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We’re back from Vegas and we sit down to discuss progress through early 2020 and how Jenn came back to her studio for 1/2 a day and had a 20,000 dollar week.
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About Jenn Bruno Smith:
After leaving a successful career as a speech pathologist and clinical liaison, Jenn moved into pursuing her business full time. She has been shooting boudoir exclusively for 4 years and teaching marketing and business to the photography industry for the last two.
You can catch up with Jenn in her group The High Rollers Club- IPS, Business and Marketing for Boudoir photographers.
About the Interviewer Humberto Garcia:
Humberto Garcia is the world’s leading photography business growth expert.
Founder of Photography to Profits and high-performance coach to multiple 6-figure photography businesses. Humberto coaches photographers from his special operations military experience and photography sales and marketing experience. After years of high performance in Marine Special Operations and building businesses, he knows what works.
Transcript:
Jen? How is it being back from Vegas? I jumped right back in. Jason, take any break. I did have a nice break in Vegas, so I didn’t.
I slept in. I went to the spa, but then I came back running and I hit the ground running.
So, yeah, that was actually pay. It’s so weird. I felt so like drained when I got there. And I’m in Miami. So it’s like a three hour difference. And I didn’t get used to it for like the first couple days I was there.
Me too. I actually thought I was sick like the first two days because I was so tired. But then I realized that it was just the jetlag lag, like it wasn’t meeting sake, it was just the jet lag. That was really I was struggling with. So, I mean, then, of course, I I actually think it was easier getting back on Eastern Time than it was switching to Pacific. Really? Because I left so early in the morning.
Yeah. We had the like midnight flight and I was a terrible flight.
Yeah.
I got back and I’m pretty sure I literally felt like I had just been drugged and I needed to sleep because that what that did not kind of sleep, whatever was on the plane. And I flew Frontier. So I made it 10 times. You know how I feel about it. And here I thought I was saving money. But then I got up to the checkout counter. I get my ticket. And they basically were like, hey, here’s an extra hundred bucks to they carry on. I’m like, what? Oh, no. So it’s like an extra hundred dollars both ways for one Check-In and one carry-on. So all in all I should just one American. Now I’ve learned my lesson.
Yeah. Well did you. Because Sandra had it that bag too, right. So you had to pay for hers.
She had a carry on and or she had a chicken and I had a carry on. So yeah. That was about one hundred hours average both ways. On top of the ticket.
So next time you can just go like American and be a little safer.
Yeah, probably. So you just got back and it’s always a little bit crazy, right. Because I think I think the photography industry I guess assumes that January February is supposed to be super slow. So like WPI is now and imaging is right now. Yeah, but you were just messaging me that you came back to a really good half of a week, right?
Yeah. I mean I had four ordering payments in the last two days and then I had a client pay her payment plan off because she got our tax refund and that was thirty five hundred and then I had another seventeen thousand and ordering appointments in two days I’ll paid in full by the way, which is amazing.
That is a pretty good. That basically recovers all of your Las Vegas gambling losses.
Two hundred and fifty dollars of it. Oh by the way, you didn’t lose to anybody. You made too many.
But then I went back a lot and the next night and I lost two hundred. Did you really? I’m actually leaving Vegas up by like $60.
It’s so funny because, like, you basically didn’t even know how to play blackjack, blackjack, no. And you are beating everybody at the table.
I was. But you know what? The last time I was there, I sat outside. You would have loved them, by the way. Greg and Sharon, whose daughter they were there with their daughter. You had the lead in this new HBO show. Yeah. Called Vegas Hires something like that. And they’re filming it right now in Vegas. And so they were there for like a week while she’s filming. And Greg is like this blackjack shark. And so he basically, like, I kept losing, but I didn’t care because I was learning so much from him. So I was like, this is basically like it’s you win at blackjack, like private lesson right now. So I’m just going to keep on going. It was great. I learned so much.
