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Geist Reservoir Engagement Session
Erin and Natalia’s sunrise engagement session on Geist Reservoir was totally worth waking up before the sun for! Sunrise engagement sessions are perfect for this time of year, because we can take all of our photos before it starts getting too hot. It’s also nice because there is hardly anyone else awake at that time, so we don’t have to worry about getting other people in the background of our photos. I loved getting to photograph these two love birds in their backyard right on the lake, because it’s such a special place for the two of them. They both love taking the boats and paddleboards out on the water together. We also used a park in their neighborhood that also included the lake in the background before heading over to Ritchie Woods Nature preserve for more photos at the end of our session. I loved all of the locations we used for these photos!
Natalia and Erin are getting married next year at Balmoral House, one of my favorite venues in the Indianapolis area. Since these two are both soccer players that love being active and outdoors, the indoor/outdoor flexibility of Balmoral House and all of their property was a perfect fit for them. I already can’t wait to photograph these two again on their wedding day after how amazing their engagement session was!
Erin and Natalia, you two are awesome, and I LOVED getting to photograph you at your engagement session. I already can’t wait for your wedding day next year. Enjoy these sneak peaks while I finish editing your full engagement session gallery!
Are you looking for a wedding or couples session photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Feel free to reach out to me over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available!
Traders Point Creamery Engagement Session
Ally and Ben were THE cutest at their engagement session last night at Traders Point Creamery. We had so much fun taking adorable photos and exploring the entire property. This location is so special, because it’s where Ally and Ben will be getting married in just a few short months! I’ve been looking forward to their wedding for so long, because I LOVE Traders Point Creamery and have been dying to shoot a wedding their. Plus, of course, I love Ally and Ben’s love story, and I just couldn’t wait to get these two in front of my camera.
They had so much fun with the session and just hanging out with each other getting to be all cute and cuddly. I love when my couples think of their engagement session as a fun date night where they get to dress up and have fun together. Having the photos afterwards is just an awesome bonus.
It was so fun getting to explore all of Traders Point Creamery. This place is amazing with such diverse background options for photos, from the red barn to the fields of wildflowers, to the beach, dock, and ponds, this place has it all. They even have chickens and cows running around. See if you can spot the cow in the background of some of the photos.
Ally and Ben, I absolutely LOVED getting to photograph you two last night, and I can’t wait to have you in front of my camera again in October! Enjoy these sneak peeks while I finish editing your full engagement session gallery! I can’t wait to send you the rest of your photos.
Are you looking for a wedding or couples session photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Feel free to reach out to me over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available!
Intimate Wedding at Balmoral House
Despite two canceled destination weddings and rain forcing them to change their wedding day plans again this weekend, Hilary and Chris may have been the most joyful bride and groom I have ever had the pleasure of working with. This sweet couple had such a laid back, go with the flow, down to earth type of attitude about their wedding day that made photographing them so fun!
Their wedding day was intimate with only 17 guests and a zoom link for everyone else. I loved that they still had an entire wedding day with a sweet ceremony and a fun reception with their closest friends and family. Balmoral House was the perfect location for such a small elopement. With all of its indoor and outdoor ceremony and reception locations, there are so many options to choose from as well as rain backups, like Hilary and Chris were able to utilize.
I love the lighting of the main room in Balmoral House where Hilary and Chris held both their ceremony and reception. The huge windows and beautiful fireplace are such a gorgeous backdrop for sweet wedding day vows. Luckily, it stopped raining long enough for us to get some beautiful bride and groom portraits around the stunning grounds at Balmoral House, which has multiple acres of photo backdrops. And the reception was so fun with a mimosa bar for the guests. How fun is that?!
Hilary and Chris, you two are such an amazing couple, and I know you have a lifetime of happiness ahead of you! Enjoy these sneak peeks while I finish editing your full wedding day gallery!
Are you looking for a wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! You can reach out to me over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available!
Eagle Creek Anniversary Session
I can’t believe it has already been a whole year since I photographed Katie and Justin’s wedding! Time sure does fly, but I was so excited to see these two again for their one year anniversary session at Eagle Creek Reservoir last weekend. And I was even more excited to meet their tiny adorable golden retriever puppy named Goose! There’s nothing that makes my heart happier as a photographer than getting to photograph a cute puppy at a couples session! Goose was a little sleepy but totally adorable and so well behaved for how young she is! And of course, Katie and Justin were just as fun and photogenic as ever. I absolutely loved their wedding day at Finely Creek Vineyards last June. And I love their love.
It’s always such an honor to get to photograph my sweet couples at so many different stages throughout their relationship from engagement to their wedding day and anniversary sessions and family photo shoots afterwards. What better way to celebrate such a special life event than with a photo shoot. We lucked out with the perfect day at Eagle Creek with such a beautiful golden hour. This park is quickly becoming one of favorite places for engagement sessions and anniversary photos. It offers so many different location options with diverse backdrops throughout the park. It has beautiful fields, stunning trails, and of course, the gorgeous views of the reservoir.
Katie and Justin, I LOVED getting to photograph you two again, and I was so glad that goose got to join this time as well. Enjoy these sneak peaks! Your full gallery will be on its way super soon!
Are you looking for a wedding or couples photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! You can reach out to me over on my contact page: https://michellepoteet.com/contact. I can’t wait to hear from you!
How to Market Your Wedding Photography Business for FREE
Hey there, photographer friend! I’ve been in your shoes. When you are first getting started with your wedding photography business, you probably don’t have tons of funds to invest into marketing. But you know what? You don’t need any money to market your business! I built my business entirely on FREE marketing, and you can too! I’ve put together a list for you below of ways that you can market your wedding photography business for FREE!
