The Beginner Photography Podcast

How To Take the Stress Out of Building an Authentic Portfolio with Sabrina Gebhardt

• Raymond Hatfield

Share episode

#536 In this episode of the podcast, I chat with Sabrina Gebhardt, who unravels the significance of honing your artistic vision and emphasizes the power of authenticity in your portfolio. We explore her journey from picking up a camera after a break to running a successful photography business, uncovering strategies to building a compelling portfolio, dealing with imposter syndrome, and using model calls to fuel creativity.

THE BIG IDEAS 

  • Define Your Artistic Vision: Knowing your artistic take helps you create images that stand out and resonate with your audience.
  • Embrace the Journey: Understand that portfolio building is an evolving process that grows and changes with your experiences.
  • Attract and Repel: Curate your work to consistently reflect the type of clients you want to attract and deter those who aren't a good fit.
  • The Power of Model Calls: Use model calls to experiment with new ideas and elevate your portfolio without client pressures.

PHOTOGRAPHY ACTION PLAN

  1. Create a Vision Board: Use Pinterest to create a secret board with images that elicit a strong emotional response. Analyze the pinned images to identify common themes and styles that resonate with you.
  2. Schedule Test Shoots: Organize model calls with specific criteria that align with your vision, including location, outfits, and subjects. Use these sessions to experiment with new techniques and refine your style without client pressure.
  3. Regularly Update Your Portfolio: Set aside time each month to review and update your portfolio, ensuring it reflects your latest and best work. Remove any images that do not align with the type of photography you want to book.
  4. Network within Your Niche: Join online communities or local groups focused on your photography niche to exchange ideas and get feedback. Attend niche-specific workshops or retreats to hone your skills and stay inspired.
  5. Practice Selective Sharing: Only share photographs on social media and your website that truly reflect your artistic vision and desired clientele. Use captions, blogs, and behind-the-scenes content to narrate your creative process and vision, building a connection with your audience.

RESOURCES:
Visit Sabrina Gebhardt 's Website - https://sabrinagebhardt.com/
Follow Sabrina Gebhardt  on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sabrinagebhardtphotography/

Learn What Camera Settings to Use in our free guide!
https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Sabrina Gebhardt:

It's important to know what your vision is because if you don't know what your vision is, if you don't know who you're going for, what you want to serve, what is your artistic take on the world or on your subjects, you're never going to get those images, right? Because you're not going to know how to get there. What is your artistic vision? Because there's something for everyone, you know? There's a million trends depending on who you follow and where you are on the internet. But there is a place for you. That's the beauty of it. No matter what editing style you love, no matter what kind of posing you love or what your genre is, there is literally something for everyone now.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and today we are chatting with family photographer Sabrina Gebhardt about building an authentic portfolio of your images. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by CloudSpot. With CloudSpot you can impress your clients with a beautiful gallery that is easy to view, share, and download on any device. You can control things like image size, add a watermark, and set download limits as well. So grab your free forever account over at deliverPhotos. com and own the upgrade when you are ready. I've had Sabrina on the podcast before and every so often I'll get an email from a listener sharing how much they enjoyed the way that she breaks things down. She makes you feel like, like, yeah, I can do this, or why not me? Or let me try that. And that encouraging motivation from somebody who's, you know, been there, done that, it feels good. And we need honestly more of it in the photography industry. So today I'm happy to have her back to talk about not only the importance of building a portfolio, even if you're not in business, but how to build one that is authentically you and not just whatever's trendy today. And be sure to stick around to the end of the interview where I will share the three step photography action plan to implement what you learned from today's interview with Sabrina Gebhardt into your own photography journey. Because if you're not taking what you learned here on the podcast and using it to grow your own photography skills, well then you might as well just go back to doom scrolling your social feed because, information by itself is not growth. Action is the key to growth. So again, stick around to the end for that three step photography action plan. And with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Sabrina Gebhardt Sabrina, before we dive into today's episode, you've been on the podcast before. So can you remind us how you got started in photography and when was that light bulb moment for you when you thought, Ooh, I think I can make a career out of this.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I don't remember if I shared this part of the story on the podcast last time, but I was thinking about it. And I actually have, I was in Girl Scouts when I was younger. This is so funny. This is going so far back. I was in Girl Scouts when I was younger. And when we were in brownies, we had this little book and it was like all about me, you know, and you were like, what's my favorite color? What do you, whatever, how old are you? All this kind of thing. And there was a question in there that said, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I found this little book Like 10 years ago in a move, and it legitimately said, I want to be a photographer. And I could not believe my eyes because I don't remember thinking that when I was a child. But apparently, at some point, there had been a period of time where I was really into that. So that was kind of cool. But what I remember about myself story is that I loved taking photos in high school. I remember really having a camera all the time at all of the football games and the parties and just day to day with friends. I love just capturing just what we were doing just day to day with us. This was way back before cell phones. It was an actual film camera. And, I went to college and I considered taking some photography classes like officially, quote unquote, and I decided not to, I wanted to explore different things and I ended up putting the camera down almost the entirety of college. And then I had a career afterwards and I started, my life so to speak. And I didn't really pick up the camera again until my first child was born. And of course, as a new parent, you want to document everything. And I literally had a camera in my hand and it felt like coming home. You know what I mean? I was like, Oh, man, I have missed this. And then it took a few years of me learning digital at the time we'd gone from film to digital. It was a whole new world mechanics and everything. So it's kind of relearning the technical side of photography and honing my skills. And by the time she was almost four is when I thought I think I could make a business out of this.

Raymond Hatfield:

So, let's just say, for all intents and purposes, it was about four years, right? From when you picked up the camera again and decided to really give it a go. You're learning photography at this time. Did you go at it in any sort of, like, systematic way? Like, I gotta learn step one, step two, step three before I can get to any point to where I can officially say that I'm open for business and start taking clients? Or, was it more of an organic approach? Tell me about that.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

It was definitely more of an organic approach. This was about 14 years ago, and, photography and the saturated market that we have today is not what it was. Then I didn't know a ton of other photographers just within my social circle. They weren't on every corner. And so it was organic in that I was in the season of life where all of our friends were had kids around the same age or they were having babies. And I knew I wanted to focus on children and I had a lot of subjects kind of available to me. I had all these kids and all these social circles and play groups and birthday parties where I could bring my camera. And work with other kids and play with different lighting scenarios and on all of that. So it, felt more organic to me in that I got what I will say, good enough with the technical skills that I like, I just jumped straight into the deep end. I said, I'm going to be in business. And quite honestly, it was way before I should have been in business, but I just jumped straight in and I way undercharged. I way overworked, but I was so excited and jazzed and I could feel the potential. And so I just dove in head first and I figured out the rest as, as I went along.

Raymond Hatfield:

You were building the plane as it was in the air, so to

Sabrina Gebhardt:

100%.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Is that the kind of person that you are, or was that just something that happened just because of photography? It felt different. Yeah.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

think that's kind of who I I'm a very intuitive person. I trust my instinct and my gut a lot. And when I have that ping of like, Hey, this is something we need to follow it, whether it's a business or a career shift or a move or anything like that, I kind of start to take steps before I see the whole picture because I trust that if I'm being intuitively pulled towards something. I am going to make the right choices and that it's meant for me and I say, you know, I said, I started my business way too soon. I definitely did not have, I hadn't fine tuned my editing. That was all kind of a disaster. I had no clue what I was doing with a website and with pricing and marketing and anything. I just knew that I had all of these friends that wanted me to take their photos and I loved doing it. Might as well make some money at the same time, you know, and so I just jumped in and I figured it out and I learned the hard way about burnout and overwork and underpricing and, and, and, and, and, and, right. but I do think that's kind of my personality with things.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh man, that sounds so overwhelming, to have to do that. Oh my gosh, my brain. but honestly, like at the same time, sometimes you literally have to get pushed into the deep end to learn how to swim. My kids, every time we go to the pool, quite literally, will take a hundred years. Because they will dip

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yes,

Raymond Hatfield:

a time, and by the time they're finally in, they're like, Oh, this wasn't that bad. And me, I'm like, I just jump right on in because I know that it's not going to be that bad, but you got to get in sometime. And I feel like there's a correlation there in business as well. It's like sometimes you have to take really big swings sometimes, especially with social media. And we look at everybody else's portfolios. It's easy to think, wow, they're so great. Like maybe they've been doing it for a long time. I'm not at that level yet. I can't call myself a photographer. I can't start charging. but sometimes you just got to be pushed in and figure it out along the way as overwhelming as, as it may be. But one of the things in business, or just, just being a photographer, one of the most important things for a long time is just having to show. Of what it is that you can produce, whether you're a hobbyist and people ask you about your photography, whether you're a professional and people are trying to figure out what it is that you can do for me. Having some sort of a portfolio has always been a standard for photographers. And that's one of the things that I want to talk about today because I've noticed, and tell me if you've seen this as well, I've noticed with photographers that there is a They either want to hold back, right? Again, because it feels like imposter syndrome. Like, no, no, no, I'm not ready to have a portfolio yet. So that they don't want to take that step. But for you, was it similar? Did you have a portfolio to get started? Or, were you able to, rely on, on your community and your group of friends who just knew that you were, into photography and would hire you? talk to me about that.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I had what we will call a portfolio. It did the job for me. Was it like I said, was it cohesive? Was it exactly what I wanted to do long term? No, but it was a body of work that represented the correct Age group that I wanted to serve, and it was not all of my own Children. It was of other Children. So it worked as a portfolio. And it it was when I had decided, okay, I think I want to make a business of this. knew instinctively that I needed to have a portfolio that it wasn't just a website full of my own children because people can see that a mile away And so I reached out to friends Hey Can I do a little mini photo shoot of your daughter at the park next time we're there or? Can I come in your backyard or this that or the other and so I was I kind of had a vision of like capturing Childhood and these these fun ages and I knew that I needed to set it up a little bit so that it was It's more portrait like and less playdate like, so I took advantage of those things. But when I started my business, it literally started with basically a one big fat blind copy email to everybody I knew. Everybody in my mom's group, everybody in these playgroups, everybody at my kid's preschool. I just, if I knew them and they had kids my age, I sent them this email that's like, hey, I love this. You may or may not have seen me with my camera around at various things. I'm going to take a stab at being in business. I would love to work with your family, your kids. And I kind of laid out at the time this was in January, I kind of laid out like, let's do family mini sessions in the spring and this, that, and the other. And I was flooded with responses flooded with congratulations. We're so excited for you. Yes, we want to book you. And so I immediately had a lot of support, and a great, like booked calendar, we'll say. And I just kind of fine tuned my skills as we went, you know, I took some classes at the same time online. And every session I did got better, right. And better and better. But I will say kind of circling back really quick to jumping in before I was ready, you know, and building the plane while I'm in the air. I think a really huge part of my success early on is because I was willing to do that. And I wasn't paralyzed by the fear and the perfection

Raymond Hatfield:

Mm.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

having to get it all right. Because like I said, this was before the huge photography boom. And I think if I would have gotten stuck in that paralysis, even for a couple of years, I don't know that it would have started as strongly and as easily because that was kind of the same time, you know, 10 to 14 years ago is when things started to explode and all these moms and stay at home. Parents wanted to become photographers, right? And so I think being willing to jump in and be slightly ahead of the curve is one of the things that has really benefited me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm. So, let me ask because today I know that you do some coaching with photographers as well, newer photographers, those who haven't been in a business or who haven't been shooting for 15 plus years. advice do you have for them? Because that world is now gone,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

The time where you could just put something on Facebook, everybody would see it. Everybody would know, everybody would be able to reach out to you. You'd get hundreds of comments and likes. Those days are gone. So, how today would you go about starting to build a portfolio if you had to start from scratch?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, now I think it is very different. I think the best way to start now is to actually have a very clear vision of who you serve and what you do and to start off with a niche. You really want to be able to people to see your work and say she or he is not for me. That's not what I want. Or the opposite, the best case scenario, see your work, see your portfolio and say, oh my gosh. I see myself. I see my family. I see what? That's exactly what I want. And you want to attract and repel. And the only way you can do that, there's two ways. One is through your portfolio, having a really fine tuned niche of what you're serving and your editing style and all of that. But then also through copy right when you're speaking, whether it be on social media, whether it be your website, whether it be your blog, whether it be your email, being really clear who you're speaking to so that you are either attracting or repelling.

Raymond Hatfield:

So today, though, we can, I think at least for me, maybe you as well. When I think about a portfolio, I think of a printed, a book, something that you have that is physical, that you can give to people. I truly believe that a portfolio can be beneficial whether you are a hobbyist or in business, especially if you're in business, for hobbyist, I guess, can we talk about, is it? and two does it have to be printed or can your Instagram feed be your version of your portfolio?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I think they're both important but for different reasons, I personally think now the printed portfolio acts more as a way to reflect on your own work, but because it looks different in person, and it's something that I actually do at my retreats with women is we, they send me their portfolio images and I have them all printed and we go through them as a group. We lay them all out and we point out good things, bad things, differences, what we see and all of that. And it's an incredibly powerful exercise to see your work physically, tangibly in front of you. And I think that can serve any artist, hobbyist, beginner experience, wherever you are. I do think that in today's age where people are finding you on Google or on Instagram, like having a digital portfolio is also really relevant. I think that's more likely to bring you clients than something physical. The only other place I think I really see physical portfolios potentially bringing clients is in like the commercial world, right? Like when you're working with big brands, when you're going to present yourself to a magazine or something like that, they still having that physical work is important. But I think I think there's a place for both. I guess.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, I would agree with that we are in a very different time than we were a few years ago And it's interesting Because as much as I love having that You I make a yearbook for my family every single year, right? Of all of our photos that we've taken throughout the year. And it's always one of our favorite days of the year when it arrives, because we can take the time to look through it. And I think as photographers, at least myself, don't know if this happens to you, but it's like, I'm the family photographer, right? and therefore I import the photos onto my computer. And as much as I try to share the photos my family make sure that they can see them. They don't always have access to them whenever they want to. So having that family yearbook is just a way that they can come in. They can look at it, browse. Get that, you know, that, good connection, that

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

so anyway, long story short, I agree having something printed is an incredible tool and be able to see, patterns as well, like who you are as a photographer. And

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

that is super important, but, let's talk a little bit more because, one of the things again, that, is important in a portfolio is that it is. Your work, right? So technically, technically here, photo that I take is authentically mine, right? I took that photo, but building a portfolio that is, and feels authentic to who I am as an artist are two very different things,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

So how can we ensure that every time we go out and shoot. capturing images that are authentically ours so that we can a portfolio that is authentic to our creative selves. That was a big question. So

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. Yeah. There's a whole lot. There's a whole lot there to unpack. I want to start by saying. I want to give people the freedom to know that even when you have an extremely honed in vision of who you are as an artist and what you want in your portfolio, every professional image you take is not going to be that. It's not you're going to photograph a wedding. I'm going to photograph a family. Somebody's going to photograph a brand There's going to be plenty in those galleries. That's great and the family the clients going to love them, but they're not the like, oh my gosh That's like that's going to my portfolio. That's the new homepage image on my website. That's my vision You're gonna the goal is I tell people the goal is to get a handful of those images from every session Okay, there's going to be a lot of fluff that fills in. You're going to take the very traditional portraits. And if that's not your jam, those aren't going to speak to you. But it's still important to serve our clients in that way, right? So want to encourage people because I think they assume. I know what my niche is. I know what vision I'm going for. And they get frustrated when they have this gallery of images and the entire thing is not, you know, just singing from the heavens. Okay, it's not going to be that there's a certain level of traditional things, whatever, that get filled in. So I just want to put that out there that we're not aiming for a hundred percent, just creatively amazing images. All right. But it's important to know what your vision is. And that's, that's the kicker. That's the underlying thing here, because if you don't know what your vision is, if you don't know who you're going for, what you want to serve, what is your artistic, take on the world or on your subjects, you're never going to get those images, right? Like. Because you're not going to know how to get there. So you have to figure out what it is you want first. Who are you speaking to? What is your artistic vision? Because there's something for everyone, you know? Sure, you may see trends in the market, light and airy or the film edits or whatever. There's a million trends depending on who you follow and where you are on the internet. But you can, there is a place for you. That's the beauty of it. No matter what editing style you love, no matter what kind of posing you love or what your genre is, there is literally something for everyone now. Gone are the days of, hi, my name is Sabrina, I'm a photographer, you can call me and I will literally photograph anything and everything.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

the way it was 30 years ago. Joe Smith had a photography studio in downtown, whatever USA, and that's the place everybody went because Joe Smith was the local photographer and you could hire him to literally do anything from business to real estate, to headshots, to weddings, to seniors, to da, da, da, da, da, da. And that's not, it's amazing, but we don't have to do that anymore. We get to do exactly what we want. So I encourage people to go through an exercise to figure out what speaks to them artistically so that they have an understanding of who they are as an artist and then they can start to create work that aligns with that, if that makes sense.

Raymond Hatfield:

It does. What is the exercise?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

leaving me hanging

Sabrina Gebhardt:

no, I was going to tell you, but I felt like I, you know, I was talking for like 10 minutes.

Raymond Hatfield:

No, no, that

Sabrina Gebhardt:

no.

