Bev's Blog

RAK? What in the world is that? After I read the book, “Hug Your Customers” by Jack Mitchell, our staff  along with Tim and I met and decided to set up a program at our studio that would encourage all of us, including staff members, to take a more active part in “hugging our clients.”

We named the program RAK, meaning Random Acts of Kindness. We sat everyone down and talked about how we would execute this program and came up with the following ways.

First, we set up accounts at various places where we could order goodies on-line and set a studio limit of $30.00 per month per client. We figured on three to four clients per month as an average and knew we were comfortable with that amount. The accounts were a mix of sweets such as cookies and fudge, teas, home-made treats and even cheese from a Trappist Monastery. At times, when appropriate,  we bought gift cards from various places such as McDonalds or Fazolis and mailed them in specially designed cards from WHCC. We empowered our staff to make decisions without our approval.

“Anytime we have the opportunity, we encourage our staff to take on an owner’s mentality and this program did just that.”

Second, we talked about when a client would be a good fit for a RAK gift. Some ideas were if we heard a client had a rough day due to a bad circumstance or on the positive side, if one of our clients’ children did something great like win a baseball tournament. We even sent a gift when a client’s daughter got her braces off! The principle here is to let our clients know we are thinking about them and we care about what’s going on in their lives!

Finally, we needed a process to keep up with these events. Since we started this long before a software program ran our studio, I made custom pages for a day planner and kept detailed notes in it. We also entered any special dates we needed to remember on our studio calendar. Today, with specialized software running our studio and a calendar that is on-line, it is easy to put “hug” reminders on.

Just the other day, a client stopped by who was telling our staff about something that had happened in her life that was rough. After the client left, Tim asked Laura, our associate photographer who was standing nearby, “What am I thinking right now?” Without missing a beat, Laura replied, “We need to write a note and put a RAK gift together with some wonderful custom blend Apricot tea we have here from our tea supplier.” Slowly, a smile crossed Tim’s face as he quietly said, “Perfect!”

The saying goes, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” However, I believe it is the “small stuff” that will become the “big stuff” in the end. Through Rak gifts, we can touch our clients at times in their lives when they need to know someone cares and that is “BIG STUFF!”

Some of our favorite RAK vendors…

Gethsemani Trappist Monastery for their cheese and bourbon walnut fudge

Elmwood Inn Teas for exotic and unique teas and other tea related gifts

Bake Me a Wish Cakes for the most delicious and beautiful cakes with special greetings included

Najla’s Cookies for chunky, organic cookies or cookie dough to bake yourself

Vosage Chocolates for exquisitely packaged and sumptuous, yet very different chocolates

Cherry Moon Farms  for uniquely dipped strawberries that are yummy

Have a great week everyone and a very Merry Christmas! May you be abundantly blessed!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

Last week, we talked about three tips on photographing children; intensity, asking questions and singing. This week, I want to add a few more top secret tips we have formulated over years of photographing children.

Off of their feet…what I mean by this is we ask parents to hold their children in their arms until the last possible minute, especially if we are doing a family portrait. Once a child is old enough to walk, they want to be put down and when that happens, there is no easy way for the parent to pick them up without a struggle. From the car to the dressing room and then from the dressing room to the camera room, young children are held. Another version of this idea is keeping a child’s feet off the ground, if we are photographing them alone, by having them stand on a short block. It’s amazing that this simple trick keeps them still and in place. They may wobble some, but they do try to stay on the block and not step off.

Pretending to cough or sneeze…this one ALWAYS works! It amazes me every time I pretend to sneeze that kids really like it and smile. Of course, we say they made us do it because we are allergic to them! Coughing is also great, but sneezing is the best! We switch between them during the course of a session.

Keeping our distance…when we first meet our young subjects, we don’t get down on the ground with them to try to make friends. Instead, although we are friendly, we keep a little distance, at least for the first few minutes. The reason; once a child is completely comfortable with us and the studio environment, we lose our advantage and a measure of control. We start the session very quietly at first in order to get the pensive and emotional expressions we are known for. Playing and fun come later for us and this is where we get more candid shots. Children will mirror what we do, so we are not silly, loud and playful when we want a more pensive look. On the other hand, if we are going for a fun and interactive look, we do get a bit more silly and loud.

Whispering…this “tactic” is great with small children that are antsy. We whisper a question and ask them to answer it. Because they really have to pay attention to hear us, they forget they are being photographed and we get some very engaged expressions.

What we don’t do very often is get toys out as they will reach out their hands to hold it and cry when they cannot. We work quickly, quietly and then increase the playfulness and depend on our word games and ability to engage our young subjects as the session progresses. By the end of the session, they are our best buddies! It goes without saying that we truly love children and they know it. Only as a last resort do we bribe with Smarties (with parental permission) and although it is not our favorite way to get through a session, it may work when nothing else does.

Here’s to happy times in the camera room with children! Have a great week everyone!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

On a Carnival Cruise ship a few years ago, we were invited to speak to a group of young photographers. After we taught, we sat and listened to the other speakers, one of them a good friend, Drake Busath. A single statement he made stuck in our minds and we have not forgotten it. He said, “When photographing children, you must engage their minds.” This is now our mantra as we work with young children and I thought I would share our top three secrets that we use daily to engage their minds.

Intensity…it may sound weird to link this word with photographing children, but it is at the top of our list. Let me explain. When I say “intensity,” I mean you have to speak to kids like your pants are on fire! If you speak in your normal, everyday voice or in a soft voice with no energy, you will not capture nor hold their attention. I don’t mean yell; I mean speak with intensity. This is why we don’t ask parents or grandparents to help if we are having trouble getting a child’s attention. They just say their name (quietly) and then they may say “look this way” or “smile for Mr. Tim” and they do it in their everyday voice without any extra inflection. That does not help us. No, it takes a dramatic performance to capture and engage their minds.

Ask questions…this top secret tool goes along with intensity. When we ask a question, we don’t let them answer it. Instead, quickly and with much intensity, we say, “NO WAIT! DON’T TELL ME; LET ME GUESS!” That immediately gets their attention and they buy into our game. Many times, we know the answer to the question as it has been noted on our folder from the planning appointment. For example, we may ask their dog’s name, but we really do know it. We act like we don’t know for awhile, so when we guess correctly, they are truly surprised and engaged. Other things we guess at Walden’s: their favorite anything (ie: food, ice cream, drink, cartoon, movie, color), their best friend’s name, their pet’s name, their age, their middle name and so forth. Get comfortable with these questions so you don’t have to put much mental effort into it when you are in the middle of the session.

Sing…it doesn’t matter if you can or cannot sing, this is a sorely underused tool in most sessions. Buy a CD with childrens’ music on it and memorize the songs. I cannot tell you how many times this simple tool has captured a very young child in the middle of a tantrum and calmed them completely down. We were teaching at NEIPP school several years ago and had a baby who was sick as our model. Of course, this was not a great situation. However, I had just talked about the power of singing, and the entire class joined me in the Barney song, just to see if it really worked. When the baby stopped crying and started to look alert, the entire class broke into applause. Try it-it is powerful!

Stay tuned for more Top Secret Tips next week!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com