Six Months Stronger

Happy Friday, dear friends! It’s hard to wrap our minds around the fact that it was SIX months ago next week that we made the trek across the country to Scottsdale, Arizona for an intense two-day workshop with our mentors Jordan and Amy Demos. SIX MONTHS! It honestly seems like just a few weeks ago because every word that we heard over the course of those twenty four hours of education (yes, they spent TWENTY FOUR total hours pouring into us!) has resonated with us every single day since then. We made dear, life-long friendships and became part of a community that we didn’t know existed. Our new friends from the workshop have been incredibly supportive of our business and our dreams, and are there for us whenever we need anything. Everyone, no matter what business you’re in, needs a support system like that. It’s truly priceless.

So, was the investment worth it? We’ll be blatantly honest with you, because we never ever want to sugar coat anything. This is real life, we’re real people and don’t want to come across as anything but authentic. We were not financially prepared to make this investment. We were in a place in our business were we knew we needed somewhat of an intervention. We had goals and dreams, but no idea how to get there. We were working crazy hard at trying to grow in every aspect of our business, but felt like we were running in circles. Reid had stumbled across Amy & Jordan Photography on social media only weeks before we learned that they would be hosting their first workshop. There was no question whether or not we needed to go. We NEEDED to go. We knew we had to do absolutely whatever it took to go, and we did.

“Worth it” is almost an insult. Ground shaking and life-altering is getting a little warmer. We needed more than a push in the right direction, we needed a full-on earthquake. Amy and Jordan gave us that earthquake. They taught us the value and importance of loving and serving our clients. The wedding photography industry is more than getting a check to show up and take pretty pictures. It’s about being able to look back on your life and knowing that you made a difference in someone’s life. It’s about using our almost-failed marriage to encourage other couples to not make the same mistakes we did. It’s about using our history of self-judgment and insecurities to build up and encourage people who are silently struggling with the same thing, and thinking they’re all alone.

Our list of “take-aways” is longer than we know anyone would care to read, so we thought long and hard about it and nailed down our top three.

Community

Deep down, we all just want to be loved and genuinely cared for, right? If not, you’re the exception! God created us to have passion. He wired each one of us with a particular type of passion, and the need (not want, need) to share that passion with other human beings. Creative entrepreneurs, specifically in the wedding industry, have a very specific passion threaded into our DNA that is not common to many. What a lot of us don’t realize is that we need to be each others’ biggest supporters, not competition! We had never experienced what true community among photographers was like until this workshop and we will never be the same. A support system who loves and cares for you and your well being is invaluable. This doesn’t have to stop at photographers. All creatives who are working toward the same goal: to make a difference in their clients’ lives and to love and serve them well, need that sense of community.

 

Workflow

Okay, so when we said we narrowed it down to three, that was kind of a lie. Like when Brittany’s shooting portraits and says “Okay, one more!” And she NEVER only shoots one more! But hey, when you have a gorgeous couple in front of your camera, it’s hard to stop! Don’t judge her too much for lying, she has good intentions! Anyways, “workflow” encompasses a LOT. The first day of the workshop was mostly about the in-camera aspect of photography. We knew our photos were lacking something, but we can tell you right now that Googling (isn’t it funny how that turned into a verb?) “how to take beautiful photos in camera” has about 82 million too many opinions. Who has time for that?? Not to mention you get about 80 million different opinions. Amy and Jordan opened our eyes to so many things that were so simple, yet mind-blowing. The immediate difference in the quality, composition and exposure of our photos was remarkable. The one concept that made the biggest different was “light over background.” In Arkansas, we have lots of pretty backgrounds: large oak trees, lakes, rolling hills and gardens. We have had the mindset of always needing to photograph people in front of the prettiest background, because that’s just what you’re supposed to do, right?? No! It doesn’t matter how beautiful the background, if the light is bad and makes your client’s face look icky, they are NOT going to like it! “My face looks like a shiny orange balloon, but that’s okay because that tree is so pretty!” said No. Girl. EVER. Because of the drastic improvement in our photos through choosing the best light and gaining new post-processing tools, we went from spending two to three hours culling a wedding to thirty minutes or less. We used to blog our weddings four or more weeks after the wedding (because that’s how long it took to edit them) to the Tuesday after the wedding. That’s THREE DAYS LATER! What?? Never in our wildest dreams did we think that would ever be possible, and the joy that it brings our couples, their friends and family overwhelms our hearts!

Photo Credit: Amy & Jordan

Connecting

Can we ask you a question? Imagine that you’re walking on to a car lot and a salesman approaches you. Do you already have an uneasy feeling in your stomach? Good 🙂 The guy immediately starts talking to you about all of the latest and greatest vehicles in stock. This one costs this much, this one is this much, this one has all of these super fancy new features, and you are crazy if you walk away without buying one. He then, without taking a breath, proceeds to tell you about their special financing plans and the one-of-a-kind deals he can give you if you buy one of his cars. Are you ready to throw his business card back in his face and leave that lot never to return, or is that just us? Nobody wants to be talked to like that! But what happens when instead, a guys walks up to you and asks you what your names are, tells you that he has a brother with your name who is serving our country overseas and gets to return home next month? That strikes an emotional nerve, because you have a brother overseas also. You begin talking about your brothers, which leads to talking about other members of your family, which leads to talking about your pets (because they naturally fall under “family”), and before you know it you’ve talked for twenty minutes about nothing pertaining to buying a vehicle. He then asks you if there is anything he can do to help you find what you need, and that he would be happy to serve you in any way he can. Who do you think you’re going to want to buy a car from?

Jordan and Amy taught us the value of connecting with our couples and potential client couples through our blog. If all we did was show our favorite photos in an online portfolio and blog our favorite images from sessions and weddings, what purpose would we be serving? If our goal was to be strictly photographic artists, then that would be totally fine! But like we said in the beginning of this post, our goal is to make a difference in people’s lives. We can’t do that by not being authentic and open about our personal lives. Why is it that when celebrities are caught making mistakes they get the most publicity of their career? Because they are HUMAN! Humans relate to humans. Emotion evokes emotion. Anyone who spends time on our website and blog will know who we are and if they relate to us or not. They will see quickly that we are not interested in looking cool (because we are FAR from it!) and like we have it all together. A few months ago we committed to blogging three times a week. And yes, we have missed blogging two or three times since then, but we’re honest about why. We are wedding photographers by mornings, lunch breaks, nights and weekends. Brittany works an 8:00-5:00 desk job and Reid travels all over the surrounding states to repair broken MRI machines for hospitals. We are home owners with mounds of laundry and dirty dishes and parents to three beautiful fur babies. Reid is a husband, son, brother, uncle, and best friend. Brittany is a wife, daughter, sister, aunt and best friend. We serve together on the worship team at church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. We get tired, sick, and like to watch TV. We are just as human as anyone else, and who are we to put ourselves on a pedestal and pretend to have the perfect dream life? People need honesty. We have both lived far too much time of our lives believing that we were the only ones struggling with the things that we were, and that it was not okay to talk about it. Friend, if we could look you straight in the eye right now we would, and tell you that you are not alone. It is okay to open up to someone about your struggles. You will be SO glad you did. We’re not meant to do life alone.

Looking back on the last six months, it’s hard to recognize the old Reid and Brittany. We were desperately lost. We didn’t have a clue who we were or who we wanted to be. Now, though, we see that it’s so much more than who we are. It’s seeing who you are. We want to know you and see you succeed. To us, that is true success.

Header photo credit: Drew Brashler

Get more information on Amy & Jordan’s Workshop Experience here.

Read our recap of our Workshop Experience with A&J here.