Take the stress out of photographing your kids

Learning how to take the stress out of taking photos of your children can be a hard task. It can be done. BUT you have to be prepared.

Do you feel prepared?

I did not think so. That is perfectly okay and it is normal. Do you find yourself saying this when you want to photograph your child? I am never ready. Allow me to give you some basics so that you will not be caught with your pants down – so to speak.

I do not want you to miss another moment again.

The most important question you can prepare is which camera you will use. Ask yourself what is that camera that you can visualize you grabbing in that moment you want to take a photograph. I always say the best is the one you already have. A great option is your camera phone or the camera that you take vacation photos with.

Now that you have figured out which camera you want to use, you need to make sure that it is available (when these special moments that you wish to capture) to you! Next and just as important you want to know a little basic knowledge of your setting. For instance, and most importantly the focus button. You can fix many things in post editing (if that is what you want to do after you take the photograph, but you do not need to) but you can’t fix a blurry photograph.

You can either toggle (this means to move your camera focus points around with your thumb on a button (on the camera) or if you are using a phone tap the screen where you wish to have the focus point. If you do not know what either of these are I suggest looking it up on google or your owner’s manual. This is a manual I highly recommend that you read. You will learn so much.

Once you know these basics you are ready to start taking the photos that you have been longing to take.

Once you feel that you are prepared to capture those precious moments, you will feel better and in turn be able to take better photographs too. That in my mind is a win win!

Having a difficult time photographing your kids?

Are you having difficulty taking photos of your kids?

You are not alone.

It is normal for children to not listen. This happens often when it is your own kids. They know how to push your buttons. Oh, how I too have been there. I feel like screaming at them.

Did you know that we teach others how to treat us. Oprah said that once many years ago and it has stuck with me. That is a powerful statement.

You think but how? Okay let us back up a bit. I’m going to use my psychology background here. As I mentioned they live with you and they are your tiny human. They are super smart. If they don’t want to do something they know how to get out of it. Have you ever noticed how they behave perfectly when someone is over at your house or even when you go out in public. This is their true nature. These are the moments that you know you are doing well as a parent.

Okay now that I have explained that…there are some tricks that you can use.

A trick that I do is I pretend that my children are not my children (just for these moments) It helps me to change my role from mom to photographer. It creates a separation, as I behave differently when I am in this mode.

Having someone else there with you to be your assistant will help as well with posing and wiping noses and mouths and all those little things that do not look good in a photo. As they are closer to them and this way you can better concentrate on the task at hand – taking beautiful photos of your children.

Bribery works and this is not for all parents. But it does work. You want ice cream? Or to watch your favourite show. You do this for mommy first then you can have _____ insert item that you used. The options are endless. It really does work.

Why you need a new headshot

Are you reaching your ideal client avatar or a pretend person that you talk to? If not? What is holding you back? Have you created your ideal client avatar? If you have does it describe your avatar well? Is there any changes that need to be made?

Let us back up for a moment. What is an ideal client avatar? This is the person who you are trying to sell your product or service to. When you have a generic person or do not do this step. It will leave people confused as to who you are talking to. A confused person will not buy.

It is common to feel stuck in this process. You are not alone!

Allow me to help you.

Once you know who you are speaking to, it helps on every level of your business. No seriously, it really and truly does.

When you speak like your ideal client you are attracting them. You need to spend a lot of time here, to make sure you nail it down by breaking each step down. You are using their words, their language. If you do not you will be stuck in your business. Taking the extra time now will help later on when you are creating your marketing and everything else in your business.

I have a great one that I use with my coaching clients, to really narrow it down.

You need to ask questions like where does your ideal client hang out? Do they have a dog? How much do they make? All these are important areas that need to be asked and answered in detail. Do not skip this part. If you do, you will eventually have to come back and do this. Ask yourself all the questions that make you up and what drives you to make buying decisions.

Get to know this person well. As you will be speaking to them on every single level.

How to achieve your business goals

Have you created your business goals?

No? Let me ask you this, which is more like you?

Do you ask yourself this? Why can I never get and achieve the things I want in my business? I feel like giving up. Why can’t I ever do anything right? I am an epic failure.

You may be feeling when you lack direction how do you achieve the level success that you are seeking?

Allow me to interrupt for a moment. Did you know that when you are in failure those are the moments that you learn and grow. We want the failures so that we can succeed and celebrate those happy moments. This is often overlooked.

If this is what you have been doing, keep reading, I can help you get back on track and start creating the success that you are after.

Or is this more like you, I reached another goal! This last one was huge, but I did it. What should I do to celebrate?

 Which do you think would be more likely to achieve their goals? Ask yourself why?

Okay now that you have done this, why would one be better than the other? What is holding you back from writing out your goals? Or creating a vision board.

It certainly makes things a lot harder than what it needs to be. I am going to assume that you want to achieve your goals. We all long to, but reaching it is a different story. There is so much in the middle that is messy and it can be hard to see it coming true as fear gets in the way. Fear is always there. You can’t get rid of it. It is there to protect you. It is part of our fight or flight. Realizing this helps us to better understand things. You need to keep pushing through until you reach the goal that you have set out for yourself.

You got this! You can do anything that you set your mind to. Regardless of what that little voice in your head says. Ignore it. Keep pushing through it.

I work backwards. I take my end goal. I write it down. Then I take that huge goal and I break it down into smaller pieces to make it achievable.