It’s funny because I was sitting at a table and I think Sandra was like, oh, we lost a hundred dollars. And the dealer was like, oh, you don’t lose unless you leave the table. So like, encourages you to, like, stay and keep trying to win. Pretty sure I lost a few hundred dollars, but it was pretty fun.
It was really fun. I had so much fun. And whenever we were playing at the same table, that table was really fun to.
You know, and was funny, so I got back on Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday night. And there’s Dover Downs, which is like 20 minutes away for me. It’s a casino. It’s not anything like Vegas. But I was telling my husband about how much I learned playing blackjack.
And he’s like, let’s go see. Let’s go see how much you learned. So we got a sitter. And of course, I was dead tired because I’d been up since 3:00 in the morning Pacific Time. Right. You just went back to the casino on Wednesday night. When we got back. Are you addicted? Well, I only spent $100 again. I think you have to spend more than like, you know, a hundred. You’re addicted. But. So, like, I showed him everything I learned. He was so impressed. I lost. But he was really. That’s very funny. Yeah. Yeah.
I think that’s one of those games where somebody made that the joke that like, hey, you know, they they trick beginners into thinking that they’re really good by letting them when the first time. Yeah. And then that was kind of you. And then every time that you just keep losing. But like you just hang on to the first time, you’re like, well at least the first time I made something that hope.
You know, whenever I go to a casino, it’s always with the intent of having fun.
It’s never with the intent of like planning on making money. So I’m never upset if I lose because I’m always like, I had a lot of fun playing and, you know, it’s like going out to dinner like a movie or something. You’re spending the same amount of money and if you go slowly with it, you can make them fun, lasts a little bit more. So I get really impatient.
I’m like. Couple $10 and I’m like, double down. And I’m just like, slide that know.
And then you lose and then you’re done. That’s all right, though. It was fun. It was really fun. I had such a good time. Any great time in Vegas.
By the way, we stayed at the Palms Place, which is like a little bit off of the strip, but it was pretty cool theater. That might have been good and bad because I will say the good thing about it was like when we came down from our tower was it passed us. Whatever. Yeah. Well, when you come down from the tower, you’re not like just mobbed by like people in Hawaiian shirts, gambling and cigarettes. You know, you’re like in a nice lobby. It’s quiet. You can walk outside and it’s not like Vegas. Vegas is so Vegas. Right. I will say that’s the one benefit is like you did have the walk through at the little sky tunnel and there was a little bit of separation that was also like the downfall was like, if you want to go shopping, if you wanted to go to like a maze and all the other stories, you had to like jumping into it, which is probably good for me because I don’t. Sandra Yeah. I got to keep her away from there.
I like being off the strip. But I’m also I also like quiet and peace.
The strip is a little bit too much for me. I get a little overwhelmed with all the peopling, so I don’t mind saying off. And also, I really love shooting at the Palms Place. So and it’s great cause I say the same place every year. So then I almost have like, you know, I have a portfolio and this second location across the country. So when I book at that place, like Erin, you have an existing portfolio, which is great. And also, I want to figure out my shooting flow, you know?
Yeah, I feel like that’s like a Seinfeld ism in the sense that, like, they make a joke where it’s like, should you go to the restaurant that’s new and you don’t know. And it’s unexpected. Could be better, but it could be worse already. You go to the restaurant that you know is consistently good. You know, you’re going to get. And it’s no risk. So I feel like it’s kind of like that. Like what if it was another hotel where, like, if you walked in, you would be like, wow, this is ten times better.
So it could possibly it could be worse. And then I’d be stuck there with clients and not now. I did think about, gosh, there was another one that I really thought about. Oh, I forget the name of that. But it has suites, too. It starts with a V. Dimunation vdara of it.
That’s like right next to the aria.
Yeah, I thought about that one like pretty hard and.
But then I just came back to the fact that like if I was going to have client Sarah, like, ah, you know where all the ladies I know like where I’m gonna find my sets without having to like bring a bunch of stuff with me. So I ended up just, you know, going for the same thing again. I’m glad I did, though, that she went really well.
