It’s the beginning of November and I am completely finished for the year!

Okay…who am I kidding.

I have nothing to do said no photographer ever.

BUT…I have all of my 15 wedding clients with their USB’s and Albums in hand.

All of my sessions, including 40 fall sessions, have been sent to clients edited and downloaded.

For me that is a huge win.

Last year I was swamped. I had the same amount of weddings and I believe the same amount of sessions ( I cannot remember, Fall becomes a blur at times) and I just remember how I felt. So behind, drowning and just could not keep my head up. Where do you start when you fall so far behind?! It becomes so overwhelming and just a daunting task. I work for myself because I want more time. More time with my family. More time to do things I love.

Since I had my son Mason two years ago my workflow and work ethic completely changed. I get so many people asking how I get my clients their images so fast since I have a kid.

“I don’t know how you Mom’s do it!”

And honestly, before I had a kid I would take forever getting my images out. My priorities were clearly different, as was my attitude.  My wedding contracts stated 8-16 weeks for photos. My average then was usually about 8-10 weeks.

8-10 weeks!!

Let’s just take a look at what that looks like. If your wedding is in September, that means you may not see your images before Christmas. Or heck, before the new year for that matter.

To me, the spark is gone. The excitement isn’t there anymore.

I want my clients to be happy and excited and still be in wedding mode. I want them to be so surprised when I tell them a week or two later that their images are ready. Oh and do you know how many conversations I’ve had with bridesmaids who tell me they waited months and months for their photos and how disappointing it was for them? TONS! Girls talk, we all know that. I want my brides to boast about me in any way they can. If my speedy workflow is one of those things they brag about, then I’m a happy girl

Now, as I said, I didn’t always do this. But now I know it wasn’t because I couldn’t do it, it was because I made a choice not to.

My goal is to be with my family. To not work after my season really ends, which is in October every year. If i had a longer timeline I would be working well into December when I could actually be spending this time with my family during the holidays, not stressing about deadlines.

So since you’ve asked here it is. Here is my Wedding workflow and session workflow. I hope this can inspire you to push through, commit and just power through. Mind over matter is definitely the case on this one.

My Wedding Workflow

I shoot the wedding on Saturday (typically most of my weddings are Saturdays). All of my weddings are 8 hours and up. Most of my clients book a 10 hour day with a few 12 hours. They also almost all have a second shooter, just to give you an idea of the amount of images I am working with.

Sunday I get up and I cull right away. I use Photo Mechanic. Boy do I wish I wasn’t so stubborn in my early days and started this before. This program is fabulous. If you are culling in Lightroom, you need to quit that right now and convert over. You will not look back and you will thank me…I PROMISE!! Culling a wedding takes me about….2 hours. I do zoom in on all of my images to make sure they are as sharp as I like so these two hours could definitely be faster but I like to get it down as much as I can right away. When I am exporting these into the folder I am going to be working out of I do split these images up. If you break them down into the parts of the day, editing seems way less daunting. If you have 1500 images to edit, there is no way that is going to be motivation to sit at a computer for hours. BUT, if you break them down into 4 categories and edit one category a day, much more manageable. For an example, Bridal Prep, Ceremony, Formals, Reception. Done.

After I have culled my wedding I pull it right into Lightroom. Once they are all loaded up there I quickly run through and pick out a sneak peek for my client to have that night. YES, the very next day after their wedding they see a sneak peek. How exciting for them right! I more than likely have an idea of what photo I will share since I probably got so excited when I took it the day before. I quickly edit it, throw my logo on it and send it over to Facebook. I schedule my posts there since I like it post when my fans are most online. And, I like knowing I don’t have to be at my computer in order to keep my page active. Thank you Facebook!

And then, I edit a portion of the day each day until it’s done. So, if you do the math that is only 4 days!!! Literally 4 days and that is me being lazy. If I wanted to, I can finish a wedding in a day but I can’t see anything but spots after that haha. I edit when my son naps or after he goes to bed. Night times suck but that’s just what has to be done. Remember, I only work half the year so this is completely doable. You just have to make it happen. Some times it is hard. Some times I just had to walk away. And that is fine.

But I made a goal for myself to have every wedding done before the next one started. Was I perfect on this?

NO!

Did some of my clients get their photos in 2-3 weeks instead of 1?

YES!

But that is far better than months!!

That’s it for my wedding work flow. Seriously try it out!

My Session Workflow

Here is my very simple and fast workflow for my sessions. Keep in mind, this works for me and may not work for everyone. But it was life changing for me to do it this way.

Shoot the session.

Cull the session that same night, takes about 30 minutes maybe. I have no idea why but I cull my sessions in lightroom instead of Photomechanic. I seriously have no reason why I do this, I just do. I should probably change it up. Anyway, I just cull these by flagging ones I would like to edit. I do this super quick and am not super picky about it like I am weddings. I give my clients a ton of images to choose from. Of course I am making sure everything is in focus and everything is all good still.

I pick a sneak peek like I do for my weddings and schedule it to post for the next day, again scheduling it for when my fans are most engaging.

I will go through and edit a few images for my clients. My style of photography is clean and bright. I try and get as close to this as possible in camera. I am confident in my work and confident with clients seeing my sooc shots. This is why I say it may not work for everyone. It was an adjustment at first as it felt very raw and showing everyone what people never see, but it just pushed me to be better when shooting.

I then upload their images to an online gallery. I use ShootProof and I actually love it. I believe it is still free for galleries under 100. I pay yearly because I need the bigger gallery space but it worked really well when I wasn’t shooting as much. I upload these as web size so the upload time doesn’t take very long at all.

Send them their link with full instructions to choose which images they would like according to the package they chose.

Again, my clients are still excited because the session just happened so the majority of the time they get back to me that night or within a few short days.

I edit the photos they choose.

Upload them in full res to a new gallery.

Viola

Done.

I have to say it again, this works for me. I am in my 7th year of this and this works for me now. It took me a long time to get here. Heck it took me having a kid to get here. And who knows what it will look like if we have another. It will probably change again. But I know that I love this. I know I feel lighter, happier and just better about the experience I am providing.

My challenge to you is to put yourself in your clients shoes. Are you making them feel special? Would you be happy with what you have provided? If the answer is no or you hesitate at all or make excused for your “lifestyle” then you need to re-evaluate some things and make some changes. It worked for me, it can work for you. (there’s my sales pitch for ya)

Good Luck.

I’m always here if you want to chat.

Xo

N