Ashleigh Wells Photography | The Blog

I was so lucky to be able to photograph these GORGEOUS 10 month old twins! They have such beautiful hair it made me jealous haha! It always amazes me how babies get their personality at such an early age and these two were no exception to that. Despite the fact that they are twins they had quite different personalities and one of the boys was very serious and thoughtful while his brother was extremely outgoing and much more mobile. I love photographing babies when they are sitting up, but not yet walking and if you add two into the mix it is just double the FUN! Their parents quite clearly have their routine nailed down and handled all the “set” changes and clothing changes with ease. They even brought an iPad for the boys with a favourite app on it that makes them smile and clap as soon as they see it (something I may need to consider investing in for that purpose hahaha!). Thank you for coming in to see me!

I love seeing all of my Watch Me Grow Collection families come back so I can see how fast these little babies grow up! This little munchkin was no exception. I had such a hard time choosing between all of the hilarious expressions and poses he did during our session, I had to include most of them in his gallery. So much personality packed into such an adorable package! His brother and sister came along again (and were thankful that 6 month sessions go much quicker than newborn sessions do haha!). Any time this little man glimpsed his siblings he was FULL of smiles so it is obvious he adores his family as much as they do him.

This little bundle of joy and his family joined me in my studio a little over a week ago. He was so tiny and adorable and…AWAKE! Haha! I could not believe how hard he fought us to get him to sleep, but his mom really wanted some shots with him asleep and using some of my props so we persisted. This was officially my longest newborn session ever, but it was so worth it because he eventually caved and we got most of the shots we were hoping to! I was surprised at how well his big brother did at being patient with all of this and I have to say I am not sure I have ever met a big brother who was more instantly in love with his baby brother as this guy was. Even though the session went on for a long time, I really enjoyed spending time with this family for the day and taking photos of such a beautiful family!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I had a very busy weekend celebrating my dad’s 60th (happy birthday daddy-o!), photographing 10 month old twins and then an event to raise money for the SPCA taking Valentine’s themed photos by donation to the SPCA! I thought I’d share the Valentine’s doggies today in spirit of the holiday. The reason for the fundraiser was that the South Surrey SPCA had to close down a little while ago due to an outbreak of ringworm and while everyone is happy and healthy now, it was a huge strain on already limited resources. ADERA was kind enough to organize the event and also to match donations from the actual event, helping to raise nearly $800 for the SPCA! When Rachel Thexton contacted me from DUNN PR I was so excited to be a part of this project. She did such a fabulous job coordinating everything and before I knew it there was information going out through THE FRASER VALLEY PULSE and THE SOUTH SURREY BUZZ and word was getting around fast! I figured I’d better get some extra yummy treats to tempt the dogs in case there were a lot of them (and there were so it’s a good thing I did). My good friend and owner of DIG IT DELIGHTS came by and dropped off some treat samples on Saturday for me to use as bribes. I can tell you that as always they got the dogs drooling (even the picky ones or those on a gluten/wheat-free diet!). Sunday we started the shoots at 12 and it was a whirlwind of dogs until we left around 3pm. It was so much fun meeting so many awesome and adorable pups and seeing everyone have fun with the Valentine’s props and set. We got word that The Province wanted to run a story about it too during the day so I sent them a photo as soon as I was home to run in the paper the following day and it was so much fun to see my photo in the newspaper and the online story on their site HERE and there will also be a story in the Peace Arch News tomorrow I am looking forward to seeing!

WARNING: EXTREME CUTENESS AHEAD!!!!

Just for fun I had to include these outtakes as well hahaha!

This session was my first back after having been given the “all clear” to resume working with newborns. I was so excited to see this family again as their eldest daughter was one of my first sessions after officially launching my business. I love to see how families change and grow and this family is definitely no exception! Sometimes newborn sessions with an older sibling can be rough on everyone if a toddler decides they don’t want to be in photos that day, but this little girl was a DREAM to photograph (just as she was for her newborn photos!). Thank you all so much for coming back, it was an honour to photograph your gorgeous family again!

Here’s one from the very first session when “big sis” was just a newborn herself…

And here is an updated family portrait from this time around…

Smiles!

