knight light

I don’t always get to see my client’s pictures in print. Thankfully I have friends that are clients and clients that have become friends. This beautiful wall is a timeline of my friend, Pam’s, lovely family. It’s pretty cool to see a wall filled only with pictures I took. I’m thankful to see this and be reminded why I do what I do.

Whew, what a whirlwind. Josh and I had a lot of fun shooting the homecoming dance on Saturday. It was definitely a learning experience but I think we did pretty good. There was some craziness to the night. We didn’t have much time to set up so that was stressful. The backdrop they chose was pretty crappy and very shiny. (If we do another I will definitely want to suggest a better background.) The gym was so dark that my camera had the hardest time focusing. Finally got a little light in there towards the end and got some fun dancing shots. Overall it went really well and was fun to be at the dance.

Josh and I were inspired to do an awkward formal since we did see some of that.

“I’m walking into spiderwebs. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.” Dude, Knight Light has been busy! In the past three days I have shot five sessions. My “to finish” folder now includes EIGHT sessions and a wedding. Um, whoa. The sessions have been a lot of fun though. They have included a cow, a horse, dogs, kittens, lots of Seniors, lots of kids, countryside and lots of spiderwebs. It’s been pretty nuts.

I feel lucky that I’m able to do what I love but I also feel a little overwhelmed with all of the work I have to do. Rough estimate of how many pictures I have to go through…3,000. Just telling myself, one session at a time…

Josh and I shot our last wedding of the year on Saturday. It’s basically our last wedding for Knight Light. I have one scheduled for next June and that’s only because the bride is a friend of ours. I had decided to be done with weddings so we’re going to see how that goes. I ended up with a cold last week and after Saturday I was knocked on my butt by it. Thankfully I’m on the upward climb and feeling much better. I haven’t shared Knight Light pictures in awhile because I just can’t keep up (which is totally a good thing). I spent last week completely revamping my website and I was thrilled to see all of the new pictures out there.

This couple was awesome…exactly what every photographer wants. What? All brides don’t climb up in trees?

Gorgeous, young and in love. They made my job easy. And of course I think, “if all couples were like this I could do a wedding every weekend”.

Although I enjoyed being a part of their special day, I am happy with my decision to stop wedding photography. I’ll see how I feel in another year and go from there.

I am slowly coming into my own photography style. Of course I’m influenced by others but I know what I like and I do a lot of that. At my sister-in-law’s graduation ceremony last year they played a video slideshow. All of her classmates had included pictures throughout their school years and most put in their Senior pictures. It was pretty awesome to see so many of “my Seniors” up on the big screen. What was even more awesome was to see the definite style my pictures had compared to the others shown. It made me more determined to become sure of my style and sure of how I run my business.

So here are a few things I’ve come to realize about my business/style:

- I don’t do angles. I try but end up deleting them. I hate turning my head to really get a good look at a picture. I can’t imagine others liking it much either.

- I avoid fads. You know how I feel about selective coloring…

- I try to keep colors as natural as possible. Over-saturated just isn’t for me.

- I don’t mess with the eyes. I’ve seen a lot of photographers (especially child photographers) bump up the eyes so much that it’s scary. I just avoid it all together now.

- I don’t do props. Occasionally with kids I’ll stick them in something but I don’t really understand the couch in the field thing.

- I’ve decided not to watermark anymore. Does Annie Leibovitz watermark or would Ansel Adams? Yeah, I don’t think so. Not that I’m anywhere to their talent but still I feel like if you want to be great you should take tips from the greats. I really feel like it takes away from the picture, even when it’s a small watermark in the corner.

- During a session I sometimes have to move a person a few times to find just the right light. I don’t apologize for taking a few extra minutes to find it. The pictures make it worth it.

- I will say no. I cannot take on every new client request. I just don’t have the time. In the past I have squeezed in every last person…not anymore. My work is better if I don’t feel stressed or am thinking about how I’d rather be sitting at home. Sometimes I do want a Saturday off (mind blowing thought!).

- I’ll do what I need to to get the shot, even if that means it’s noisy and grainy.

- After this year we will not be shooting weddings. I finally decided that as much as I love the day of the wedding, I don’t like the any of the other stuff. And I absolutely hate taking pictures inside churches. Yes, it’s the money-maker but I have never once been in this for the money.

- I like lens flare which I will just not apologize for. I also will never, ever fake it.

- Post processing will be kept to a minimum. I much prefer my pictures to look natural. That being said, I do love me a good black and white.

