How I reconnected by doing Facetime Photoshoots 

When COVID-19 first hit, a wave of emotions overcame me. Will I be able to pay my bills? Will my clients still be able to get married? Will I really have to go months without photographing a couple? But really, will I be able to pay my bills?

I had worked for years to get my photography career to where it was. I was regularly booking, making more money than I ever had before. I was really living my dream life. Having that ripped away almost overnight was jarring. The loss of income was hard and the loss of connection I had with my couples has been difficult.

As talks began of social distancing measures lasting MONTHS, I knew I needed to find a new way to connect with my couples and make a little money. I heard about FaceTime photoshoots, and at first, I was skeptical! I worried about the quality, about my wifi connection, and whether I would know how to pose people.

After I started doing these sessions, I realized all my fears were routed in a pre-pandemic world. In current times, we are finding new value in things once overlooked, like a grainy photo of a couple sharing a moment in their own home.

Doing these FaceTime photoshoots has

• Connected me with couples all over the world
• Allowed me to see a peek into my current clients’ lives, meet their pets, and share coffee virtually with them
• Made a bit of money to cover my grocery bills (every little bit counts right now.)
• Brought more laughter to my life
• Enabled me to share glimpses of people’s life in quarantine with the world

If you’re interested in learning how I took these photos, my workflow, my posing, and how I made them profitable (including free marketing copy to promote these sessions) check out my tutorial! 

 

Here are a few stories from my sessions.

1. Hannah and Alyssa 

These two got engaged the weekend before all the stay at home orders happened. They wanted to start planning their wedding, have an engagement party, tour venues, but none of that could happen anymore. They were so happy to have each other and be able to be safe at home together, but they were bummed they couldn’t celebrate how they imagined. They did this photo shoot and said it helped them feel like their engagement was all actually happening. 

 

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2. Jess and Angel

Jess and Angel are wedding photographers. (Check out their work here.) They have been hit hard with COVID 19 and have been bummed, like so many of us, that their plans have changed. Their anniversary was a few days earlier, and they felt a bit down that they couldn’t really do anything special outside of the house. So they did this little photoshoot to take time together!

 

 

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3. Jade and Dan

Jade and Dan are currently staying in a hotel room while Dan works an essential job. This photoshoot happened on his lunch break. Doing this photoshoot with them, it was clear how much they liked each other. They were so sweet! They kept saying things like “Well, we are stuck in this hotel room, but at least we really like being together.”

 

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4. Chelsey and Bryn 

Bryn was sporting their work from home chic with a button-up shirt over sweat pants. Chelsea, who is also a photographer (check out her work here), scheduled the photoshoot as a little mid-week date. They laughed the whole time.

 

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5. Chelsie and Tori

Chelsea and Tori just moved to a new city and were getting their new home together. They were excited to see all their friends in the new city, but covid19 has kept them cooped up. Doing this photo shoot was a perfect excuse to spend an evening jumping around and laughing. 

 

 

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What I have learned from doing these sessions is that, as photographers, when we say “high-quality photos,” we are missing the mark. Quality isn’t only determined by photo resolution or a number of pixels. The quality of our photos is in emotion and how we make people feel. 

If you’d like to offer these sessions, take a look at my tutorial. The tutorial offers support in how to find the best light, diagrams for posing, how to direct your clients, how to market these sessions, and how to edit. It is an in-depth look into how I am serving my clients with FaceTime photoshoots. It’s only $10 and can be completed in one sitting. Go check it out! The facetime Photoshoot Tutorial.