Yeah. I will say the one place I would probably like warn people against, although maybe some people love it, is the Mandalay Bay on because it’s like a gold tower and then it’s almost like them, like it’s filtered through greenish. Or it could be gold, but it’s almost like it’s like the opposite of gold, which is like a weird dream. The one place I would avoid where I was.
Who are we talking to that said the windows had like that was.
Yeah. Where was he staying at. He said that there was almost like. Like a vinyl covering on the windows with like little dots.
Yeah, I forget where he said he stayed, but he ran into the same thing at the Palms Place. There’s like a blue tent to the windows. So you just have to be aware that like when you’re shooting, does it kind of messes with your weight bonds that I no longer wear?
I would imagine for someone that shoots like really dark and moody or like black and white, I’m like, it’s fine because like The Presets, I’ll sometimes have that range. But if you don’t. I was asking you, I was like, hey, do you have a color checker passport? Because the way you.
And it’s right beside me. Right here.
Well, then that’s great. Those are great cards. But there’s like a colored checker where, like, it has like a row of 24 different colors. I don’t have that. Yeah. And you take a picture of it. And what it does is it obviously has like white grays and blacks. It has all the pure colors, the primary colors and shades between. So what it does you like before you put your photos into Lightroom. You basically create a color profile and you take a picture of this thing and you run this file through it. And basically what it does is it tries to make like recover the colors that you took on that little color checker. And it Corexit. So it’s not going to be perfect. So you’re shooting through like crazy green light, but it’s really, really good at almost like perfects UI balance. And the thing is, it also like corrects the relationship between colors and basically like the color accuracy wrong. And obviously like your colors are really consistent there because you showed a lot of window light and your flash. But when you’re traveling or I’ve heard of Vegas photographers that consistently shoot in like different areas. Yeah, like hotel to hotel. They don’t really have a studio, right? Oh, that’s right. Pretty super useful.
Yeah. I don’t have to look into that. It sounds pretty fun.
Yeah. So we actually we weren’t in Vegas during like WPP, which I have this weird.
Now I have this like weird condition where I keep thinking I’m going to WPP, but I’m not because I never actually go. I just go to meet everyone beforehand.
And I didn’t go to WFUV either. It wasn’t actually there. I was there in spirit.
Yeah. And I think the I think the convention started like Monday or something, which is like coincidentally the day we left. So but yeah, we we’ve been getting there a couple days early. I know it’s pretty. I don’t know. Like the boudoir community is pretty popular to shop, but like I would do more. I think AVP was there as well. We were there and we had like two massive get togethers.
Yeah. They were so fun. The meet and greet went really well. I’m so glad so many people came. I was a little nervous, like, you know, when you throw a party and you’re like, oh, is anyone going to come?
I don’t know if people came. I was so happy.
Yeah. By the way, Quijada just reminded me he was staying at the Luxor. And yes, it had a vinyl rap on the outside.
By the way, she killed my shoe. So you shot me and he killed it.
They’re really good. Yeah. I know I asked you for pictures and you’re like, I’m naked down all. I was like, what do you mean?
I think it’s a good bet. Yeah, but they’re really good that. He did. Exactly. He’s extremely talented. He killed them. Yeah, he called them.
They’re going to be on the Internet. He’s a model release. So everyone’s going to be. I don’t care if do a photographer. Lot of.
Right. That was really cool. We met Kiani. We hung out with a bunch of people from mass mind. It’s weird because like when you’re in this online community, online world, we’re like we’re entrepreneurs, but like we’re all in different cities and like, it’s hard, you know, maybe find a click or, you know, we don’t hire workers and stuff. Right. If you’ll. You feel like, you know, people just because, you know, they like online personalities. But like another name, like go to these conferences or pre-conference. It’s like we do and like hang out and talk and. Yeah. Vegas is definitely cool place to do that.
