional posing is shooting in a series of subtle soft movements that create a series of fluid images.

After teaching dozens of workshops using my Transitional Posing method and hearing from my students that posing was the most important thing they wanted to learn, I decided it was time for a guidebook.

Transitional Posing sounds like a complicated concept, but it really an easy method. The idea is to keep your clients moving, and not realizing that they are really posing. No one likes posing. No one likes being posed. Posed portraits carry with them the image of being stiff, reserved, and formal. Also, a little stuffy and out of date.

Everyone wants the casual images that make them look natural, relaxed and beautiful. But our natural, relaxed selves are not photogenic or visually pleasing. When we are relaxed, our shoulders are usually hunched, our chins pull back and we develop bad posture. Bellies bulge and thighs inflate; little flaws become obvious.

So is that what people want when they say they want natural, un-posed images? Of course not. They want to see their amazing sculpted figures, defined chins and toned thighs. So you as the photographer need to do that for them. And I’m not talking about plastic surgery, Botox, or Photoshop. I’m talking about posing.

In this guide I will show you simple posing transitions for pregnancy portraits. You will see how you can start with one pose and then slowly evolve it into a series of poses all through a continual process of movements and adjustments.

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YOU can also purchase the guide in our shop.

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Recent Lesson: Displays, Expos and your Networking suitcase

Photography is not for the shy, weak or meek of heart! If you want to get your name out there, YOU need to be out there. People need to see you, your work and hear your voice. Displays and Expos are great avenues for allowing this to happen! If you are a photographer who stays home with their camera, hoping people will call you, you may want to read this at least one,two or three times!

When I came to California I did not know anyone at all except for my new husband and his college friends. I have said this before, but I am actually quite shy around people I do not know. However, one thing I learned years ago was how to job search. My Mom taught me early on to go on as many interviews as I could, because I would hone my speaking skills. More important than getting the job, was how I presented myself and how I spoke. Because ofthis, I was never without a job and usually had 2-3 jobs all during college.When I started growing my photography business one of the things I started doing from day one was to look for opportunities. This meant ANY opportunity.12 years ago I didn’t’ t even really know what expos were all about, let alone displays or partnering with stores. But little by little I learned, and taught myself a lot of things along the way.

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Marketing with Local Businesses

This week we are all about networking and marketing with other businesses. Here is an excerpt from this weeks lesson…

“One of the reasons I was able to grow my clientele from nothing to 1700 was through a combination of several things that all amounted to one thing – being EVERYWHERE. No one knew my talent or me so it was up to me to get the word out. Over the past ten years I have participated in countless expos, home parties and worked with several businesses. Of all of the things that I have participated in, working with other businesses helped me grow my business more than any other way.

I have been writing this lesson in my mind for two days and just today a funny thing happened. I went next door to the Balloon Company to see if we could barter a deal to get balloon arrangements for my daughters bday party. When we moved in next-door two months ago, we each said hello and they even gave me a cute gift welcoming me to this side of the street. I then told them I had a party division and if they wanted to give me pricing, maybe I could put together a package. Two months went by and they recently came over with the price packages. Today when I went, I asked if they wanted to provide balloon arrangements for my daughters party I could have it photographed (as our party photographer – Stefanie was coming) and we could give her images for the website and put them on our site and cross market. She agreed. Very simple. Now when I approached them today my end goal was to get balloons for my party for free, but I knew I could not walk in and say that and honestly I didn’t want to be greedy. So I thought about it for a minute and tried to think of a way to partner with them that would BENEFIT them more than my needs. When I went in, I didn’t start with “Hey I want free balloons…” What I said was “HI, I know this is kind of last minute, but I had an idea!” This immediately perked her interest. I told her I had been working with the Florist across the street (this is very true and is very helpful when mentioning other businesses) and they were providing flowers for my daughters party in exchange for photos. I mentioned that if they had time and wanted to provide balloons I would have them photographed and we could start work on some cross marketing. She said sure no problem. It was a quick ten minute conversation and we were both happy. As I was leaving she had said she wouldn’t be delivering them someone else would because she would be showing dogs. NOW, she had said this as my hand was on the door and I was walking out. I stopped DEAD in my tracks. All week long I had been trying to work on a pet promo. I have 3 places waiting for my material but I haven’t loved my photos and I needed more dogs. When she said show dogs I could not believe it. I turned right around and said tell me more and what dogs can you get me. She replied with saying “the best of the best”!! They are show dogs after all. MY EYES were crazy. I told her of my pet promo plans, fundraiser idea and if she can get me 5 amazing dogs asap I will give them free images and give her samples for her store. Done done done. She wrote down a list of contacts and dogs and said she would touch base. The whole thing was maybe 20 minutes. I could not believe it. Now my stories over the years have been very similar. We forget that businesses are run by people. And trying to network with other businesses means you are connecting with new people, and new stories and new contacts. This is HUGE. By only focusing on the business we tend to loose sight of this….”

