Coaching sessions allow me to meet so many awesome photographers from all over the place! In May, we had two coaching days with a total of 5 photographers. They came from Va Beach, the Northen Neck, IOWA and Northern Va! All of these women have different stories, different backgrounds and different experiences in the photography world but they share one thing in common… they want to grow their businesses. We chatted about dreams, discussed goals, cried over the tough parts of this job and then trespassed for some head shots. I’m super excited that the next coaching session will be at the NEW house and I won’t have to risk my life taking pictures on the side of the road! :) Anyway, I just loved meeting these 4 girls! Enjoy some of my favorites!

Everyone, meet Amanda Hedgepeth! Former KJ bride and the bubbliest photog you’ll ever meet! She just warms my heart whenever I’m around her! It seems like yesterday I was shooting a wedding in the dead of winter and this cute little blonde came up to me on the dancefloor and said “You’re totally shooting my wedding one day!”.  Well sure enough, I shot her wedding, watched her start her beautiful family & business and now I have had the chance to coach her!! So thankful for these relationships!!! Love ya girl! :) These two!! Oh they are cute as can be! The flew in ALL the way from IOWA!! Danielle and Jenny are best friends that work together in the photography world but are ready to break into something new and I couldn’t be more excited for them!! They have so much excitement building up for the future of their business and I can’t wait to see what happens! Ps. How cute are their dresses?!! Love them! Ow ow!!!!! Love it! Jenny I LOVE this one!!! Girl, I know you’re smile is your specialty but this model face is killer! I like this wide shot because you can see where we shoot!!

Awww, my cute little beach bride:)
Meet Pearl! Oh she’s adorable! She grew up in Hungary and I could listen to her accent all day long! She just recently moved from Charlotte, NA to Northern VA and I’m trying to convince her that even though the traffic is bad, Virginia is awesome!! :) She’s relaunching her photography business now that her kiddos are older and I’m super excited for her!! Ps. I LOVE her style too!! So classic! And don’t you love that her name is “Pearl”?! It suits her so well:) Meet Ashley!! We started off the day together and I learned that she is a momma to 3 kiddos! How do you people do it!? I’m so impressed that she was able to spend a day with us in Richmond and focus on JUST her business for a few hours! We talked about the amazing parts of this job and also the hard parts…. because lets be honest, we all have days when this isn’t easy.  I’m excited for Ashley because she has so much amazing-ness coming her way. I can just feel it!

joined forces and helped them out in whatever way we could.   After some planning phone calls, a few skype sessions and a quick trip to Winshape one weekend, the CONNECT Marriage retreat started to come to life! It was such a joy being a part of this. Not only did we love the chance to really get to know Zach and Jody but we also loved helping out with something that God had such a hand in. I mean really, WE can’t revive marriages or restore relationships… that’s beyond our control… we merely provided a place for couple’s to come and get away so that God could shape them into the couple he designed them to be. It was amazing to meet so many fabulous couples and to hear their stories!! It’s really impossible to write out everything that we loved about this whole experience but I’m going to try to list a few of my highlights!! I loved…..

1. Being a part of something that God totally blessed and had a hand in!

2. Getting a chance to get to know Jeff and Julia Woods! We have so much to learn from them and we’re grateful to add another incredible couple to our “We look up to them” list. :)

3. SMALL GROUP! We loved our small group so much that we decided to start a facebook group so that we can keep in touch! Seriously, we had the sweetest group of couples! They were so genuine and open and honest… I think I learned more from them than they learned from us!

4. All day ice cream access…. they have a Chickfila ice dream machine in the dining hall… bad for the love handles, great for sugar cravings:)

5. Being able to help Zach and Jody pull this thing off! It was an honor to be a part of the dreaming AND executing of this retreat and we love those two… or should I say “Three”:):)

6. I loved seeing Michael in his element. Michael was really the go-to guy for the retreat and I was able to relax and enjoy being an attendee! He loves this stuff and he’s so good at it!

7. Bike rides… we always love our Winshape bike rides… except for the part when a couple of us got stuck in mud… like REALLY stuck in mud. Not cool.

8. Our room! Gah!! Winshape is just gorgeous. We stayed in an amazing room that was so cozy and quaint!

Ok so enough of my ramblings, let me show you some instagrams from the retreat!! Enjoy!!

They travel in from ALL over and then once they get here, they are greeted by a bichpoo with WAY too much energy!  Bokeh boy loves coaching days because he knows he’ll get attention all day from SOMEONE!

Laura and Kristin and Kelsey and Kerri were two separate coaching days. Laura and Kristin are northern gals that work together on wedding days and then have portrait sessions on their own. Not only are they photographers, they are moms! It was so much fun to help them sit down and hash out how they can save time and still push there businesses forward while still having family time! They are best friends who met through some of the children’s activities and they just hit it off! …. And now they’re chasing dreams together and traveling to VA!

Kelsey and Kerri are two photographers from Canada and NY!! So cool… I have friends in Canada, nbd:) Both girls are shooting weddings and loving it! We chatted about how to move forward, gain a following, save time in post processing, simplify pricing, etc. etc. The list goes on and on! Loved getting to know these amazing women!! It was sad to only have a day with them!!

So for me, the BEST part about coaching sessions is AFTER the fact.  I LOVE getting emails 5-10 days after the session and hearing about ALL the these photogs have already accomplished! These women are on it!! I’m talking business name changes, new pricing guides, setting up branding consults with designers, trying out PASS, etc.  Really cool stuff!!  So proud of all they are already doing!! Here are a few favorites from these April coaching dates!!

Love Laura’s laugh! 

You two are so much fun!!  Beautiful!! That necklace and dress?! LOVE IT! Gorgeous!! Oh ok… so apparently I was working with models…..:) Favorites! So cute! Yay! 

I didn’t even realize this was something I did until I looked back through my albums and saw that they have ALL been rearranged! You’re probably thinking “Ok, with all that you could be doing, WHY are wasting time ARRANGING Facebook images?!”.  Well, I think it comes down to this. I LOVE design…. and visually, I NEVER want too many HEAVY or dark images clumped together and I also don’t want too many black and whites to be close together when people are viewing the album! I know, it’s embarrassing! But hey! My facebook albums look pretty good!!

So if you notice on these examples below, the B&W’s are separated evenly and the heavy/light images are separated evenly so that when you look at the overall album, it’s a beautiful, cohesive blend of the my BEST images from Josh and Amanda’s day!

Something else that I’m picky about is the amount of images in each album on facebook! I try to upload 16 images for engagements, 24 images for weddings and 8-12 images for anything else that I shoot. Why the strict numbers? Well, again, my OCD is kicking in! I want to feel organized and I also don’t want to share the entire blog post on Facebook because then my viewers would have no reason to visit the blog… and the blog is where you can really get to know me. So deep down, I my OCD tendencies actually stem from a marketing strategy!  You’ll noticed in this example that Natalie’s navy sweater images are spaced apart pretty evenly because those are heavier images.  By arranging them like this, it makes the whole engagement session look cohesive!! I know, you’re probably shaking your head and saying “Oh Katelyn…. this is just too much”. And I know it is… but I actually really enjoy it! ha! So there’s your random fact about Katelyn for the day… she’s weird and OCD! Well I’m off to CNU to teach a photography course so happy Thursday to you all and if you’re near me, enjoy the beautiful weather!!!! And ps. One last example…. see how the red barn shots are evenly spaced?! I’m telling you… I’m one picky girl!! If you didn’t see this last eshoot, you’ll have to check it out! Cherry Blossoms are my new favorite backdrop!!

and my movement triggered the automatic faucet and water started pouring all over my electrified curling iron!!! I quickly snatched the cord out of the wall and then realized that that would have been a horrible (and embarrassing) way to die!!  Luckily, no harm was done! After that minor fiasco, I met Michael at the car and we headed over to meet the Scobey’s to prep for the photog meetup that took place in Atlanta last night! Ashley and I met back at the P31 conference outside of Atlanta and I casually mentioned that I would be back around Atlanta for a wedding in the spring and she invited me to speak at their Smug group! Fun!

So that’s what we did! We spent yesterday morning visiting Samford with a sweet friend and then we drove back to Atlanta (see, gypsies I tell you!) to meet some of the SWEETEST photographers ever! We were greeted by such warm, welcoming faces in Atlanta last night and I feel so honored to have shared some time with these awesome people in our industry!! Here’s a mini group shot thanks to Brita Photography:):)

Have a great a great Tuesday everyone and get excited to see Josh and Amanda’s beautiful wedding tomorrow!! Here’s a little sneak peek!