A Baxter Gardens Anniversary Session
I am shooting at Baxter Gardens a TON this month, and lemme tell you, I’m not mad about it. This week was my first session there, and oh my word, it was gorgeous! Every year they do a little tweak to add in something different, and this year, they added a whole section of creeping phlox that will blow your mind.
This session was actually a model call! I had a mentee hire me for a technical tutorial of looking for light, posing, choosing a location, and coaching. So, I reached out to the AMP Bride group on Facebook asking if there was anyone who would model for us in exchange for a free session. Katelyn and Gooch won, and boy did they kill it! Plus, this just so happened to be around their second anniversary so it was perfectly timed.
One thing I’m asked by photographers sitting in on my sessions or second shooting for me at weddings is, “How in the world do you remember all those poses???“ When I was first asked this, I didn’t really have a great answer. I just remember them, I guess. Over the years, however, I’ve really tried to put into words my strategy behind my posing. It’s not completely there yet, but so far, I’ve realized I work in pillars. Then, I do variations inside of that pillar. The pillars are the following: chest to chest, hugging from behind, side by side, dancing, and walking. Then, within chest to chest, I move hands around, faces around, and belly buttons around (yup…belly buttons). In the hugging from behind, I move arms, faces, rotate them to face me and face 90 degrees from me, and move bodies (him hugging her and her hugging him). For side by side, I use variations of spacing them out differently, linking them differently (holding hands vs. looped through his elbow), moving their faces, having them square to me vs. overlapped. Dancing variations include the twirl, the roll, the slow dance, the fast dance, the hip bumping, and more! And walking has variations that include hand holding, elbow looping, drunk walking, three-legged race walking, her leading, him leading, coming at the camera, perpendicular to the camera, etc. On top of the variations in the pillars, I also move my feet to get different compositions of the same pose. Adding in foreground, getting close up, vertical vs. horizontal. This means one pose can generate 15 different images in a matter of minutes. So, there it is, my friends. My posing strategy. To all of my photographer friends out there who struggle with posing, write these pillars down in your phone or on paper, and review them right before you head into your session. Then, work one pose as many ways as you can before you dismiss it and move onto another one!
I’m a Knoxville Wedding Photographer that loves to travel…I shoot anywhere! Click here to contact me with any questions you have about pricing or booking! If you liked what you saw above, go ahead and follow me on Facebook or Instagram to see my daily updates of the latest sessions!
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