August 2015 Image Round Up

Here are a few of my favorite photographs from this month's sessions!

I love J.B. and Amy's sweet look of anticipation in this photo from their maternity session. The sun flare adds just a bit of subtle drama to the black and white edit.

Besides this baby being adorable, I enjoy the sense of movement this photo conveys with the folds of the blanket and the diagonal position of his body. 

In this image the bricks do two things quite well. The lines direct the viewer's eye to Giovana and the colors and tones complement her skin.

Thank you August skies! Sometimes I find myself distracted as I am driving by how bold and gorgeous the clouds are during the southwest's monsoon season. The dramatic sky in this image is just a bonus to the natural interaction between Dominique and Ben.

Ashley, you are fiercely beautifully. I love how the books on the shelves bring lots of texture and color to this photograph without making it feel too noisy or busy.

I played with scale in this image by placing Stephanie and Jon in the lower part of the frame. This over emphasizes the pecan trees to create a sense of grandeur.  

How to Have an Amazing Family Photo Session and Still Love Each Other When it's All Done

Family photos; the annual ritual often dreaded by Dad and thrown together by Mom. Mothers really are the true heroes of family photos. Ultimately, it is their effort (namely blood, sweat, and tears) that gets a family in front of my camera to create the images that will become a part of their history. Remember when you had braces and your little brother really was little? Thank your Mom for preserving that era of your family. Here are a few tips for all you warrior moms out there who would love beautiful, authentic family portraits with a little less blood, sweat, and tears.

Coordinate, Don’t Match

I know figuring out how to dress and style multiple individuals can seem like a daunting task. Here’s how to keep it simple: think in terms of coordinating your outfits instead of matching. Select a color to work with and use its different shades and hues to provide a unifying direction. Let’s take blue as an example. A mixture of sky blue, navy and Chambray can work very well together. Then you can add variety with pops of another color in your accessory choices. Using our blue example, you could add a bright yellow necklace for mom and yellow flats for daughter to make a fun and casual look. Or add a pair of black heels for mom and a classic black blazer for dad to dress it up. The key is to start with a solid foundation by coordinating colors. BONUS TIP: Check out www.design-seeds.com for all the inspiration and color eye candy you could ever want. DOUBLE BONUS TIP: The app Polyvore has a ton of outfit inspiration boards. Start creating your own outfits or browse what others are thinking up.

Give Your Photographs a Purpose

What do you want to do with your images?  Thinking about how you would like to display your photographs before your initial consultation will help with the planning of your session. Do you have a blank wall in your home that you would like to create a gallery display? I can help you determine a layout with sizes and orientations then create the exact images we will need during the session. If you would love an album we can focus in the planning of your session on ways to highlight story-telling elements. Including story-telling elements, such as props or sentimental items, will translate well into the album’s layout. For example, Ashley and Ben made sure to bring the first books they traded with each other to their engagement session to show how their relationship began. Planning your session with the photographs’ purpose in mind will create images that lend themselves seamlessly to how you envision enjoying them in your everyday life.

Try not to be a Ball of Stress

Easier said than done, I know. But seriously, relax the grip, drop your shoulders, and breathe, baby, breathe. An easy way to make the session more enjoyable for your children, and therefore less stressful for you is to bribe them. That’s right, I said it. Nobody is judging your parenting skills here! Promises of ice cream cones have been known to work wonders.  You can also consider incorporating an activity your kids love into the session like blowing bubbles or tickle fights. Thinking of your photo session as a fun family date will keep everyone’s mood more light and cheerful. BONUS TIP: Schedule your session on a day when you will not be rushed. Running late and feeling hurried will not help your stress level and if you are stressed at your photo session it is going to show in the images.

Love your Real Life

One of my mother’s favorite photographs displays her children’s personalities through facial expressions. In the photograph, I am grinning with every single tooth in my mouth, my brother is sweetly and mischievously smiling, and my sister is giving her trademark pout face. It helps to remember that not every photograph needs to have everyone smiling perfectly for the camera. Some of your favorite images will be created when true emotions emerge, whether that is belly laughing or your five year old’s pouty face. Approach your session with the goal to just be yourself and I am confident you will love the authentic feel to the images.

