Heeeyyy blog readers!
So I’m going to do something a little different here than the norm, I’m going to be a bit more personal than usual. I want to tell you guys a little more about how I got CBP started and then how I got to where I am now and I also am going to share with you a few tips I have learned that have improved my photography immensely.
But first, I was to throw out a disclaimer…..
* I, by NO means, am claiming to be “the best” or even an expert.While, I do consider myself a professional photographer at this stage in my career , my goal with this post is to inspire, not to brag. I am still very, very much a work in progress but I believe in celebrating along the way!
Okay- now that my intentions have been stated… let’s do this…
I was editing a recent wedding this last week-a beach wedding. You can see a link to it here. And I thought about how one of the first times I ever used my camera was on a beach and how different my photos looked now. So I decided to pull up a photo from that very first session ever and compare it to one from the wedding. I wanted a similar comparison so I used the kids on the beach from the wedding. Here’s the side by side. 2010 vs. 2014
In 2010, my husband (fiancé at the time) and I moved to Florida. We moved down there thinking that was going to be our long term home. It was where my husband grew up and so moving back to Florida was going home for him and it was a whole new world for me. I started working a job that was far less exciting than the job I had left in New York and my co-workers were not the type of people I wanted to befriend. My sisters-in-law were great, but they all have their own lives- kids, husbands, careers, etc. I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know the area, it was freaking HOT all the time,I didn’t like it there, at all. On top of that, Josh was enrolled in the fire academy while working a full time job, so,never saw him. It was a lonely period in my life.
One night while I was babysitting for a friend, I noticed her DSLR on the counter. I picked up and started taking pictures of her kids. I loved it! I had never used a DSLR before. It was so fast! It was so much cooler than my dinky little point and shoot! I had to have one!
And so I started researching. Two of my friends at the time, Katie and Chad, were ironically BOTH involved in photography! Katie on a professional level as she was a second shooter for a big time photographer and Chad as a hobby. They both talked to me a lot about it and taught me what all those crazy numbers and letter meant. f/4.5?? How many pixels? SD card vs. CF? It was a foreign language but I was hooked.
And so I took the plunge!
My first camera- the most basic DSLR on the market at the time. A Canon Rebel Xsi with a kit lens. And I never put it down. I shot photos of my husband in his fire uniform, photos of my dog, photos of flowers, any friend who came to see me…yep- more photos.
Then I started shooting photos of my husband’s family. I set up shoots with them at parks. (I had not a clue what I was doing I just knew that I liked it). And here’s the weird thing- people loved the photos! My sister in law’s friends started asking where they got their photos done!
At the same time, I was taking pictures of Josh’s fire academy events and all the guys were going nuts over them! They started asking me to come to every single event. It was GREAT! Suddenly I felt involved again! Photography helped me make friends and connections and made me feel a part of this crazy fire academy thing Josh was doing.
And here’s tip number one: Never get comfortable in Auto Mode. I never once, not one time, shot in Auto.
And tip number two: Read EVERYTHING you can and just.keep.shooting. I read my manual cover to cover more than once. I was constantly finding tips and tricks on pinterest and practicing them. If I heard someone had a baby I would ask them if I could come take photos for free. I spent hours sitting on the floor at Borders (when it was still a thing) reading photography magazines and photography books and I watched dozens of youtube tutorials.
Six months later, it was Christmas time and I decided to start a facebook page, titled it Chelsea Bos Photography (ta-da) and made postcards offering family portraits for $50.
It cost me more to make the postcards than I made on the shoots, but hey. I walked up to strangers in Target who had kids and handed them a post card, told them to check my facebook page and consider hiring me. And guess what? THEY DID!
And thus began this WILD RIDE that I had NO CLUE would snow ball in to what it is today.
Two years later, literally, two years later (And we were back in NY, yea…I did not like FL) I had been earning *a teennnyyy tinnnyyyy bit* of money doing photography I knew EVERYTHING my camera could do and I had outgrown it. I had done the research and I knew what camera I wanted to upgrade to but I absolutely could not afford it. And so I wrote up a business plan *Thanks Business School!!* and presented it to my grandparents. It was detailed down to projected financial growth, peppered with samples of my work, a plan for how I intended to pay them back and they believed in me and we worked out an agreement…which I am eternally grateful for because it changed everything.