Post Regularly On Social Media
Posting regularly on social media is so easy but so overlooked by photographers. I built my business mainly from using social media as a free advertising and marketing tool to reach new wedding photography clients. The specific social media platform or platforms that you should be focused on are going to depend on who your ideal client is and what your price point is.
As I’ve gained experience with wedding photography, my prices have increased. And I’ve found that as my prices have increased, I’ve needed to change up my marketing strategy. When I was first getting started with wedding photography, I was pretty inexperienced and my prices obviously reflected that. At that time, I was able to book the most engaged couples through Facebook groups. That was where my ideal clients at the time were searching for their wedding photographer. When my prices were more about average/slightly higher than average, and my ideal clients started becoming a little more high end, I found that I booked the most wedding photography clients through Instagram.
Instagram specifically has been an amazing marketing tool for me. For the past 2-3 years, about 75-90% of my couples found me through instagram. Now that my prices are a higher than they were the past two years, this number has decreased to about 50%, because I’m focused on different marketing tactics to reach my new ideal clients. Instagram has brought me so much business, and still does! So I would be happy to share some of my best Instagram strategies with you:
Use relevant, specific hashtags. Focus on location specific hashtags like #IndianaPhotographer
Geotag your locations. This allows couples near you to find your account.
Interact with others. Like and comment on posts from other local wedding vendors. This helps to build relationships and helps other vendors’ clients find you.
There is so much more than I could dive into when it comes to Instagram, but it would be a little too much for this one blog post. Hopefully these three tips can help get you started.
Start a Blog
If you have been putting off starting a blog, I totally feel you! It took me so long to start my blog. I thought of it as just another task to add to my to-do list when I was already getting plenty of business without one. The reason I was finally convinced to start my blog is that it’s super helpful for SEO. It brings people to your website instead of them just staying on your social media accounts. You OWN your website and blog. Instagram/Facebook own your social media accounts. Instagram and Facebook are great ways for clients to find you, but you want to funnel those people to the space that you own.
One thing that really helped me when I first started blogging was building blogging into the workflow I was already using. I was already editing sneak peaks after every wedding day. So instead of posting those sneak peaks on Facebook, I started posting them on the blog. Most of my couples share their blog post since it’s the first time they’ve seen some of their wedding photos. This brings all of their friends and families to my website. It’s great for SEO, AND it’s great marketing for me. When people are already on my website, they are more likely to take a look around while they are there.
Use SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This essentially means that I want people to find me when they are searching on google for a photographer. There’s a few different ways that I try to improve my SEO in order to get found on google:
Blogging. I talked about this above, but there are lots of SEO benefits to blogging. Google rewards websites that frequently update and add new content to their websites. Blogging is a great way to do this.
Using Key Words. Think about the words that people would search in order to find your website. I want people to find me when they search “Indiana Wedding Photographer.” But I also think about other key words like venues in my local area. I get found a lot but using key words like “Laurel Hall Wedding.” People book their wedding venue before they book their photographer (usually), so I want my photos to pop up when engaged couples are searching for photos taken at their wedding venue.
Naming Your Photos. When you export your photos from lightroom, name them using key words. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can name each photo a different and very specific key word relating to that photo. I usually name all of my photos based on the title of the blog post (for example Indiana Vineyard Wedding1.jpg; Indiana Vineyard Wedding2.jpg; etc.).
There is so much more that goes into SEO! Way too much to put in this one blog post, but hopefully these three quick tips are helpful!
Share Your Galleries with Vendors
Sometimes as photographers, we get very protective over our photos, and we can be a little but stingy with our galleries. I know that we have all been burned before by someone stealing our photos and not crediting us. I get it! And I understand copyright law. I understand why some photographers want to charge vendors to use their photos. However, I think the amazing relationships that we can build with other vendors is worth the risk of someone potentially using our photos without crediting us. Plus, if someone doesn’t credit you, I have a great way of giving myself “sneaky credit.” I just comment on the photo saying something along the lines of “I loved photographing this wedding. It was so great getting to work with you!” That way, people who see the photo will know who took it, but I’m still being super kind and non-confrontational.
After every wedding day, as soon as I finish editing the full gallery and send it over to the bride and groom, I send over the full gallery to each of the wedding day vendors as well. The vendors are always SO appreciative, because this isn’t something that every photographer does. My thought process is that those vendors put so much time and energy making the wedding amazing, and my images would not be what they are without the work from the vendors as well. Other wedding vendors who are not photographers need amazing photos of their work for social media and their websites. If you are one of the few photographers who send full galleries to wedding vendors, they will be so much more likely to recomend you to clients over other photographers who are more stingy with their images.
Free Photography for Venues and Planners
Now, hear me out on this one. I KNOW that we as photographers don’t like to work for free. No one likes to work for free, right? And in general, I don’t recomend doing free work, because it tends to devalue the industry. This is one of the few exceptions for me, personally. Remember how I said earlier that with my current prices, I’ve started gaining most of my clients from different sources than I did when my prices were lower? Well, guess how most of my clients find me now. Through venue preferred vendor lists and wedding planner referrals. These are the two vendors that engaged couples typically book before they book their photographer. Therefore, it is super important to network and build amazing relationships specifically with wedding venues and wedding planners.
One of the most obvious ways that you can offer free photography to these types of vendors is to offer free headshots. I’ve done free headshots for tons of different wedding venues and wedding planners. They are usually so appreciative! Although, I will say, a lot of photographers have this same thought, so venues and planners may already have great headshots from other photographers. Or maybe you’ve already taken headshots for specific vendors and you want to continue to build up that relationship. You can also offer personal photography for free for venue sales managers as well as wedding planners. Get creative. Offer family photos, couples photos, or anything else that those individuals might need. They are going to be so appreciative, and you are going to be one of the first people to come to mind when one of their clients is looking for a wedding photographer.
