I'm so excited about today's episode specifically because I'm sharing with you all the things that I wish I would have known before I ever had my first content photo shoot. So what is a content photo shoot and why does it sound so, bougie, right, like I hear you. I hear you, if that's like. The first place that your mind went was like oh, glamour shots. Is that what we're talking about here today? I get it Because a few years ago, I had those exact same reactions when I thought about other people talking about having a photographer come to their house and take pictures or just do a lot of things that sound very like upscale or expensive, or you're like I'm just getting started, I don't know that I'm there yet. So I'm going to kind of share my journey with getting pictures taken over the last few years, what that has looked like for me, and then I just finished. So when I'm recording this, I just had my second photo shoot with a photographer here in Houston. So I want to talk about what it's like to work with someone more than once and how that experience was different, and I hope that it's something that you can find for your content in the future. So we're covering all the things we're covering how I found my photographer, what kind of packages that you should look for, or different things that you should consider when you're choosing a photographer, as well as some special insider secrets that I cannot wait to share with you. So let's get right to it. Welcome to Proffitt Po dcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it. Shall we? Okay? Welcome back, Krystal, here today, and I am really excited to talk about this because, like I said, I just got finished with my photo shoot for 2023. Let me just throw that out there. This is not something that I do on a regular basis. I'm like I don't do this on. Like once a quarter I'm gonna have a photo shoot, and that's simply because I don't need that much content. So last year, I did a photo shoot around the same time I think it was closer to the very end of November, beginning of December and it worked out perfect. I was able to use a lot of those pictures for a full year for my website and for social. But I just have all this fresh on my mind and I wanted to talk about it because I know that there's those of you that are considering like, can I just do this myself for my content or should I hire a photographer? So that's really for you. I'm like, if you're trying to decide, do I need to hire someone, can I take pictures for myself? And I actually have a free guide that's gonna help you, even if you're doing all of this on your own. It will help you plan out what to do, what to think about and all the things. So, first and foremost, I want to share that I have done pictures, let me see, probably five times in those since 2018, right, since I started my podcast and did all the things. I've done my pictures about five times, and two of those have been not two of them. One of them was my mom. She took pictures for me. I have this really nice. I think it's a Nokia Canon. I don't remember it was a, no, it was a Fuji Tech. So Fuji Tech, it was one that we had gotten at Sands or Costco, like several years ago, and it was one that it takes really good pictures, but I just didn't know how to take really good pictures. I didn't know what poses to take, I didn't know what to what we were doing. I didn't even know the lighting wasn't great, let's just call it out like that. I didn't have ring lights, I didn't have a bunch of other things, so that was one of them that was thrown in there. Another one was I found someone who was recommended to me to take pictures and they had a small photography business, but they weren't like established. So someone that like hey, I do this on the side. So that's also an experience that I had when choosing a photographer is like hey, you know, this is someone. She I don't remember what it paid her, it might have been like $175 or $200. He actually came to my house and, if you've seen the artwork The Proffitt Podcast, that is where that picture came from. So I don't even remember how many images I got with that very first package, but I took those in 2018. So be on the lookout. is getting some rebranding because that picture is over five years old and I'm you know, it's time. It's time for an update for the podcast, but that's what I did is I hired someone that was a friend of a friend, knew someone, and she's the one that took images for my podcast. So Let me back up for a second, because if you're saying, well, Krystal, why, why do we need Content images? What are these used for? So I use my content images for, like I just said, podcast artwork. So if you have not taken some professional photos for your podcast artwork and you want them to be done, I'm actually I want to tell you about Kelly. So Kelly is someone that she did my pictures in 2020 and she did all of them on her phone. So you don't have to hire someone that has a really fancy camera and all this like really expensive equipment. She did everything on her smartphone in 2020 and those images turned out fantastic. So if you've ever seen me in that like good vibes Sweatshirt that I have on my Instagram profile, that was from Kelly and that was on a smartphone. So I don't want you thinking that, oh, I only have to hire someone who has an actual camera and has a professional studio. No, you absolutely do not. But I wanted to share a little bit about how I use my images. So I use them on social, I use them