- I really like serious faces, just as much as the laughing ones. But I will not force it. If someone doesn’t want to smile, so be it. If they can’t be serious (which happens often with my husband around), then I’ll get some awesome laughing shots. I want the client to be themselves.

There are so many styles in the photography world. What might not be interesting to me, could be the best thing to someone else. The key is as a photographer, finding your own voice and developing it. Being who you are as a photographer and not apologizing for it. It has been kind of a huge breakthrough for me to get to this point. I feel like finding my voice through my camera has helped me find my voice in life. And that…is an amazing thing.

I finished up my last Knight Light session and officially closed my business for the year.

When all is said and done, Knight Light shot two weddings, ten baby/kid sessions, six families and twenty-four Seniors. I’d say it was a pretty good year.

Just spent an hour watermarking about 30 pictures from recent sessions. (I hate watermarking!) Have a peek at Flickr if you’d like to view some recent snippets. Knight Light has been VERY busy this summer and it’s not slowing down!

And of course, it wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for my lovely assistants. Thanks boys.

I haven’t been blogging much about my sessions. Mainly because there are just too many to keep up on here. I’ve been using Facebook a lot to do preview pictures and that is working really well. I love all of my Seniors. Many of them I’ve kept in touch with after their session which is awesome. I love that age. I think maybe because I’m still 17 at heart.

Anyway, sometimes I have a session where the client really gets it. They get what I do, they understand the process and are up for anything. This was one of those sessions.

I think she looks like an old Hollywood movie star in that last one. Lots of fun these Seniors… I’m feeling lucky that I have been doing so many!

Being your own boss is a tricky thing. You are the only one who decides when and how much you work. I have been fortunate enough to have a pretty successful photography business. I’m getting calls every week from new clients. The really hard part is knowing how much I can do.

One thing I have decided and feel good about is my decision to only shoot a VERY limited number of weddings each year. This year we only are shooting two and it’s great. The couples are ones we click with, get our style and want us to do our thing. I’ll admit that it’s been extremely hard to say no to the many brides that contacted me throughout this year. But once I taught myself the phrase “We are booked for the ’09 season”, things went pretty smoothly. After I say no, I feel guilty for awhile and then I start to feel relief that I’m not shooting another wedding. So it works out….as long as I can get through the guilt.

I never expected so much guilt to accompany having a business. I feel guilty when I spend too much time working on pictures in the evening because I miss out on time with my husband. I feel guilty when I crash on the couch watching TV instead of doing work. I feel guilty when I have to tell a client that I can’t get them in until October because I’m booked up. I feel guilty when I cram three sessions into one weekend.

Slowly though I am learning balance. I have accepted the fact that I cannot shoot four sessions every week like I have been doing. I am occasionally planning a Saturday off here and there. I’m taking it easy this weekend because of the wedding we are shooting the following weekend. And I’m not beating myself up if I choose to sit on the couch for an evening.

It’s all about balance and finding that place in the middle. I am learning.

I haven’t been so good about blogging all of my photo sessions lately. One I’m not very good at self promotion. I feel like my work speaks for itself and if someone wants to hire me then cool. Also, I’m totally lazy and hate going through watermarking all of my pictures. I kind of think if someone is going to steal them then they can photoshop it out. Watermarks usually take away from the picture and are they really necessary? I mean, if you’re looking at my pics you know who I am. (This is me justifying my lack of watermarking.) So anyway, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures as a bit of a catch up.

This is my August wedding couple. The sister of one of my brides from last year… I wasn’t sure if I would do any weddings this year until she asked me. I got along so well with the family that I couldn’t say no.

I’ve had a lot of fun Senior sessions lately. Kids that really “get it”. They understand that I’ve usually got a vision and just go with it.

Even my own husband thought I was a little crazy for asking this girl to run down the alley in her prom dress. But I had this image in my head and thankfully it worked out. I love when people are up for any of my weird ideas.

It also helps if they are flippin’ gorgeous. Seriously, I did not look like this as a Senior in high school. Ha. What am I talkin’ about? I don’t look like this now!

It makes me really happy when I can get genuine smiles from every member of the family, even the dad who wasn’t really into it.

And I am also happy when lighting works in my favor or have a husband to hold my reflector.

I get excited when newborns actually sleep for me.

Although I really can’t complain when they look this cute when they’re awake.

I have a TON of sessions coming up that I’m looking forward to. Expect to see more as they happen, just don’t expect them to be watermarked. :)