This summer has been one of the best summers of my life. Amazing clients, beautiful weddings, gorgeous weather. I’m happy that I get to shoot with amazing people every single day. Each session offers a new challenge, a new opportunity for creativity, and new personalities to capture. I have an awesome system that I use at every session to stay consistent and organized and honestly, keeps me sane. But generally during the session, there is usually a moment or two that really strikes me with real magic, something new and fresh that I capture on the back of my camera that reaffirms WHY I do this job and why its such a special job I’ve been called to do. This moment is usually encompassed by me jumping up and down and exclaiming… its hard to miss. :) I get excited and my clients get excited with me, BUT I never show them the back of my camera.

Yep. You read that right. I keep that viewing of that special moment to myself… no matter how amazing that moment is. I never show the back of my camera to clients and here are my reasons why:

Insecurities

My brides and groom are some of the most beautiful people I know. I see it instantly in them, but sometimes the desires to have beautiful, albeit perfect wedding pictures creates an expectation and level of stress around the outcome of the images I produce. I often ask my brides to detail any insecurities they have so that I can address them in posing and outfit recommendations, but without fail there is something that the bride or groom will look at first and miss the emotion or genuine smile that I work so hard to capture. So when in the middle of a session and that magic moment happens, if I do choose to show it to the couple on the back of my camera… 9 times out of 10, they use that peek at the back of the camera to check out their chin or arms and not the happy light and/or faces I see. From then on out, they are battling how they just perceived what I thought was an AMAZING picture and the rest of the session becomes a stressful performance rather than a fun hour long distraction from the stresses of wedding planning.

Trust

A huge component of hiring a professional wedding photographer is having a certain level of trust. All of my couples are trusting me with their precious memories and I strive to have the confidence that will elicit the ultimate bride-photographer trust. This is one of the main ways I get the relaxed, candid images I do, because they trust me and my portfolio. I’ll be honest, we usually laugh the entire session anyway, and my camera becomes fairly unnoticed. And I like that. If I showed the back of my camera to them every few minutes, then I’d just be bringing back to the fact their pictures were being taken and that is the exact opposite of what my intention is. My ultimate goal is for them to trust me and that is first communicated by my help in preparation of outfits, my portfolio and my organized workflow, so I know that I am creating an atmosphere that they can trust that the final edited images will be images they love!

Style

Our Kylee Ann Brides are girls who love pictures and also love the timeless editing style that Kylee Ann Photography is known for. As a photographer, I strive for perfectly exposed images in camera and refuse to depend on post processing for a technically perfect picture, BUT a huge part of our value is the style that is applied in the editing room. Because of our consistency in editing, our portfolio is incredibly cohesive and our colors are always bright and happy. We can always produce images that match our style, no matter the lighting situation. Showing the back of my camera mid-session would diminish the polishing effect that our editing style gives to our images. It would be kind of like showing my professor the rough draft of a paper and hoping for the reaction they would have felt had I shown them the final draft…. the images on the back of my camera aren’t finished and my brides aren’t completely trained to see photos the way I am… with the potential of the style edits.

Fast turn around time

My clients are spoiled with a fast turn around that is one of our trademark services and major perks. I know my clients are going to see their wedding pictures before their one week wedding anniversary so I’m not pressured to show them images on the day. They will get to see the perfect, amazing day in its entirety super soon when they are on their honeymoon, so I don’t want to rob that amazing stress free experience from them! This is also the same reason I never post “Back of Camera” images on my social media. My pictures are edited and returned so quickly, I don’t have to photograph my camera with my phone to get a “sneak peek” on social media. :)

But what if they ask to see?

If they ask me to see the back of camera, I usually make a joke of it and tell them “my masterpiece isn’t complete yet” or “Nope, its going to be a surprise.. just wait and see.” I never give in. They are welcome to use the mirror in the car for hair or outfit needs. I fix hair and outfit details quite often so they know they are in good hands. Honestly, no one really asks anymore so that helps!!

I know lots of photographers show the back of camera to their clients, and that is great if that matches how you want to serve your clients. Consider if showing images mid-session matches the atmosphere that you are trying to create. If it is, keep on keeping on! :)

Feel free to follow along on Instagram and come continue the conversation at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourphotogblog.