Ever Illuminated Podcast

Podcast episode 9 with Laura Santos is up! Laura is a photographer based in Portland, Oregon, who specializes in families, newborns, and weddings. Her business is Laura Santos Photography.

In this podcast, Laura talks about how she runs her portrait business. (Hint: she sells mostly digital files.) We also talk about work/family balance. She is super sweet and you’ll love hearing about her successful business model.

Be sure to check out Laura’s website here.

 

 

Here are some of her beautiful images:

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Podcast episode 8 with Ashley Jankowski of Braizen is up! Braizen is the fabulous firm that created Ever Illuminated’s beautiful branding and website. The podcast is about 40 minutes long.

In this podcast, Ashley gives practical advice on how a newer photographer should approach finding her brand’s identity. We also talk about how long a good brand identity should last and what the heck secondary logos are used for. If you’re interested in better establishing your brand’s identity or if you want to know what goes into establishing a brand, you won’t want to miss it.

Be sure to check out Braizen’s website here. Here is the book Ashley referred to, “How to Style Your Brand”, that Braizen’s work is featured in (affiliate link).

 

Here are some lovely shots of their office space, which we talked about in the podcast:

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Podcast episode 7 with Mary Fisk-Taylor is here! It’s about 40 minutes long.

I am so excited that Mary agreed to share her knowledge with us. Be sure to listen to Mary talk about the portrait studio that she runs with Jamie Hayes, Hayes & Fisk Photography, which grosses over $1,000,000. (Yes, you read that correctly.) In this podcast, Mary discusses her brand new marketing idea that is proving successful, as their sales have increased by 20% over last year. Plus, she gives us some ideas about marketing a mid-market studio. Mary is super smart, funny, warm, and business savvy. As a side note, Mary will be one of the instructors at Texas School, a pretty incredible intensive photography school in the Dallas, Texas area.

Be sure to sign up below to be the first to hear about special offers and get weekly re-caps. Oh, you also get a free instant download of our Nice Photographer’s Guide!

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Podcast episode 6 with Penny Claire Evans is here! It’s about 40 minutes long.

Penny Claire is a natural light fashion-inspired high school senior photographer located in Zanesville, Ohio. Penny Claire Photography LLC officially opened for business in March 2014 and quickly became a well known name in the local senior market. Check out the Penny Claire Photography website here.

Outside of Penny Claire Photography Penny is a member of the Mid-East Career and Technology Center’s Digital Media Advisory Committee helping towards improving the digital media program, specifically in areas related to photography.

At home, Penny is currently working towards preparing for trick-or-treat where herself and her daughter will be going as Minions while her husband dresses as Gru from Despicable Me. Soon after Trick-or-treat Penny is excited to celebrate her daughter’s very special 3rd birthday!

Penny talked about how to find your style in photography. She also told us the secret to making a flower crown. Here is some of her lovely work:

Be sure to sign up below to be the first to hear about special offers and get weekly re-caps. Oh, you also get a free instant download of our Nice Photographer’s Guide!

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Podcast episode 5 with Jill Carmel is here! It’s about 40 minutes long.

Jill Carmel has been working in the world of professional portraiture for over 16 years. She began her photography career in 1999, while attending college and working for a fine art portrait studio in Los Angeles. In 2008, she moved to Sacramento, CA and opened her own photography business, specializing in natural light portraiture of families, children, newborns and teens. Her greatest joy in life is creating happiness in the lives of others and that the combination of family and art makes this passion a reality. You can find out more about her work through her family photography website.

In this podcast interview, Jill talked about how she got started, the three types of shots she wants in her family sessions, her pricing philosophy, and her experiences with different types of studio spaces. She is really down-to-earth and helpful and you won’t want to miss it.

Here are some of her beautiful images, including “The Squish”.

Be sure to sign up below to be the first to hear about special offers and get weekly re-caps. Oh, you also get a free instant download of our Nice Photographer’s Guide!

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Podcast episode 4 with Julia Woods is here! It’s about 40 minutes long.

The ability to simplify the complicated grows out of Julia Woods’ life experiences.  Growing up in the Midwest as the middle child of seven, marrying in her early 20’s, and choosing to home-school their 4 children, Julia also took on the task of starting and growing a business.  Portraitlife – an internationally recognized boutique wedding, portrait, and photography education business, was founded with her husband, Jeff.

Julia had everything that she thought she wanted, but felt she wasn’t experiencing life fully.  It was in 2009 that she recognized it wasn’t her life experiences that needed to change, it was her.  In a quest for something more, she began choosing freedom for herself and the life she desires.