on my website. I am updating my podcast artwork we just talked about that as well as in my content, like headshots. When I'm a guest on someone's podcast, I send them like hey, here's two or three options you can choose from those. I will use them on my YouTube thumbnails and in other pieces of my content where it makes sense, and on sales pages. So my sales pages and my promotional sequences, I'll have them in there as well. So it's just all sprinkled throughout my content and from time to time I think that it's a good idea to update them. It is absolutely not mandatory. Okay, this is like above and beyond. So if you're like Krystal I don't have a single budget I have I've dedicated all the personal finances that I can to getting this podcast up off the ground Then that's okay. I hope that this is something that you can aspire to do one day, because, let me tell you, is a ton of fun. It is a ton of fun Especially when you find a photographer that you have so much fun with, and that is Camille. So let's just dive into how I found Camille. So I have a good friend. So shout out to Anna Agogo. She runs the Adode Media in Atlanta, georgia, and she has a podcast studio. If you've ever heard of Patrice Washington and her show, this is. She has the Black Pod Festival. She just hosted Anthony O'Neill for Black Pod Fest and she is absolutely incredible. So shout out, anna. We have such a fun connection from back in the day meeting together. She worked at Buzzsprout for a while and was doing a lot of consulting and helping with them and now she's just freaking amazing and I love all the things that she does. But I was telling her one day I was like Anna, I cannot we do like we talk all the time on Instagram. I was like I cannot find a photographer in Houston. And I was just complaining. Basically I was venting. I was like I cannot find a photographer in Houston. She was like what are you talking about? Like here, like here's four different ones. And then she sent me one that her sister had used and I was like, oh, let me go check this out. I hadn't found this one. And there was a particular type of photographer that lives like in my area that kept showing up every time I would search for Houston photographer. It was people that shot like families and babies. They didn't do lifestyle or blogger podcasts, like they didn't do any of that. They're like oh, you know, here's the infant package or here's the family holiday pictures. I was like, no, I had a very specific need to have a branding or lifestyle photographer and that's what they needed to have that experience. And I just couldn't find them. And I recommend this for you too Like, if you're going to look for a photographer, find someone that has experience working with brands, specifically online brands, because they will know what they are doing and they will have that specific eye when you tell them, hey, I need a photo that's slightly offset because I'm going to put some text up here and I want it to say like congratulations or welcome or whatever. Like, I want to have that. If you tell that to another photographer, they may say, oh, no, but then your image won't be centered. So you need to have someone that has that eye for digital design and different things that you're going to have on your website or your social. So I'm just throwing that out there, because that's exactly what Camille was. So I was referred to Camille by Anna and it was such a seamless process to reach out and say, hey, I know you through, you know my friend's sister and you know, do you have any time slots open? And that's going to be like let's do a hard. Stop there, because I want you to reach out into your network first. This is where I always find the best referrals and I mean, yes, you can Google, you can look on Instagram, you can do hashtags, you can do all those things. But at the end of the day I found Camille because I heard about her from a friend. So word of mouth marketing is still super powerful. But then from there I went to her Instagram. So I went to her Instagram, I checked her out and I was like, oh my gosh, like I love her images. Oh, she has a website. Let me go to her website. So I actually you know, if you're watching on the video, I have Camille's website pulled up and I started looking at all of the images. I could see her work and I could see exactly what she was doing. I knew I was like, oh, this is definitely the vibe that I want. Like she has some shots where I could immediately say this is what I'm looking for or could you do this, but slightly like that and she just had so many great portfolio examples of previous work that she had done, and because photos are so visual and everybody has their own taste, I definitely recommend you seeing someone's work before you book them, before you put any money down because you want to have like, like, is this my vibe? Is this what I want to do? And for me it was. It was an immediate yes, like, I love the studio, I love the setup, I love the background. And that's another thing to consider too is does your photographer have a studio? Maybe you want that, maybe you don't. Maybe you want them to come to your house, like. There were a few photographers that I had found that would travel to my house, but it was an extra $250 or an extra $50 for however many miles extra they had to travel or the time that they had to drive. It's going to be different for everybody, but these are some of the things to consider, so let me back up for a second. So the