Simple ways to maximize your time with a photographer

(Written by guest blogger Julie Ohlemacher)

If you’re someone who uses platforms like Instagram to share your blog/business/personal-mission message multiple times a week, you may have come to a similar conclusion I have:

Coming up with content is easy - when you’re passionate about it! Pairing the content with photos...well, that’s another story.

I like to mix professional photos with my own “real-life” amateur photos.

Thankfully, I have Autumn in my back pocket. And after our last photoshoot, Autumn remarked how well I take advantage of our time together, and asked if I’d share my tips with you all. So here we are.

I typically work with Autumn around four times a year to do seasonal photos to refresh my webpage and gather photos for my instagram/Facebook pages.

When we do shoots, they’re either 30 or 60-minutes and I always have one mission in mind: get as many different photos as possible.

When thinking about instagram, I have to think about how the photos look together on the 9-photo grid that you see when clicking on someone’s profile. So it’s not helpful if I have 9 photos of me, in the same outfit, in the same location, in the same pose. I need different outfits, different poses, different locations to get as many different photos as I can to have a diverse collection to use on my instagram.

So before a shoot with Autumn I consider a few things:

1. Location. I want to use a location where I know we can get multiple different backgrounds quickly. Driving from place-to-place takes time. Autumn works with an hourly rate, so we don’t have time to waste, ya’ll. If we’re using my house, I think ahead of time about all the different places we can take photos to maximize unique photos. If we’re going outside, I think of an areas with lots of different backgrounds. For instance, in the fall we went to McPherson Commons. We took pictures at Arch Park, walked down by the pavilion, took photos by the river and on the bike path. So many different options! So many different looks! Yes please!
2. CLOTHES! This is huge. One of the easiest ways to make photos look different is with your clothes. I don’t worry about changing my hair. Changing clothes is easier, quicker, and makes a more noticeable difference between photos. I’ll typically pick out at least four different outfits that I can easily change into. The quicker the change, the more photos I get! (Note from Autumn: dang this girl is good at different outfit looks! Last summer, she went from shorts and a tank top to a dress within 10 seconds by keeping the shorts on under the dress - then bounced back to another t-shirt. Three outfits in less than 15 minutes!)
3. Location + Clothes. Combine the two and BOOM. So many options. Say Autumn and I are doing lifestyle photos at my home. I’ll take photos all around the house in all the different outfits and then get to mix-and-match locations with clothes and create a ton of different looks with ease! If we’re doing an on-location shoot, like the one we did at outside at McPherson Commons, I think in layers. I may have the same jeans and top on, but I’ll have a scarf, a vest, a jacket, etc. that can still give the same outfit entirely different looks.
4. Planning. Doing all of the above comes down to simple planning. I spent a summer interning at a national women’s magazine as a photo intern, so I learned about things like “shot lists.” A shot list is simply a list of the different photos you want to get. You plan for the photos you desire. Now, I don’t always have an actual physical paper list in my hand, but you better believe I have it all planned out in my head. The more you plan the shoot, the more ideas you have before Autumn (or any photographer!) arrives, the more clear you are on your vision for what you need: the more photos you get. (Another note from Autumn: Julie's shoots often include some food items - which she ALWAYS has laid out on her kitchen counter ready to go. This provides time during the shoot to get more photos rather than waste time pulling stuff out of the fridge or cabinets.)

So there you have it my friends. Simple ways to maximize your time with your amazingly talented photographers to make the most of both of your time and get as many unique photos as possible. Happy shooting!