Yeah. We had a great time. And then our mastermind dinner was fun.
Yeah. So just for the record, that place called like Al Capone was with us. It was fun. It was really cool. Let me let me. OK. Let me just let me just paint the picture. Super dark. Each man comes to each man who comes with a flashlight. There is a rat traps, light stop.
There is a magician. He said it was great. He says this place is the most Vegas you can ever make a place. It was perfect. And the meatballs were amazing. The meatballs were pretty good. They were pretty good. And I had raviolis and they were pretty good, too. I wish I would have had like two more days there so I could have eaten my leftovers for a few more days because it was so much food. But the magician was good, right?
Yeah, he was actually really good. He took one. He did the coin trick with me. There was some that kind of blew my mind. The one we’re like. He had like the lemons come out of a cup. I don’t know how they fit in there, but I don’t know how he did that.
Have you tried to look up? So when this was happening, I could see you tried to think through things. I was like, I wonder if I’m just gonna go and try and look up. Did you figure out how to do these tricks?
I figured that the one where he took it like he asked me to write on a coin and then he bent it with his mind or whatever. Whenever I got the coin back, I looked at them and I realized his coin was, well, it was maybe a real coin at one point. It was definitely like altered because like the ridges were different. So I was like, OK. He basically switched out the coin and then he pushed it out a little bit. So I kind of got that one the slight of hand on that one, but I couldn’t figure out the lemon one. But some things are left to not look up.
I know I was. I was actually really impressed with his initial card trick. Whenever someone wrote their name on the card and then he kept pulling it out. That was pretty interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. Overall, a very Vegas place that we went ate at because you can you can pick the next one and you can pick the next one.
Yeah. Deal. I definitely get to pick the next one. Yeah. I was holding firm to Kappas this time. I was like I really would go because I mean I’m super Italian and you know, my my grandfathers would have loved that. And it was very Italian. And so I really liked it. Well, you can pick next time. All right. I definitely will. We’ll be all fancy next time.
So we went to Vegas. We hung out with a ton of really cool people, which, by the way, I’m I’m not making this public outside of the group or to like anyone else. But we I went there. Technically single. And I left. They’re married.
And I was the flower girl.
Yeah. And it was really cool because like at the end of Happy Hour or our meet and greet at the chandelier, which by the way, the Cosmopolitan is amazing.
Beautiful. Yeah. Baz, I basically recruited everyone that was there against their will and was like, you’re coming with us to a Vegas wedding because you see that Joy took pictures like so she went on the opposite side and took pictures of all of us taking pictures of you.
Did you see that?
Yeah. I had 10 wedding photographers, basically.
It was it was a really good time. And Elvis did a really good job.
It was a really good to Elvis. I didn’t know what I was getting for one hundred and fifty. But actually, he was like 160. And I booked it like last minute. I booked it like five hours before he was like, oh, ten o’clock on a Sunday night. Perfect timing. That’s very random. But OK. That was great. He did such a good job. I feel like in Vegas, ten o’clock is like 2:00 p.m. in other places. So I don’t know. I can’t wrap my head around that because you walk outside at like 10 in the morning. It’s like a ghost town. And then at 10:00 at night, it’s like hustle and bustle.
Yeah, I had a hard time with. I go to bed at like nine. So I was struggling. The first thing I was in Vegas, I went to bed at like 7 because I was still on Eastern Time and then up so early.
But yeah, it was a great wedding. It was like two and a half minutes and it was perfect. He did a great job.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I know. Anything I ever get married in jeans and suede jacket. But first time for everything. Yeah. So I have to do a a real wedding here in Florida, which you’re planning on doing anyways in the spring. But we thought, hey, we have to do this legally anyways and not just do it in Vegas.
And for the people that are listening and don’t know, Sanjaya is here, why, if we were talking about her earlier, isn’t it cool to say wife, by the way?
