BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND
When potential clients call me about doing a shoot, they usually don’t have a good idea about what they’re looking for with their shoot. They might know that they want pretty pictures in a field, or an edgy, downtown vibe, but they haven’t really thought much about what they plan to do with the pictures. I think that most people plan to decide what to do with them AFTER they see them.
I get it. I know I’ve seen images of my kids and thought “Oh my, I have to frame that. Now, where should it go?” Then I have a long process of trial and error as I look for an appropriate spot. I have a fantastic vertical image of my kids that I wanted to put over the fireplace, but it’s the wrong aspect ratio (the fireplace looks best with a horizontal image).
But what if I had taken the image correctly in the first place? If I had planned things better, I would have simply turned my camera and captured it as a horizontal. Boom! All it would have taken would have been for me to decide where I wanted an image in my home BEFORE I took the pictures.
So given the challenges we now know we have, how do we end up with amazing wall art that perfectly works with my clients decor? Well, we begin with the end in mind! Before we plan outfits or even locations, I’ll ask questions like “Have you thought about using these images as wall art? Do you have any areas of your home that you can display your images?”
We’ll talk about matching the style of the session to the style of your house, about whether framed art or canvasses might look best, what size and orientation the images should be, and finally we’ll go over what you might want to do with any remaining images (gift them to family, create an album, keep in a folio?
Begin with the end in mind. It’s really the best plan for any project!
This is exactly how Makayla’s mom, Christina, ended up with several walls of stunning artwork in her home earlier this year. The process went like this:
During her initial phone call, she indicated that she was interested in wall art so we planned to do her in-person session planning consultation at her house so I could see exactly where the images would ultimately go.
At her in-person consult, I took pictures of her walls and decor and started planning the shots we would need to take it from inspiration to reality.
At Makayla’s session, we kept the Wall Art end-goal in mind, and got exactly the images that we knew would work for each wall that she wanted to decorate.
After the session, I put created a mockup of each wall gallery, scaled to size and displayed digitally so that she was able to see exactly how her home would look. It was easy for Christina to make decisions because we had done all of the planning beforehand!
Done! Christina’s walls look AMAZING.
I love that Christina chose to decorate her home with large portraits of her family, and I can just imagine the sense of belonging that her kids have from seeing themselves displayed as art in their home.
So, where would you like to display images of your loved ones? I can help you with that!
xoxo, Leah