Raymond Hatfield:

was my next question the whole

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

okay, this always sounds great. This always

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

Shoot, you know, what it is that you love. if you're so new that

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

Because to tell you the truth, when I first started in photography, I thought family photography was gonna be my thing and it wasn't until I shot a few families that I thought, Nope, it's not. You know, so how do we start to find, what it is that we love, and what it is that we're passionate about?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I'll tell you the exercise that I have my students do but I will say that to your point there is absolutely a You have to go out and try this as well. Like if there's going to be a learning curve. You may think you may be super inspired by this one thing and think that that's the direction you're gonna go. But then actually in practice, you're like, actually, I kind of hate this and I don't feel like I'm great at it. I'm not living my best life. And then then you work on pivoting. But, the exercise that I do. So I mentioned at my retreats, I have the women bring their portfolio. So I have them give me 20 to 30 images. I have them all printed out. We look at them as a group. The other part of that exercise is that I tell them to go onto Pinterest and to create a like a hidden secret board and to pin any images and again, I work with women, so maybe guys wouldn't resonate with this, but I tell them to pin images that make them, like, audibly gasp or feel something. And I tell them, do not, stop yourself. It can be any body of work, it can be any kind of image, it can be any editing style. The goal is just, if you have like a physical response to the image, pin it to the board. Don't think twice about what it is or why or anything like that. And then I tell them to also kind of go around, scroll through their feed on Instagram and add any images that make them have a physical response to this Pinterest board as well.

Raymond Hatfield:

Mm hmm.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

So what happens is once you get to about 50 or 60 images on a Pinterest board, you will start to see trends. You will start to really see. Oh, okay. And so what we do is a group as we pull up their Pinterest board on a big screen TV as a group, and we start to shout out the similarities. What we're seeing. Is it all motherhood images? Is it all families outdoors? Is it all really funky branding images? Is it all bright colored? Is it all black and white? And you can start to kind of peel away like, okay, these are things that you as an artist responded to, how can we either put you into this genre that you obviously love, or how can we fine tune your work to pull out some of these things that you love that maybe you're not doing? Does that make sense?

Raymond Hatfield:

No, it does. It does. Absolutely. And again, like some of my biggest realizations in my own photography is when, at the end of the year, you want to go through all of your images and make like a best of post on Instagram or whatever. And it's not until you're faced with a lot of images that you realize, oh, is something here that connects all of these images.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

I think going deeper into that is going deeper into your, artistic voice,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

figuring out what it is. So I can absolutely see how beneficial that is to do that with the images of others

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

for you, I'm assuming that you've done this

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm

Raymond Hatfield:

own work.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

What did you discover about your voice as an artist?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I discovered I did this exercise for the first time. Gosh, at this point, it was probably like seven years ago. But I really love images that have a little bit of chaos in them. Um, which, if you look through my portfolio of work, you will absolutely see chaos. Like it's,

Raymond Hatfield:

Heh

Sabrina Gebhardt:

call it joyful chaos. And it's a part of that is the season of life that I love to capture. I love to capture the families with the five and under crowd. So and I love big families. Give me 345 kids. Give me those, Irish twins all stacked together. I love it and their lives are a little bit chaotic, right? It's beautiful and there's so much love and there's so much noise, right? Somebody's happy. Somebody's sad. Somebody's got stuff all over their face. There's, you know, nobody's hair is straight. It's a little bit crazy, but there is such joy in that. And that's what I as an artist and pulled to and finding a way early on in my career to make magic out of that and to also like make it look good and beautiful to reflect back to these moms that their joyful chaos is just absolute something to treasure and that they will always love and allowing myself to steer away from okay. Everybody sit still. Okay, everybody smile. Okay, let me fix your hair Okay, did that you know trying to get it all perfect and letting it be a little bit messy and finding my place and that was really really important and also really really freeing

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Wow. Well, if anybody is listening and is wondering how to avoid the trap of just emulating other photographers and how to figure out exactly who you are, That's it right there and what I love is that one it requires action, right? It's not just read this thing this video and you'll magically get it. Listen to this podcast and you'll understand it's you have to do the thing, right? We can't tell anybody what their creative voice is like it has to be authentically found and the only way that that's gonna happen is if You You go to Pinterest, right? You,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

those photos and you start to do the work and then you take out your camera and you go for it.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yep.

Raymond Hatfield:

I love that. I'm always looking for practical exercises

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

to discover those things. And that is, that is it. So I thank you for

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, you're welcome.