Yeah, there’s a there’s a standup where it’s like, you know, and when you go to airport and you’re like, hey, my girlfriend and I sit with my girlfriend, people like don’t respect, you know. But if you’re like, that’s my wife. And I feel like now like now I’m legit.
Like I’m a grown up now, like you said, like, yeah, well, I already changed her name and my phone ticker’s. I asked her, how are you gonna change your name? Think, well I don’t.
I don’t know. I don’t know if I was gonna get like I don’t know. I was getting married today and so but anyway at 18 stream I felt so.
Yeah, that’s funny. Yeah. Yeah but I think so. Like normally, you know, when people go on vacation and you’re just like waiting to get home. Vegas is one of those places where like I was just so drained from the nightlife that like so like three days is like, I can’t wait to go home.
Yeah, I wish I could say it was drained from the nightlife, but I went to veterans head every day, so I really was. Yeah.
Some of the photographers were hanging out with like they go hard like really there is heading after the wedding. I mean, it was our wedding night and we went about it like one. They were sending me pictures of like post really cool clubs and like them eating dinner. Basically at 6:00 in the morning. I was like, well, that would have been me 10 years ago. But you’re too old now.
I’m too old for that. I can’t do it. Three kids in. I can’t stay up like that anymore.
I mean, I don’t know if I ever stayed up like that, but I mean, I used to stay up later than. But I was tired by the end of the day.
So I know we. We started on this and this is actually really cool because you were gone for like an entire week. Yeah. Yeah. You got there. I think you left Wednesday. You got there like on Thursday or Friday.
I got there Friday morning, the twenty first. And then I came back on the twenty six Wednesday late in the day. Yeah.
So I know we actually just wrote a blog on this but like you don’t do same day sales. You had those shoots scheduled. And then you came back and had the order appointments. How many other appointments do you have today.
I had three today.
Hello. By the way, how. Take you, because I feel like some people, like somebody messaged me the other day and they were like, oh my God, I had an amazing sale, but it took me three hours an hour and a half and I’m not enough.
Sometimes an hour. It really depends on how decisive the client is.
But it also depends on like how you can close because some people don’t know how to close and they just keep like lingering the sale, like waiting for the client to talk themselves out of things. But you have to, like, close it. Have to stop it at some point, you know?
Yeah. I feel like a lot of it’s like just overwhelming enthusiasm, like expertise, you know, and my confidence in it. And you’re right. Like when you let it linger, when you’re asking for opinions and feedback and you keep going back and forth like you’re just giving people like out.
It’s like, yeah, I’m very structured with my ordering appointments. Like, there’s no question who’s in charge. When I’m doing them. And I think sometimes that’s the problem is they they it’s just like a dance. Right. Like someone has to lead. Someone has to follow. You need to be the one leading. And if you start to let the client lead, you’re gonna get off track. Choreography is gonna get messed up, right. You’re not gonna have the same outcome. So I’m very much in the lead when I do my ordering appointments.
So really good sales day. So what was it? So the three sessions say.
Yeah. So my boy had an ordering appointment yesterday and that was paid in full and that was like fifty two hundred. And then my first sale today, this is actually a great story. So I actually I did a little mini course in the mastermind about this this morning about how to use square installments to close sales and increase your sales average since I started square installments. It’s been like. Like a walk in the park. It’s so easy. So she actually e-mailed me yesterday. That’s my first client today and was like so I got laid off from my job this morning at 9:30 when definitely gonna have to go with your lowest collection. And I was like, oh, gosh. And so luckily, Judy, my retoucher hadn’t actually started retouching that site yet. So I wrote a really quick. I was like, Judy, did you start this client? And she was like, no, I just did the raw processing. And I was like, great, can I reduce it by like 30 images? Because I thought she was gonna go with my last leader. So I was like, all right. So I took out 30 images and she ended up getting like forty four, which is my my four thousand dollar collection. And then she added some and so she was like forty four hundred and she had a thousand dollars in cash. And then I told her about square installments and she’s like, OK. And then she got approved and that was it. Paid in full for the whole thing, by the way.