first thing is finding a photographer. You need to just ask in your network. The second thing is figure out like, what do you want? Like, what's the vibe? Do you want to create? Like a storyboard or a Pinterest board that has, like oh, these are my favorite podcast artwork that other people have done. I want something like this. Or I love so and so's website. Can you do some pictures like this? Or here's an Instagram link like, check these out. These are the types of poses that I want, but have something in mind for either what you really want or what you don't want. I think it's just as important to say I don't want anything that looks like this, because then you're you're more likely to find a fit for a photographer and what they would be able to deliver for you. So let me go back up and again, if you're watching the video, you can follow along with me. But the other thing I want to talk about is pricing. So what is your budget? Obviously, you need to find a photographer that's within your budget. Like you know how much money you can spend. You know if you can pay for the ultimate, like you know, $17,000 package. This is not what it costs to do. But you give what I'm saying. Like you know, if you have a budget to like, I can only pay someone like $250 for a really awesome headshot. That is all I needed, is all I want. Or if you can splurge a little bit and say, no, I want, like the Rolls Royce package and I want to have, you know, pictures for the next year and a half. I want to have a ton of pictures, a ton of photos, and I want to be able to use them wherever. So it's a sliding scale on how much you're going to be able to invest in your pictures. But I will say that when you're looking for someone, make sure that they have it very clearly stated how much your, how much the plan will be and how. What are you getting? What are you actually getting within that package? So I'm not going to go through like everything on this isn't like a critique of Camille's, like all of her stuff, because all of her stuff is awesome, but I am going to put a link to it in the show notes so that you can go check it out, like I highly recommend if you are in the Houston area or even if you want to travel to Houston to work with Camille. She is incredible, okay, just incredible. I cannot say enough good things about her because, again, she has that eye for what to do in visualization, in branding, and she was just phenomenal. So we talked about pricing options. What's your budget? How many pictures do you need? Are you looking to just update your podcast artwork and you just need that one really good headshot, or are you doing a full brand refresh or revamp of your website and your social and like all the things? This is actually what I'm in the middle of doing right now. Ooh, sneak peek like behind the scenes right here, If you're listening that I'm doing a big rebrand in the next few months and I wanted the pictures for it. So it was really important to me that I get these done before the end of the year, and that's just one of the other things I wanted to throw out there. So I knew I needed a package that accommodated a ton of pictures. I didn't just want one really good picture or five pictures. I wanted multiple pictures and I was willing to invest and pay a higher price tag for that. So we talked about finding a photographer, choosing a package or a location. Again, with the location, like if your photographer doesn't have a studio and you have a great setup at home, that's fantastic. Have them come to your home. If that's something that they do, you could also do an Airbnb. I know some photographers will do this Some. We have a local place here in my area that rents out like it's a cute town home. I don't even know if it's a town home, I think it's an actual house that that's all they do is they rent to photographers and so it's decorated for the seasons. It's close to the holidays when I'm recording this, so I'm sure it has Christmas trees and lights and all kinds of things. I didn't want that from our brand, but maybe that's something. If you want to have like a Easter setup for your brand or you want to have Valentine's Day and they have all that stuff. Like these are things to consider. But just know that location is important and you should think about that or ask that of your photographer. Now, the date when are you going to do this? How far in advance do you need to plan? Again, this will vary depending on your photographer, because Camille and you know she's the one I'm working with she deals with brands. She wasn't booked out months and months in advance during this time of year. Most photographers will be in October, november, december, because everybody is trying to squeeze in to get like oh, I got to get my family pictures done for our holiday cards, and that's just not the case with someone that's doing personal branding. They may be busier in other times of the year, whether it's, you know, right around the new years, maybe in the summertime, like there's going to be variations, so just be prepared for that. But one of the things is what? What do you want? Or when do you want to take these pictures? Is it based on a time of year? Do you want seasonal pictures? Does it not even matter, because you're going to be inside, like I was inside, we were in the studio taking these images, but it wasn't in the middle of summer. Oh my gosh, especially this last summer. It was so freaking hot in Houston, so I can only imagine if it would have been