Plan Styled Shoots
If you don’t know what a styled shoot is, it’s essentially a fake wedding where vendors come together to create something that their ideal clients would love. Styled shoots are amazing. It’s a great way to network with other wedding industry professionals. You can show off your skills and what you’re capable of. You have the flexibility to be creative since you don’t have to worry about delivering very specific photos to a client. You get to take the types of photos YOU want to take instead of worrying about what a client wants. All of the vendors will post the photos, you’ll all tag each other, and you’ll get so much cross promotion. Styled shoots are also an amazing way to get published, which I’ll talk more about below.
I do want to put a disclaimer in here that you cannot build your entire portfolio on styled shoots. Like I said, styled shoots are amazing, but you need real world wedding day experience as well. Clients can’t tell the difference between styled shoots and real wedding days, and it’s not fair to potential clients to make it seem like you have a ton of experience that you do not actually have. You can definitely put SOME styled shoot images in your portfolio, but you also need tons of photos from real wedding days. You need photos from throughout an entire wedding day so clients can see how you shoot getting ready photos in an ugly hotel room, how you deal with a pitch black reception, and how you shoot portraits in harsh sun in the middle of the day. Absolutely participate in styled shoots, but also please accurately represent your real wedding day experience to potential clients!
Submit Photos for Publication
There are so many benefits for getting your photos featured in magazines and online wedding blogs:
Social Proof. When blogs and magazines publish your photos, it helps to reassure your clients and potential clients that your work really is as amazing as they think it is. Being featured on the cover of a hard copy magazine is especially great for social proof. I get so many positive comments from my clients when my photos are on magazine covers. It’s also so fun for the couple who gets to be on the cover as well.
SEO. I know that everyone thinks it’s especially cool to be featured in physical, hard copy magazines, but being published in online blogs is actually what is best for SEO. We didn’t talk about this in the SEO section of this blog, but getting backlinks to your website from other websites is another great way to improve your SEO. The more “authority” the website linking to yours has, the better. You also get tons of clicks to your website if the blog has a lot of viewers.
Getting Discovered. When you get featured in local blogs and magazines, a lot of local couples, who use those blogs and magazines for inspiration, will discover you and your work! It’s a great way to reach local couples who have the potential to hire you.
Now let’s talk about HOW to get your work published. You can find lists online of every wedding blog and magazine. You can go to their websites, find the ones that are a good fit, and submit photos that way. You can also use a service like Two Bright Lights or Matchology where you can submit photos for publications to multiple blogs at once. These services also help to match you with the publications that are the best fit for the session/wedding and for your photography style.
Here’s a few quick tips in order to have higher chances of getting your photos published:
Focus on shooting more vertical photos as opposed to horizontal. Most blogs and magazines prefer vertical photos both for graphic design/layout purposes and for optimizing photos for Pinterest.
Focus on detail photos. I know that your favorite photos are probably the bride and groom photos, but blogs and magazines need to publish photos that inspire engaged couples, their ideal audience. These couples are looking for things like reception floral inspiration, invitation inspiration, wedding shoe inspiration, etc. So focus more on submitting those detail photos than bride and groom photos.
Only submit to blogs/magazines that are a good fit. Some blogs and magazines prefer dark and moody photos. Some only accept images taken on film cameras. Some publish classic weddings while some publish alternative weddings. Make sure you find the publications that are the perfect fit for both the style of your work and the style of the wedding.
Treat Your Current Clients Like Gold
With all of this being said, please don’t get so caught up on finding your next clients that you forget to treat your current clients well. Not only do they deserve it, but it’s also great for marketing. Word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketing that your business can have. When your clients have an amazing experience with you, they will tell all of their friends about you and leave you amazing, raving reviews. Treating your clients well is one of the best things you can do for your business.
I hope you found all of the information helpful! Tell me, photographer friend, what is the first thing you’re going to do this week to start marketing your wedding photography business for free??
Would you rather watch this in video format? Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR7MNEGLStw
Best Friend Session
When Andry and I went to Charleston, South Carolina last month to photograph Joe and Colleen’s leap day wedding, a couple of our best friends decided to come with us on the tri! I figured it would be such a great time to get photos of Hannah, Briana and myself! And we had the added benefit of the beautiful scenery available to us in Charleston, South Carolina! We had beautiful lighting during sunrise, and we also lucked out to have no one else in this park because it was a week day.
We started with photos in Hampton Park with the spanish moss trees lining the pathway and the beautiful white gazebo in the background. My main goal while we were in Charleston was to get tons of photos with Spanish Moss trees as our background! I totally accomplished that goal. For our second location, we went to rainbow row in downtown Charleston. We found a super cute blue wall with amazing plants in the little window boxes. I loved the lighting there and just had to have some photos with the pastel wall. It worked so well with our dress colors.
Andry took the photos of the three of us, as well as me with each of my friends and I took the photos of Hannah and Briana. These photos were SO much fun, and I was so excited to get some fun photos with two of my favorite people! Enjoy some of my favorite sneak peek photos from this session below!
Are you looking for an Indianapolis, Indiana Wedding Photographer or a destination wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Please send me a message over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available! I can’t wait to hear from you!
Creative Solutions if You Have to Reschedule Your Wedding Due to Covid-19
It’s a crazy time to be living in. I certainly did not expect a pandemic to occur right now, and I’m sure this is the last thing any spring 2020 brides and grooms expected either. My heart BREAKS for all of the couples who need to cancel or postpone their weddings due to covid-19 and all the new ordinances and regulations on gathering sizes that have come along with it. I know that this time can be so difficult and stressful. Planning a wedding is stressful enough without a pandemic! I’ve put together a few creative solutions to rescheduling your wedding for you to hopefully ease at least a little bit of stress during this time.