For example, if I am creating a course, I lay out each chapter. Then I break it down further and figure out what I want that chapter to solve and what the best way of doing that is. Then I go back I break down each step. I use lots of examples and I explain it well.

Your turn, you got this. It really is that easy. I like to sit down somewhere with a cup of tea, or even outside by myself and reflect. I start by asking myself what do I want? Is this something I really want to do/create? Does it align with my business mission? If it does not, I will still write down my idea. You never know if there is a possibility of it aligning in the future.

How to reach your ideal client

There are so many different ways to find and reach your ideal client avatar. Have you found them yet?

Now that you have figured out who your ideal client avatar is from the last blog post, this step is a little easier. Take a look and see where your ideal client is hanging out. There are newsletters, blogging, vlogging, videos, Instagram, facebook. What are their favorite brands? Restaurants? Places they hang out? I would go as far as to join those brands mailing lists to learn more and see how they are talking to their ideal client. These are the small details that are often overlooked, that you must look at. Essentially the list is endless. No, you do not need to be in all of these places, just the ones that you are interested in, but I will add you need to make sure that your ideal client avatar can be found there. If they are not you are wasting your time. If you are not certain if they are or not. Go back to the avatar that you created and rework it.

A little hidden secret – when you are online and scrolling through your feed. You come a complete stop, your jaw drops a touch. You have just found your ideal client. Take a screenshot of what they wrote and use those words later in your content. It is super important to talk to your ideal client, not to your friend. If you do the second your business will stay stagnant and not be able to move forward in the way that you would like.

If you got this step wrong that is okay. All you need to do is go back to your ideal client avatar and make some changes.

Over time you will meet this person and you will be in awe of how similar that they are to the one that you created. If you are still stuck in this process you may ask him or her to help you out. Mine is very similar to me in many ways. I have even interviewed them to find out more details about them. This helped me to further understand them and where I can find them.

Do you have nothing to wear?

Not knowing what to wear for your headshot and/or personal branding photoshoot is normal. The goal is to impress your ideal client. Some people do not know what will look the best on them. It stops them in overwhelm. Then procrastination occurs. Keeping you stuck and not able to move forward.

I always recommend bringing options. I start with what is your favourite thing to wear? How do you feel in it? That is super important. As you have only seconds to make that first impression and you only get one chance to do it. How do you want your client to feel when they see your photograph? These are all things that need to be thought of.

I even dig deeper for a personal branding session, as it is very important that I am able to attract your ideal client through your images. I do this based on my psychology background with an in depth questionnaire.

The first thing I do before we start our session is to go through the items that you brought. Together we select the most amazing outfit that will help you to create an amazingly confident photograph that will put your best foot forward and ahead of your competition.

We all know how important it is to love what we are wearing, if you do not feel good in it, the photos will reflect this. If you feel amazing in it, it releases the feel good feeling. It changes us from deep within, giving us a boosted confidence that we never knew we had. It is so powerful and amazing to experience this. This is what I look for in my shoots.

Now what

You just booked your headshot and/or a personal branding shoot. Now you are thinking now what? Once I get you on the schedule. We will need to talk about wardrobe for your headshot and or personal branding shoot.

I am super excited for our shoot. It is going to be an amazing experience. You may even feel nervous as you do not know what to expect. What you are feeling is perfectly normal. We often feel scared when we do not know what to expect, I will guide you every step of the way.

If you have booked a personal branding shoot you will have an in-depth questionnaire to fill out. This will help me to use my psychology background to learn about your business, about you and turn it into your brand story. We all love a good story, it is ingrained in us humans. It peeks our curiosity and then we want to learn more.

We will also talk about if you need any props for your shoot to help to share your story. For example, once for a candle company each of this business had a story behind them. I incorporated each theme with the candle. One was called Tollgate road which smelled of banana bread. It was named after the road her grandmother lived. These are the types of things I need to learn to be able to create the most amazing images for your business to be able to share your story.

Once the shoot has been completed, it takes about 2-3 weeks for the photos to be edited. You will be invited back into the studio to have a reveal of your incredible images. This is where you get to select your most favourite one.

Kids grow quickly

As a parent, we all know how quickly kids grow. One moment you are rocking them in your arms, the next we are sending them away to college. Seriously, how does that even happen?

We all agree that our children grow way too quickly.

If you do not you will miss all these cute things that your child is doing. Your child just lost both of her front teeth. Oh, my goodness, does she ever look so sweet. She says “Mommy, come look at me”. You think to yourself “Oh my goodness she looks super sweet”. It is time to dust off that camera and capture her in all of her toothless glory.

Crap, where did I put that darn thing? You look and high and low. You have spent so much time looking for it that you missed that golden opportunity to capture her. I hope she does it again so I can capture it. You fall into the couch in a state of anger and frustration that you missed it.

You need to capture them so that you can remember all the little things that you love. This way those memories will not be lost forever. There is just one thing holding you back from this goal. You do not know how to use your camera to take a good photo.

I can help you.

It is easier than you think. I am here to help you take that stress away. I will show you how to capture your girl just as she is right now.

Can’t you just see it. She is doing the cutest little thing. You reach for your camera and capture it with ease. It can this easy. I think I will print this one out and put this one on my fridge. Ooooh I am going to send this one to grandma and grandpa. They will just love it!