As wedding photographers, we have all had those days. The bride and groom are beautiful, their apparel is beautiful but the areas to shoot in outside are LESS than appealing. OR better yet…we get everyone dressed and ready to go and only wind up having a solid 10 minutes alone with the bride and groom on wedding day to shoot an entire section of an albums worth of formals/bridals. Can we say PRESSURE!

When creative minds are put under pressure and not allowed the time to develop, fester, evolve….it becomes easy to go to the “safe shots”….boring, played out, prom pose kind of shots. Yall feel me so far? But the bride and groom hired you based on the images you portray in your portfolio….even if you had 3 HOURS to achieve those! So what do you have to do? YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT WORK. Somehow, someway you HAVE to get these shots…..enter FLO PO (Flow Posing, quickly nicknames to FLO PO by fellow United attendees ; P )

 

Katelyn James needs NO introduction on this blog…if you dont know her or follow her work….SHAME ON YOU! hehe Only kidding, well sort of. Katelyn was gracious enough to share her skills of posing her clients in natural, classy, and FLOWING ways without even having her clients move their feet or change spots more than twice. She filled an entire section of album with shots of her clients simply by giving the ‘flowing poses and directions in the exact spot they were in for the pose before….and yet…the pose/end shot…was completely different and still equally gorgeous! She is just brilliant with posing!

When you find good light on wedding day, put your clients in a spot, rock a pose or two….we can freeze up. TOTAL BRAIN FART situation happens. Our natural response is, ok lets move on….but in essence, you are leaving behind a PRIME location because you got flustered. Katelyn’s method is truly FLUSTER proof. Once you nail down the stance, the perfect area, leave their feet planted and rock the shots around that! If you have 10 minutes alone with them OR 3 hours alone with them, get in the practice of NEVER lowering your camera. Sure checking lighting here and there….but the minute you put that camera down, you just missed a classic, candid and beautiful moment that could have filled a TWO page spread in their album. Keep shooting. Find a pose your clients ROCK at and compliment the crap out them….praise them for that pose and put them in it again in a different location. This will cause them to relax and have a sense of “we’ve got this” come over them…then you just watch  the model face come out…the confidence boosts…its an awesome cycle to watch!

Katelyn NEVER stops talking to her clients and never stops praising them. She is direct with her directions. Instead of saying “move your arm down”, she says ” Ashley, please move your right arm dow and place your right hand on his waist.” Detailed, polite, effective and WAY more efficient than having to correct them all the time. If you mess up with a direction and they rock some other pose that is really perfect…SHOOT THAT! Ask them to repeat that….call it  “THEIR POSE” they LOVE when they have a “THEM” pose. I mean…don’t we all?

For more information on Flow Posing or anything else….I HIGHLY recommend a workshop or better yet, a coaching session with KJ! She is one of the most talented, kind hearted and spirited people I know in this industry and I hope we grow to be close friends and rent an RV together too someday (you will understand that reference if you follow her blog! )

Thank you Katelyn for an amazing class you let me sneak into…you rock…but as always….YOU KNOW THIS!

***Shooting in a sea of 20+ photographers fighting for that perfect angle and shot is no easy task, so bare with some of the angles people…you will see in some shots below just how many girls were loving this class! Also, HUGE thank you to Ashley and Jeremy for being our models!

This part of the class was the coolest part….she literally put them into 15 different poses out of the pose you see them in below. She had the base pose as Ashley linked around his arm and his hands in his pocket and she TOOK A MILLION photos in all of 2 minutes. We all were instructed to watch and not shoot….but Im so glad we didn’t because I got to see and learn more than I would have hidden behind the camera!

Our second and final location….5 steps away from the first!

One pose….two completely gorgeous and independent shots!

Not a pose….Ashley was just waiting around while Katelyn was talking about lenses and settings to us…but I loved that quite moment, so I shot it anyways! : P

This right here is why you don’t put your camera down….what a cute and special moment!

Love you KATELYN JAMES!

To Follow Katelyn, here is how:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katelynjamesphotography?fref=ts

Website:http://www.katelynjames.com/

Blog: http://katelynjamesblog.com/