August and it's 107 outside and it's like, oh my gosh, I'm sweating. But I had this really cute sweater that I wanted to wear and I'm like sweating through it. You can see the beads like coming down. Like this is a perfect time of year for me because I mean, I was changing outfits, I was doing a lot, I was running around during the whole thing, but because we were indoors and it wasn't super hot outside, I was really comfortable doing all that. So just consider that when you're thinking about the date and then the other thing is what is personally going on in your life, and use that to really help you select which date. Now I'm going to go into like really behind the scenes here. Ladies, are you going to be on your period when you're scheduling this? I know the guys are just like shut down. They're like, oh, that's my cue to leave. But I'm being serious, because last year I intentionally scheduled my shoot dates for a time when I knew for sure. I was like nope, I'm going to be like in peak confidence, I'm going to feel good about myself and I'm going to be like, yes, like I got this. Let me hit that power pose. This is incredible. This year not so much it was not the best time for me. It was that time where I'm like okay, I started and I have a little bit of acne. I'm like super bloated. I was like I need to wear two pairs of Spanx because I just felt so. Just, I wasn't as confident. But I looked at my calendar and I was like this is the only date that works for me. It's going to have to work, and so it's just something to consider, like if you can plan around those things in your personal life. Do it, but just know that it may not always work out. But I do try to plan around times when I'm feeling so confident about myself or I just know physically I'm going to be in a good state of mind and I'm just going to feel better about myself. I know it's a silly thing, but it's something that we need to talk about because it is important and it will affect you going into a studio and smiling into a camera for three hours straight and it will affect you. The other thing is what else is going on in your life, like, are you going to have to go from this photo shoot to an eight year old's birthday party? This is another thing I had to do and, because of the planning that we did, it all worked out fine, but I wish that I would have given myself like, really treated the day as like this is a day for me and my business and allowed for a lot more white space of planning the shoot and then, like, having some downtime afterwards, because it is a lot. If you're doing a three hour photo shoot and you're smiling, your face will hurt afterwards. You're going to feel awkward, you're going to feel vulnerable, like all the things. But yeah, that was just something for me because it just we made it work. We made it work this time. I will definitely take it in consideration next time of like, okay, when are we actually going to do this? And then I wanted to go and tell you, so I created a freebie for today's episode, and this episode was inspired actually by an episode that Amy Porterfield did on the online marketing Made Easy podcast a few years ago, and it was about planning a photo shoot, and I love what she created. I love what she did, but I wanted to put my own spin on it, and so I created a guide that is all about helping you plan your next photo shoot, and it's a working Google doc. So if you're watching this or if you're listening to it, I want you to go to krystalproffitt. com/photoshoot, because what this is, it is a guide that you'll just go to the page. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see it says plan your next photo shoot like a pro. Click, grab it now. You'll enter your name and your email address and then it'll take you to this thank you page and then you're gonna get an email that has a link to. It's a working Google doc. You're not gonna be able to sit here and click in it, you're just gonna be able to view it unless you make a copy. And so what it is is it walks through all the important things we already talked about the date, the time, the shoot purpose, like what are you doing this for? Is it for your podcast? Your website, for marketing? What is it? And then it goes into some of the other details for your photographer's information. And then what I loved about the pre-shoot checklist is what do you need to do? The week before, the day before and the day of this helped me so much because, again, I wasn't feeling great physically and I was like what do I have to do? I really don't wanna try on a bunch of outfits, I'm feeling gross, and so it kind of forced me. I was like, no, no, you need to do these things because your photo shoot is coming up. And so I created this checklist and you can just go once. You have access to this and you can change it to where it says done or not done, and you're able to go in and change things based on what you wanna do for your photo shoot. So the week before. Let me just go through some of these pre-shoot checklist and all the things that were in here repaint my fingernails. I know that again it sounds like one of those things, but it's one of the things that Camille told me she was like. So many people ignore the fact that people your hands are in so many of the shots. There were a ton. If you're watching on the video, I'm like I'm holding my cup, I had my hand on my microphone, I had the hand on the desk. I'm so glad she told me that, because this was right after Halloween and I had