Every so often I get emails from people asking me questions about what equipment I use, how I learned and whether I have any advice for those starting out in the photography business. I try to respond to all of these requests when I can, but as a photographer still busy ironing out any kinks in my own business, as well as a mom of a 3 year old and wife of a wonderful husband there are only so many hours in the day.

I came across a frustrated post today in a forum from another photographer who was finding requests like this draining for her. Several others commented that they were feeling the same way and that when they would take the time to respond they often didn’t even receive so much as a “thank you” for the information they so kindly took time out of their lives to provide. Overall in my life, being positive even in a negative situation is something I strive to do. I laugh at myself. A lot. So while I never saw the lack of a simple thank you or appreciation for the time I have been taking to answer such questions, it really is something that should not take time from my business, family and current clients all of whom deserve my utmost attention and the majority of the time I have to give.

That being said, there are a great number of people who have helped me on my journey to starting my own business and succeeding in this industry. They took the time to mentor me, respond to my questions and provide me with guidance to have the best start possible. I would be remiss to not provide anyone asking me the equation with which I took my photography skills from something like this image:

What do you do with a nude newborn? Stick a flower over the offending bits and call it a day right? NO! This is NOT what you do and this is only a small part of what makes this a terrible baby photo of my poor, sweet daughter. She is also on a black background with no shadowing to create a sense of anything other than her floating in outer space. Further to that she is not in FOCUS and she is underexposed. Oh and no, she did not have jaundice, I just had no clue on how to properly white balance and achieve correct skin tones. Sad newborn photos for us and while I love them, I still wish we had hired a professional as well as enjoyed my early attempts at photography so that we’d have something from then we could hang on our wall.

And the method I used to learn enough to take my imagery to this level:

Just to prove my daughter does get nicer photos than that in her life here is one from last year in the spring. Guess what? I still see a lot wrong with this photo that most people not trained in photography would never notice. This kind of critical eye is what will keep you growing as an artist (It still feels weird to call myself an artist, but I am trying to own that role now. Maybe it will always feel strange).

Here’s a recent newborn that isn’t mine, but that is more similar to my first attempts with my daughter only done the “right” way, with a professional level of knowledge about lighting and posing of newborns.

Wow. Does it ever make me feel naked to show some of my worst and earliest attempts at photography! Now that that’s out of the way I am going to provide the information I give out to those asking for my help. You may be reading this because I have sent you to this link, which is my intention. This way I can still help those looking for assistance, but retain some moderate levels of sanity at the same time.

I would like to start by making a disclaimer that I do not know it all (stop laughing now) and I do not have nearly all the answers. I do not offer formal mentorship because I have not been running my business for long enough to feel comfortable taking people’s money for the knowledge I have gained. These tips and ideas are simply the formula that I followed and it’s what worked for me. There are many means to the same end, but…you probably are here because you asked so there you have it.

Firstly, I did not get into photography to make money. I have always had a love for photography and spent many high school hours in the darkroom at school and at the arts center. Your first love HAS to be photography as an art form to be successful. If you want to get into this to make some “quick money”, stop reading and investigate other career options. The costs to setting up a legitimate photography business the CORRECT and LEGAL way are great and to be perfectly honest I did not start to turn any profit until this past year (and it was modest at that). PHEW! Putting myself right out there again! Haha! The start up cost has to come from somewhere. Either a business loan, personal savings etc. I am fortunate enough to have had a very understanding husband and family who had faith in me from the beginning and trusted me to invest our personal savings responsibly. Most do not have enough in savings to do this and to be honest, neither did we. We put ourselves into debt and have spent the past year paying those debts off and we still are not done. Photography is not a quick fix for your money problems. <—period.

Now that we have that out of the way, I actually had plans to become a teacher before I became a full time photographer. I completed my bachelor’s degree BEFORE even considering starting my business and if you don’t already have a Plan B in place I would highly recommend having one as photography is not a “sure thing” by any means. Photography businesses fail daily in today’s economy and it is not an easy road to travel at the moment.

The first forum I discovered about photography was a place called I Love Photography (http://www.ilovephotography.com). There are a number of incredible people who were (and still are) a part of that forum who helped my skill level grow in leaps and bounds. I decided from early on there that I was not going to even start a business until I was accepted into something called PrePro. The main part of the forum is free, but business cannot be discussed on the free side so you have to submit 30 images and apply to be accepted to PrePro which is where you gain access to more information about the business side of photography. You are granted access to this section ONLY after your technical skills are proficient enough to be considering that option. Once I was accepted there, I started to read all of the information I could and used spreadsheets and recommendations to create a true business plan (1 year and 5 year plans). This was not a small undertaking. I also had to learn about Canadian tax rules, getting my name approved legally, getting my business license to that I wouldn’t be prematurely shut down and insurance so that both myself and my clients were covered in case of any kind of accident. These costs were not paid for by the money coming in because at that point I had not accepted a pretty red penny for my work and no money should ever exchange hands until these systems are in place.

I read all of the recommended books I could get my hands on. The very first one being my camera’s manual. No really. That was the first thing recommended to me. So I got some toothpicks to prop my eyelids open and read that darn thing cover to cover. Next up was a book called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. This book also requires the toothpicks so keep them handy, but it is slightly more tolerable. (Hmmm…this is starting to feel like school only there was no teacher pushing me to learn these things I had to keep myself motivated so that whole love of photography itself and not money thing was crucial through this part).

My next challenge was to figure out where it was I would hold sessions. We were living in a small apartment and could not afford to rent studio space so my whole family sacrificed for me to use our home as a studio at that time. I would kick out my husband and daughter for sessions, clean the whole place top to bottom, move ALL of our living room furniture out of the way and set up my studio lights and backdrops every single time I had a session. After a few months of this we had saved enough to move to our current house where I have a dedicated home studio in the basement (insert huge sigh of relief here). Even this is not the perfect solution, as I still kick my family out so that there isn’t noise causing distractions and I still need to clean my entire home before every session.

This is all starting to sound like a lot of work right? Yep. This was all only the basics of it. The other things I had to learn about included, business, law, accounting, lighting, education, how to earn degrees and a whole heap of other stuff I don’t even care to think about again right at this moment hahaha! So all in all if you want to do this for real as a business full time (and succeed at it) and if this is your passion you are going to have to be prepared from the start to put in about 80 hours or more per week. Seriously. I am not kidding. This is outside any of your other responsibilities. How?!?! You might be asking. I didn’t sleep much the past 3 years. No lie. I average 5 hours of sleep per night. It’s getting better now that I have systems in place, but it hasn’t been easy and my systems won’t work for everyone. These are the programs I use to keep myself sane so you can google them if you want more information: ShootQ (studio management software that will take you hours upon hours to set up, but will save you the same time in return once it’s all running), Lightroom (LEARN IT. LOVE IT. My opinion only and others may or may not feel the same). CREATING time for myself and my family where I am not working. This helps inspire me so while it feels like it’s time “off” it’s actually the best fuel for my personal growth and creativity. Finally WORKSHOPS. I go to conferences and workshops put on by photographers who bring something to the table I want to learn whether it is natural light, off camera flash or business skills. They have been through it all (I recommend choosing mentors wisely that have been in business for a good number of years so that you know their business practices stand the test of time), they are providing me with YEARS worth of time saving information for my money and it has been worth every penny I have spent, and more.

As far as equipment recommendations go, I don’t offer many of those as it is so individual and if you do all of the things I have suggested above you can ask on the forums what people may recommend for your specific situation and you will get more opinions than just mine that way. Your needs will be individual and I cannot give a universal recommendation that will fit everyone. I will tell you that I started my business with a Nikon D80. It really is not the equipment that creates the images I show on my site it is the hours upon hours I have spent reading and learning and attending workshops that allows me to create the images and provide my customers with the level of quality they expect of me. I could actually shoot with that camera again if I had to and while there would be some limitations, of course, much of the time I could create the same images I do now with it. One tip to save you time and money is to learn each and every piece of equipment you own before buying another one and understand WHY you need the next item on your list fully before you buy it. I dove into this headfirst so I did a lot of upgrades in a short amount of time, but I never bought a single item that I didn’t have a specific NEED for. Understand your needs and wants and allow for them in the budget section of your business plan.