Postpone Your Wedding
The most obvious answer to everything that is happening right now is to postpone your wedding. Luckily, most vendors are being so understanding and flexible with their rescheduling policies. Please reach out to your priority (or most expensive) vendors before deciding on your new date! You can cut down on the back and forth with your vendors by sending out a google doc with date options where your vendors can submit the form after checking off which dates they are available. If your venue and vendors are super in demand, you may need to reschedule for a Friday or Sunday or the off-season. Off-seasons or less busy times of the year for weddings depend on where you are located. Here in Indiana, our off-season starts in mid-November. Typically, July and August are a little less busy as well.
I know that this can be such a sad experience since I’m sure that you have been looking forward to marrying your best friend for so long! The last thing you want to do is wait even longer. You can make the experience a little better by deciding not to just sit around being sad on your wedding day. Make it a special day with the love of your life if you can! Go out and do something to make the day special and celebrate your love, whether that means going out for a hike and picnic, writing personal vows to say to each other that day in a location that is meaningful to you, or just dancing in your living room to your wedding song. Every day is a good day if you get to spend it with the one you love. You can make the day that was supposed to be your wedding day, a day full of love and joy even if it didn’t go how you imagined that it would.
Elope Now. Have a Party Later
This is a personal favorite choice of mine. Why? Because this is what my husband and I did. As soon as we got engaged and started planning our wedding, we realized that we didn’t want to wait 8 months to be married, but we still wanted to plan a party to celebrate. So what was our solution? We had a small, intimate ceremony about 3 weeks after we got engaged. My parents and our best friends were there, and Andry’s parents skyped in from Madagascar. That day was SO meaningful to us! 8 months later, we had our big wedding where we said our vows and celebrated with all of our friends and family, and Andry’s parents came from Madagascar to be with us in person. It’s becoming so popular for couples to get legally married before their wedding day, and there are so many different reasons for it! For some, it’s logistical or religious. Maybe a couple wants to live together but isn’t comfortable living together before they’re married. For some, they feel less pressure or stress on their wedding day knowing that they are already married and this is just a celebration for fun. I promise, you can make BOTH days special and amazing. Plus, I can tell you from experience that there is a super fun perk to this option: you get to celebrate TWO anniversaries every year! I’m a firm believer that you can never have too many excuses to celebrate your relationship.
So how does this work with your vendors? I can’t speak to every vendor’s policies, but I can tell you what I’m doing for my couples. I’m allowing my couples to split the coverage they’ve booked between two dates. Usually that looks like 1 hour of coverage now and 7 hours later or 2 hours now and 6 hours later. You’ll probably only need ceremony coverage, bride and groom photos, and a few guest photos for your small wedding. If worse came to worse and we didn’t have enough time for all the photos you want for your big wedding later, I always gift my couples at least an hour of coverage anyway, so I wouldn’t worry if you’re one of my couples ;)
Live Stream Your Wedding
Another great option if you don’t want to reschedule your wedding is to reduce your guest count and set up a live stream for guests who aren’t able to make it! This works super well so that all of your friends and family can celebrate with you, but you’re not putting anyone at risk. If older or immunocompromised family members don’t feel safe attending, they can still be part of all of the action virtually.
If You Have to Cancel
One of my couples had to cancel their wedding entirely, and we’ve been coming up with some solutions so they can still at least have the wedding portraits that they have been dreaming of. It’s hard to make solid plans with how quickly the current state of events is changing, but we are tentatively planning to take some portraits on their wedding day, just the three of us; take portraits at (what would have been) their wedding venue at a later dater; and take photos at a celebration that they’ll have at a separate time. We had actually already taken all of the bridal detail photos before the wedding day, so they at least have photos of the details they spent so much time working on.
I promise that no matter what, there are always creative solutions so that you can still have what you dreamed of and so that you can still have an amazing and special wedding day (or days). Hopefully your vendors are more than willing to work with you to make your dreams come true.
How to Build Your Photography Business During Covid-19
I think every photographer and small business owner started feeling the anxiety set in when all of the government mandates started being announced, and the number of people who are allowed to be in a room together started decreasing very quickly from 250 to 50 to 10 in a matter of hours.
As a wedding photographer, my heart BREAKS for my brides and grooms who have had to cancel and postpone weddings. My first thoughts, of course, were for my couples. I spent those first few days helping all of my couples who are getting married in the next 8 weeks reschedule their weddings. Luckily all of my couples were absolutely amazing, their vendor teams were flexible, and they were all able to reschedule easily and handled the situation as gracefully as can be expected. My heart goes out to my sweet couples who have been looking forward to getting married for so long and have had to push back marrying the love of their life (or at least the celebration part).
After the craziness of helping my couples reschedule their weddings passed, the reality set in that I now won’t be able to shoot weddings or engagement sessions for the next 8 weeks. I will admit, I had a moment of panic and considered applying for jobs stocking shelves at a grocery story, but after I calmed down, I realized that the best thing I can do during this time is focus on my business. How many times during the last year have I wanted to do things for my business but I kept saying to myself “I don’t have time for that” or “I’ll work on that when I have more time.” Well, now, all we have is time, right? And the photographers who work on their businesses during this down time are the ones who will thrive when the economy bounces back after all of this.
I’ve put together a list below of a few things you can do for your photography business during these months of quarantine to help you get through this down time.
Practice New Skills
Do you have any new skills that you just haven’t had time to practice? Now is the perfect time to practice any skills that don’t involve other people. It might not be the best time to work on large group posing skills, but it IS the perfect time to work on using your camera in manual mode if that is something that you struggle with. Take a daily walk outside and take photos of all the flowers that are starting to pop up now that spring is starting to arrive. Take photos of your kids, significant other, or roommate in different lighting scenarios inside your home.
