Mentoring with Amanda
Okay so totally didn't know how much I could truly learn from Amanda but HOLY COW YOU GUYS! I decided to invest money into a mentorship with a photographer who has been in the business and is super successful for about 12 years and learn from her. So here is how it went:
I booked a mentoring session with Amanda in January and we set it up for March. I wanted to know all there is to learn about sunset sessions. After changing the date over and over and over again, we finally had a perfect night to shoot!! We did a session at Brenton Arboretum and it was gorgeous. Our couple was super outgoing and fun to work with. At first I was really intimidated by everything but I wanted to prove that I knew what I was doing, and turns out it took me 2 seconds to find my groove while shooting and be super comfortable and fun, like I try and always be during shoots.
Amanda reiterated that I knew how to work my camera and that gave me a lot of confidence going forward! I was watching her intently and turns out, we shoot similarly and she made it really fun to just listen and learn! I even got some super cute headshots with my gear (who knew photographers NEVER get their pictures taken with their gear because they are always the ones behind the camera!!). I felt awkward and uncomfortable in front of the camera because I was always giving other people directions and never the one taking the directions! (Going to be awkward during our engagement session one day... sorry Drew!)
After the session, we went to edit the pictures together and Amanda knows all the ins and outs of editing and my God, she is saving me hours of editing by teaching me the little things about Lightroom and Photoshop that I didn't know! We edited most of the pictures together and talked about what I needed to do to get more people to book me, how I can grow my business, and ways to market myself. One thing she said is to blog more, even if people don't read it! So here I am, taking her advice and writing it all down.
Morale of the story: invest in your business and never stop learning from others around you!
XOXO,
Bailey
