menuclose

Category Archives: For photographers

My “team”

 

Three years ago I was swamped.  It was September and I was booking new wedding clients, photography that year’s wedding clients and filling my weeks and extra weekends with family sessions.  I was constantly tired, staying up until the wee hours of the night and feeling done.  There was little interaction on my social pages and I was giving my family all the leftovers of myself.

I know something had to give, but I wasn’t sure what it was or how to even let certain things go.  For the past decade I had been the one running and managing everything.  Aside from my second shooters and accountant, I had hired no one else to help me… and as the business continued to grow, I could not keep up with it!

Enter in Anne.

I met her sister at a women’s retreat, and after discussing where I was at in business, she made the suggestion of looking into hiring an editor, and she knew one personally.  Little did I know that our kids had been in the same class together and that we had actually met.  After chatting with her on the phone, and lessening my grip on the editing side, we spent the first part of the year figuring out how to match my style to her editing, and in May, she took over my editing.  She is amazing at what she does and works closely with me to make sure I am full satisfied with what she does and makes the photos look incredible.  I am SO, SO thankful for her, especially in these busy seasons! If you are looking for an editor, check her out HERE.

This year I knew I wanted to grow the business even more, and after chatting with a few friends in the industry, realized that one other aspect of my business I wanted to work on was my social media presence.  Now I don’t know about you, but I love social media.  I love interacting and connecting with people, I love looking at all the pretty things on Instagram and engaging with other vendors in my industry, but after a summer with my kiddos, it was not as easy to be as engaged.  I realized this was slipping and also realized I didn’t like the analytics as much as I thought I did and needed hep.

In walks Susan.

Susan has taken over this aspect of my business.  She knows all the analytics, knows my audience, and posts at the appropriate times of my clients. Genius I say.  I still provide the content for all my social pages, but she posts, tags, connects, and does the behind the scenes in my social media platforms.  I love it.  She is yet another valuable resource for my business as it moves forward.  I love it!  If you are looking for a social media manager, I would highly recommend looking into her business!  See her site HERE!

Both of these women have been wonderful for the growth in my business as well as keeping my sanity.  Anytime you start a business it is hard handing parts over to other people.  I totally get it, but I would highly recommend (if you can) hiring out other people to help you move your business forward!

Comment

Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

    Before and After using Mastin Presets

    I LOVE Mastin Presets for Lightroom.  When I edit my photos, these are the presets I typically use for making my photos look a bit more creamy and film like, and I would highly recommend them.  Today I’m sharing with a quick tutorial on how I do a quick edit using these amazing presets.  If you are interested in purchasing Mastin Presets, head on over to their link to check them out!

     

    Mastin presets from Karen Feder on Vimeo.

    Comment

    Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

      How to prep for your wedding:: Questions to ask your photographer

      It has been such a great week sharing information on how to get ready for your wedding.  Although there are SO many sites to gather information, I’m thankful if you have taken the time to read over the last few posts.

      Today I want to address a few questions that I would LOVE to have asked that many of the wedding blogs miss. Although these are great questions… “What is your style, how would you define your work, how many years have you been in photography,” there are other questions that I know a lot of brides ask later in the process that are often forgotten in the initial meeting.

      So here are a few questions you might want to add to your list as you are meeting with photographers to photograph your big day.

      What is your favorite thing to photograph?

      What makes you love photographing weddings?

      You see a lot of weddings. What is the one that stands out the most and why?

      After the wedding happens will we see an Instagram post? Blog post? Facebook preview?  How long after will this happen?

      What is the back process to the wedding day (post processing)? How long will it take to see our gallery, get our prints or our album?

      How do you feel about family members photographing during the wedding day?

      I really love the natural expressions on couples faces.  How does that happen and what do you do to make that happen?

      Do you have a team of people helping you on the wedding day or after?

      What happens if you get sick or are unable to photograph our day for us?

      Will you be the one photographing our wedding?

      If you have a second shooter, how long have you been working together?

      Can I share photos with the vendors I am working with, or will you do that?

      There are some family situations you should know about, how do you handle these situations?

      Is there an engagement session with our package?  How is this helpful for our wedding day?

      Hope that adds to your planning process!

       

       

       

      Comment

      Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

        How to prep for your wedding:: Family Shot List

        Going further with prepping for your wedding, today I thought I would bring out my family shot list that through the years many couples have thanked me for.  Typically I will send this to my couples before their wedding day, along with a few other pieces of “homework” to get an idea of what group shot they are interested in as well as see how fast we can fly through these photos. Generally these are the photos that can take longer if you aren’t prepared. But if you are, it can make your day go oh-so-much faster!!

        If you have been shooting for a while, you might have a system that you use when photographing families.  I typically like to start with the largest group possible and then take away and always end with grandparents because in some cases they can be immobile and not want to wait long.

        If you looked at my post from yesterday, you can see that I typically do family shots later in the day starting with the brides’s side (so the mother of the bride can take care of any last minute details and still have time before guests arrive) and then move into the groom’s side.  If there are divorced parents that really don’t not care to see one another, I usually split them up between the other family or go every other if need be, but most of the time, I have found that most parents are cordial with one another and are there to support their children on their wedding day.

        I will say this list HAS helped in making sure I know when family members are not together anymore so I am not caught doing couple photos when they are no longer a couple! (Let’s just say I learned the hard way with that one….picture ex’s together and me asking them to kiss….Hand to head here and an uncomfortable moment!!)

        I would also advise memorizing parents names. This can help tremendously and get your process going even faster!  After photographing so many different weddings over the years, below are the groupings that are most wanted on the wedding day. Hope this helps as you plan or photograph your next wedding!

        Groom::

        Groom and extended Family
        Groom and immediate family
        Groom and siblings
        Groom and Mom
        Groom and Dad
        Groom and grandparents
        Groom’s parents

        Bride::

        Bride and extended family
        Bride and immediate family
        Bride and siblings
        Bride and Mom
        Bride and Dad
        Bride and grandparents
        Bride’s Parents

        Bride and Groom::

        B&G with Bride’s Family
        B&G with Groom’s Family
        B&G with Grandparents
        B&G with all extended family
        B&G with siblings

        Comment

        Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

          How to prep for your wedding:: Timeline

          There are so many times I meet with brides and grooms and many of them want help in setting up the time line of their day. Because photos are such an huge part of the day and something that most everyone is participating in, I like to give brides and grooms a general idea of how a day might look when we first sit down with one another.  So here is a quick break down of how a wedding time line might look based on a 10 hour time line!

          First, start with your ceremony time.  Let’s say it’s a 4pm wedding and you plan to do a first look and most of your photos before the ceremony.  I like to say go back 3 hours from that as your start time.  This might seem like a lot of time, especially to grooms, but it’s not really that much time when you break things down.  Back up 3 hours to when you starting your getting ready process. This includes  getting in your dress, groom and groomsmen in their tux’s and bridesmaids helping.   Thirty minutes is generally a good time for most chunks of time.  So then you have 2.5 hours to work with before your ceremony. Typically planners want the couplecsnd families in hiding 30 minutes before your ceremony, so this really only gives you 2 hours of time for all your photos.

          Let’s break this down even more with an actual time line of getting ready photos and group shots::

          1:00 Bride and Groom Getting ready photos (this is the part where you are finished with all your hair and make up and get into your dress!!)
          1:30 First Look of Bride and Groom
          2:00 Wedding Party joins Bride and Groom
          2:30 Bride’s Family Photos
          3:00 Groom’s family Photos
          3:30 Getting Ready/ Prep for Ceremony
          4:00 Ceremony

          See how fast the three hours goes?!  Now, depending on how long your ceremony is, you can add 30 to 60 minutes to that chunk of time and then from there, you can add in more time based on what you’d like to do after your ceremony.

          Many of my couples choose to get in transportation and go somewhere in and around the city.  If this were the case, we would add in the hours to look something like this:

          4:00-5:00 Ceremony
          5:00 Exit (Dismiss by rows, Receiving line, or greeting guests at ceremony, which would mean walking straight out and getting in transportation!)
          5:30 City photos or off site photos with couple and wedding party (Cocktail hour may be going on for guests at this time)
          6:30 Couple arrives at Reception venue with wedding party, photos on site or just heading in
          6:45 Couple announced/ Dinner served

          Typically most DJ’s have told me that it is about 1.5 hours that it takes for dinner to be served, so most of the time couples choose to cut their cake during this time as well as do toasts. If you have a band, you are pretty much able to depict a sooner start time, but this is not my area of expertise, so I would highly advise talking to your DJ or Band or your planner to see what they would advise.

          From there come first dances, which usually take 15-20 minutes to complete which would look something like:

          6:45 Couple announced/ Dinner served
          8:15 First dances to start
          8:40 Official Dance to start
          10:45 Exit (if wanted)
          11:00 Contract ends

          That is what a typical 10 hour time line might look like. Much can be moved around depending on what you are wanting and needing for your day!

          This is just a very general time line of how your day might look.  There are so many variables, so feel free to drop me a line if you have questions.  I am so happy to help! Also I do have a PDF that is available below, feel free to use it as another tool to help!

          Comment

          Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

            Happy Easter!! He has risen indeed!!
            Brands

            Seniors
            weddings

            portraits
            FK

            Minneapolis Wedding and portrait photographer for the Modern & timeless

             

            Based in the Twin Cities area and available for travel worldwide.

            Get in touch with Karen for any questions.

            Submit

            Form submitted successfully, thank you.Error submitting form, please try again.