painted my fingernails black for Halloween, and I don't typically paint my fingernails. I usually just have a clear coat or they're usually just buffed, and so I was like, oh, I need to do that. So good reminder. I didn't wanna think about it the day of or the day before and still have all that black polish all around my nails, so I did that. The next thing I did the week before was choosing my outfits or go shopping. Now, this time I knew that I had plenty of outfits already and things that I had used in previous speaking events but hadn't used in photo shoots. That would work well for what I wanted to do. And I mean, let's just be honest, it's not super cheap for the package that I did to get my photos taken. And I was like I'm gonna invest in the pictures but not in new clothes. Maybe next time I'll invest in less pictures but new clothes. But I'm on a strict budget. Okay, let's just be honest, I like to be on a strict budget with this stuff. But then the day before I packed all of my props so you'll be able to see some of the images soon. But I took I wish you would have counted them. I think I took 10 to 12 microphones with me, so I packed all those. I packed up some equipment that we could get. It was like behind the scenes. I literally took this boom arm Like my podcast boom arm. I took it all apart. I took my headphones. I took everything. I had a wagon I had. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen I showed like behind the scenes, I'm taking this wagon with me and I like picked the whole thing up, loaded it in my car and I took it to the photo shoot, because that's who I am and I wanted to have all of these props with me. So I did all of that the day before and the day of I made sure everything was ready to go. Then I made sure that all of my outfits were ready. So this is ironing things. It's putting undershirts and other types of garments together. It's like do I have the right shoes? Am I gonna be barefoot? Like what is? Do I need socks? What does this look like? And then accessories. I also got accessories together. I'm gonna wear rings for this, I'm gonna wear, you know, necklace for that. And then the day of was just doing my hair and makeup and then making sure that I brought all of those things with me in case I needed to do any kind of touch up. So this is another lesson learned that I really wanna talk about, because the first time I did my photo shoot with Camille, she had someone. It was part of the package. She was like you just come to the studio and someone will do your makeup. You just need to do your hair. I was like awesome, let me get my makeup done. Like I don't. I mean if you're watching this clearly, you can see like I mean I have on a hat today. Like I'm not someone that does a ton of makeup, a ton of glitz and glamour. It's just not my personality, but I did do that for the first photo shoot. I did the fake eyelashes, I did tons of makeup it was very heavy makeup and as soon as I got home, my husband and my boys were like whoa, I walk in the door and they were like what's going on? I was like what? Like okay, like you know, is it that? Is it that noticeable? And they were like you don't look like you Like at all. And it really stuck with me and it was like oh my gosh. I showed the pictures to my mom and she was like oh yeah, like you know how, when someone's trying to not be rude, but they're also trying to get like, these look great. And you're like is that a question mark on the end of that? So it didn't feel like a compliment. And so what I learned? And I had this conversation with Camille. So this is why I talked about earlier about having that rapport with working someone. More than once I was very honest with her. I was like hey, camille, I love the shots that we did last time. The only thing that I want to change is I don't want to have someone else do my hair and makeup this time, or my makeup, because I did my own hair last time as well. It's like I want to do my own. And she was like, oh my gosh, like you know, did you not like what we did? And I was like, no, it's nothing against the makeup artist or anything Like. It just wasn't me and I want to look like me in these photos. And I get it. I get that. You want the more pronounced. I wasn't cheerleading. I understand you want to have big lips, you want to have the glitter on your eyes, like all the things that we did for cheerleading competitions, but that's not me and I wanted it to really reflect me and I wanted to feel so proud to share all these images because I knew they were going to turn out awesome and I'm so glad that I voiced my opinion on that. So if you're working with someone and you have very strong opinions about the outfit that you want to wear or the pose that you want, whatever it is, make sure you explain that to them. Don't just let the creative person behind the camera get lost in their vision, because, at the end of the day, this is your vision of what you're trying to do for your brand and the different things that you're trying to make come to life for your business, for your audience or for whatever you're creating. So I just want to throw that out there, like if you feel very strongly about it, write it down and then share that with a photographer, I feel like it comes off. It's a lot softer, collaborative approach when you can have those types of conversations and then have them written in a Google Doc or plan them somewhere. You can plan it in here, you know, in this doc that I'm sharing, and then