Raymond Hatfield:

love that.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

you know, one of the pieces of advice that I usually give is, look at your collection, right? When you're building a portfolio. Many photographers who are newer in their journey, maybe they don't have a large portfolio of images to choose from, but look at what you have, discover what's missing, and then go shoot that, right?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

that thing, because in a portfolio, you're gonna need more than just the same headshot

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

front of a house if you're shooting real estate every single time or the same first kiss if you're a wedding photographer. You're gonna need a variety of images, right? But again, depending on how many images you have, how new you are in your portfolio, that idea can feel overwhelming. Oh, I thought I had a pretty good portfolio, but now I have 600 more photos that I have to go capture.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah

Raymond Hatfield:

do you have any practical advice, practical steps on how photographers, can accomplish that without feeling? Or I guess how photographers can start to build a portfolio, fill in those gaps without feeling overwhelmed.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, I think it's really important. And I learned this. Somebody told me this about 10 years ago, and it has stuck with me and I share it with everyone I can because I think it's so practical and so true. But it's making sure I like the last 10 minutes of a session. But taking the last five or 10 minutes of a session to shoot something for you, not for your client. And maybe that's what we're talking about today. Filling in your portfolio. Maybe it's trying something creative and new, a technique that you haven't done. The sessions wrapped, you feel great about what you've gotten and say, Hey, can we do one more thing? I have this idea. It's kind of crazy. And trying some, motion blur or panning or some sort of lighting that you haven't done before or a pose you want to test out, trying something fun and different at the end of the session. But this is a great place to also do what you're saying, where you know you want to fill in the gap. And I think it's really important to walk into a session and say at this session, I'm hoping to get these two or three shots. to really narrow it down. Because if you roll in with this whole long list in your head, you're probably gonna forget all of it, and then you're not gonna get anything. But if you're just carrying one, two or three shots in your mind that you're like, this would be a great session to get those at, then you're more likely to succeed. And the way to do that is to know your clients know what you're getting into. You've either had a call, you've had a zoom, they filled out a questionnaire. There's some way that you know, oh, they've got, one year old twins. And I've always wanted to get this twin shot so I can do that here. Or, Oh my gosh, when I was on zoom with this bride, she has this long epic hair and I've been wanting to do this hair shot. You know, I'm going to do it with her. So knowing who your clients are so that you can say, okay, what from my list of images, will I be able to potentially get at the session and then just take that list with you?

Raymond Hatfield:

That is great. I also agree having, I do that with poses,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm

Raymond Hatfield:

when I first got it, got started, my posing was trash.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah

Raymond Hatfield:

I know, I know the technicals,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah

Raymond Hatfield:

figure out this portrait thing. Um,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah

Raymond Hatfield:

Posing was trash, interaction was trash with each other, and then, as you said, I memorized 19 in my head. The second that I got out of the car and pulled out my

Sabrina Gebhardt:

gone

Raymond Hatfield:

I forgot all 19.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Right,

Raymond Hatfield:

I do now?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

right

Raymond Hatfield:

but coming at it with, okay, I'm just gonna get these three, I think, not only makes it easier because it's easier to remember three things, but then it also gives you some confidence like, Oh, I got these three. Maybe if I just change this up a little bit, I can do

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

and can help you spark ideas instead of feeling like just a, a dumpster fire the entire time. And like you're a, you're a fraud.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

that's a great tip. Let's talk about choosing images now, because we can take a hundred million photos at

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm. Mm

Raymond Hatfield:

and there's this conventional idea that, well, if I just put all my photos on Instagram, I'm just going to pick the photos that are the most well received, the ones that get the most likes,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

those images for my portfolio. But, do you have any other advice? How should photographers decide which images to include in their portfolio?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. I'm going to tell you that. You should only include the images in your portfolio that are the ones that are 100 percent aligned with your vision. Again, this goes back to the attract and repel. If you are really out there for really wild, artistic photos with lots of color, and maybe there's a film vibe, and there's motion blur and all this, but your website has one traditional eyes to camera portrait on it. You better believe the internet is going to flock to that one photo, and you're going to get requests for that kind of thing. Take it off. Take it off. If you're here to attract the other artistic people, the people who want to be wildly creative at their session and want non traditional family photos, your website should only share non traditional family photos. Same with your Instagram, same with your Facebook, you should put out and share with the world what you want to book more of. And if you are not here for the traditional photo, the traditional portrait, the traditional headshot, don't put it anywhere. It does not mean you can't take that shot at a session. But you don't want to attract people who think that that is what you do. It's better to surprise them with, yeah, I'm going to include that in your session. Of course, we're going to play. We're going to do fun things. But of course, we're going to put a traditional portrait or two in there, as opposed to having you having people hire you for traditional portraiture when it makes your soul cry inside because you want to be doing the fun stuff, right? So only putting what you want to book more of out there.

