{"id":1035,"date":"2016-04-02T17:08:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T17:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jpegmini.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2016-05-10T12:57:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T12:57:27","slug":"photographers-how-do-you-handle-client-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jpegmini.com\/es\/photographers-how-do-you-handle-client-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographers, How Do You Handle Client Meetings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019d love to introduce you to our good friends Chris and Verity Sansom. Together they run Sansom Photography based in Yorkshire, England<\/a>. Over the past 5 years they have shot over 240 weddings and in the process they\u2019ve won Junebug \u2018Best of the Best\u2019 Weddings and Engagements<\/a> (2015), Mywed\/Nikon Storyteller top 50 in the world<\/a>, ISPWP awards<\/a>, WPS awards<\/a> as well as Junebug Choice awards for Best Reception in the world 2015 <\/a>and Best Ceremony in the world 2014. They were recently listed in Rangefinder Magazine\u2019s \u201930 Rising Stars in the World of Wedding Photography\u2019<\/a> and they\u2019re honored to be speaking at the Wedding Photography Select conference<\/a> in November as well as Mystic Seminars<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re so lucky to have had the chance to ask Chris and Verity some great questions about how they work so well in photography and how other photographers can learn from them. We\u2019ve written down some Q&As from the interview, but for the full interview make sure to scroll down to watch it in its entirety. So without further ado, here\u2019s Chris and Verity.<\/p>\n

How many weddings do you shoot a year?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verity<\/strong>: We don\u2019t shoot more than 30 weddings a year, purely because we love to give each couple the attention they deserve. It takes a long time to edit a wedding because we do it all ourselves and we put everything we have into each wedding. We used to shoot a lot more early on just to get the experience, but now we limit it to make sure we put everything we have into each one.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Sansom Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On average, how many photos do you guys take in a normal day?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verity<\/strong>: We tend to give the couples between 600-800 photographs from a standard wedding day. We do shoot longer wedding days, which means they do get a lot more, but we do try to limit it so it won\u2019t get too boring. But we don\u2019t\u2019 tend to go below 600.<\/p>\n

Can you walk us through a typical client meeting?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: A typical client meeting for us is all about trying to educate that client on how exactly we work. Trying to get to know them a bit more as well, so we can tell if we\u2019re going to be the right photographers for them. We try and be completely honest with them and if we feel that we won\u2019t be the right photographers for them, then we won\u2019t sell ourselves just for the sake of the booking. We rather they walk away happy and feeling that at least we\u2019d helped them find the perfect photographer.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of work to go around and I think if we just try to be as honest as we can about what we\u2019re offering then we\u2019ll attract clients that\u2019ll be really happy when they get the end results.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Sansom Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s your post-processing workflow like?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verity<\/strong>: We don\u2019t tend to heavily edit our images. We like to keep them quite simple. We do put about 10 adjustments to each image in Lightroom and then if there are any extra adjustments, like removing fire exit signs, I send them over to Chris to do all of the more boring things.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best thing about being a wedding photographer?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verity<\/strong>: There\u2019s a lot of good things about being a wedding photographer. We love the feedback and how much it means to the couples when they receive their photographs knowing they\u2019re going to be looked at forever is just an amazing part of our job and something we don\u2019t take lightly.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Sansom Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How about the worst thing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything that we really dislike about our job. I think it quite often keeps us awake at night a bit when we\u2019re doing emails late into the evening, or editing late into the evening. But generally there\u2019s nothing that we really could complain about.<\/p>\n

How about the most difficult thing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verity<\/strong>: I guess the thing I find most difficult about shooting weddings is when in the morning, sometimes, when you don\u2019t have much time and the bride and all of her bridesmaids and parents are getting a bit stressed and they\u2019re running late. Or things aren\u2019t quite going to plan, you have to almost stay in the moment and make sure you\u2019re not missing it because you don\u2019t want to get too close and you don\u2019t want to seem like you\u2019re intruding. You want to make sure that you\u2019re present at the moment and you\u2019re still capturing those moments.<\/p>\n

What about the business part of it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I think photography, like a lot of creative industry, doesn\u2019t necessarily attract people that are really business minded. So a lot of us have to really work on that as time goes by. We probably spent too long in the early days not focusing on the business side of things, but focusing on the art and photography. But the reality is to survive in this industry you\u2019ve got to be good at the business. So buying business books and learning from other people, getting a mentor. It\u2019s all a part of what we have to do as photographers. That\u2019s how we grow and that\u2019s how we make sure we survive in this industry.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Sansom Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What advice would you give to aspiring photographers?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I think if we could give one bit of advice to aspiring photographers would be to really concentrate on you. Other people success or failure has no bearing on what you\u2019re doing. So it\u2019s quite nice sometimes to just take yourself away from all of that, not look at any wedding work and really focus on what you like shooting the most. I think that\u2019s where we\u2018ve always evolved the most. As much as we love seeing other work, sometimes it could be a bit of a distraction from what you really want to shoot.<\/p>\n