I will say that that’s like it’s one of like holy grails for even people the mastermind where it’s like they’re almost as excited about almost like a huge sale as they are is getting approved for square installments. So it’s how you do that. When did you get approved?
Like it’s a process so that I applied. I think the beginning of this year and the reason I didn’t do it before was it wasn’t available in Delaware, which is where I live. And it recently became available. And then I was just really busy and I didn’t have time. So in the beginning of the year, I ended up applying and they accepted me.
You got like your own personal link. And the great thing about square installments is a client can see if they’re pre-approved so they can go in and see how much they’re pre-approved for so they know how much they can spend together. Yeah.
And you haven’t do this like at the end when they’re trying to figure out how you like pre-approved them before.
No. I send them the links that they could pre-approved themselves if they wanted to. But I tell them to wait for the ordering appointment. And so when we get to the point where I’m trying to close them, I’ll be like, you know, hey, you’re like closest to this collection. How much did you want to put down? Like, how much were you planning, you know, today on putting down? And they’ll tell me. No. Okay, great. So do you want to see like square installments are awesome because you can finance over twelve months. But I get paid right away, which means you get your stuff right away. And people love that. And then they just go on and see if they’re pre-approved. And which is. Is it 0 percent for twelve months or is it was you over seventy six. Now there is interest so.
Oh well there’s no like you know how like PayPal does like six months. No interest now.
So there there is interest on it but it’s not a lot is maybe like nine or 10 percent. And then they have to put down a down payment and the down payment is usually 10 percent. So they’re financing like four thousand. They may have to put down four hundred and they attach a debit card to the account. And then it just takes their first payment as like a down payment. So they are doing potentially a down payment with me, too. And then a down payment to square. But most the time it’s fine.
And what about before square? Because that’s one of the things I like.
There’s a lot of people that don’t have died.
Today was actually a work day in office for us. Okay. Boy, what was I saying? What did I do before Square’s? Oh, yeah. So a lot of people are always I have clients that have gone like maybe they charge too little the down payment, maybe they don’t auto bill and they’ll have like tens of thousands of dollars in like accounts receivable that they won’t ever collect on basically. And I think one of the issues with that is basically that the person one of the biggest factors, they didn’t put enough down payment in. Right. And that’s kind of same thing with like down payments on a house. Right. Like you were way less more likely to default on a house if they put 3 percent down comp. They put twenty five or twenty percent. Right. Really, what amount was just a somebody to watch this and maybe they don’t have enough history with Square and they can’t do it. Yeah. Like what percent should people be putting down.
So I am actually very flexible. So if someone doesn’t qualify for square installments, then I also do an in-house payment plan and I’m actually pretty flexible with them. I talked about that this morning on my my call for the mastermind. If someone only has one hundred dollars put down his down payment, I will take their hundred dollars because chances are they’re probably going to flake or default on an in-house payment plan. And that means that I have one hundred dollars more than what I did when I started. I’m one hundred less in the red. Right. For doing the shoot. So I’ll take whatever they have to put down because knowing the. The less amount of money they put down, the more likely it is that they’re going to default. I do have policies, but if someone says I have one hundred dollars or nothing at all. Sure, I’ll take your hundred dollars.
Yeah. So preferred, preferred much higher.
But yeah, usually. So my studio policy is a third of the payment. Needs to be a down payment. A third of the purchase price. But if someone is spending nine thousand dollars I’ll still take like a thousand. I’m very flexible with the terms. I try to encourage them and push them to give as much as they can, because like you said, the more they give us a down payment, the less likely they are to default later.
Yeah, well, that’s pretty good week for being gone. Half of that.
Yeah, that was only my first sale. I had to Marseille’s today. Yeah. So they were both in my middle. My second sale was over four thousand dollars. I was forty one hundred and my last sale the day was thirty one twenty four.
