A Day At The Orthodontist - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

07/29/2008 10:51:15 AM · #1

Hey, guys...

Part of my cross-marketing scheme over the last few months has included making a deal with one of the fru-fru orthodontic offices in a rather nice area of town... The deal works like this: I provided nice plastic gift cards that offer a free mini-session and an 8X10 print for every kid who gets their braces off (headshots only). We agreed that someone at the orthodontist's office would do all of the scheduling (30 minutes per kid) and that we would fit them into one day every other month.

So, my first shooting day with them is this Thursday. As of yesterday, they have me booked from noon to 7pm (14 kids), but were asking if they could start earlier to fit a few more in.

I will be shooting in a fairly large office where I can set up a backdrop and a couple of lights. There is also a large window and a door which opens to a back patio and a lake.

So, my plan is to shoot like crazy for 15 minutes per kid, then I have 15 minutes to sell to mom..... but I need some ideas.

I need an order form (I'll work on that today), I also need to figure out how to best show mom the shots of their little darlings fast. I'm thinking portable DVD player will be faster than trying to shoot tethered?!?!?!!?! Yes? Also, I want to show each kid/mom atleast 10 images (so they feel compelled to buy the 9 that aren't free!), but with the limited space & time that might be easier said than done.

I'm also worried about the moms who will want to linger and/or interfere with my schedule - 30 minutes per kid is a tight schedule to keep.

Anyone near Fleming Island, Florida wanna be an assistant for a day? :D

I could use any ideas and prayers you guys can offer! lol

Lydia

Canon EOS-6D

07/29/2008 12:05:40 PM · #2

Sounds like a good plan! I hope it does well for you.

I can't offer any suggestions, though, not having any experience with that sort of thing.

It sounds like an assistant is what you need...

magenmarie

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

07/29/2008 12:36:55 PM · #3

Good luck Cindi!

I did something like this for corporate headshots. I allowed about 30 minutes for each client, and that included 15 minutes of shooting, and 15 minutes for them to decide which photo they wanted for their website. Let me just tell you that they were all extremely self critical, and took FOREVER to decide, and some actually wanted a "reshoot" for that same day. I hope that these mom's are better decision makers for their children than these grown adults were!!! My advice would be to have more than one "viewing device" for them, incase they take a long time to make decisions and start to overlap with each other. That way, more than one family can be deciding at one time.

Just my 2 cents since that was the major problem I had. Hope this helps! And Good LUCK!!

~Magen

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/29/2008 12:51:48 PM · #4

Wooohoo! I may have just found an assistant! I posted a similar thread on a pro photog site and a local pro just contacted me. She's free on Thursday and thinks it sounds like fun! HAHAHAHAAAAAA Now just gotta figure out the details.

Magen, I think I'll have the assistant help them with selections, that way if they go past alloted time, I can go ahead and start shooting the next kid. :D

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

07/29/2008 02:25:06 PM · #5

What a great idea, Cindi! My only suggestion would be to commandere a tank of nitrous oxide and have each kid take a hit from the tank just before they get in front of the camera. :)

Good luck and be sure to post what you can afterwards.

vxpra

Pentax K100D

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

07/29/2008 02:30:05 PM · #6

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

Maybe not such a good idea, it sounds like at this pace Cindi might be taking hits from the tank before her day is over.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/29/2008 02:34:27 PM · #7

Originally posted by vxpra:

Maybe not such a good idea, it sounds like at this pace Cindi might be taking hits from the tank before her day is over.

One for the kid, two for me. One for the kid, two for me.... :)

Would be cool to video tape a few sessions, Cindi. I'd love to watch. <--- this comment is not to be copied or used out of context.

07/29/2008 02:58:44 PM · #8

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

Originally posted by vxpra:
Maybe not such a good idea, it sounds like at this pace Cindi might be taking hits from the tank before her day is over.

One for the kid, two for me. One for the kid, two for me.... :)

Would be cool to video tape a few sessions, Cindi. I'd love to watch. <--- this comment is not to be copied or used out of context.

LOL Love the disclaimer. Tay will be with me and she is SOOOOOO into her mini video camera... maybe I can talk her into filming a bit for giggles. Oh, maybe she can set the camera on timelapse and just leave it running! That would be funny to watch, I'm sure!

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

07/31/2008 08:12:47 AM · #9

Well - here's the final plan. I'll leave here in half hour, shoot 'till I'm dead and be home in about 11 hours. 17 mini-sessions are booked now. I'm taking two assistants (one to handle sales and one to keep everyone in order) and might even have a 2nd shooter for a few hours (we'll confirm in a bit). Gonna be a looooong one, but fun, I hope.

Oh, and I decided on a blue mottled backdrop for look 1, the large window for look 2, then some full-body shots outside by the lake. With 2 or 3 poses at each location I should give the moms PLENTY to choose from. :D

rossbilly

Nikon D200

07/31/2008 09:14:43 AM · #10

Hope it goes well for you Cindi!!

magenmarie

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

07/31/2008 09:16:09 AM · #11

Good luck Cindi!!!

Olympus 7-14mm f/4.0 Zuiko Digital Zoom

07/31/2008 11:38:40 PM · #12

I'm so beat. We had a studio assistant, a sales person, and a 2nd shooter... and me..... and on again / off again rain all day. 10 appointments showed. 10 portrait sessions in a day. Since we did have several no-shows and enough people, we gave each kid a full 30 mins shooting time.... then 30 minutes sales time for mom while we shot the next kid. What a crazy day. I didn't eat a bite, ran all day, repeated the same lame jokes again and again to get natural smiles.... :D

Taylor took her video camera and was working on editing before she went to bed. I've only just finished back-ups so will begin sorting & processing in the morning and I'll let Taylor put my favorite ones in her video. I'll share when they're ready, hopefully in the morning, since I have 2 clients scheduled tomorrow afternoon. lol

Gotta say, this, the first of my now bi-monthly marathon sessions was much more challenging than I'd predicted. While I ran my ass off.... it was still fun and sooo worth it.

one2one

Olympus E-5

07/31/2008 11:47:39 PM · #13

Great attitude Cindi. Glad you made it through and maybe learned something in the process. :-)

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6G ED

08/01/2008 02:09:50 PM · #14

I know you've all been waiting.... so here's the video of our crazy day. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMVfMVi3SpM :D

magenmarie

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

08/01/2008 02:20:50 PM · #15

AWESOME! Looks like it went perfectly!

Prof_Fate

08/01/2008 03:01:46 PM · #16

Sorry I missed this earlier..
walmart studio shoots for 15 minutes (7 to 15 poses) and sells for 45 minutes. Just to give you a benchmark
On things I've done like this I take two people - one to shoot and one to sell. The way we do it is this: I have an Eye-Fi card in my camera using a Jobo adapter, we have a wireless router to make the network run, and the salesman has a laptop and a 19" wide LCD that faces the clients. I shoot RAW+small JPG. The eyefi only transmits JPG files and they all go to the same directory on his machine.
He uses ProSelect for sales - it's what we use in the studio and it's a great program. He saves each sale as it's own album -that way the image and crop are both saved for us to work with later.

I hope you made a ton of money - quite a cool idea!

gwe21

Nikon D300

08/01/2008 03:38:19 PM · #17

Cindi what lens were you shooting with?

The video is cool, looks like a crazy fun time!!