“Behind the Scenes”

Many of you all know that I had an awesome opportunity for all my clients to join in on a mini session this past weekend and there were so many items to coordinate to make sure that this event ran seamlessly.  This is what I enjoy!  This is what makes my blood pump, preparing, dreaming up set ideas, designs, the must haves to keep my clients comfortable and gathering all the goods to make it all happen.

So here is a glimpse as to my life behind the scenes of the mini sessions.

I started this set design in July of this year, we began signing up early and I made sure that I rewarded those clients too :) The venue was set early on and I was so excited to share that with my mini session clients.  The venue pulled my dream of having a Fall and Mini Session at the same location, but I didn‘t want the people viewing these images to think “Hey, they just stepped a few steps over and shot the other session!”

The hurdles:

Sofa- Do you know how hard it is to find an antique sofa without spending a fortune?  Well, let’s just say, you can’t!  The colors of the sofa, were, at first, off putting, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to see a new set design develop.  I know you have always heard me say “Where solids”, and here we were with a small print antique sofa!  But as you can see in my previous fb posts, when you wear accenting colors with this beautiful sofa, it all works well!  Then it comes to the seating of the sofa, the dern thing was swagging so bad, that when the men sat down, they sunk down in it.  No worries, quick fix it with a piece of plywood under the cushions, done!  Did I mention how heavy that thing is?

Lighting-For our Christmas mini sessions, I wanted the cabin theme.  I had the cabin, I had the tree, fireplace, lights, pictures, bench, pillows, throws…. but one thing was missing, one very important thing.  Power!  This cabin is rustic in its beauty with no power and for most cases I would delight in this, but for the need of light boxes, lit trees, etc.  It is not so feasible.  My fix, generator! And then as a back-up car batteries! Yep! Car batteries.  I used those with some converters and walah! We had the fix to keep the show going.

Weather-Well I can’t control the weather, but when these sorts of thing happen I have two choices, move inside and roll with it, or reschedule. So we rolled with it and I only had to cover my sofa for a brief moment while it misted.  

All the little things:

As I mentioned before, there is a lot of planning that goes into these beautiful sessions and most the time, I feel like I am planning for a trip or something.. Here’s a glimpse of that I mean.

Gas, 2-3 car batteries, box lights, flash box, flash, batteries for both cameras, vehicle battery charger, fall décor, Christmas décor, bench, pillow, throws, tripod, memory cards, computer, converter, drop cords, wood, cookies, cups, prep table, hair spray, lotion, necklaces, mirror, comb, clipboard, papers, business cards, parking sign, etc.

So, I am not sure if I am going camping or a business trip, but I should have it covered with this list.  It takes weeks and months to pull together a 20 minute mini session for my clients and then after the mini session….

The aftermath:

Clean up and putting away begins.  A sign of relief falls over me that everyone’s sessions went seamlessly and now I can concentrate on retouching the images from the sessions.  I’ll meet with each family individually and they will get to decide which images they would like for their prints and keepsakes. 

Once I have completed all of my one on one personal gallery reveal appointments, the ordering will start.  I’ll check each image to make sure that the color is correct, I will upload it into my printing software, check my boarders and ratios, select my sizes, choose frames, keepsake books, ornaments and cards and upload my order to the lab for printing. 

Once the order is fulfilled, it will ship to my home, where I inspect each item to make sure it is the quality that I want associated with my name.  the lab I use is superb and they do such a wonderful job of communicating with me, so this is just my last check before I package beautifully and deliver to you. 

I know I left a lot of little bits out of this process, but I hope that this shows you a little glimpse into the behind-the-scenes and why these session so valuable.  It is so valuable to have someone in your circle with the creativity, sources and know how to create the vision, so with that said, I look forward to new projects with you.

Until next time – capture memories.