“…We forget that businesses are run by people. And trying to network with other businesses means you are connecting with new people, and new stories and new contacts. This is HUGE. By only focusing on the business we tend to loose sight of this….”

READ ON

New Year Marketing Ideas

Are you in a small town? Big town? Do people call you for advice? Come over and never leave? Does no one know who you are? I am going to list some marketing ideas based on who you are:

You are:

Someone noone really knows about…I am not yet known for my work…

Someone who has a steady client list but are running out of ideas for the new year…

Someone who needs extra money. You have clients, you sell sessions but you need and want more…

What am I talking about??

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Lighting Samples

Many of the students have been struggling as to where to put their lights and setups. So I brought one of my clients in for some lighting setups and posing. I picked some of my favorites:

Moderate/Hi Key

Strip Light

Two Lights to One

High Light

and included my setttings as well as plenty of images. The documents are in this weeks Lessons forum and followup is hopeful for students to show me how they can implement these. These are simple easy to follow documents

Transitional Posing

In this weekends past workshop I went over transitional posing as a way to lead into a session. Transitional posing is a way of starting with one pose and doing tiny transitions to fluidly move from one movement to another. Many times when we are in a session its hard to figure out where to start. In the inspirations card set I show many different poses and those are all starting poses. Once you do that pose you need to know where to go. I tell my students to start with that one pose – whatever it is and then slowly move from one transition to another. Now I say slowly but anyone that has seen me shoot or others, know that I shoot lightening fast and rarely pause during this pose of transitions. So what does that mean – that means, let’s say you start with hands on the belly, have her look at you, then look down, then look up to the light. Then you can have her turn towards her shoulder, look up, look down, little smile, then turn this way that way, etc. Once you have exhausted all of the options, you change your pose and continue. Read More…

Seasonal Marketing

In this two part series, we have discussed seasonal marketing, and how to best prepare your clients for what is to come all year.

Here is an excerpt:

“I want to get you all thinking about holiday offerings. When you are trying to get clients its super hard to do, but still necessary. 6 years ago a local photographer asked if I wanted to do a Santa special with her. I have never heard of such a thing. She was going to hire a santa and me and another photographer would all split the weekend and photograph in shifts. Great I said. They wanted to use my studio as they each had their own residential studios. Ok again. I was at their mercy. I had no idea what I was doing. They came up with packages, and a schedule and told me they had a santa – great! I started telling people I knew, and I had a few that were interested….”

Framing 101

This week we are all about Framing. Our students were given a free download on my Ultimate Framing Guide.

Intro is as follows…

About 7 years ago I started providing framing to my clients, not having any idea that this product would account for a large part of our sales strategy. When I first started offering frames, I had no real idea what I was doing. I did a tiny bit of internet research, found a wholesale framing company and went to work. I was in between studios and was operating out of my home. I didn’t even have moulding samples at the time. I just showed clients my catalog and we picked and chose and went to work. Now keep in mind, I consider myself a pretty handy and crafty person. If I don’t know how to do something or make something, I can usually figure out and am very willing to self teach myself. However I also do like to read books and had there been a guide out there that was easy to follow and simple in concept I would have bought it. I did buy several books and videos, and it all seemed to contain way too much information. There was information on cutting my own mouldings, and gluing wood and using saws…all things I didn’t need. What I needed was a simple sales strategy of how to offer frames to my clients and how to assemble a frame. So I figured it out. Bit by bit. Year by year. I learned what worked and what didn’t, and became one of the largest clients that Excel (my first framing vendor, and which I still order many frames from) had of their wholesale frames.

