You would be forgiven for thinking that I've been lost within the world of Starfield for the past very silent week. 😅 While that is partially true, so is the opposite.
This past week... my photography venture officially began!
As someone who is a recovering anxiety-ridden person, this has been a big deal for me. And I've been nervous as hell, but am mostly coping. Whew.
It was a couple of weeks ago. I opened up my local community group on Facebook, took a deep breath, and asked for people to contact me if they were interested in free photos in exchange for allowing me to use those photos in my portfolio.
The result was overwhelming.
I had a total of 28 people contact me before I hastily edited my post to say that I had enough interest and would be replying to people to confirm dates and things soon. I shudder to think about how many more polite declines I would've had to have written if I didn't shut it down when I did. 😅 People saw the word "free" and quite literally leapt upon me.
Finally, I chose seven clients for the free shoots.
- a mother and her daughters
- a mother and her son
- a toddler
- a brother and sister
- two best friends
- a songstress and her guitar
- a couple before a masquerade ball
I was sooo excited to receive interest from a couple of people who were interested in more than just your standard/family photoshoots. Unfortunately, since locking in dates and times, there have been two cancellations... one of which was because the masquerade ball has been postponed. 🙁 I was really looking forward to that one. It seemed like it would be a fun shoot!
Yesterday I did my third shoot, which was the toddler. He was adorable, by the way. I bought some bubbles and things before the shoot to hopefully keep him engaged and interested. Which worked, to some extent. xD
I really don't have enough props and things, and honestly, I don't like a single photo that came from the shoot and I'm struggling to salvage what I did get. Every photo looks awful. Uncomposed. Not fully in frame. I'm suddenly not very confident that I can snap toddlers unless it's a family shoot and the young'un is held and restrained. Most of the photos aren't in my lighting and I have to over-edit them to showcase his beautiful face.
That inspired me though. After the shoot, I rushed off to the vast space of the interwebs and found a massive party warehouse in New South Wales that delivers country-wide. Then I ordered a bunch of cute props for kids. 😅 Fairy wings, pirate bandanas, tutus, hawaiian flower-necklace-things, fancy hats, funky sunglasses, etc.
...I'm going to need somewhere to store all this stuff. Haha. And I still need a couple more larger props, like stools and such. AND FLOOR DROPS. Because the backdrop the toddler's mother chose did not suit my flooring at all.
It's going to cost a bit. But hey: I can claim it all on tax. 😝
Anyway, I'm taking a break today. I spent 8 hours yesterday trying to edit photos I thoroughly dislike, now I'm planning on letting them sit there and I will look at them with fresh eyes on Sunday. Today I will do something fun!
Until next time! 🙃📸🔥
All photos in this post are courtesy of me, 