If you read this far then good for you, I admire your stick with it attitude because this blog post is pretty bland really haha! Now go tackle that camera manual and I look forward to seeing you on the forums and watching you as you grow. Hopefully I can be of help to you along your journey, once you get these basics out of the way. The beauty of joining a forum where there are high standards for technical proficiency is that you will need to push yourself to be better all the time and more people than just myself can answer your questions. I don’t want to offend anyone or make you feel you can’t ask me further questions either, but please understand that I may not be able to reply personally to everyone and this is the very reason I recommend forums where if one person can’t help you, there are plenty of others ready and willing to help.

I am finally feeling up to getting some actual work done and am back at my editing desk working on completing sessions, backing up and archiving 2011 sessions, organizing my filing and all that other fun stuff that goes along with running a business. I have spent much of my afternoon today trying to tackle the disaster my inbox has become from being away at a workshop and coming home just before the holidays to then get sick just before I planned to get back to work! As you can imagine it is not a pretty sight, but I am plugging away and am happy to be back to doing what I love and feeling so much healthier. In the email cleanup I came across some emails about the event I will be attending for the second year (and it’s second year as well), Bellies To Babies. It was such a great event for it’s first year last year I cannot wait to see what this year will bring! It is an event that has a ton of information for new and seasoned moms alike and there are tons of great vendors there to check out and see and feel products in person! There are also lots of door prizes and there will be goody bags for the first 150 moms in attendance and admission is by donation to Canuck Place which is an amazing cause so come on by and visit me at my booth on April 28th at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown. Check out the details of the event by clicking HERE

I had this great post in mind for New Year’s Day and just as I started to sit down and get everything ready for it, I started feeling feverish. My husband is just getting over pneumonia as are a few of my friends and I knew that my symptoms were exactly the same. So we headed down to the hospital for an X-Ray and sure enough, I did have pneumonia, but it wasn’t very bad…yet. After 3 days of no improvement my fever stopped responding to Tylenol or Advil so I went back to the hospital for another X-Ray. The antibiotics I had been given weren’t working and now the pneumonia was pretty bad. So they put me on the strongest antibiotic they had and sent me home. Unfortunately I’ve been advised not to take on any sessions this month, but thankfully all of you have been so patient and understanding about all of this! In any case, now that I am able to sit upright I wanted to get on here and wish all of you a happy new year and give a big thank you to everyone for making my 2011 a wonderful and exciting year!

At the end of this year I was very busy. In part because September-December is known to be the busiest season for photographers, but also because I decided to throw two workshops in the mix over that time. Those of you reading this who are not photographers might wonder why I do workshops if I already have a growing and fairly successful business. The answer is not a simple one as I do workshops for a variety of reasons, but mostly I like to compete with myself. When I learn something new and nail it, I like to go out and get some new knowledge and try to “top” the last image I was happy with.

In October, my good friend and mentor, Andrea Joki of Ajaton Photography came out from Finland. This is my second private workshop with her and I learn a few new tricks every time. Andrea is a wealth of knowledge and you kind of have to see her more than once in order to just absorb all of the information she shares! We had such a great group of photographers here for this workshop that despite all the mishaps that are bound to happen during a workshop, everyone kept their sense of humour and we photographed everything come rain or come gale force winds hahaha! Here are some of the images from that workshop:

This was a lighting technique I really wanted to learn for a project I will be working on over the year and I am so happy that Andrea was able to show us how to light and process these images…the before and after’s are incredible for these (one day I’ll share one, but I want to share that in the context of my personal project later)

This location was calling to me…unfortunately it didn’t go entirely as planned, but we had a good time there and got some great images despite the fact that Andrea is going to kill me over this location (literally) *ducks and runs*

In December my husband and I headed off to Miami and then Bahamas. We were going to be attending one of Scott Robert Lim’s Bahamas workshop! I have never been to an international workshop before and I had been really excited about this one in particular. I did a workshop with Scott on Vancouver Island in the Spring and just learned SO much from it I had to have my husband come so that he could learn as well (he is starting to learn so he can assist with weddings and other business end parts of Ashleigh Wells Photography). We had a couple of wonderful, relaxing days in Miami and then headed out on a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas with the Scott Robert Lim gang. The workshop was incredible as usual and both myself and my husband came home with some new skills and more importantly some new friends! Here are a few images from that trip:

This one is taken in the conference room on the cruise ship. As you can imagine those are not particularly attractive surroundings, but Scott is all about working with what is there and boy did he ever teach us a lesson on how you really can use anything you are given if you’re creative and understand off camera flash!