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BABY STEPS: My Life’s Journey into Photography – PART TWO

As we continue our journey, I wanted to give everyone more insight as to how I landed in my current studio. The debate is constant – ” do I stay at home, stay on location, get a studio”. The pros and cons are a mile long. You need to focus on where you want to go and then work back from there.

An excerpt from this lesson:

“Ok here we go….I keep going to back to the fact that everyone is in a rush. Yes our minds are going, we want it all. We want great images, we want great clients and we want to get moving. As much as I love my new studio, I can find 1000 things wrong with it, such as it costs me money and its too small! It seems that a lot of photographers dream about a studio, of which I can understand why. I am one of those people that I wish, yes I wish that time would just go a tad slower. I know my mind goes a mile a minute, but I want longer days and slower days and I want technology to slow down long enough for me to enjoy my camera. I want the super studio that has it all but I want the easy feeling of not having a studio! So where does one begin? I will start with where I began.I started taking photos – we talked about that in the last lesson. I didn’t focus on where, I focused on how. I think this is where you need to put your energies into. When photographers are starting out – especially now – and especially if you KNOW you want to be a photographer, the eye candy all around is very distracting. Its hard to focus on your talents and your style. Sometimes I think new photographers should put blinders on and just go and find their way but then now there are so many great things, tools, templates, etc that make our life easier, that would be silly. I opened my first studio only 6 years ago. The only thing I had was my camera up until then. Where did I shoot? Everywhere?! I mastered my natural light and figured out soon enough that overcast days and shade were my friend! I learned how to use a reflector and the Sunny 16 rule – gosh I read that rule 100 times.”…read more – login

As I have said, I had no intuition, no calling, or pull or spokesperson to tell me I was going to be a photographer. I truly feel that my whole life led me to here. It just happened. I did what I loved to do and took that road is this is where my road goes. There were many stops in the road but apparently some angels were taking me back to the main road, because honestly I could not have predicted my life if I wanted to.

BABY STEPS: My Life’s Journey into Photography – PART ONE

In the upcoming weeks I will be posting my history into the photography world. My plan is to write a mini book on my journey, but for now I am posting bit by bit on the site. Too often I feel photographers are in such a huge rush to get going out there. We need to take our time and grow.

Here is an excerpt – to read the full scoop – logon – http://www.bstudioforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1439 (not a student – join us)

“Ok for some reason this has taken me forever to post – probably because I want to write a book on the subject. Stefanie and I actually came up with a title – after spending over an hour telling my lifes story to a visiting photographer ~ BABY STEPS: My Life’s Journey into Photography But until that comes out – let’s begin here. As I told the visiting photographers this weekend – I did not walk into this business with a husband and 3 kids. This was in my response to the usual question “ do I ever see my kids, do I cook, do laundry etc.” Anyone that spends a day with me would see that yes to all of the above. Actually today I did 5 loads of laundry – hosted a play date – then took my kids to another playdate while I saw my Dr. and coordinated swim lessons, art lessons and began summer camp planning – all while writing bills, doing laundry and working with new BCreatives. My kids spend a lot of time at the studio and it is not uncommon to see them baby wrangling with us!

Now as I said before – I have notebooks – several in fact. One for jotting down quick finances – things that need to be paid that I might have missed that awaken me in the night. Another notebook for studio items – another for personal. The notebooks are everywhere. My kids are everywhere. My husband and I share pick up – drop off duties and juggle baseball, gymnastics, art classes and swimming – among playdates and birthday parties. But back to Baby Steps – I did not start this way.
I have been taking pictures since I was 14. I had no idea – none – zilch that I would ever be a professional photographer. We never went to a studio growing up – my Dad was the family photographer. My Nanny was as well. Somewhere along the line I received a camera – I believe I was 14. I have had a zillion cameras between now and then and I wish I would have known I was going to be a photographer, as I would have kept all those cameras. I honestly had no idea, no intention at all. I know I loved taking photos that was it. I am the youngest of 5 and my brothers started having babies before I was 20. I believe my nephew now is 17 or 18?? Need to think on that. I am 38. I know that when my nephew was born I was so so captivated with him from day one. And from day one I was Aunt Ana. Aunt Ana with a camera. I was Aunt Ana for 10 years before I had my own.”…..

Next up – My Studio History…

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