How to Shoot for your Client and Yourself  by Andrea Turner, Guest Writer

I sat down to my usual half-hour pre-shoot consultation with a mom and her senior, and I learned more about what the mom didn’t want than what she did want.

For starters, no black & whites (gasp!) and no positioning of her daughter’s hands near her face. The thought of not producing a black & white image felt like a spear to my heart, but I mentally consoled myself with the realization that I could still post a black & white to my blog. So there.

Unlike the nixing of the black & whites, however, the no-hands-near-the-face-thing wasn’t entirely surprising. I’ve seen some cheesy positioning, but I secretly hope that people who hire me know that I try to keep it real (yo). For example, I don’t pose. Instead, I give a bit of direction, set an example, then talk them through the process as if it’s a scene. And yes, sometimes this includes a hand near the face.

So as I quickly shuffled through mental pictures of what the senior’s hands-nowhere-near-her- face-non-poses would look like, I had an epiphany: this client was choosing to work with me.

I know, I know…this isn’t a revelation, folks. But it IS an important notion to grasp because it loosens any binds you might feel prior to — or at — a shoot.

My client wasn’t paid to hire me (duh). I’m not the only photographer in town. And I’m certainly not the cheapest in town. Therefore, rather than sulk about the client’s restrictions for the shoot, I embraced them…and then I ignored them.

Ok, ok, I didn’t completely ignore them, but I asked her to trust me and let me do things my way for a few shots. I think I even suggested she turn around and not watch, if that made her feel better.

I asked the senior to squat “in a non-pooping kind of way,” turn her knees away from me and then tuck her right hand just behind the base of her neck. I turned to the mom and said jokingly, “See, her hand isn’t technically on her face!”

As soon as the mom saw the shot, she melted. “Oh my gosh…that looks SO GOOD!” she said.

I could have rubbed it in a bit, but I didn’t. I did, however, take the opportunity to say, “Remember me? I’m the non-cheesy photographer you hired. TRUST ME! If you don’t like something, my feelings aren’t hurt, but I’m taking the rest of our session to do things my way and I think you’re going to love the result.”

I meet with the mom and senior in about a week; I don’t know who’s more excited. I’m being smart about the images I choose to show — a good mix of “hers” and “mine.” I’m also going to throw in a few black & whites. I can’t help it. And I have a feeling she’s going to come around to my way of thinking.