Get the Job Done: The Ultimate Client Compliment

My Favorite Shot from My First Senior Portrait Session

I received the ultimate client compliment on Saturday when I presented my first set of senior portrait shots to Jordan: "I want to be up on your wall!"

That's what Jordan said after I showed her what I think is one of the best portrait sessions I have taken to date due to the diversity of shots and locales. To Jordan, having one of her pictures blown up to a poster size and placed on one of the display walls in my home has become one of her goals. Since I have become her family's official photographer, I have images of her mother Teri, her brother Bishop and her baby sis Avery hanging up as a reminder to myself about my own growth as a professional photographer. So I've decided that I will honor her request and hang my favorite picture from the shoot, shown above. I love how the red of her shirt pops with the golden yellow background. Taking the shot from above is a complimentary angle for her features, while the vignetting adds a sense of timelessness to the image.

What shot did Jordan pick to go into her high school yearbook? This gorgeous pic taken of her on top of the 10th floor balcony of the Denver Newspaper Agency building where both her mother and I work for the Denver Post.


Jordan's Yearbook Pic

I could barely contain my excitement while she sorted through the images, and the fact that she had a hard time deciding meant there were tons of great pictures to choose from! I let her take control of my MacBook Pro as she sorted them out, and I think that personal touch really made her feel as if she was an integral part of this process (which of course she WAS!) It was difficult to try to take a back seat and let the client decide what photos she wanted because I definitely had my favorites, and I was surprised that she didn't like the same images I did, or even the same images her mother liked.

Overall, this was a great learning experience, and her referrals got me two more potential customers, one of which I will be shooting this weekend after the Democratic National Convention is laid to rest.

One other note: since I only had several hundred of images to edit, I went ahead and edited all the images before presenting them to Jordan. But what I found interesting is that out of the 50 I shot, she only picked about 20 that were her favs. Does that mean I spent unnecessary time editing shots she didn't want? I will have to chew on this a little more.