{BUSINESS} What I've been up to lately!

Wedding season is fast approaching for me. In less than two weeks I get to shoot my first wedding of the season!! And I am so excited... but also so very nervous!!

I have been busy studying my images from last year, looking at my successes and my failures (aka: what shots worked and what didn't so much) and I have been studying the images of photographers I look up to and asking myself "how did they get that shot?" or "what did they do that made this shot so successful?" The answer... in most cases the shots that I love the most and quality I continually strive to produce are achieved by taking one's time and finding the best light (indirect window light is my bff). I continue to push myself to get things right in camera rather than relying on photoshop to fix my mistakes!

I have been learning how to better communicate with my clients and how to manage their expectations so that I can confidently take control of situations during the wedding day in effort to provide my bride's and groom's with images are the very best they can be and tell the story of their wedding day!! As I grow as a business person and a photographer it is reinforced over and over again to me that there is never too much communication and the more I know going into a situation the more successful it will be!!

I have been practicing. Yesterday I spent an hour practicing taking jewelry and shoe shots, followed by two hours spent on Pinterest looking for inspiration and writing out copious amounts of notes of things to think about so that I can get some killer detail and getting ready shots this year. And now that the sunshine is here (hopefully to stay awhile) I am setting up a photo shoot for midday - the worst time of day to shoot in- so that I can practice shooting under these conditions! I have a lot of control over shooting times for engagement (and other) photos shoots, but weddings are a totally different story and i want to be confident in all lighting conditions so I am delivering consistently great results!!

I have been praying. I really do believe that the more in-tune with God I am, the more confident I am, which means the more successful I am in meeting my bride's and groom's needs and expectations, and i meeting my goals as an artist! I also pray that no matter what, I will always place the needs of my clients over the my own goals.

I have also, finally, decided upon and ordered all the supplies I need for my packaging and stationary suite for this year's weddings, which I am going to write more about when it all arrives and I can share some images with you!! But what I will say is that I have spent four (yes FOUR) months searching on line for ideas and suppliers and I think I finally came up with something so perfectly suitable for Shannon May Photography!!

Happy Monday!

Love & Sunshine,
Shannon-May