Maybe you are already super comfortable shooting in manual, but you need to work on your low light skills. Now is a great time to work on using your off-camera flash! Off-camera flash can be super intimidating when you first decide that you want to step up your flash game. I promise it’s not as hard as it seems, and you CAN master it during this down time. Early in the morning before the sun rises or later in the evening after the sun sets, set up some light stands and take some photos of your pets. When we finally get to start shooting weddings again, your couples will be so impressed at how much your reception photos have improved once you master your flash skills!
Build Your Online Presence
Are you someone who totally forgets to post on Instagram when your busy season hits? Or maybe you haven’t updated your blog in months? Now is the perfect time for all of those social media and online tasks that you’ve been putting off. Here’s a few ways to build your online presence while we can’t shoot weddings and sessions:
Post on Instagram at least once a day.
Update your portfolio on your website with your favorite recent photos.
Post all of your recent weddings and sessions on your blog.
Take some new headshots in your home, and introduce yourself to your audience.
Work on growing your Pinterest audience.
Submit your work for publications in blogs and magazines.
Support other small businesses by commenting on their photos and sharing their work.
Work On the Back End of Your Business
If you’re like most photographers, you probably view yourself as an artist more so than you view yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner. I’m in the minority where I actually feel the opposite. That’s because I majored in finance and economics, and I have a background in financial analysis as well as auditing insurance companies. I do love creativity too, but I’m someone who loves BOTH aspects of owning a photography business. I realize that that’s not the case for most photographers though. Most photographers hate figuring out the financial side of the business, the legal side, and the back end technical side. I totally understand that it’s easy to procrastinate the tasks in our business that we won’t enjoy as much. But while we’re not shooting, we don’t have an excuse to procrastinate these tasks. Here’s a few ways you can improve the back end of your business.
Set up your business legally if you haven’t already! Each state is different, so look up the steps you need to take to legally set up your business in your state (or country).
Get professional contracts that better protect both you and your clients. If you can’t afford to hire a lawyer to personally write your contracts for you, my favorite legal resources for photographers are the LawTog and the Legal Paige.
Get a CRM to improve your client experience. I personally use and love Dubsado. You can use this link for 20 percent off. Dubsado allows your clients to sign contracts online, pay invoices online, and fill out questionnaires for you. It keeps track of your bookkeeping, your calendar, sets up workflows to send things out automatically for you and SO much more!
Set up a business bank account and separate your business finances from your personal finances.
Figure out your Cost of Doing Business, so you can make sure your business is profitable.
Learn With Online Education
No matter what stage you are in in your business, we all still need to be constantly growing and improving through continuing education. No matter what career you have, continuing education along with real world experience is so important if you want to grow, improve, and get better at what you do. What better time is there than now to learn and grow in our photography careers through online education? My favorite educators are Katelyn James and Amy and Jordan. However, I realize that this is a difficult time economically for a lot of people, including photographers, if you are looking for free education, SkillShare is giving away two months of membership for free here. They have tons of photography and editing classes. I’m also working on developing free educational content for you here on my blog as well as over on my YouTube channel. If you have any specific questions or content that you would like to see from me, DM me over on Instagram and let me know!
I know this is a difficult time for all of us, and it can be so easy to give into fear and anxiety. Instead of focusing on the fact that we can’t go out and shoot right now, let’s focus on what we CAN do! I hope this list helps you! Let me know, what will YOU be doing to grow your business during Covid-19!
A Few New Headshots
I knew that I wanted to take advantage of all the the beautiful scenery that South Carolina while I was in Charleston last month for Colleen and Joe’s leap day wedding. In addition to all of the amazing nature in the city, we also chose to stay in the cutest little Airbnb! I loved the white and coastal look of the house, and when I saw the kitchen, I just knew I had to take some “headshots” in here!
I say “headshots” in quotations, because I realized recently that I use that word differently than most people! I never take the typical serious, professional, head and shoulders only shot while wearing a suit (at least not since my financial analyst days). Instead, I love more lifestyle photos that show off my personality that I can use to help my couples and followers get to know me more! And these are the types of photos I take for other small business owners with personal brands who need photos for their websites and social media as well! I love fun lifestyle photos that show business owners just having fun in their element. That was my goal with these photos of myself!
I have to give a huge shoutout to my friend, Hannah, for taking these for me! I set up the camera and flash settings and taught her how to focus the camera so that she could take all these photos for me! It’s so great to travel with fun friends!
I hope you enjoy seeing some of my favorite new “headshots!”
Are you looking for an Indianapolis, Indiana Wedding Photographer or a destination wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Please send me a message over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available! I can’t wait to hear from you!
Rick's Cafe Boatyard Wedding
Kevin and Leila were actually married one year ago on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. They decided on a casual elopement with only Kevin’s sister and her fiance present. They wanted to celebrate with all of their friends and family in Indianapolis a year later by repeating their vows to each other and holding a reception to celebrate. For the couple that loves beautiful views and adventure, Rick’s Cafe Boatyard was the perfect location to celebrate their marriage with loved ones. The stunning lake views were perfect even on a snowy March day.
I loved getting to witness Kevin and Leila’s love throughout the day. The sweet interactions, tears, and emotional moments made this wedding day so beautiful to witness and photograph. It’s getting to photograph wedding days like this one that make me realize just how important my job as a wedding photographer is. I love getting to document love.
Even through all of the snow on Saturday as well as the global pandemic that we are going through right now, nothing couple stop this sweet couple and their friends and family from celebrating their love on such a pretty snowy day on the lake.
Kevin and Leila, you two are amazing! Congratulations on your beautiful marriage and wedding day. It was SUCH an honor to get to be your wedding photographer. I can’t wait to finish editing your full wedding gallery. In the mean time, enjoy these sneak peaks!