Let the Photographer Lead

Just like skillful dancers, someone’s role is to lead and other’s is to follow. Give the leadership role to your photographer. Once you arrive for your photo session Inform your kiddos that “the camera person” is in charge for the next hour. Now you are off the hook. All you need to worry about is enjoying being with your family. It is not your job to keep your kids’ attention or make them smile. That’s what I am here for!

From mother to mother, I sincerely hope these tips help you enjoy your next family photo session.

P.S. TIP: Do not wait until December to schedule your holiday photographs. Last year I was fully booked for the dates I had available before December.

The Most Effective Way to Brainstorm for a Marketing Video

So somewhere along the way either through an article, friend, colleague, or video, it was brought to your attention that video content marketing is the way of the future. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, “74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video”. Chances are you have thought over your own marketing video throughout your spare time and have come up with an idea for what the perfect video would look like, and the idea is just bursting out of your head because you are so excited to get it going. But before you create this baby, you need to backtrack slightly. Sit down and dedicate a solid hour of your time to clarify what the ideal video should do. Slow down and take some time to consider how the video is going to impact a viewer by clarifying a clear intent. This process should be painful or you are not doing it right. Use the following questions to guide your thought process.

What is the client’s need that this product fills?

It is easy to get carried away with features in our perfect expectation of a video, focusing primarily on the product or service we offer without considering the true need the product or service is filling. But if you want to make a great video, this is the first question you need to consider as well as how the video can convey the resolution of this need to the viewer. Ultimately, that is what you are selling. The product or service is merely a means of resolving a client’s need. Approaching the video from the client’s perspective will help the viewer relate to the overall message of the video.

How do you want the video to affect a viewer? What do you really want the viewer to do after viewing it?

You could have a great technical video, beautifully shot, perfect audio, great color, extremely informative, and amazing quality, but if the viewer can’t relate to the video, then the video will fail to inspire the result you are after. On the other hand, how many times have you seen a video that lacked in technical quality, but when you finished watching the entire video you reached for your wallet? Keep in mind, poor quality video is uploaded all day long online. Viewers are accustomed to watching poor quality videos while still receiving emotional value from the content portrayed. Which is quite opposite from the most hated videos which come across as commercials. Rather than strive for a goal of selling a product, aim to create an emotional investment in the product, service, or brand.

Does the video establish credibility?

Imagine going to a doctor, telling them you are sick and without asking your symptoms or checking your vital signs, they prescribe medicine. How confident would you be that whatever medicine they gave you is going to make you feel better? When is the last time you discussed your doctor’s credentials? Probably never. Based on the discussion with the doctor, you figure a normal person would not talk to me like this, they must know what they are talking about. Basically, you want the video to be believable. The best way to do this is to establish credibility. I am not saying a video must show credentials, I am just saying the content must pass the “sniff” test. If the viewer thinks it smells fishy, they won’t tell you why, they will just walk away. As you are considering what content to include, remember it is better that a message comes across genuine, rather than as a commercial.

Shift mindset from selling to showing

The field of dreams method of marketing has come and gone (and seriously should have never worked anyway). The “if you build it they will come mentality” doesn’t work when marketing to a generation of millennials that disdain being sold anything. When it comes to video content marketing, to make a video that impacts the viewer in a profound and thought out way, you need to connect with the viewer first, in order to inspire and motivate specific action. It is more effective to use an Inception technique: you need to go three levels deep, plant a seed, an idea, nurture that idea like you would a fragile plant and patiently wait for the fruits of your labor to develop their own roots. The largest mistake in creating a video is jumping straight to harvest when it is time to plow the field. Dedicating an appropriate amount of time to brainstorming and planning, when it comes to video content marketing, will be the most important step in creating a successful video campaign for your business that will inspire and motivate your clients and potential consumers. So if you don’t rush this process you will reap large dividends.

