Living My Passion - The HOW for the change in the way I do business... And what does this mean for YOU?

This is the second part of a series of posts that aim to explain the changes I have made in the way Suzanne Willson Photography operates. You can read all about WHY I have made changes to my business HERE, but today I want to tell you a little bit about HOW those changes look...

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In the previous post I discussed my process of discovering – or really just RE-DISCOVERING what was there all along – my passion for documenting the REAL and AUTHENTIC connections and interactions and RELATIONSHIPS between people – My desire to capture and eternalize the ordinary moments that reflect the EXTRAORDINARY beauty and LOVE within those relationships.

The realization of what my passions are naturally led to more questions about HOW do I live this? How does this passion FIT into photography? And what does this now mean for Suzanne Willson Photography?

It means several things…

 It means working with individuals and families within their OWN environment rather than a studio space or location that is foreign to them.

 It means creating sessions that are relaxed, comfortable, natural and genuinely reflect the life of that person or family.

It means finding ways to make the opportunity for beautiful, meaningful photographs available to EVERYONE!

As I have said before, there are so many ‘specialist’ areas that fall under the umbrella of photography – you can get an idea of just how many here – and I felt the need to ‘define’ my own personal style. In searching for a simple definition I realized that there wasn’t just ONE category that can completely describe what I intend to portray through my photography… but that my style does in fact fall into several categories and so I have decided to adopt a label used by the very talented and beautiful Jennifer over at Jellybean Pictures and call my style “Lifestyle Photojournalism”. I love this definition as it includes the two MAIN components of my work: LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY – a style of portrait/people photography which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner; and PHOTOJOURNALISM – creating images in order to tell a story. Basically LIFESTYLE PHOTOJOURNALISM can be summed up as being a style of people photography that captures images of real-life situations that tell a story…. Which is EXACTLY what I am passionate about doing!

So what does all this mean for YOU?

It means that the sessions I now offer are divided into two categories… FAMILY LIFE SESSIONS and LOCATION SESSIONS. And it also means that my pricing structure has changed to make sure that EVERY family is catered for.

 FAMILY LIFE SESSIONS celebrate YOUR life, in and around your own home, documenting the simple, routine, ‘ordinary’ moments that make your family EXTRAORDINARY. The sessions can last between 1 to 3 hours and during this time my presence is intended to be very low-key – the idea being that I am just a ‘fly on the wall’ capturing your family life in images that reflect the beauty and love within your home.

LOCATION SESSIONS are all about having fun, creating relaxed, candid moments that capture the unique personalities within a family. They will involve lots of play, climbing trees, jumping in puddles, exploring the location that YOU have chosen because of its special meaning to your family.

It is very unlikely that you will be asked to pose for a photo during either of these sessions. The intention is to capture images that reflect your family and tell YOUR story through photographs, so I will probably ask lots of questions about how you met? What were the kids like as babies? Who does what activities after school? Who are the ‘picky’ eaters in the family and what is it they love the most? How are the personalities within the family the same or different? All these things give me insight into what makes your family the EXTRAODINARY group of people that it is.

Making the OPPORTUNITY to create beautiful and MEANINGFUL photographs available to EVERYONE is the other half of living my passion. Photographs are not always something that can be made a priority by families due to the high costs, lack of knowledge or skills, or even perceptions of being ‘nothing special’ as a family or individual. I would like to see that change! And although I can’t change the world, I can change what I do within the world to make my own differences, however small they may be. There are quite a few things I have in the pipeline for HOW I intend to make a difference, including seasonal NEWSLETTERS and weekly BLOG POSTS with information and tips.

One of the first changes to be implemented is a new pricing structure that I believe offers incredible value as well as the chance for EVERY client to select something that fits their circumstances. This includes the opportunity to create a custom, individualized collection that perfectly suits your family needs as well as less expensive ‘Mini’ collections that can be taken advantage of at various times throughout the year.

If you would like to see the New Product Menu with all the details and prices of the available collections, please email me at info@suzannewillson.com.au and I will send you a copy.

I am so excited about all these changes and what they mean for us all and I am truly grateful that you are sharing the journey with me…

Because ordinary life and ordinary people truly are EXTRAORDINARY!!! 

Living My Passion - My WHY for a change in the way I do business...

I wanted to write a post about the changes I have made within my business, Why I have changed my packages and pricing, and also what this now means for all of you. I thought I could write it all in one post – HA! Ambitious expectations are just so natural to me!

Instead I have decided to break it down a bit… and today write about what fueled the changes in the first place. I will follow up over the coming weeks with more about how those changes will look for Suzanne Willson Photography and what it will all mean for you.

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Over the past few years I have explored a number of different options for my photography and the way to ‘run’ my business. There are so many specialty areas within the photography profession I tend to liken it to the medical profession with all it’s different specialist branches. There is also the ‘GP’ who is a bit of an all-rounder, and while important and versatile, not fully educated in any one particular sub-field of medicine.

While I see the benefits of being a ‘GP’ of photography, the downfall of such an approach is that it leaves the photographer scattered – good at many different types of photography, but not great at any… and certainly not passionate about all of them, if at all finding the time to be passionate about any!

And so, I have been on a quest to find the style of photography that I am PASSIONATE about…

First I felt that I needed to define passion. What IS it exactly? What are we talking about when we talk about being passionate?

The Oxford Dictionary defines passion as being “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something”. Wikipedia says that passion is a term “often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity…”, and the Urban Dictionary states that “It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind body and soul into something as is possible”.

Which led me to ask the question – Where in my life have I felt that before? Where have I felt passionate about a cause or activity? When have I put as much of myself into something as possible?

The obvious answer of course is my children! My family! But I needed to look deeper than that…

I was an Early Childhood Teacher for 15 years before the birth of my youngest child and for many of the earlier years of my career it was a ‘job’. The children and the families were wonderful to work with, but for me it lacked that spark that really makes you feel alive. Until I discovered the work and philosophy of Reggio Emilia, a town in Italy where children’s learning is valued and encouraged in a way I had never seen before. It embraces the natural world, the simplicity of nature and the connections and relationships between a community that made my heart just explode in a way I cannot even begin to explain.

THIS was what I was passionate about!!!!

I found that sharing this knowledge with colleagues, teaching and learning about it together, and implementing the philosophies and practices within the context of our own community (the community of the Early Childhood Settings where I worked) made me feel ALIVE. I was no longer just ‘observing’ what children ‘needed to learn’… I was telling stories about what they WERE learning. I was telling stories about their thinking processes, their relationships, their growth, their beauty, their competence and their inner unique being. I was doing something so valuable that I couldn’t be stopped. I got into a ‘zone’ and I literally LIVED my passion… it became a part of me. It was on my mind constantly. I walked, talked, ate and breathed it…. And I wanted EVERYONE to know about it so they could feel the same joy that I did.

Looking back at this experience – and feeling those emotions swell within me once again to the point I was in happy tears – made me realize that I already know what my passion is, and THIS is what I need to be sharing with people through my photography!

I want to share connections between people, tell visual stories of relationships and the interactions they have with each other… How they feed off each other’s energy, how they support and encourage each other, how they love each other. Everyone does these things differently. They look different in each family, each group of friends, and each environment. I want to capture this uniqueness in a way that is natural to each person and each family.

I want to capture the simplicity of life. The ordinary moments that make up a family’s routine. I want to capture these things for them because these ordinary moments change with time. They change with the growing up of children, the addition or loss of family members, even the seasons change routines… and within these ordinary moments there are so many things worth documenting through photographs.

There are many things I want to remember. The way my son sleeps with his special monkey curled under his arm, the way my older daughter takes care of her sister by brushing her hair for her, the look in my younger daughter’s eyes as we sit together and read a book – the look of connection and importance and pure innocent love.

Now many people might say, ‘I can just grab my iPhone and snap a quick shot of that and I don’t need to pay heaps of money to have photos!’ and I totally agree that these images have their place.  But I believe EVERY family should have the opportunity to document the love and connection and joy within their relationships and routines in a way that tells the story of their life, that captures the beauty and that looks beyond the surface and finds the EXTRAORDINARY within the ordinary. And sometimes it takes fresh eyes to be able to see what has been right there in front of us the whole time.

Because ordinary life and ordinary people truly are EXTRAORDINARY!!!

A special post... The changing attitudes on grieving for stillborn babies and neonatal deaths...

I came across this today and just had to share it...

I think of my own grandmother and Aunty who experienced the loss of their babies under these circumstances... My grandmother tells the story of how she didn't even know she had given birth to twins until several days later when a nurse 'slipped up' and mentioned that the boy had died... My Aunty that lost her baby was the other twin! And I was so blessed to have them BOTH there to see Mikaila after she was born, and my grandmother holding my hand through the birth!!!

Here is the link to the video... it is only a few minutes long and well worth watching... we have come so far in accepting grief and the loss of our infants. I am eternally grateful for the time I was able to spend with Mikaila, the photos I have of her, and the fact that I was able to give her a funeral...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-11/changing-attitudes-on-grieving-for-the-stillborn/5017970