A Huge Thank you to Kevin and Leila’s amazing vendor team:
Indianapolis Wedding Photographer: Michelle Rakotomalala, Rakoteet Photography
Venue: Rick’s Cafe Boatyard
DJ: Don K Masters
Hair and Makeup: Jeffrey Sperber at Salon Lofts in Keystone
Catering: Rick's cafe boatyard
Bridal Gown: Faviana
Jewelry/Rings: Pacula Diamonds
Men’s Attire: Men's warehouse
Save the Date, Invitations, and Programs: Appy Couple
Favors/Gifts: coffee beans and candy for kids
Charleston Wedding Photographer
I LOVED getting to take photos with my friends, Hannah and Jack while we were all in Charleston, South Carolina. It is so much fun getting to be a Charleston Wedding Photographer with all of the beautiful nature that blooms all year round, even in February while it’s still technically winter in many other parts of the country. The stunning Hampton Park, located right in the heart of the city of Charleston was such a beautiful spot for our sunrise bride and groom wedding portrait session. The main thing we wanted for these photos was the classic, southern, Spanish moss hanging from the trees in the background of our photos of these two love birds. We certainly accomplished that with this beautiful Charleston photo location.
We decided on a sunrise session for these bride and groom photos. We actually started a few minutes before sunrise, while it was technically still blue hour. You can see in the photos below that the light transitioned into that morning golden hour sun rise glow about halfway through our portrait session. Although I really do enjoy shooting in blue hour too, I loved getting that pretty glowy light for at least some of our photos. Hannah and Jack are so fun in front of the camera, and I just love getting to capture their love over and over again.
Hannah and Jack, you two ROCKED this session, as per usual. I can’t wait to finish editing this full gallery of photos. In the mean time, enjoy a few of my favorite photos as sneak peeks here on the blog!
Are you looking for a Charleston wedding photographer, Indianapolis wedding photographer or destination wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Send me a message over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available! I can’t wait to hear from you!
Charleston Engagement Photos at Hampton Park and Rainbow Row
Last week, I got to do something that I rarely ever get to do as a wedding photographer and engagement session photographer. I had the pleasure of photographing a sunrise engagement session! Sunrise is such a beautiful time of day. It’s always just as beautiful, if not more beautiful than sun set. It just gets a bad rap, because of how early it is! I will admit that we had to wake up around 5am, and we started shooting around 6am, but it was totally worth it for these Charleston engagement photos at hampton park and rainbow row! The main reason that I love sun rise photos more than sun set photos is that hardly anyone else is awake! In a city that is as popular as Charleston and locations that photographers love to take photos in as much as Hampton Park and rainbow row, sun rise is the best time of day if we want the place all to ourselves and to not have to worry about sharing the place with other couples trying to take engagement or wedding photos at the same time. It also really helped that we were taking these photos on a week day and not on a Saturday, when I’m sure it gets much more crowded with photographers and couples.
We started this super fun session off at Hampton Park. Our main goal for this location was to capture this sweet couple with the beautiful Spanish moss trees in the background. We wanted a very Charleston look, and this park gave us that for sure! Next, we headed over to rainbow row to capture Hannah and Jack in the other most classic Charleston environment. I’m so happy with this session, and I loved getting to photograph one of my favorite couples again.
Hannah and Jack, I love you two! Enjoy these sneak peeks while I finish editing your full gallery!
Are you looking for a wedding photographer? I would LOVE to work with you! Reach out to me over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available!
Runnymede Plantation Wedding in Charleston, South Carolina | Colleen and Joe Part 2
After sharing part one of Joe and Colleen’s Runnymede Plantation wedding yesterday, I’m so excited to share the rest of the wedding day today! As I mentioned in the last blog post, I just loved Joe and Colleen’s Charleston destination wedding so much that my second shooter and I took way more photos than we’ve ever taken at any other wedding. Therefore, I decided to split their blog post up into part one and part two in order to not overwhelm everyone with too many photos in one post! Yesterday, I shared the bridal details, getting ready, and portraits. Today, I’m sharing their sweet ceremony, the gorgeous reception details and fun reception, and of course my favorite part of any wedding day: sunset photos.
One of my favorite things about the last half of this stunning wedding day was just how FUN their reception was! We heard the best maid of honor speech of all time. Check out all of Joe and Colleen’s reactions to it below! And I loved how much fun Colleen and her girls had on the dance floor. I definitely have a ridiculous number of amazing dance floor photos that I can’t wait to share with the bride and groom.
Joe and Colleen, it was SUCH and honor to be your wedding photographer! You two are such an amazing couple, and I am so thankful to have had you as one of my couples! Your wedding day was such a perfect and amazing day. I absolutely cannot wait to finish editing your full wedding gallery! Until then, enjoy all of your sneak peeks in these blog posts!
A HUGE thank you to Colleen and Joe’s vendor team:
Charleston Wedding Photographers: Rakoteet Photography
Venue: Runnymede Plantation
Wedding Planner: Katie Jean Events
Florist: Forever Flowers Charleston
Desserts: Duck Donuts
DJ: Bunn DJ
Hair and Makeup: Erin Ennis & Kaci Kennedy
Catering: Hamby Catering
Gown: Essence of Australia from Blue House Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Azazie
Shoes: Free People
Jewelry/Rings: Macy's/ Shane Co.
Men’s Attire: Black Tux
Transportation: School Wheels Direct
Officiant: Dan Towle
Charleston Wedding at Runnymede Plantation | Colleen and Joe Part 1
I’ve been looking forward to Colleen and Joe’s leap day wedding in Charleston, South Carolina since Colleen first asked me to be her wedding photographer a year ago! I first met Colleen through working together when she was the wedding coordinator for a wedding I photographed years ago. Since then, we’ve gotten to work together a few times but not nearly as much as I would like considering how amazing she is at what she does. When she told me about her own wedding, I knew from that first email that it would be one of my favorite weddings of all time. I consider it one of the biggest honors of my career when brides who are in the wedding industry themselves hire me to photograph their own weddings!