Also in the cruise conference room!

This is what it looks like when we descend upon a location for a workshop haha!

My husband took this shot of me…here’s what I look like when I work on the beach…I want to do more of this haha!

And here is our new friend, Diem’s happy place haha!

Back on the ship I had no idea how to use this very tacky location we were in, but the amount of creativity everyone brought to the table to work with it was just incredible!

I am so happy to have Scott and Andrea as mentors in my life. I feel mentorship is a very important method of growth, especially in an industry that is changing so rapidly. It is important to have someone or a group of “someones” who have been there and done that. It has helped me jump light years ahead with my work to have mentors in my life so if any of you are reading this and are feeling stuck with your own photography business and/or imagery, find a mentor who’s style and/or business model you admire! Photography is an industry with a lot of newcomers due to the increasing affordability of DSLR cameras, but there are no traditional avenues of education that teach all of the beginners how to shoot CORRECTLY and how to run a business for the long term. If you choose a school program for photography, they are all based around fine art, but if you want a portrait business you are on your own unless you find mentors and attend workshops and conferences in order to understand the ins and outs of the industry. I have chosen a team of mentors based on different aspects I like in each of their work so don’t think you have to find someone who is “perfect” and exactly like you. As you can see the kind of images we were getting from Andrea’s workshop are very different from those we were getting from Scott’s. I personally chose Andrea as a natural light mentor because that is one of her strengths and she works in a similar environment to me. I chose Scott to help me with off camera flash, which is one of his strengths and BOTH mentors have taught and continue to teach me a great deal about running a successful business. Having a mentor doesn’t mean you come out of the process as a clone of the person mentoring you…quite the opposite! A mentor will help you to find the things that are important to you in your imagery and thus will help you determine your “signature style”. Once you have that, the sky is the limit.

Christmas is coming up very fast and with that I am wrapping up my 2011 year of sessions. (That’s not true, I have one more newborn to come on the 23rd, but after that I am done for the year). It has been a wonderful (and BUSY) year this year! I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings for Ashleigh Wells Photography! I have a few things up my sleeve for the coming year…

One thing that is going to be changing is my pricing. It won’t be a huge change, but it will go into effect on January 1st. If you are wanting to book a session in the spring or summer even it is a good idea to book before then so that you are locked into the current pricing. If you have purchased my Watch Me Grow Collection and have already started your sessions, you are already locked in so no need to worry about changes there. It really won’t be a massive change from what it is currently, but every year I learn a little more about what my clients needs are and I adjust accordingly to serve everyone to the best of my ability.

Other news: I will be away at a workshop starting TOMORROW! My husband and I are going together to learn, grow and vacation together as he is considering working with me on the business end of things and some shooting for weddings under my other business name (Perfect Blend Photography). I will have limited internet access (from the beach) and likely no phone access while I am away (sipping my cold drink on the veranda) so I will respond to any of you who need to reach me by email as soon as I can haha! We return on the 20th, but it usually takes a couple of days for me to catch up with everything I missed.

And finally, a big HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of you out there who have things to celebrate at this time of year. We celebrate Christmas in our house and even though we’re in a mad scramble to get out the door tomorrow (notice I am posting this at 1:30am haha!), I made time to get my annual photos of our daughter and our Christmas tree. This is something I have done every year since she was 1 (this year she is 3) and we do it in the same spot each time so we can see how she has changed so I wanted to share this year’s image with all of you on here. I am also going to try to send out my annual newsletter to any of you either while I am away or once we return home so keep an eye out for that in your email inbox!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who helped make this year so wonderful for me. I am so lucky to have met all of you and honoured that you trust me to create photographs I hope you treasure for a lifetime!