Raymond Hatfield:

I was thinking about it as you were saying that, that you could technically use your previous exercise idea

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm

Raymond Hatfield:

going through Pinterest and picking out the photos that appeal to you, but maybe in terms of, let's just say if we're photographing people, the reaction, the connection, the poses and then start to figure out, you What is it that you like, right? Because there's that, my daughter, right? She's eight years old. And she said to me the other day, she's like, Dad, look at me. And so I did. And she's like, smile with your eyebrows.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm. Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

okay. And she's like, and then look kind of mad. And I was like, okay. And she's like, that's your model face. And I was like, what? I was like, I've never heard that before.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

That's funny.

Raymond Hatfield:

And there's this idea that like, that serves a purpose.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

serves a purpose,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

but not in my photography. It doesn't

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked angry, so angry, it was terrible. but so looking at the work of others and figuring out like, what is it about the human connection that I love?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

and then trying to hone in on those things now using that as your litmus test,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Right.

Raymond Hatfield:

I love joy. I love that connection. I love that bond. I love, I love laughter, whatever it is. I love mystique.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

And then looking through your photos and

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yep.

Raymond Hatfield:

this fits that

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yep.

Raymond Hatfield:

that or

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Exactly. Exactly.

Raymond Hatfield:

out.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yep.

Raymond Hatfield:

there's a million ways, you know, to

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

think that's, that's kind of what's hard. But, at the end of the day, Photographers want, all want to create something. We want to put our stamp on this with whatever it is that we create, and we are photographers, so it's what it is that we create with our cameras. And the only way that we can really create something that is meaningful, that is going to make an impact on somebody's life, is not by creating another Picasso. Right? It's not by creating another, Henry Cartier Bresson. It's by creating something that is uniquely your own.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Mm

Raymond Hatfield:

the only way, it sounds, to do that is to know what it is that you have to

Sabrina Gebhardt:

hmm. Mm hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

way to do that, it sounds, is to do the work

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

shoot and figure out these things on your own.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

then let me ask, from that point, when should we start building some sort of portfolio of our best images? Because I'm assuming day one, probably a little too early.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

five, maybe you should have got it done before then. is there a moment in which we can all say, Oh, I'm there. Maybe I should start building a portfolio.

Sabrina Gebhardt:

I actually think that starting a portfolio day one is not a bad idea. But I want to put the caveat with that, knowing that your portfolio is going to change. So I think it's appropriate for you to have a portfolio at every step in time. And it is going to morph and change with your experience with your even with what you're what you feel called to, because I promise you, you're probably not going to be in love with the exact same subject and niche and vision. 15 years as you were in the beginning, you as a human are changing. Your view of the world is changing. Your season of life is changing. The things around you are changing. Everything is changing. And so is your vision as an artist. And so I think it's okay to start a portfolio and have like, okay, I'm in business. My first two years, here's what my portfolio looks like. It's not going to be as great as somebody who's been in business twice as long as you 10 times as long as you but that's okay. It represents you right now and then two years later it's going to look different and it's going to represent you then and it keeps morphing and changing with you over time.

Raymond Hatfield:

that is beautiful. Well, Sabrina, let me ask, because you've, I feel like you've given us a bunch of fantastic, practical advice that we can use. So I'm just going to throw this out there. I'm just going to ask, do you have any more practical advice or challenges that we can, that photographers can use when it comes to building a portfolio, building a body of work, learning who we are as a photographer, anything like that?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah. So I think one of my favorite things that we have not talked about yet is doing model calls. And this is something that I do at least once a year. And I don't want the audience to hear this and say, Oh, she's doing a giveaway. She's doing a session for free. Yes, it is for free. But a model call is different because I'm in charge of exactly who I'm working with, exactly what they're wearing, exactly what the location is. I'm the creative director and there's no guarantee that I'm going to deliver anything to these people. I go into these with either a creative challenge, something funky I want to try or a vision that I have or there's all kinds of reasons to do them. But I can tell you this, when you look on my website, almost all of the best images there were taken at model calls because you have creative freedom. There's no pressure to perform. You don't have a paying client. You know that you're going into it wanting to do this very specific technique thing, whatever. And the clients know because they've gone through an application process. They know that you're doing something new and different. And so they're like in it with you, and it's the most magical creative time. And when you have that kind of freedom as an artist, you are guaranteed to walk away with things that make you audibly react to your own work.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, that is great. I did something similar in weddings where I would essentially put out a model call for engaged couples,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

that if I delivered something great to them,

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

to book me for their wedding. So

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

what advice do you have to get started? Because, I know listeners have posted in the Beginner Photography Podcast Facebook group that like, put out a model call on their own personal page and

