T.G.I.F, right loves?!

Goodness! Is it Friday already?! Do you remember sitting in your high school class on a Monday morning dreading the LOOONG week ahead? Remember when you thought life went by at a snail pace? Goodness! It seems like I wake up on Monday morning and BAM! It’s Friday! (WHOA!)

For today’s Business Friday post I wanted to share with y’all some of my session must-haves! These are the things I don’t leave the house without before I go to ANY portrait session!

For starters, let’s talk about my wardrobe. When I’m out on a portrait session, rather its engagements or a family session, I always like to dress comfortably! Unless I’m heading somewhere after a portrait session, I almost always wear jeans, a loose fitting shirt, and my trusty boots. Yes y’all. I’m that kid who wears rainboots 99.9% of the time. Even when it isn’t even raining! For me, I choose comfort over stylin’ any day of the week, and when you’re prancing around in a tall grass, dirty field like I tend to do 99.9% of the time, you don’t want to mess up every single pair of shoes you own! SO, I decided to DIY a pair of wellies and make me one pair of stylin’ session boots. Trust me y’all…these boots were made for walkin’ AND shootin’.

All I did was just buy a $20 pair of black rain boots from Wal-Mart (from the men’s work boot section) cut a slit down the back, punch out some holes, fasten some gold grommets inside those holes, and then tie a cute teal and gold grosgrain ribbon to the back! WAH-LAH! The Emma Loo Shootin’ Boots. 

I never-ever-ever-ever (and I repeat: NEVER EVER) leave the house without my Shootsac! If it’s a portrait session or a wedding day-that trusty Shootsac is by my side at all times.  It’s a lens bag and holds all my needed gear on wedding days and portrait sessions.  I love, love, love it. Seriously, my life changed when I put that bag on. 

Inside my Shootsac is a small memory card holder and believe me when I say this, it makes switching memory cards 1,000,000 times easier!  It’s made by ThinkTankphoto.com and my particular model holds 6 CF cards and a couple SD cards as well.  In the past, or as I like to call “When my life was filled with dozens of compact flash cards flinging around inside my ShootSac days”, all of my cards would be Lord only knows! Now I keep them safe and secure inside this little pouch.  It stays attached to my Shootsac and on me at all times throughout all weddings and portrait sessions. 

Speaking of bags! Santa brought me one of my most coveted bags of all (and no, it’s not a Louis! Sadly…maybe in a couple more Christmases!) He brought me a rolling gear bag! My bag is made my Lowepro, and yet another LIFE CHANGING BAG! I bring this baby with me on every portrait session now and I can’t wait to use it at wedding days this upcoming season.  It can hold ALL of my gear and then some.  When I’m on sessions, I bring this bag along and keep it in my car trunk just incase I may need something else out of it during the shoot.  Plus, it holds other must-haves like cleaning cloths for quick lens cleanings, a sensor duster if I ever need to dust out any of my lenses or camera bodies on location (not the BEST idea to do, but sometimes it’s necessary!) and also my card reader so I can quickly and easily receive payments from clients after their session. 

On an average portrait session, I usually only really need 2 lenses.  I’m in LOVE with my 35mm 1.4/L series lens from Canon.  It’s my baby, and when it was getting cleaned and repaired by Canon last week, my heart kinda sank y’all.  I use this lens about 60% on all portrait sessions.  I also have the Sigma 50 1.4 Art lens, or as I like to call-“The Homewrecker” Yes, it’s the lens I cheated on Canon with, but who could blame me.  It’s got better reviews and an overall better lens and it’s $1,000 less than the Canon version (cue Fresh Prince of Bel-Air “Phiiiiishhhhh” sound effect) Who wouldn’t go with that lens?! I love these lenses, and these babies are my work horses for Emma Loo.  If I’m doing a quick mini-session or something for the blog or personal work, it’s almost always with one of these two.  That’s why these two lenses are a MUST for portrait sessions! 

Portrait sessions require a model release and a publication release! I make sure to NEVER forget these (or else it makes more work for me later on!) These two releases make sure that the Client is aware that these images are owned and copyrighted by me and I can use these images for promotion and publication.  99.9% of the time, I never have an issue with this from any of my Clients, but I make sure that just incase I do…I’m covered. I bring along my Permission to Photograph release, a clip-board, and a pen for my Clients to sign at every session.  

Lastly, if I know I’ll be photographing small children, I will always bring along my lens sidekick, Mr. Frogz (with a Z, of course!) Before I even click the shutter if I’m photographing children, I make sure I get on their level first, talk with them and play with them.  Then I introduce them to “my friend” Mr. Frogz and then I awkwardly ribbit (sometimes they ribbit right along with me!) and that’s when I put Mr. Frogz on the end of my camera lens.  It gets the kids used to looking at the camera, and a lot of the time behind the camera I’m making more ribbit sounds and asking them to look at the “silly face” Mr. Frogz is making.  If it were me, I’d be scared to death of Mr. Frogz, but it was the only lens buddy they had available at the time I ordered! I keep saying to myself that I need to order a new one, but heck! If Mr. Frogz is working, why change it?! 

 

Thanks for reading y’all! Happy shooting & Happy Friday!

XO! -Emma Loo

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