Colleen was over the moon and told me that Joe was making all of her dreams come true by planning their wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, one of her favorite places. Joe and Colleen are one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever met. They compliment each other so well and would both do anything to make the other happy. It’s so obvious from the outside how much Joe loves Colleen and would do anything for her. Their love and happiness was so apparent the whole wedding day.
Joe and Colleen chose Runnymede Plantation as their venue, and what a fantastic choice it was. It’s right on the water with the classic Charleston oak trees with the spanish moss. In the center of the venue is a huge, historic oak tree where Colleen and Joe chose to have their wedding ceremony. It was also a beautiful spot for most of the day’s portraits.
I loved Colleen and Joe’s wedding so much that my second shooter and I took more photos than we’ve ever taken at any other wedding. Because of that, I’m splitting their wedding into two blog posts in order to properly show off the beauty of their wedding day. Part one includes bridal details, getting ready, their sweet first look and vows, bride and groom portraits, and bridal party portraits. Stay tuned for part two which will feature the ceremony, cocktail hour, reception details, and reception fun!
Colleen and Joe, you two are such an amazing couple who hosted the absolute perfect destination wedding! I hope you enjoy these sneak peaks while I finish editing the rest of your wedding day sneak peeks and then your full gallery!
A HUGE thank you to Colleen and Joe’s vendor team:
Charleston Wedding Photographers: Rakoteet Photography
Venue: Runnymede Plantation
Wedding Planner: Katie Jean Events
Florist: Forever Flowers Charleston
Desserts: Duck Donuts
DJ: Bunn DJ
Hair and Makeup: Erin Ennis & Kaci Kennedy
Catering: Hamby Catering
Gown: Essence of Australia from Blue House Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Azazie
Shoes: Free People
Jewelry/Rings: Macy's/ Shane Co.
Men’s Attire: Black Tux
Transportation: School Wheels Direct
Officiant: Dan Towle
Best Bridal Party Photos of 2019
Continuing on with my Best of Weddings blog post series for the 2019 wedding season, I’m excited to share my favorite bridal party photos of 2019. This includes, bridesmaid photos, groomsmen photos, and the full bridal party photos, as well as those adorable flower girls and ring bearers.
Interestingly enough, 2019 weddings set a record for me for the most wedding days where the bride and groom chose not to have a bridal party at all. I’ve said it before, but I will continue to say it, I LOVE when couples don’t feel the need to follow every single tradition for their wedding day. Your wedding day should be all about what YOU want, and you should never do anything because you feel like you have to. You get to pick and choose the traditions that you want to follow and skip the ones that you don’t like.
For my brides and grooms that did choose to have bridesmaids and groomsmen, you’ll notice a few trends. Almost all of my couples chose floor length bridesmaid dresses. I love the formal feel of long dresses. You’ll also notice that a huge majority of my couples chose blush or dusty blush for the color of the bridesmaid dresses. It was by far the most popular wedding color of 2019. Burgundy was still a popular color, although it was definitely more popular a couple years ago. I wonder what the most popular color of 2020 will be? Do you think “classic blue” being Pantone’s color of the year will have an effect on bridesmaid dress colors or wedding colors in general?
All of my bridal parties last year were SO fun to work with and photograph. I’m sure 2020 will be no different in that respect. Enjoy some of my favorite bridal party photos of 2019 below!
Are you looking for a wedding photographer for your special day? Send me a message over on my contact page to see if I still have your wedding date available!
Best Bride and Groom Photos of 2019
Wow, going through all of my 2019 wedding galleries in order to select photos for this blog post was SO much fun! Sometimes I forget just how amazing my couples are and just how amazing the weddings I get to shoot are until I go back and look through the full galleries. Through this Best of Weddings 2019 blog post series that I’m doing, this was the blog post that I was most excited about writing, Best of Bride and Groom Photos 2019.
2019 was a huge year for destination weddings for me. I went to Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, Chicago, Cancun multiple times, and of course, I got to shoot many many weddings here locally in Indianapolis and in many cities throughout Indiana. I am SO thankful for all of the couples who trusted me to capture the most important day of their lives. And I am so thankful for all of the amazing vendors that I got to work with this year as well. I shot in many familiar venues and in many new venues. As I look back on how wonderful this past year was, it makes me so excited for the year to come, all of the new couples I get to work with, all of the familiar faces I’ll get to work with as my couple’s bridal parties get married, and all of the familiar and new to me venues I get to work in. You guys, my job is seriously the best!
In this post, I tried to only select one or two photos from each wedding that I photographed this year, but I will admit that I got a little carried away. I couldn’t help but select 3-4 favorites from some of my weddings, especially the ones where my couples gave me tons and tons of bride and groom portrait time. Enjoy (more than) a few of my absolute favorite bride and groom portrait photos from 2019. I can’t wait to create more art for my couples in 2020 and beyond!
Are you looking for a wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Send me a message over on my contact page to see if I still have your wedding date available!
Best First Looks of 2019
After finishing up shooting and editing my January weddings and sessions including another beautiful destination wedding in Riviera Maya, Mexico, I’m excited to get back into our blog series, the Best of 2019 Weddings! After the bridal details and getting ready, the next thing we always shoot is the first look. I’ve been so excited to finally start working on this blog post, because first looks are my absolute FAVORITE part of every wedding day.
The first look is where the bride and groom see each other for the first time on their wedding day. It’s such a special, private, intimate moment between the two of them. It’s always so fun to get to photograph the bride’s and the groom’s reactions to seeing each other for the first time in their wedding dress and suit and tie. It’s usually when things finally start to feel “real” and there are usually tears. I love that my couples choose to add this sweet moment into their wedding day timelines so they can spend a few minutes together before the craziness of the day really begins. Something I’ve been loving is that a lot of my couples have been choosing to read their private vows to each other during the first look instead of during the ceremony.
