Hi everyone!
Today's post is another content day recap - now that I've attended a variety of content days (I am by no means an expert) I can definitely say that most content days rarely revolve around any family or maternity content. Most of them tend to involve more couples and wedding content, followed by solo models depending on the concept and location. This is probably for a number of reasons, one of them being its a lot more difficult to have control of the day when kids are involved (especially if they're toddlers) and pregnancy can be challenging for most women so it can be intimidating to stand and pose for a bunch of photographers for about 40 to 60 minutes during a day. While I've been so fortunate to attend content days in the past that have provided for the one off family or mommy and me session as a part of the day, it's pretty rare to see a content day that's fully geared towards family and maternity, So when Humaira at HY Photography decided to host one, I knew that 1. I had to be there to get some content but also 2. to come and provide one of my best friends with any help and support that she needed.
Let's get into the details - this content day was held at a ranch out in Argyle, TX. It consisted of 3 styled shoots, one family with a vintage car, one family maternity with horses, and lastly an editorial maternity with (and without horses) with two separate models. It was a really great way to round out shooting summer related content and as someone who doesn't shoot with families super frequently, I definitely learned a lot from watching other photographers who are mainly motherhood and family photographers lead the content day as far as posing and stuff went. Going into the day, I definitely gave Humaira my experience and feedback as far as how attending content days go, and my biggest piece of advice will always be to not have too many small groups if you don't need to. If you have the space, everyone can work around it and be comfortable. It's also interesting because there are always newbies who are attending a content day for the first time, and when you get to know your attendees a little better, you can mix the groups up so that an experienced and outgoing photographer are in the same group as a newbie who might be less comfortable directing a model. One of my biggest takeaways from this day was how beneficial a little meetup beforehand to chat and brief the group can be, so I love that we started off the afternoon with meeting up with everyone and getting to know other attendees. It definitely made it easier and more comfortable going into the rest of the afternoon. These definitely don't have to be big or anything, we met up at a restaurant/bar in Argyle, had waters and shared an appetizer, but you could always do with a cooler full of drinks and some snacks just to let everyone mingle.
The first two shoots went on at the same time and they were the family with the vintage car as well as the maternity family with one of the horses on the ranch. The attendees were split into two groups and I went with the group who shot the vintage car first, and about 20 minutes in we were to rotate out and switch. The family with the vintage car had three precious boys in addition to the mom and dad, and the mom was a photographer in the DFW area, Mimi. I will say that posing comes a little more comfortably sometimes and models are more comfortable when they are also a photographer, that's something I've definitely seen before. We tried to keep the kids as entertained and interactive as possible around the vintage car, we did some different combinations like mom with the kids, dad with the kids, and mom and dad with each other while the kids just ran around and did their thing. We also managed to get the entire family inside the vintage car as well as some with the back of the car. It was a great warmup to the content day and the colors of the shoot were so gorgeous and summery.
When the timer went off to switch, we walked down the gravel road and made our way into the area where the horses were. I will say this once and for all - I am NOT a horse girl. I don't remember what the fear of large animals is called but I have that. Everyone always talks about how horses are large dogs and I honestly cannot get past the fact that if you look at them the wrong way or piss them off they could literally trample you, so this was COMPLETELY out of my element (cheers to me for being brave). Anyway, we trudged through the dirt and tried to avoid the piles of horse poop as best as we could. I was also originally confused because when we toured the property prior, I think this second shoot was supposed to be in a different spot so that the toddler could be barefoot since the boots that were brought for him didn't fit. But we'll discuss how to get around hiccups like these and what I learned at the end of this post because in the moment my two immediate concerns were to not get murdered by a horse and also not step in literal horse shit. We started off with some solo maternity shots of mom while the dad and toddler took a break, which was good because the kid was flushed and the most important thing when having shoots involving kids is to make sure they're safe and have what they need at all times. Once we shot mom for a little bit, we then proceeded to get some photos of just the toddler with mom, and then adding dad and getting some full family shots. After about 20 minutes, it looked like the horses were getting restless and overstimulated so we decided to pack it up and hike back up the property to shoot the next session.
Now, I gotta say seeing the horses get overstimulated spooked me so I had no interest in being around another horse again. So I took the opportunity between sessions to chug some water, take a break, find a bathroom to pee in, and change out the SD card on my camera. I knew one of the models for the last session were going to be shooting with the horse so I decided to rest up. When one of the horse handlers walked into the main house where the A/C and bathroom was, I knew they likely weren't shooting with the horse any longer so that's when I took the opportunity to go back out and shoot the rest of the session and get some of those solo editorial maternity shots. I also wanted to shoot with my flash because I never remember to whip it out nor do I use it enough and I knew using the flash around the horses would probably be a disaster waiting to happen so I was perfectly fine not shooting anymore horses (can you tell they are just not my thing?). The first model had on a grey-beige tulle robe over a nude bodysuit, so we took turns directing with the posing, but for the most part everyone was shooting together and there wasn't really a need to shoot with groups. Then as the sun kept going down, we switched to the next model who was in nude undergarments and a pink tulle robe. We did a few poses, some tossing of the robe to get the glam shot. Mostly, I just wanted to test out different flash settings to see what I liked best in a daytime setting.
We ended the day with a group photo, sweaty and at a drive through for an ice cold soda and some french fries. Overall, for her very first content day, I have to say I'm so proud of my bestie sis for the amazing concepts she put together, I know personally how hard she worked to get the location, piecing the concepts together, scouting vendors and models for the day. But let's go over a few things to debrief the day and what maybe could have gone better- I also preface this by saying I wouldn't have some of this insight if she wasn't one of my closest friends and if I hadn't been there to know her plans from the backend. If I came to this content day as an attendee, I would have thought it was so great, so much fun, and I would be so excited to go home and look at all my photos just itching to edit some of them. So this criticism is not at all to deny all the hard work that was put into this day, it's more from what I witnessed and we discussed that I think could be good advice for anyone who decides to plan their own content day.
First of all, with using clothing and props from your own client closet - maybe I am personally a freak for organization and I hate to lose my things but I would always make sure that there are separate bags/garment bags for each shoot. With there being multiple concepts, as a host, you're focused on making sure you're abiding by your vendors' guidelines and also making sure your attendees have a good time. It's easy to lose track of things if they are all lumped into one or two bags, because after the first shoot, stuff starts to get messed up. If possible, try to see if your clients can wear their own accessories like shoes or hats, sometimes it will save you the stress of having to keep track of that yourself.
Secondly, I know not all hosts have assistants for their content days but I've attended a few now where there are at least one or two people designated to help the host guide the attendees so that the main host is the one dealing with the vendors. When you have venues where liability waivers are involved, or rentals that need to be carefully looked after, extra eyes and hands will always come in handy. Especially if the money to pay the vendors comes out of your pocket as the host, bring those extra people with you that you trust, whether it's a friend or a partner or another photographer, and let them help lead the attendees while you make sure you are the direct person dealing with your vendors. On this day in particular, we ran into the issue of the spots we chose not ending up being the spots where those shoots ended up taking place. We realized after the day was over that there was maybe some miscommunication and the horse handlers didn't know where we specifically wanted the second and third shoots to take place, so it got a little jumbled up and led to more horses being overstimulated than necessary. Good help can be hard to find, but it will always be worth it to have in the end. My advice will be to pick someone who can be calm but firm amidst the chaos to help you, but really your best bet is to pick someone who can match or balance your energy. Plus when you have extra hands you have someone to help capture that behind the scenes content for you so you get to shoot a little more of the content that you styled and put together.
Lastly, remember that not every content day will be perfect regardless how much you plan it. Mistakes happen, slip ups happen, and you have to be able to just roll with it, which maybe sometimes doesn't feel like the easiest thing. If you spend all your time hung up on all the things that go wrong or feel wrong, you're beating yourself up over something you can't change. So take a step back and pat yourself on the back for all the work you did, and remember that none of your attendees will ever sit around thinking about what went wrong from the backend because they won't know 90% of the time.
Hope you guys enjoyed my recap of this summer content day! Until next time!