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Flopped.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it flopped So what advice do you have for just seeing more success?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

Yeah, so I do actually have a free guide that walks you through how I do this. If you're interested, I can give you the link to put in the show notes, but, I think the key where people fall flat is in actually the preparation and the organization for it. You cannot just simply go out into the world and say, guys, I need a family next to me. Saturday. This is again if you think attract and repel. It's hey, I'm looking for three families. I want them all to have kids that are these ages. I want them to be in this age group. I want them to live in this zip code. I want them to have this vibe like very specific details so that viewer or someone who follows you can see it and go, Oh, my gosh, that's our family. And then they apply. Right. But I think there needs to be this kind of in depth application process and you have to market it. Just like you would market any offer, you know, this is the age of the internet where we see things a million things a day and we forget them. We miss them. Everything goes to our spam box. It feels like so dedicating time and saying, I'm going to market this model call for two weeks. So that you know your followers, your email subscribers, everybody is actually hearing it. And then there's the layer of, who do you know that you could get the ball rolling? Is there like a local neighborhood thread that you could drop it in and say, Hey, does anybody fit this? Would you text your friends? Like actually kind of almost using like a referral system to get it going. But, It's marketing it long enough and being really specific in who you're trying to draw in so that you can attract the right people for what your vision is, whatever that may be.

Raymond Hatfield:

That was great though just persistence right there great. I'm definitely gonna include a link to that free guide in the show notes of this episode for anybody who is interested Sabrina is there anything that I didn't ask you today that you want to make sure that we know?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

No, I don't think so. This was such a fun chat. Thanks for having me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Good, good. Of course, of course. Well, before I let you go then, let me ask, where can we find you online?

Sabrina Gebhardt:

So I still am one of the people that spends too much time on Instagram, but I love that community. I do. I love to hear from people. I love to, if you send me a DM, I'm probably going to voice memo you back. So don't panic. But I, I've created such a happy and joyful supportive space over there. And so I love it. So come find me on Instagram at Sabrina Gephardt photography, and then you can find me online at Sabrina Gephardt. com.

Raymond Hatfield:

Alright, huge thank you to Sabrina for coming back on to the podcast. And a huge thank you to you for taking the time to tune in today and doing something for yourself. So pat yourself on the back. All right. Here is the three step photography action plan so that you can take action on the lessons shared by Sabrina today. Step number one. Number one, discover and define your artistic vision. Start by spending some time to identify what truly inspires you, use the exercises like creating that Pinterest board with images that, evoke a strong reaction in you and then go through your selected images and analyze like, what are the common themes? And then use those findings to refine your personal style and direction in photography. Those decisions will help dictate what it is that you shoot next time you go out. And pro tip, if you have a large enough body of work of your own images, you can go through it and find those common themes there, too. To see what kind of photographer you just naturally are. Alright, step two is to build and evolve your portfolio over time. Don't wait to start your portfolio. Don't feel like, oh, I have to have been shooting for five, ten years or whatever before I can start. Like, even if today is day one for you, just start collecting the images that best align with your own personal vision in photography. And then regularly evaluate the portfolio and update it as your skills and your interests evolve. Today you might be interested in, you know, family photography. Tomorrow it might be weddings. So keep it updated. And the aim here is to create a portfolio that continually represents your best work in your current artistic direction. Alright, step three is to implement creative model calls. I loved, I love this part. Yeah, use model calls to take control of all aspects of your shoot, allowing you for full creative freedom because sometimes if you have, a real client, a real couple, a real wedding, a real family, things don't always go according to plan. Maybe they're not in the best mood. Maybe the light is not how you were hoping that it would be at that time of day. When you create a model call, you can just set it up yourself. You can be in full control of when it is, what they're wearing, how it's set, if you're working with models, you can control their reaction. So again, plan and market those model calls effectively, so that you can be very specific about your needs, and ensure that you are reaching the right audience. That's it, follow those steps and I promise you, you will not find yourself shooting something that you were never happy with, but you know, got quote on quote solid attention online so you just continued to do it. That is the trap right there. So again, that is it for today, thank you again so much for tuning in to the Beginner Photography Podcast. Until next week, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.