send it to them. That way they know what the expectation is and you're not shocked when you see your pictures later and you're like, oh my God, I wish I would have said something I wish I would have you know, spoken out about. You know, this is the type of thing that I wanted, but it's definitely a conversation to have. Now I'm just going to run through the rest of this real fast, because you can go through this whole thing again. Go to to download this Google Doc and you can work through the whole thing for yourself. But I want you to think about what types of pictures you're going to take. So does it need to be casual? Is it your podcast cover, is it professional or is it something that's fun and celebrating? And then you can kind of categorize the outfits, the accessories, the shoes, like all the things that you need to have to make that happen. And then I just put some check marks for is this done? Is it not done so that you can familiarize yourself with this form whenever you're able to use it? And then the last thing is the shot list. Now, the shot list isn't all encompassing of everything that you would do, but I did like giving you these ideas because it's what I used and it's some of the things that I've done in the past to have some of my pictures done so, celebrating with confetti or balloons, looking down and thinking I'm frustrated, I'm excited, I'm leaning in with my headphones, I'm journaling with coffee, like I mean, you can download this and like go through all of these. But the reason why I had these was because I looked at my website and I said you know what this is missing a picture of someone frustrated. And this is missing someone that is excited, with balloons in the background because they're celebrating. Or I just I want to, you know, capture journaling with my coffee, because it's what I do every single day. So think about your own brand and think about what you want to convey through your images, and those are the types of things that you need to have in your shot list so that you can make it come to life. And then, over on the right, I have like how you're going to use the photo. Just to give you some ideas, is it going to be for your website, for marketing or social, your podcast, or you can always change it to whatever else that you want to use it for. But I think it's really awesome that you can categorize things this way so that you can know. Okay, I have some for each of the categories and I know that I'm getting all of the different things that I need for this photo shoot. And then, lastly, at the bottom, you'll find a place to put all the props that you want to take. You know, I had a pen, I had all my microphones, I had my journal, my ring light, coffee mugs, my camera, like I did, all the things that I would need for showing. Hey, I'm a content creator and this is how I create content. This is what I do, and so I really want you to go grab this freebie Again. Go to . And if you're listening to this in real time, I want you to go check out Camille's website If you live in the Houston area, because she is doing a special for Black Friday, cyber Monday, and I don't want you to miss out. If you're like Krystal, I just I need a photographer. I'm in Houston, I need a. Go see Camille. I'm going to recommend her over and over again and if you are looking for someone, you're looking for a photographer and maybe you find someone local. You can always share her Instagram and say this is what I'm looking for. Or I want headshots like this. I want to have content images that do that Like. I want you to use other people's ideas for inspiration for what you can do as well. But today's episode was so fun. I like jotted down all of these ideas and they all came out of me and I was like I have to talk about this because it was so much fun. I cannot wait to share with you the finished product and all the pictures that we took because we had so much fun. The last thing I'll say is music oh my gosh, find a photographer that brings a Bluetooth speaker wherever they are and jams out like puts on Afro beats. I think we listened to Beyonce last time. We listened to some classical music there for a little bit and it was just so much fun. It was so much fun. So thank you so much, camille, for all the hard work that you put into my brand session. This is another thing. Oh my gosh, I keep thinking about all the things snacks, take snacks, or find a photographer that gives you snacks. Because Camille, like she went above and beyond. There was like a charcuterie play. There was, you know, like crackers and cheeses and meats and grapes, and it was delicious and it was exactly what I needed. When I finished the photo shoot, we didn't have a lot of time to snack. Like I'd grab a cracker here and there when I was changing outfits, but of course I didn't want to like make a whole mess of myself. But as soon as we were done, she was like, oh no, that's for you. Like, take it all. And I was like, oh my gosh, like she takes pictures of me, she laughs with me and then she feeds me like she's, she's it, like she's the bee's knees, and I'm so grateful that we had so much fun, but that's all I have for you today. So make sure, wherever you are listening or watching, that you subscribe or follow the podcast and let me know. Like what else do you want to hear from behind the scenes of my business, my content strategy, podcasting, marketing? Let me know, I would love to hear from you, but, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.