And by the way, do you normally. Is this not my normal. Like you just have like days where you’re just selling.
You way. It was kind of nice but usually no because I’m shooting a light and so usually I have them in the afternoons after I shoot. So I’ll shoot from 10 to 1 and then I have ordering appointments at 2:30 and then I’m done at 4. And Jackson comes over all of us then. So. Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Well for anyone that didn’t go or hasn’t banned movie I definitely recommend. Yeah. Come out next time. Message us, we even posted the event in the group, we e-mailed it out. We actually have people that like we’re kind of like in the shadows in the group. I never really interacted, like, come out. And it was like, hey, like, do we know you? And I remember someone was like, Yeah. So your email and I flew in from Japan. That was scary. It’s like, man, this is really cool. Really cool. I’m pretty sure we took over like half the bar at the bottom. At first I was like, oh, it’ll be cool if we fill these five seats.
We had like this little booth. It was just like maybe fit like five or six. And I was like, oh, this will be nice and, you know, small. And and people just kept coming. And I was like, this is amazing.
And now it just like seats, dude, we’re just kept move and people just kept standing. Then we started taking over more areas and I was like, what do we do with this eclectic group? Looks like to everyone else.
Like, I don’t know, but it was really cool. It was a great get together to do it. Let’s do another conference due in court or another conference.
Yeah. Well, I mean, you are going because we’re obsessed with education. So we’re going to Wisconsin. We’re going to Wisconsin. I think we’re having to like. I think we estimated have about 30 m. my members in Philadelphia this summer. Yeah. It’s not really fun for the or tree. And that’s maybe that is honestly it’s gonna be so awesome because I think you made the point. Like when people get together that are like like minded, that have the same goal and you know, we’re all very different from each other, all different areas and like maybe even different business structures. It’s really cool to just get together like that. Yeah. Feed off each other.
Absolutely. That’s the best because we’re all so isolated most of the time. It’s nice to get together with people that have the same mindset and you just kind of feed off of them. I love that.
Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, I can’t think I think the other one I might want to go to would be like, show it. United said that I have no idea. But I do know that like most the people are on show it and I really like the show at platform.
So what about like photography conferences? Do you want to go to any more of those this year?
I feel like show it is a photography conference. Oh, you know which one would be cool?
Schutter faster like click Condes click comes in August during our retreats.
I feel like it’s almost like imagine Deb Sardo having a conference like that would be fun, right? Hi. You know what event might be really cool? I think it’s in Arizona, but Porcher Masters.
Oh, that would be cool. I love Arizona too.
I feel yeah, I feel like the crowd that like. Of course, the masters like those the photographers that go there I think is because of the price point as well.
Like they’re good at sea races stuff, right. Yeah. Yeah. The earth. I’d be pumped about that. Yeah. I.
And I feel like the vendors that they have there are like top of the line. The photographers that go are really awesome.
I love to go to that one. Where does that put your masters.
I want to say it’s in like October. I don’t know. I’m going to look it up. I will say I think it’s it’s pretty expensive in the realm of like conferences. It might be. I might be mistaken. I think like VIP tickets are over a thousand and then it’s like maybe around five hundred. For some reason, when it came out, I thought tickets were over twelve hundred. But yeah, I know that there’s options for that.
So I might be kind of cool. We should look at that one.
Yeah. Maybe fun to get together. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. This time we won’t go to Al Capone. Al Capone. Kappos is Katha Zeds gives it is kind of talent but you get to pick next time.
Well I have a lot of video to edit. Now I have a lot of video to edit. I edited one because you photographed Elizabeth.
Chelsea. Oh, sorry. Chelsea. Yes, Chelsea. What’s your last name? McCormick.
But are you messing with me? It’s Chelsea, Elizabeth. I think that’s a brand name. Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s funny because I call her Elizabeth to start, but I don’t a face.
That means that, like, you get to know them. I like their brand here. So, yeah, today look. OK.
