How a photo shoot in Tuscany gave me much more than beautiful pictures
cI want to tell you about the wonderful experience I had with a photo shoot in Tuscany, and how it gave me much more than just beautiful photographs.
I practice Linguistic Empathy and I expect you to do the same. Please bear with me if my English is not perfect. Read the original version here.
When I decided to have a photo shoot in Tuscany, where I was spending my summer, I had had two rather negative photographic experiences.
To be fair, the photos I got from my first shoot in Jakarta are very nice and I still use them. The photographer did what he could given the conditions of the photo studio he had chosen without being very familiar with the city yet. My perplexities concerned the processing and delivery of the photos.
The one I did in Geneva, on the other hand, went much worse. The place was idyllic, a beautiful park full of flowers and romantic spots, the photographer full of imagination, but she gave me the photos so scandalously late, that I no longer needed them. And luckily so, because they were full of technical defects and objectively unusable.
I am not obsessed with my image and I am a bit old school. That is, I am convinced that valuable content and spontaneous and empathic communication make more than a thousand photographs. But I like the images, and I am aware of the influence they have on readers and followers.
I then decided for a photo shoot in Tuscany, taking advantage of the fact that I could use my beloved little house there as a background.
I got the name of Sara Stefanini, of Immagie Fotografia, from a person I trust (contacts are everything, folks!), And I want to tell you why the experience has given me much more than just beautiful photographs.
First of all, Sara listened to me thoroughly during our first phone call. She didn’t apply any preconceived patterns, but gave me space to explain what I wanted and what I expected. Then she studied my presence online: she read my story, looked at my style and I imagine (even if she didn’t tell me) that she also had a look at the photos I had used so far.
Her fee was very affordable compared to the rates I was used to. I immediately felt welcomed because in giving me an affordable figure, Sara allowed me to go ahead with something I cared so much about, and that was also necessary for me.
Sara was faultless before, during and after the photo shoot. In everything she did, and in the way she did it, she proved to be a professional with a capital P.
She provided a study and preparation work on me, which left me speechless. In the two previous photo shoots I had been asked questions or told what to bring only the previous day, or, in one case the same day of the shoot. Sara made me work well beforehand. She asked me so many questions about myself, my tastes, what I wanted to communicate and how. She even made me search online for photos I liked, to give her a concrete idea of what I was expecting.
She therefore arrived at the appointment well prepared, because we had already discussed my expectations and my wishes before. But not only this! She also asked me to send her beforehand photos of the house, inside and outside, my clothes, and the objects I had and we could use for the photos.
On the day of the photo shooting she was with me from ten in the morning to eight in the evening, occasionally even apologizing if she made me “work” too much. With a calm and serenity that even my double chin and my cast expressions did not manage to shake, she worked tirelessly to portray me in the best possible way.
And the best it was, because the photos Sara sent me (many more than we had agreed) are beautiful and perfectly reflect what I want to convey to those who want to get closer to my story and my work. And they are technically perfect.
At the end of this experience I find myself with a series of photographs that I love and can use in many different ways, but above all with an important lesson. Sara showed me how it is perfectly possible to focus on the human aspect in your work, while remaining professional in the fullest sense of the term.