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Welcome back to the podcast, In this episode, we're gonna talk about why your portfolio isn't booking luxury weddings yet Okay, so these are the two most important keys to creating a portfolio that covers all the touch points wealthy wedding photographers have that maybe your portfolio doesn't have. So in the last episode, we talked about the mindset of creativity. We talked about The power of lighting and being able to use any lighting situation to create elevated images. The other two keys is Directing your couples with ease and storytelling images that tell the full story of the day Whether your couples book an engagement session or not, 'cause I know a lot of you say, "Oh, I don't wanna take out engagement sessions in my packages because I have to get to know them in order to know how to pose them," you won't even need that anymore, okay? because of these universal direction prompts that I give you inside of our program, Lab 35 that will help you elevate your portfolio so that you can book luxury couples This is for you if you've ever said, "Ugh, I want my work to feel a little bit more high-end, but I just don't know how to get there. Flash overwhelms me. My couples look stiff when I pose them, but if I don't pose them, then I don't get the images that I want, but then they look awkward." Maybe you want a portfolio that looks like images from a movie. Maybe you want a portfolio that has emotion and that makes people feel something. These keys are gonna be one of the main things that take your portfolio from she's a good photographer to she's the best photographer And this will help you attract those laid-back luxury weddings that you want so effortlessly. And what I mean by laid-back luxury is couples that just want real, and okay? 'Cause I'm not gonna say authentic. Authentic has been used and abused since the early 2000s. But it's true. People want a portfolio that looks like real people are in them. And when couples look back at their images, they're gonna look at their friends, they're gonna look at their family, because they didn't get to see them on the wedding day. They're standing at the altar at the ceremony, and now they're looking back at these images, seeing how great of a time people had or how emotional they were during the ceremony. What was really happening while they were just soaking in the day? As a wedding photographer, that is your job. It is your job to tell people what happened when they weren't looking, when they weren't around. And if your portfolio can have these key images, then you're gonna attract couples that have bigger budgets, but also want to enjoy the day. They want real people, real moments, and that, my friend, is when you have arrived at the best niche to ever exist. I know a lot of people say, "Oh, I don't wanna attract luxury weddings because it's gonna be stuffy. It's gonna be perfect. I don't want this. I don't want that." Listen, I have done it, okay? Because of the way I curated my portfolio, because my personality, was my couple. Essentially, I wanna look my best, but I also wanna have a great time, and that was in my images, so couples knew, "I can see myself in this wedding. Oh, my gosh, we have that in common. This moment really makes me feel something. I feel connected to this." That is the couples you want to attract, okay? People, couples that are aligned with your vision and the way that you photograph, not the other way around. You don't want couples inquiring and being like, "Oh this is what we want. Can you do that? I know you had this photo. I don't really like that photo." No. We want to attract laid-back luxury weddings and couples that are aligned with our vision and our values I want you to go from following trends to setting your own, okay? Because the wedding industry changes every few years. Honestly, every few years, the trends seem to always shift back to real. So you might as well hop on the train. You might as well figure out how you're gonna photograph couples in a way that feels real, that makes people feel something, and you're gonna just get more of those, right? I want you to be able to come into a space, whether a couple booked an engagement session with you or not, and you can direct them effortlessly without any awkward energy and no stiff results. I want you to shoot weddings that feel like cinema and still deliver timeless family images and moments that people will remember for years to come. I want you to stop copying the industry and start creating work that feels just like you The art of storytelling is the first module inside of my signature program, Lab 35, where we're gonna teach you how to elevate your portfolio by your next session. There are literally 12 lessons in this course, and each lesson is anywhere from five to 10 minutes long, if not less. So you'll be able to binge it to and from sessions, to and from weddings, and if you have a long road trip ahead of you, you can binge the whole course, okay? So in module one, The art of storytelling takes you through the mindset of undoing perfection, because perfection is gonna be the thing that makes you nervous. It's gonna be the thing that makes you overthink and not do. I want you to cultivate your own creativity, and I want you to stop shooting shot list photos, okay? I want you to shoot with