Were they right? No, they came out really well. Yeah. And by the way, you photograph you literally. How long has it been since you photographed with a prime lens.
Like 10 years. Maybe. Like I don’t use prime ever.
So first time using Amaryllis camera. Yeah. First time in 10 years using a prime loans. Yeah. Yeah. I still have to edit those, but those can be pretty cool. And we’re gonna really see those on the YouTube channel.
It’s like riding a bike. Take it back off again. But Cassoni, Sony was so cool. I I really had a good time shooting it. It was so much lighter compared to my Nikon. It was really nice.
Yeah. I think the thing that most because I’ve been shooting Sony since like the first mirrorless camera like six is just the AVF, like the viewfinder. When people put their eyes through it and then they hit play and they’re literally like, what the hell? How have I been living without this?
It was amazing. Like when you change the settings and it was like a live you away. What your exposure is like you.
I love that. That was so cool because, you know, of course, the Nikon, you know, do that. You have to click a frame and then you kind of judge from seeing it. I thought it was really cool. I was bummed about it.
Yeah. We’re gonna have to compare those photos because even with the Sony, you did know speed light.
Now, now an industry. Yeah.
Did you look through them? Did you look through the files?
We just got that. I have to import them still. She’s a card reader for it. And also, like the images will be slightly different because I was using thirty five. So I was kind of like working through angles as I was like working through using a new camera body. But that camera body light was nice.
Yeah, I will say it’s funny because some photographers are like, no way I can ever use a zoom. It’s too soft. Not enough. Boco like needs to be one point for nothing. And then some photographers like no. Well, when I say sometime, you know, you’re the only photographer I know that uses this or anything. So many people that learn under you probably do know that.
But the thing is, you get so much more variety and so fast and especially for good. Why? Because, you know, I like to focus on the eyes a lot and like with the zooming. I don’t have to move a lot. You just change that focal length and get right in there.
I think that I think that is like a big point is like photographers might notice the depth of field. They might notice like the super sharpness, like the average person. They would probably notice more better angles and more quantity. Then having like only an eyelash in focus and like, you know, everything melted away.
And, you know, I shoot a two point eight. So it’s still pretty. Whydo? I mean, it’s it’s still pretty open. And I still get a really pretty depth of field and. Yeah, I mean, but the biggest benefit using the zoom is you can get those tight shots which women love to have pretty pictures of their face. They love it. They will they will choose take crops over far crops all day long. In my studio anyway. I never thought of that. Yeah, all the all the time. They will choose those type crops, so much so because I crop I composing camera. I don’t I don’t compose after.
So I’ll crop they don’t crop at all after. No, never. Are you like that. Do you know this photo?
You know he’s obsessed with my photo. Oh I don’t remember that. But I told you I told you about the valuable guy. Yes, I am. When I was flying home in twenty eighteen. Right? Yeah. Um, Instagram. I was like espero. I totally like pumped about it too. There’s airport, right? Philly. Philly. I think Philly too.
Oh, really? Why? I saw him in Vegas when I was flying home like I saw him in the current airport. Not exactly. I know he is. I don’t think I learn. That’s not funny. He’s such an Ojito.
Oh, yeah. He’s been like on like YouTube, like doing this weird sniff test for like ten years.
Yeah. Like I he was one of the very first people that I watched that told me to shoot RA.
Before that I was like, what’s raw? What’s this about? What is it? And so I actually learned like that.
I did learn that from him. But composing in camera is just so much better because I’m like, you know, your focal points are where you want them, you know, the way the shot is, the way you want it to be. So I’ll move around, make sure that it’s composed.
And so as I’m shooting, I’m also thinking about album flow and do I have enough take crops versus, you know, wide crops? And you have to think, you know, every said, I want to shoot one tight. I want to shoot one, three quarter length.
I want to shoot one full length. I want to shoot one vertical and horizontal. So you have that variety as you’re as you’re working through your sets.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
