Welcome back all!
I feel like I've been away from writing these posts for so long that I have so much to catch you guys up on. As you guys know, content days/retreats and styled shoots are on the rise this year - I've definitely been seeing a big increase in them being advertised this year compared to last year. So as much as I love attending a great content day, I actually love recapping these just as much because it gives me the chance to see what my preferences are when I attend one and knowing how I work best around others, and it also allows me to sit down and really reflect on what I've learned from being at a content day. I hope you'll all enjoy recapping this with me, especially if you've never attended a content day or styled shoot before and you're just looking to get a glimpse of what it's like at one of these!
This content day I attended was local to DFW. It was hosted by Merisa D. Photo and held at the D'vine Grace Vineyard which is a stunning wedding venue up in McKinney, TX. The theme for this specific content day was a European Summer Styled Shoot. Given that the venue had a gorgeous mediterranean feel to it, I have to say it was such a gorgeous and perfect place for a concept like this. There were a total of three styled concepts - the first being a solo model with some summery props in a gorgeous white dress, the second was a bride and groom with a snazzy red vintage car, and lastly was an engagement couple with a vintage vespa in the vineyard area of the venue. So let's go through how the day ended up from beginning to end!
I showed up slightly early because I try to avoid being late for these things, and because of the weather we all met up in the chapel area of the venue where there was A/C, a bathroom, and waters. The host split us into 4 groups of 3 and we were all going to rotate between groups and get about 15 minutes to shoot each session per group. The first shoot was set up in the courtyard by the chapel and had a cute crochet bag with some summer fruits in it, a white sheet set up as a backdrop. Our model was Neely. It was really nice to have an experienced model to work with to start out the day, and getting into the posing was really easy and seamless. The photographers I was with took turns playing off each other, and we maximized using the entire courtyard area. The white sheet was great, but it definitely kept blowing in the wind, we made use of the architecture of the space and the greenery and tried to get a little bit of everything - which I think we succeeded in doing!
The group I was in took a little break after the first session and then I decided to bring all my gear and belongings back to my car and around the front of the venue by the fountain and vineyard where the next two shoots were taking place. The next session was the bride and groom with the vintage car. The vintage car was parked around the fountain while the first two groups got to shoot there and later was moved up to the driveway entrance of the venue that was lined by trees by the time it got to be my group's turn to shoot. The models for this shoot were Sheridan and Ryan. We worked our way around the driveway space, alternating between some solo bridal shots as well as couple shots, then we had the car backed up and moved back down the driveway so we could shoot the front side of it and get the venue and fountain in the photos as well. This was by far one of my favorite shoots, especially because I wanted to make sure to capture more wedding and couples content for my own personal portfolio. Now that we were all at the front and there was enough room for everyone to be shooting the bride and groom as well as the vespa couple at the same time, it became a little easier for some people to go back and forth between shooting both sessions. When the sun went down, we moved back to the back of the venue where there were some large staircases and did a few final shots there.
The last shoot was the vespa engagement couple, which I will admit, I felt like I could have used more time with especially working around the space. I was prioritizing getting more shots of the bride and groom couple. Being in one of the last two groups of the attendees, we were trying to be respectful of the way the host had it set up, but as we started running out of daylight, it felt more like some of us had to make compromises on what we wanted to shoot. I still got some great shots of the couple - the models were Kelcey and Nate. They were so great, we had a picnic setup next to the vespa and got to do some shots with the vespa as well as with the picnic setup. I know some of the other attendees got some more shots with the vespa, more closeups, and even some in the actual vineyard so my biggest regret was not being able to capture some of those shots. However, I did love what I was able to capture!
Overall, this content day was great experience and I always love to meet other photographers and network with them, learn from them. I learned that I definitely prefer content days where the attendees only get split into two groups of 5-6 people. In my opinion, smaller groups really only ever make sense if you're working in a small space where not everyone can alternate in and out between groups. But sometimes, content days and venues are in locations are in spaces where the attendees can really spread out. I think there's also always a concern from the host's standpoint where if there are too many people in a group, then there are too many hands in the pot and too many photographers shouting out posing directions. But I've personally never experienced this, and most hosts I've met with have always reiterated the attendees to alternate with the posing and collaborate with other attendees with the posing, as well as check in with everyone else that everyone got the shots they needed before moving the model(s) to a different spot. So if anyone is ever looking for advice when planning a content day - this is probably one of my biggest pieces of advice! If you have the space to have bigger groups, do it, because your attendees don't come to your content days to hang out or have down time, they want to spend as much time as possible shooting what you have planned for them. It's better to have two big groups and have them rotate in and out every 10 minutes than to have four small groups and only give them one 15 minute rotation to shoot their content.
Hope you guys enjoyed my personal retelling of a styled shoot/content day experience1
