Come & Follow @maas_creative

Since I’ve been working with @reinaandco on how to find my dream client, there have been a lot of ‘Oh’ and ‘Ah’ moments when it clicked and I had to dig in and find my answer in regards to my own business. It has been quite an interesting learning experience since she makes you think about your business and the clients you’d like to attract with multiple different exercises. Those exercises open some spaces that, without this program, I would have never thought about. But one thing she made me think about was my handle on Instagram. Since I changed my business name late last year from ‘Designed & Shot by Elena’ (rolls easily off the tongue, doesn’t it *eye roll*) to just MAAS, I now also had to think about what to call myself on my social media channels which was just shot_by_elena. 

I started my accounts a while back when I was gung ho on leaving my designer career behind and solely focusing on photography. As life would have it though, an amazing design opportunity knocked on my door and as much as that opportunity scared the living hell out of me, I said YES. I love what I do and since then the ball has been rolling and more and more clients have been added to my roster. 

So, I now also had to think about a new IG handle. Let’s move away from the whole ‘shot by’ thing and move into a more professional direction. The result is

@maas_creative

New IG handle!!!

I’ve been known to be a bit of a click bait whore and I have looked and googled a bunch of different programs that will help you with your own business, mentor you, support you, provide the right help for you, but none of those programs have been as intense as Reina’s. So, even though I have fallen just a tad off the wagon over the past few weeks since I’m transitioning to a new job while also working on my little side hustle, I will take time this weekend to catch up and dig in. It has started to make me think about my own business in a completely different way. But the name change for some reason was a biggie and it feels good to have something less cutesy and a little more adult-y. 

So, for that little kick in the butt, thank you Reina. And the one or two of you who might be reading this, please come and follow me @maas_creative. 

Showing face?

So, never really having thought about not showing faces in photos but rather take pictures from different angles to where you can’t see a face has only become more of a thing for me since I have a little niece. I started taking pictures of her when she was first born and I remember thinking ‘Do I really want to show her face or would I rather keep it hidden and not reveal what she looks like?’ (she is the cutest and most perfect little thing, but that’s beside the point). I then proceeded to think ‘Oh what’s the big deal, everyone is doing it’, but then thankfully my sister mentioned that she would like to not show her little girl’s face all over the web. I respect that  and I think that’s how I might be with my own children as well (but I can’t really say that for certain just yet). I have also been noticing more and more that some of my friends who are new parents do not show their children’s faces online. 

Now I’m guessing this is for all of my photographer friends out there. Have you had families ask you to not post pictures of their kids’ faces? If so, how do you go about it? I, personally, am a huge fan of detail shots such as the little fingers, feet, or just the fresh, golden locks of a little one. 

But I’d love to hear from you and also from parents who have decided to keep their child’s identity private. Have you tried to keep it private and in a weak moment posted a picture of your cute, funny kid which opened the flood gates?

Aren’t headshots awkward?

When photography first became an interest of mine, I had absolutely no desire to ever take pictures of people. Telling people what to do in front of the camera, where to put their hands, how to hold their head (in order for the double chin wouldn’t show; it’s a bit of an awkward head tilt), and not to stand so awkwardly, was simply not for me. 

Fast forward a few years, which I spent sitting in pastures, driving to horse shows, snapping away whenever I saw dogs or cats, I was finally hired as a photographer for a daughter and her horse. Or so I thought… Date and time set for a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I park in front of the barn and a big SUV rolls up. All four doors open and I’m all of the sudden faced with having to do a family shoot that I had not at all prepared for. Mom, Dad, three daughters with three horses, and the family dog.

Holy moly… I better get very comfortable very quickly with telling people what to do in front of the camera. It ended up being an okay shoot but it could have gone so much better if I had asked for more information, expectations, etc. BUT this shoot also taught me to just go with the flow and I was forced to gain a new experience by telling people where to stand, what to do with their arms and hands and where to look.

In 2015 I made an awful move into a new job which I thought would catapult me further ahead in my career but it ended up being a complete downfall… Towards the end of the life of that company, all employees (including me) were faced with having to find new jobs. Some people had been at that place for 10+ years and had never updated their LinkedIn profile nor resumes. So, I decided to offer my services and take peoples’ headshots. I fell in love with it which lead me to start some research about what to tell people and how to nicely tell them ‘don’t do this, do that instead’ kind of thing. Annie Leibovitz said to start at home where you can nag people who already like you to be in front of your camera. That’s what I did. 

A position at the American Cancer Society opened up for a Graphic Designer and in order to negotiate salary, I simply threw in that I do photography as well. BOOM… Landed another job. Today I’m the person who gets an email when someone needs an updated headshot and I remember being on cloud 9 after a 15-minute session with two of the researchers. Two beautiful and smart women who told me for articles they will need a smiling and an additional more serious shot. I was on cloud 9… The pictures came out beautifully and I added them to my website. If I could just take head shots of people today, all day long, I would do so. 

Participating in a workshop about how to work towards becoming your own boss, I met Charlene. Charlene teaches these types of workshops and she was interested in adding some photography to it. She asked me what I thought about it and I mentioned that when you first start your own business and you have to sell yourself to potential new clients, you need a good headshot. She was on board. That Wednesday night, I packed my gear and headed to Charlene’s workshop where i was able to capture a large group of smart, ambitious, and beautiful women.

You can find some of the headshots I took at the workshop right here.

So, if you need an updated headshot or are just in the mood for a little shoot, just click right here and let me know how many family members will be part of it ;). 

My Second Blog Post: The Learning Stage (one of many)

Starting as a graphic design student at a community college in New Jersey, I very quickly found that stock photography can get very expensive. ‘Well,’ I thought,’ it can’t be THAT hard to take some pictures and use them for projects’. I invested in a digital camera and soon found my passion for photography. Animals were the easiest (and also the most beautiful) models and since I was a very active equestrian at the time, I took advantage of the beautiful and magnificent creatures at the barn.

Just sitting in the pasture for hours was not even that terrible. Out came some nice and some not so nice shots, but you don’t learn unless you do. So I kept on going and after about two years, I invested, after a lot of convincing from my now husband, in my first DSLR camera. Now, I had to figure out shutter speed, ISO, aperture, different lenses, and whatnot. It was a little overwhelming at first but, as often, the internet makes everything easy. I googled, read blogs, found tutorials, watched videos, etc. Through my old job, I was able to go to Scott Kelby’s Photoshop World workshop (thanks to one of my best friends @bigjoeski) and it just catapulted my passion for photography to new heights. If you ever get a chance to go to one of those workshops, DO IT!!!!

Always wanting to get better at photographing people, I would bring my camera to random events, birthdays, and farms. I slowly became more and more comfortable taking pictures of people. Pinterest was great for inspiration and I was also able to find some advice on how to tell people what to do and how to awkwardly hold their head in front of the camera in order to show their best side (in German, we say it’s our chocolate side ;) ). 

Today, I love taking head shots of people. If I could just do that all day, that would be great. Hopefully, I’ll get there one day. Until then, let’s just keep on blogging. :)

My First Blog Post: The Awkward Stage

So… having been at a stage in my life where I feel I have to decide whether to keep rolling with corporate America or just dive in and really focus on my own business, I have submitted my email to so many different business advice sites, I can’t even count it anymore. 

But there is this one that I stumbled upon in my email account. Having had not such a great day, I thought I’d give it a try. Her name is Jenni Maroney (hey  @jennimaroney, here the first post I promised to tag you in ;) ) and she had some great input regarding websites. How bots scan websites and how you can get to be the #1 on the Google list when people are searching for photographers. My web knowledge is limited, but I do know how to figure a few things out here and there. I followed some of her steps while listening to her, and edited some of the meta data and whatnot on my website. One of the first things though, Jenni talked about, was BLOGGING… oh gggaaawwwddddd. I gave blogging a chance a few years back, but did not think or expect people to be interested in reading what I have to say. 

Now, feeling that I have reached this aforementioned weird phase in my life, I have to decide to go left or right. Since I don’t want to always be in the situation where I have to ask an employer for permission to take time off in order to spend a few days with my family in Germany, I have made the decision to give this blogging thing another chance, give those bots something to scan, and boost my website which will hopefully help in bringing in a little more business on the side. 

Be prepared to see and read a little more right here and hopefully you’ll enjoy it. If you have been where I’m at right now, please share some advice. Thank you kindly in advance. :)