Have you ever left a session feeling like you lost all control? Today, we’re diving into what to do when you have a bad photoshoot experience.

On this episode of the Book More Clients Photography podcast, I’m walking you through a real-life situation. Where I returned from a session feeling like it was complete chaos.

When a Session Doesn’t Go as Planned

With this session, from the beginning, it was complete chaos. It didn’t have anything to do with my clients. It had everything to do with the surroundings, environment and location I chose (plus, the winds were starting to pick up).

Here’s the thing as photographers, this is going to happen to every single one of us, for one reason or another; however, this particular session felt like my fault, even though there was a lot that I couldn’t control.

So, I want to tell you guys what happened. How I ended up making it go from super chaotic and all over the place to we got some awesome shots.

A walk through of what happened

I was shooting a family maternity session; we planned everything, they came to my house, she was going to try on a couple of different maternity dresses from my client closet. I had them meet me early, she tried on the dresses, and then I had them follow me out to the location. This is a location that I have photographed in before, however, the other two times we were in a different season.

We get to location, and I realize that it’s almost an hour and 45 minutes before the sunset. As you know, that can raise problems. So, that was where I started getting in my head, “oh my gosh, we’re so early”, normally about an hour before the sunset, I can control that hour exactly how I want to, but we were almost two hours early and it was a game changer. It was a bad circumstance.

So, I’m trying to figure it out. Looking for a spot where there might be some shadows and some shade so that we can at least get started. I finally find a little spot and we get out, and I’m letting her kids run around and burn a little bit of energy, and I’m doing some solo shots of her. The wind is insane, it’s like a tornado, where we’re at because it’s wide-open land.

The wind comes sweeping through and it takes everything with it.

So, I did the best I could in that situation. I know how to work with the wind. I kept reassuring my client, “don’t worry about the hair blowing in your face”, I really do have a thing for those types of images.

She was great. She went with it. We even got a couple family shots in there.

But the wind was awful, and it was so cold, everybody was visibly cold. So, I ended up saying, “let’s go warm up in the car, take a break and we’ll drive to the next little spot that I want to use”. I had already told him at this point that I didn’t realize we were going to get there as early as we did, I just wanted to accommodate her & give her enough time to try on these dresses without feeling rushed. I also did not think there wouldn’t be a cloud in the sky.

I’m feeling like an amateur at this point.

I’m starting to feel as if I’m inconveniencing them. This is not going the way that I planned. And honestly, it was a total show. We get to the next little spot, I’m looking around, I’m trying to stay in control. I’m trying to not let the wind and the sunshine, and all of those things overpower me or discouraged me.

Finally, I came to the conclusion, and I ended up telling them, “I have a plan B. I have another location that honestly, I wanted to use to begin with. I’m really sorry this has been so chaotic, is it okay, if we backtrack and go to the second location where I know there are wind blocks, I know the location a lot better than this one”.

They were so cool about it. So, we backtracked about 12 miles (they were going to have to drive back to my house anyway, so it wasn’t as if they had to go further out of their way, but yes, it was still a lot to ask of a client). The first half of this session totally felt like a bad photoshoot experience.

With a Bad Photoshoot Experience, Regain Control the Best You Can

But hankfully, the rest of this session was amazing.

I want you to know that you’re going to eventually have a session where you’re literally going to be like, “oh, my gosh, this is not going my way”. It’s going to discourage you, you’re going to start getting these thoughts in your head, like, “I’m supposed to be a professional, but everything’s working against me, these clients hate me”.

I want to reassure you that, it’s normal. I’ve been doing this over eight years now. I’m telling you right now to the present day, that there are times where I feel like the session gets the best of me. But I know how to basically press restart, regardless of how much time has passed, I can redeem myself, I’ve had to redeem myself with 15 minutes of sunlight remaining.

So, I want to encourage you, it is okay, that you’re not always composed. We don’t always have it all together. It doesn’t make you less than, it doesn’t mean anything about you.

It’s what we do. It’s an obstacle not always an entire bad photoshoot experience.

You’re the artist, the business owner, and the photographer. You have to combine your creativity and find a way to overcome the obstacle that you’re experiencing and turn it into your art, turn it into an amazing session. It doesn’t matter how it started; you can always change things around. So, I hope that this encourages you. Make sure that you have a plan B so that when things get out of your control, you can get back on top of things, regain control and serve your clients to the best of your ability.

Keep at it, it happens to us all and just know that I am proud of you. So, keep doing what you’re doing.

Tune in to the podcast for more!

Want more details about what to do with a bad photoshoot experience? Tune into the Book More Clients Photography Podcast today!