The last several months have been all about how to look your very best, through tips on achieving a genuine smile... posing ... finding beautiful light... color choices... what to wear... camera angles... hair and makeup... pampering yourself... communicating your goals... now it's time for the final ingredient of your delicious new photos...

CONFIDENCE.

What's the most frequent comment my clients make?

"I HATE having my photo taken..."

This is a difficult frame of mind to adjust. Approaching your photo shoot with lack of confidence, discomfort, or just plain ole HATE for the process at hand, will 100% affect your final photographs. As we all know, how you feel impacts how you look. As adults, over time we loose confidence as our society (mostly through marketing) tells us to look a certain way. My hair is too frizzy, my legs are too chubby, my forehead-vein is too noticeable... we could all think we have a thousand things wrong with us, but guess what? You are the only one that notices. With confidence, all those little worries disappear.

There are a couple things you can do to boost your confidence:

PRACTICE

Practice makes perfect. You can practice posing by looking in the mirror, and trying some pose suggestions mentioned in Tip #1 - The SMILE & Head Positioning and Tip #2 - Body Positioning.

WARMING UP

Sometimes it's about warming up to the camera. Invite a friend to go on a photo adventure, and take photos of each other. Critique them and try to improve your portraits with each attempt. Working with another person would be ideal for warming up... but you could also default to taking some selfies. (The reason I wouldn't recommend selfies for warm up and/or practice is 1. the perspective is too close and 2. you need practice working with someone else looking at you through the lens.)

PHONE A FRIEND

Are you not sure what to wear to your photo shoot? Phone a friend! Ask for their advice, and have an in-home fashion show. Or, if you need something new, go on a shopping adventure together to hunt down your new piece for the upcoming shoot.

TRIAL RUN

Are you planning to do your hair or makeup different than your daily getup? Then do a trial run before photo day to make sure you really like this new or exaggerated look.

Often times, the most difficult subjects are the ones that are tense about photo day and/or they think they have their best angle figured out. Try to release your tension, trust your photographer, and love this moment. Having your picture made is a very special moment and you have a professional right in front of you to help you shine. TRUST THEM.

This reminds me of a statement I made in the 8th article in this series, "Prepare Your Body & Mind":

Give Yourself that LOVE Talk that you've needed FOR-like-EVER. ♥️

We are way too hard on ourselves just about ALL THE TIME. Watch this video for some rewire-your-brain-training:

You are AWESOME. You are INTELLIGENT. You are BRAVE. You are WONDERFUL.

My advice in this series ends simply with this...

LET IT GO.

Let GO of all pre-conceived discomfort of having your photos taken.

Photos should be fun and empowering.

Enjoy this moment now, so that you can look back on your photos with gratitude.