intention, and I want you to tell stories that transition into the next story. And the cool thing about weddings is that every single transition, from getting ready, to the first look, to the ceremony, is all storytelling. All you have to do is be there, and you need to compose your images in a way that's compelling to the naked eye. There's certain ways that you can play with style and composition, and low-key, like composition is the silent flex that nobody teaches. I don't know why people don't teach this. I learned this in studio photography, about symmetry, about different ways to frame, and I know you've heard of rule of thirds, and there's many other ways that you can do that. But I literally show you and break it down, and show you before and afters of why it is appealing to the eye And then we're gonna go into one of my favorite modules, module two is lights, camera, direction. So you're gonna learn about natural light, and then you're gonna learn about artificial light, and this is where you get to play I give you my complete toolkit in Amazon where you can pick up any of the tools where you can play with off-camera flash and on-camera flash. The flashes I highly recommend that I still use to this day, and they're not super expensive. To be able to create those images that look like Studio 54, and if you don't know what that is, look it up. It goes all the way back to black and white photography back in the 1970s. So you will learn how to master all of those skills in that module. And then module three is your artistic architecture. This is where you craft storytelling images. I break down the story structure of what a wedding day looks like. From my amazing class of creative writing, we go through all of the basic principles of telling a story in general, and how you're gonna apply that into your wedding photography images. Then you're gonna learn how to shoot black and white images with intention, and I don't mean just slapping a black and white on it because you wanna have variety when couples look at your portfolios. No, I want you to go into the wedding day or any session and know, "Oh, I know this is gonna be black and white." and then you're gonna go through the Lab 35 method, where we put all of these three pillars together to tell an elevated storytelling wedding day from A to Z. Now, I have a lot of bonus modules inside of this course. So the director's diary is where I walk you through some weddings with me and behind the scenes. I even show you behind the scenes what it looks like to curate terrible lighting situations, like shooting at a barn. You go through the culling process with me, the lighting process with me, and then also I have a bonus masterclass on the magic of imperfect film. Because we love film. She's not going anywhere. She's a timeless girly. She always comes back stronger than ever, and the prices of film don't seem to be going down anytime soon, so you might as well jump on the bandwagon and learn how to shoot film. I walk you through All the types of film that I've used personally, Kodak Gold 400, 200 are that girl. I love warm images that feel cinematic, but there is... If you can find a Fuji 400, then you are incredible because they were discontinued years ago. And then we have a bonus class called the Curated Portfolio, where I walk you through how to curate a portfolio that is elevated and that attracts publications as well. And so I give you all the tools, and I also walk you through what publications are looking for, but you can also use these skills to elevate your Instagram portfolio as well, because that is their first impression of you before they land on your website Now, if you join during this launch, you get three portfolio reviews from me. All I ask is that you submit a milestone every time that you've gone through the module and applied what you've learned. So once for each module, and you get three portfolio reviews from me where I will walk you through what's working, what's not working based on your brand words and the kind of dream couple that you're trying to attract this year. So if you wanna get that portfolio review which is a really crazy value 'cause my portfolio reviews are 497 on its own, and that is the price of the whole course when you save $500 during this launch. The doors close July 10th, if you're ready to elevate your portfolio by your next session, I promise you, This is the quickest course you will ever take. Everyone who takes it binges it in less than 30 days. Honestly, I think two weeks has been the longest that somebody has binged this. They usually binge it in a week. I love launching it during the summer, during the fall, when you're at the peak of your sessions, and you can just implement it very quickly. If you have any questions, you can ask me on the sales page of the program or just send me a DM on Instagram, and I'll send you a voice message back because I'm a voice message girly If you wanna elevate your portfolio, if you finally wanna feel confident in the way that you photograph images, or you're just ready to raise your prices, so you wanna start elevating your weddings today for the weddings next year, hop into this course and implement it quickly. I can't wait to see you inside. I am ready to go, again, the link is in the show notes. I can't wait to see you inside and in the next episode. Bye