Top Ten Mistakes I Have Made as a Photographer (so that you can avoid them!)
As I teach my middle school students every year, mistakes are good…they help you learn! And like I tell my own children, LISTEN TO WISDOM—It’s easier to learn from other people’s mistakes than making them yourself. So here are a few words of wisdom about mistakes I have made as a photographer so that you can keep from repeating them!
No babies were harmed in the making of this photo...it is one of my faves from a cake smash I did last year of sweet little Hank! His momma was close by and caught him right after this photo was snapped!
Always keep your keys safe. I had a day of mini-sessions scheduled at a Christmas tree farm a few years back, and I got to the location, separated my car key from my keyring, and threw my keyring back into the car. I got out of my car, locked the door (because that’s my habit), and then realized I had thrown the KEY back in instead of the keyring and had locked myself out of my car—with all my gear inside! I ended up deciding that breaking the window of my car was less trouble than having to wait on AAA or make my clients, many who had to drive 45 minutes to an hour to get to the location, reschedule their session. My car insurance was SO understanding…apparently I am not the only dummy who has had to break into their own car! And now I always make sure I have my keys in hand before locking the doors.
Always know where your phone is (and make sure it is fully charged and muted)! One time while shooting a wedding, as the bride walked down the aisle, my butt started talking to me! I had stuck my phone in my back pocket and apparently butt-dialed one of my coworkers! Thankfully the volume was so low that only I heard it, but still…it would have been so embarrassing if I had disrupted the wedding! Another time, I was riding around in the mountains and using my phone quite a bit for navigating between sessions. Because it was working so hard to keep a signal, it died quickly—and I didn’t have my charger! Thank goodness I had my old-school GPS device so that I could still find my way!
Mute your Apple Watch. Mute your phone, but if you have an Apple Watch, mute that, too! I once shot a wedding in early January, right after I had gotten an Apple Watch for Christmas. It kept making noises, and I didn’t know how to mute it or turn it off, so I had to bury it in my camera bag to muffle any noises it might make.
Keep memory cards in a pouch, not your pocket. At one of my first family sessions years ago, I wandered around a client’s yard taking photos of their kids climbing trees, swinging, and just being kids. When I switched memory cards midway through the session, I put the filled one in my back pocket. When I got home, I realized it had fallen out of my pocket and was missing! It was almost dark, so I drove right back to their house and wandered around in the yard with one of their boys for about 10 minutes, retracing my steps, and thankfully, found it! But then I went home and immediately ordered a memory card wallet so that would never happen again.
Ask your clients about their dogs. I am not afraid of animals and pets are always welcome at my family sessions. When I arrived at a family’s home one afternoon, I got out of my car and began walking to their front door, and their dog came around the corner. He seemed friendly enough and was wagging his tail, so I said hello and moved toward the front door. That was when he attacked and bit me on the back of both legs! Everything turned out ok, and I don’t blame the family at all—they didn’t realize he was out, and he was just protecting his home from a stranger. But since then, I always ask about animals before arriving at a family’s home to make sure that doesn’t happen again!
Make sure you bring your batteries and their chargers. I showed up to a wedding once and realized I had left my chargers and extra batteries still plugged into the wall in my office. Thankfully it was a very local wedding and my husband was able to bring them to me, but that is now the first thing I check for when I pack up my gear!
Make sure the venue is open/available. I had an engagement session scheduled at a nearby park, and just before the session, we learned that they were closed for a few days for maintenance. Luckily we ended up riding over to the couple’s wedding venue and were able to take some fantastic photos, but that could have been really inconvenient if we didn’t have another option!
And to follow that one up…make sure you get out of your venues before they close. There is a local park that I use frequently that has a gate that closes promptly at 8pm. At a summer engagement session, we stayed for a few minutes after 8…and the gate had closed us in! Apparently it had happened to another guest previously, so a nearby wooden fence was already disassembled, so we were able to take a short detour and drive out.
Never deliver your galleries if clients have not paid in full. In my early days, I had my wedding clients’ payments scheduled so that the final payment was “due upon delivery.” I only had to have one bad experience with that to realize that I needed to make sure my clients paid in full before I delivered any photos to them.
Don’t stand in a folding chair. Yep, I was that stupid. Multiple times. It took ten years before I actually came crashing down. I was taking some portraits of a bride and groom after their ceremony, and I grabbed a folding chair to get a better angle. Both of them told me to be careful, and I replied, “Oh, I’ve got this…I’ve done it a ton of times.” Well, it only took once! This particular chair decided to fold up on me. Thankfully I did not fall…I stepped down with my right leg when I realized it was happening to protect myself and my camera, but the chair slammed shut on my left foot. It hurt, but I jumped right up and kept going, surprisingly and thankfully not in any pain (Adrenaline? Endorphins? Who knows…). It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realized how swollen my foot was, and for the next several weeks, I hobbled around on a very fat and bruised foot (and ego)! I did get an x-ray to make sure it wasn’t broken—it wasn’t—but I will always always make sure I use my stepstool or a sturdier chair from now on!
And a bonus…
One mistake I have never made but that I have learned from reading multiple social media posts from unfortunate photographers: Back up your photos! I have a SmugMug subscription where I store all of my galleries (they have a plan that has unlimited storage), and I also immediately back up photos from my sessions and weddings on a portable hard drive as soon as I arrive home, and then I store it in a fire-safe box. You can never be too careful with people’s memories!
Kimberly Cauble is a teacher and wedding & portrait photographer in the Charlotte, NC area, who has been photographing families, seniors, and weddings since 2012.