I haven’t really cared too much about my web search presence – I prefer to pick up my clients by word of mouth but holy crap, my google analytics POPPED in September! A whole 52 new searches ended up at my site! I got a handful of folks to fill out my interest form which was super cool. However by the time they did I was already almost all booked for fall but I did get a few who followed through and we set up times for family shoots on a weekday or whatever so my weekends stay minimally crazy (number 72 of things I’ve learned through the years: don’t over book yourself! You and your body will regret it by Monday morning). So one point for this website actually working.
Another thing that’s working is that new or new-ish clients are READING IT! Looking at the what to expect section and coming to their shoots knowing what’s up! That makes me stupid happy. I know its so little but it makes me happy to know they know how I operate without me having to talk it all through. Yay! Another point for the website!
The last thing is I’ve had more than one person comment on my inclusivity statement on my homepage and tell me that that was important to them. It’s important to me, too, so I’m thrilled to be attracting clients who are of the same mindset. I’ve always said I run this business the way I’d want it to go if I was the one working with a photographer. As the years have gone on I haven’t just made loyal clients, I’ve made friends along the way too. I appreciate being able to be a part of your lives! And then when you do things like bring me cupcakes from your newly minted one year old’s birthday the day before, or tell me how you have my pics all over your house, or how you printed one on canvas as a gift and it made grandma cry – I just get all warm and fuzzy. This is the impact I wanted to have with my portraits beyond documenting your annual family growth.
On the flip side, I’m kicking myself for my arrogance. Is it arrogance? Too much self confidence? Which is silly since I’m a master of imposter syndrome. Long story still long, I had school pics at a new school on tuesday. Beautiful day, sun is out, we had some mums in their garden and potted mums and all arranged for a nice little natural backdrop. Had my sun shade out giving everyone nice bright diffused light on their faces so I wouldn’t need a flash (the littles sometimes complain so if I can get away without using one I do). I opted for my DSLR (been shooting with my mirrorless 95% of the time) because of my excellent 85mm portrait lens with that 1.8 focal length….mmmmmm. Makes such gorgeous bokeh out of your distant background! Yet when the pics were uploaded to my computer they were…not what I had hoped for. Great smiles and color and all that but the quality is just meh. Not the crisp clean focus I am used to with this lens. I can’t figure out what I did wrong or if I did anything wrong. Was my sun shade too shady? My ISO was set at max 200. That should have been fine to not be grainy.
I’m annoyed at myself and haven’t decided yet if I’m just being too picky or if there really is a problem, if I should say something to the school, or if I should just try to brush it under the rug and cross my fingers people only look at the pics on their phones in which case no one will notice. UGH. Can’t do that last one. What I’ll probably end up doing is cross checking all the pics I’m dissatisfied with with parents orders and make sure to do re-dos of anyone ordering an 8×10 or digital file. More work for me. I am re-doing the whole littles class – too many of them were Not Into Pictures and I think it’s because parents were there and we tried to do theirs as they came in in the morning. We’re going to try getting everyone instead while they’re out on the playground and that way I can hopefully get all the ones who Had Opinions on Tuesday and if any of the others want to have a go because they loved me they can too just for kicks. UGH. Pardon my run-on sentence there.
Part of me is Me. Almost 45 and no more fucks left to give. Not too proud to own up to screwing up and asking forgiveness and understanding while I make more work for myself re-doing all your pics and refunding anyone still not happy. Whatever. Then there’s the business side of me who is worried that might not be the smartest move. Is it OK to piss off a couple people? Are they people who will be pissed off no matter what? I might be mildly annoyed for a second but then I don’t have to do anything for the situation to be corrected except make sure my kid is in a clean shirt and their hair is brushed. I’m not perfect, no one is, and my flexibility and willingness to work with clients of all ages or sizes should count for a lot. At least I hope.
While my google analytics have proven People are seeing this website I still don’t know how many actual live humans that I know or interact with are reading it. Or even bother to read all the way through my ramblings. If you see this and are not a bot, leave me a comment! Or don’t. I don’t want to pressure anyone. But I will spill my guts to the universe here and hope that it helps to even things out. Whatevs.