First look photos are really all about the series of photos when capturing those sweet reactions. It’s not JUST about that one reaction photo. For that reason, I decided to post a few of my favorite photos from that series of first look photos and I opted to just share a few of my favorites instead of every first look. Otherwise, I would be sharing a million photos in this post! Don’t worry, you’ll get to see a lot more of my couples in the next post of the series, Best of Bride and Groom Photos. In the mean time, enjoy some of my favorite first look photos from last year!
Are you looking for a wedding photographer? I would absolutely LOVE to work with you! Send me a message over on my contact page to see if I have your wedding date available!
Carmel, Indiana Winter Engagement Session
It was such a treat to get to photograph Cassandra and Daniel this afternoon! They were such champs for putting up with the snowy January weather and the freezing winter temperatures. I was so proud of how well they handled getting photos taken while it was snowing outside. This poor couple was shivering and holding on to each other for warmth in between shots.
Daniel might be the most enthusiastic groom I’ve ever had when it comes to getting photos taken. I definitely loved his energy! And I just love how sweet these two are together. Daniel keeps Cassandra laughing 100% of the time, and I love getting to witness their love for each other. In fact, they love each other so much that after planning their wedding for awhile, they decided to move their wedding date up about four months because they just couldn’t wait to be married!
We decided on Carmel, Indiana for engagement photos. This time of year, I tend to opt for more urban backdrops as opposed to nature backdrops. We used the Camel City Hall building, the Carmel Performing Arts Center, and Coxhall Gardens. One cool surprise that we got when we visited the Performing Arts Center. I didn’t realize that the Carmel Christkindlmarkt was still going on. There were some cute little igloos beside the ice skating rink that were super cute for a few photos! Plus it was a nice break from the freezing temperature to have a little bit of heat even for just a few minutes.
I’m already so looking forward to getting to photograph Cassandra and Daniel again at their wedding in May!
Cassandra and Daniel, you two are so amazing together, and I love your love for each other! Enjoy these sneak peaks while I finish editing your full engagement session gallery!
Generations Riviera Maya Wedding
Ryan and Naomi’s Generations Riviera Maya was nothing short of incredible! The day, the resort, the couple, and all of the guests were absolutely perfect. This sweet couple chose to have a beach wedding right on the resort beach on the Generations side of the resort. The resort is actually three resorts connected. Couples can choose to get married at El Dorado Royale, Casitas, or Generations. Ryan and Naomi chose to get married at the Generations side, because it’s the family friendly section of the resort. This allowed them to include their two sweet daughters in the wedding, and it also allowed their guests to bring children to the wedding as well.
I love how Naomi and Ryan chose to mix both formal and casual elements into their wedding. For example, Naomi wore a beautiful ballgown wedding dress and Ryan wore a suit with a jacket, but they chose not to wear shoes since the entire wedding day took place in the sand. I just love that they took advantage of all of the fun elements that come along with a beach wedding.
I loved both their ceremony and reception set ups with beautiful pink and white flowers on the arch at the ceremony and gold pineapples filled with tropical florals for the reception centerpieces. And it was so fun that the reception tables were set up under twinkling lights right next to the ocean. How romantic! But my absolute favorite thing about Ryan and Naomi’s wedding day was how much their love for each other and their two daughters was so evident throughout the day. At the end of the day, that’s what matters, and that’s what it’s all about.
Naomi and Ryan, you two are awesome, and I LOVED getting to be your wedding photographer for your beautiful destination wedding! Enjoy these sneak peaks while I finish editing your full wedding gallery!
A HUGE thank you to Ryan an Naomi’s amazing vendor team:
Cancun Wedding Photographer: Michelle Rakotomalala, Rakoteet Photographer
Venue/Resort: Generations Riviera Maya
Florist: Generations Riviera Maya
MC: Ben Elder
Hair and Makeup: Generations Resort Spa
Catering: Generatons Riviera Maya
Bridal Gown: La Reve Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Etsy
Men’s Attire: Indochino
Save the Date’s, Invitations, and Programs: Vista Print
Officiant: Kieth Freeman
Riviera Maya Engagement Photos at El Dorado Royale
Last night, I got home from the most amazing trip to Riviera Maya in Cancun, Mexico for Naomi and Ryan’s beautiful wedding weekend. We started out the weekend with a couples/engagement and family session throughout the El Dorado Royale and Generations Riviera Maya Resorts. I arrived to the resort a day early in order to scout of the entire resort as well as the two connected resorts, Generations, and Las Casitas, to find the best spots around the resorts to take portraits of this gorgeous couple and their family.
I absolutely LOVED getting to photograph Ryan and Naomi and getting to know them the day before their wedding. We started over on the El Dorado side of the resort to get some epic photos on a beautiful bridge over by the lobby. Then we headed over to Casitas and met up with Naomi’s two daughters. I found a beautiful little backroad path and an archway that I really liked for some family photos. Last.ly we headed over to the Generations Riviera Maya beach to get some additional family photos and engagement photos. We really got to explore the entire resort. I love all of the different backdrops we were able to use. One of my favorite things to do is provide as much variety as possible for my couples.
I thought it was so sweet that Naomi and Ryan wanted to include their two girls in their couples shoot as well. They wanted their daughters to be such a huge part of the entire wedding since the day was really about the entire family, not just about Naomi and Ryan. The special bond that both Ryan and Naomi had with the girls was so sweet to see. And of course, the love they share with each other made for some stunning, love-filled photos with the most amazing backdrops.
Enjoy these sneak peaks and stay tuned for the wedding day blog post coming soon!