August 2015 Published Videos Update

Every month I post a list with links of the videos I published and share my motivation/inspiration behind each video. 

Taylor'd Photography

I use this YouTube channel for professional projects using professional DSLR cameras.

Engagement Slideshow: Ben & Dom

This is a slideshow Elise and I made for a couple of lovebirds this last month. This is a combination of still photos with a few short video clips. For certain Photography and Videography combination packages, I tag along for the engagement shoot. Although, we like to think of engagement sessions as more of a date night rather than a photoshoot. And what more of a romantic setting can you get besides the Whites Sands National Monument at sunset. I couldn’t resist filming the symbolism as the sun goes down representing the end of “I” in their relationship as two single strangers in love, and the sun will soon come up representing the beginning of “we” for the rest of their happily married lives. Of course, only one half is recorded and shown in the slideshow. I am excited to film the other half in a month.         

Melody's Dad Videos

 I use this channel as an outlet for my personal videos using point and shoot cameras (even my cell phone)

The Last Nap and S6 SloMo Video 

This video was just a tribute to my late phone, my Samsung Galaxy S6 which drowned in a swimming pool last month. The last video I shot on it, all shot at 60 FPS (frames per second). I wanted to see how a cell phone could handle slow motion. So in the video I was going to Melody’s room to borrow pennies during her nap time, but she was awake and goofing off. She has reached the age where naps are out of the question. Realizing that, I borrowed the pennies from her and went to the desert. I set the phone a few inches away from a few pennies, and shot the pennies with gun. In post-production I slowed the footage way down, and reversed it a couple of times as well. Needless to say, 60 FPS is not fast enough to catch a bullet, but from a nerd’s perspective, the footage still looked pretty cool.

Melody’s First VLOG 

This video was entirely shot by Melody. I made the video using my favorite clips. I want to clarify one of the videos she made that I used several clips from. She had a ten minute rant that started with the words: "My Dad is really scary, I don't like him". Then she proceeds to talk about people turning into monsters. Let me clarify and alleviate some of the many horrible thoughts you had about me when you saw that clip by telling you the back story. That afternoon, while Skye was taking a nap, Melody and I perused Netflix for a movie to watch. We came across one that sounded pretty exciting and had a kid friendly rating. It was called Spy Kids 1. Melody and I were getting pretty far into the movie when Skye woke up. I went and changed Skye's diaper and we were leaving her room when Melody comes running up saying "I don't like that movie, it’s scary". She then went into her room and apparently recorded this video. That night while the kids were in bed, I told Elise what happened and how I had to see the rest of the movie, 1 to see what scared her so much, and 2 to let her know it had a happy ending. It turns out, that in the movie the Dad of the "Spy Kids" gets turned into a monster by the evil villain. Less than 5 minutes later in the movie, the Dad gets turned back into a human, but Melody didn't make it that far. Moral of the story, if everyone gets turned into monsters, Melody wouldn't like it.

I publish videos regularly to both YouTube Channels (Taylor’d Photography and Melody’s Dad Videos). Subscribe to, comment on, and share both.

July 2015 Image Round Up

Here are a few of my favorite photographs from this month's sessions!

Sven and Jan celebrated 30 happy years of marriage with an Anniversary Photo Session. Well done, you two.

What do you do when family is in town? Create a beautiful portrait with backlighting in some wonderful morning light of course.

I had such a hard time choosing a favorite from Juliette's baby photo session. Her sweet expression and the dreamy bokeh won me over on this image.

Speaking of dreamy bokeh and sweet expressions....Life goals: Follow the good light and create a photograph just like this of Melody and Skye. Sisters forever.

Jade, you are killing me. I am in love with the moodiness of this image and the subtle teenage angst just screamed for a black and white edit.

I created these portraits with Andrew to document and celebrate the awesome fitness goals he has accomplished. I used an HDR edit on this image to accentuate the muscles tones and create a monumental feel to the image.