In this journey she has experienced a beautiful outcome far beyond what she ever imagined possible. Out of that joy, Beautiful Outcome was created in 2014 as a way of supporting others. She offers Transformational Coaching, Business Consulting and Destination Portraits. Her own journey has birthed her desire to stand with others in their own transformation, helping them find their vision and experience their own Beautiful Outcomes in their life, relationships and business. No matter your past, your future can be simply beautiful, in every aspect!  You can see her website here.

Be sure to sign up below to be the first to hear about special offers and get weekly re-caps. Oh, you also get a free instant download of our Nice Photographer’s Guide!

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Julia talked in-depth about selling and gave some great advice for how to run a high-end portrait studio. She is a wealth of information and you definitely don’t want to miss it. Click on the arrow below:

 

 

Podcast episode 3 with Kelly Parnell is here! It’s about 20 minutes long.

We found Kelly Parnell’s work on Instagram and were amazed. She has such a gift of creating unique sets and themes for her clients. Check out her work here.

We published a styled session of hers a couple of weeks ago, which you can see here.

Here are are some examples of her work, which we referred to in the podcast:

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Find out about Kelly, what her career was before photography (hint: she helped create pretty smiles then, too), what inspires her, and what she is known for. Don’t miss the interview! Click on the arrow below:

 

Podcast episode 2 with Wendy Kovac is here! It’s about 20 minutes long.

Wendy Kovac and I had a little chat about her newborn and family photography business.  Click here to see her beautiful website!

We published a twin newborn session of hers a couple of weeks ago, which you can see here.

Here are are some examples of her work, which we referred to in the podcast:

This image is an album spread:

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Find out about Wendy, how she married at 18 years of age (really!), and how she runs her thriving business. Click on the arrow below:

 

Podcast episode 1 with Taylor Elchert is here! It’s about 23 minutes long.

I found a very fabulous young photographer, Taylor Elchert, on Facebook one day and was blown away. Taylor works hard to create a magical experience for her clients. Here is her gorgeous website.

Here are a couple of examples of her work, which we discuss in the podcast:

Be sure to sign up below to be the first to hear about special offers and get weekly re-caps. Oh, you also get a free instant download of our Nice Photographer’s Guide!

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See what I mean? I was blown away. Listen here to learn more about her and her magical fairy and fishing portraits. So fun! Click on the arrow below:

 

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Here’s a little assignment for the newbies out there this week.

Take a look at some of your recent photos.  What is the center of interest?  In other words, what is the most interesting aspect of the photo? (Here’s a hint:  usually, if it’s a portrait of a person, the center of interest is the face; if it’s a close-up of a person’s face, the eyes are usually the center of interest.)

Do you notice any trends about where in your photographs the center of interest is placed?

Don’t get me wrong, often, in portraits, it’s fine to center your subject’s face, but a more dynamic and interesting composition may be to to move the center of interest away from the center of the photograph.  The goal when creating an artistic photograph is to keep the viewer looking at it.  The viewer will start at one spot and move around the picture, sometimes resting in a certain spot, which is often the center of interest.

To try different compositions, think about the viewfinder on your camera. Which focus area is highlighted? Is it one spot in the center? Many beginners focus using that center box but they do not move the camera to re-compose after that.  You definitely want to focus on your center of interest but you might want to take it one step further.

One interesting composition style uses what is called the “Rule of Thirds”.

To illustrate the “rule of thirds”, imagine your image is divided up into thirds, both horizontally and vertically:

Now, pay special attention to the intersections of these lines, as marked by the red circles here:

To comply with the Rule of Thirds, you want your center of interest to be in one of these four spots.

Don’t know how to do that? Here is one way:

Here is way I prefer:

Use single-point focusing and move the focus point you see in the viewfinder to one of those Rule of Thirds intersections.

Here is another way:

1.   If your center of interest is a person, put the person’s eyes in the focus area of the camera.  (If the center of interest is not a person, put whatever is the center of interest in the focus area of your camera.)

2.   Hold the shutter button down half-way, which locks your focus. Move the camera slightly while holding the shutter button down half-way.  For people, I often move the camera down and to the right or left to get the person’s face higher in the frame. One caveat: to make sure you keep your image in focus when you re-position the camera, keep the lens on the same plane as it was when you focused; otherwise, you will be changing the distance from the lens to the object of your focus and risk an out-of-focus image.

3.   Press the shutter button down all the way to take the photograph.

Here is another way and the way I prefer:

1. Use single-point focusing and move the focus point you see in the viewfinder to one of those Rule of Thirds intersections.

(One note:  sometimes a setting on your camera will not allow the focus to be locked in this manner; in other words, when you re-compose the camera tries to re-focus, which is not what we want to do here.  The way to fix this problem was to change the focusing from continuous servo to single servo, but there might be other settings that cause this.  Consult your manual to find how to correct the problem.)

I often use the Rule of Thirds when composing headshots, like this one: