Here’s Julie Watts with the rest of her Self-Portrait adventures! Julie, you’re just so special. Thank you so much for sharing your personal wisdom with everyone. (If you missed part one, here it is.) And if you haven’t ever met her, she’s a gushing ball of enthusiastic love! Our SOAR! gals had a BLAST with you Julie!

I have found that a lot more goes into a client falling in LOVE with a portrait of themselves than the concrete stuff of shutter speed, shooting angle, light usage, and a pleasing hand placement!

In 2000, when I was a 24-yr-old mom with a baby on my hip and realized that with digital, I didn’t need a traditional darkroom like I had wanted since high school B&W photography class.  My I didn’t know ANY  of that stuff, and I was consistently told by my very first subjects that they LOVED the portraits I took of them. I was told by many people that I am the ONLY ONE that has ever taken a portrait of them that they liked. I know of two mothers-of-the-bride specifically who were CONVINCED I would not be able to take a portrait of them that they liked, while I was photographing their respective daughters’ weddings (wow the plural grammar in that last sentence was rough. Why couldn’t it have only been ONE mob I remember who was convinced of that? Lol)

Here’s the clincher. Does it actually MEAN that I’m the only one capable of taking a flattering portrait of these clients? No. Does it mean they actually don’t have other flattering pictures of them, at any age, and let’s be honest here, size? No. But what attributes my clients associate with my images I create especially for them has EVERYTHING to do with my business success.

What this means is, my clients’ experiences with me, LEAVE THEM WITH THE EMOTIONAL IMPRESSION that these things are 100% accurate. That I’m the ONLY one with a camera they know who can show them how beautiful they are capable of being captured….this may or may not be true, heck, it probably depends on the person, as we ALL know people that fall on every end of the spectrum when it comes to tolerating having their photo taken and LIKING it.( Where do you fall right now? You could doodle a picture right now of a how close you are to the “liking it” or “loathing it” end of having your photograph taken.)   Satisfying clients emotionally is a huge part of how I developed a large client base of thrilled clients who spread the word about me enthusiastically wherever they go…not to say that this doesn’t have it’s challenges–I  only became confident with technical aspects of photography YEARS later, after attending Me Ra’s Workshop).

It is what I feel could be my best strength in photography, that I am able to give my clients an experience in which they relax, laugh, trust, and I am allowed to capture beauty never saw, or they didn’t know they could still “exude” anymore (because so many of us compare our current physical appearances with how we looked YEARS ago. Do you ever do that? If you think about it, it’s totally unfair. Why would I compare my looks to before I had one child? Or two children? Before I had grey hairs growing (though I totally just starting dying my hair my original color, after a lot of thought, and even research! But that’s another blog post…), before ALL of our lives drastically changed you guys…

Remember 1995?

This was my post-BMX racing era, and we were both cute. But I remember getting mad at Brent for being late to my birthday, and so this isn’t a photograph I’d display in my house because my emotion overrides what is a good shot.

How different in your life was 2002?

How about 2005?

For the sake of brevity, let’s go to 2009…this was the year I discovered something awesome. My friend and fellow photographer, Walter Grio, could hold a camera up and aim it at me, and I didn’t mind. It was so FUN, for some reason. Walter put me at ease. We had laughed many times about how we don’t have all of the answers, make guesses, experiment, fall down and get back up…the bonding experience of our friendship had allowed me to believe that whatever I did in front of the camera, really WAS OK. I didn’t mind.  And once I relaxed, I did as my favorite clients do, and got into the flow and just started workin’ it lol.   And because of that he captured a picture of me I love.

The best part about my portrait by Walter Grio is that not only is it one of my all time favorites, it also happens  that I was at my heaviest (you know, since 1995, my frame of reference, lol).

This year, I’ve been doing TONS of self-portraits. This is one of my favorites. I am lucky to have a studio with a mirrored wall. Mine does not go all the way to the floor, and it works great, by the way. I love motion.

And yes, I’m even brave enough to keep some not so traditionally flattering pictures, including this one  aka “ugly pretty”:

I eventually got used to having my own portrait taken, taking my own, learning a lot about my own beauty and mood, in order to develop my natural sensitivity  to that in my clients. For me, it is my biggest strength.

Because I enjoy the self-portrait process now, it is easier to forget about other cameras, and let others show a side of you that may change the way you think of yourself in a good way. I LOVE this image Christy Pelland photographed of me during a highly stylized glam shoot benefiting her scholarship fund for senior girls pursuing careers in the arts, Stand Out Prom. This image is totally me engrained in my art, in my element. The images that came out of Christy & my cameras that day were edgy, vintage, surreal, strong. This looks to me like a photographer who can do that, and I love looking at it.

So I want to ask you to consider taking self-portraits of yourself. Remember, you can delete anything that doesn’t benefit your exploration. It only does you a favor, and lessens the frames between you and your next favorite self-portrait, and with your newly heightened awareness to what your client may be feeling, you will certainly begin to hear from your clients how that makes them feel.  I’ll leave you with my VERY favorite portrait of me right now, taken by the only person that makes me blush and giggle, my husband of 11 years, Brent (incidentally, who also started liking getting his picture taken recently after years of avoiding it—but that’s another blog post–lol).  Rock on! Julie

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Hear Julie and her enthusiastic self – she’s the featured guest on The Wisdom Connection‘s FREE teleclass, “Call of the Times: Passion and Purpose”! Wednesday, July 7th at 4pm PT. Karen and Fay have been the amazing business coaches for SOAR! with their words of wisdom, helping many to get their businesses started and flying. It’s a FREE call. And isn’t Julie just so REAL? Click here and you can register. Follow SOAR! winners Jennifer, Linda and Lindsay, their lessons and learnings, on the SOAR! blog.