Photographers these days are always describing themselves as "story tellers". It's actually become a little cliche, unfortunately. "I love to tell my clients love stories through photos..." etcetera. Well, here I am telling you that I'M A STORY TELLER. I don't mean as a photographer. I've been a story teller for as long as I can remember. I love to tell stories that make people laugh, specifically. When something ridiculous, annoying, uncommon happens to me my first thought is "I can't wait to get home and tell my friends this story". I've even thought about having a personal blog where I talk about the ridiculous sitcom-y things that have happened to me over the years.
Here's one of my favorites:
My senior year of college my long time boyfriend and I broke up. It was devastating. There was a lot of crying, sappy voicemail pleading, cookie dough eating, romcom watching. The usual.
About a month after the break up (right around the time I starting bathing regularly again and being able to leave my dorm without bursting into tears) I was hired for a photo shoot! I met the clients for shoot and then they realized they had left some article of clothing at their home. We were only a minute or so from their home, so we drove back to get what had been left behind. I thought about staying in the car while the article was retrieved, but I started having a coughing fit. The clients suggested I run inside and get a glass of water. Good idea - I'll do that.
I walked inside to the kitchen and guess who's standing there? My ex boyfriend. He was staying a couple of nights at their home. The client, of course, didn't know that we knew each other and had dated. The client INTRODUCED us - and in the name of not making the client feel like and idiot I went along with it. "Oh, so good to meet you" and shook his hand with the widest dear-in-headlights-eyes I've ever had on my face.
On our way back out the door the client said something along the lines of "you guys have a lot in common, I really think you'd like him..."
Yeah...
At the time that story was horrible because it upset me so much, but now it seems like the kind of thing that would happen on a tv show that has a laugh track. I think even then I knew - this would be worth it for the story.
I ask my clients to trust me to tell their stories. Not just any story, their WEDDING story. That's a pretty important one.
I feel like I should return the favor and tell my clients MY stories. This was my first step.