Tip Number Three: Do NOT think you can’t take amazing pictures on a simple DSLR because you absolutely can. Learn your camera inside and out before you even consider an upgrade.
That being said: The new camera truly changed everything- maybe just in my confidence, but it changed everything.
I continued to market myself, I purchased a domain name, an email address, more postcards, business cards, and continued to ask my friends to let me practice on their kids. I took workshops online both in marketing and in shooting and editing and I still am today. In fact, I just bought a new Newborn workshop today and I can’t wait to learn more about photographing newborns. I’ve been studying under some of the best wedding photographers in the state and working as second shooters for them and still reading, still reading everything.
And in this past year- due to incredible perseverance, a lot of pestering my friends *wink*, NEVER giving up, continuing to learn, a combination of “fake it til you make it” and a bit of confidence- I had THE BEST YEAR!!!!
I am truly proud of my work these days. I am shooting everything from furniture to newborns to wedding days. My portfolio has a great deal of variety to it. I am so proud of it. Oh- and I’ve also in this past year been able to pay back all my camera debt and even purchase myself a whole slew of new lenses and editing software! YAY!
But guys: It’s ALL because of you! You reading this right now, you who took a chance on me and let me shoot your wedding even though I only had a few photos to show for myself. Those of you who hired me when I had my cute little Rebel and then hired me AGAIN years later when I had learned so much. Those of you who shared my work with friends and wrote reviews on me. I am amazed by you and I Love YOU!
Thank you, 10,000 times over.
So now I am going to show you a bunch of before and afters and then I am going to give you some basic photog knowledge and if you are still reading at this point you freaking rock my socks off! I hope you enjoy these comparisons because I sure do!
Classic husband and wife shot: 2012 vs 2014
Maternity shoot: 2011 vs 2014
Engagement Session: 2011 vs 2014
Mommy and Me Session: 2012 vs 2014 and the SAME mommy and daughter… <3
The Trops Family Session: 2012 vs 2014 – Again, SAME family <3
First EVER newborn shoot vs. most recent newborn shoot
Family Session: 2011 vs 2014
Family Shoot: 2011 vs. 2014
Bride Getting Ready: 2011 vs 2014
Couple walking on the beach: 2010 vs. 2014
Kids: Profiled: 2011 vs. 2014
Siblings: 2011 vs 2014
Semi close up of baby in the grass: 2010 vs. 2014
Baby at Sunset: 2010 vs. 2014
In the veil shot: 2012 vs. 2014
Reaction to toasts: 2012 vs. 2014
High School girl in a field: 2013 vs. 2014
Are you still here? OMG really?? Love you-
So here is some super basic Photography info I’d like to share with you:
1. Av mode means Aperture mode. Aperture is how wide your lens can open up and it tells you right on the lens. The lower the number, the wider it can open up. This is defined by what is called an “f stop”. So a 1.8 is WAY more open than a 4.5.
2. Tv mode means Shutter Speed mode: If you’re thinking of your camera like an eye it’s basically how fast it can blink! A shutter speed of 1/500 is quick where 1/40 is slow. I use a high shuter speed when shooting toddlers because they.are.fast. 😉
3. ISO is how sensitive your camera is to light. Again- the eye- think of an eye appointment and when you get your eyes dilated and they are SUPER sensitive to light. That’s ISO. They higher the number- the more sensitive it is to light. You can brighten up your images immensely by cranking up the ISO but if you’re shooting in the bright light of day, you want to keep your ISO down lower. ISO can range from 100-in the tens of thousands depending on what camera you have. But be careful! Sometimes if you crank your ISO up too high you get those grainy looking photos! (though sometimes I do this on purpose! 😉
Manual mode is THE BEST mode because you get to control everything and I SWEAR I am going to teach a class on how to use manual mode if I ever have more than five minutes to sit down and write up a presentation! 😉
And here are the things you can’t teach but you should have if you want to make it as a photographer:
1. A passion for photography
2. A passion for people and able to interact with them
3. A willingness to NEVER stop learning
Andddd that’s enough for now!
Thank you for reading this super long post! I hope you enjoyed it at least a little!
XOXO,
CBP
