Seasonal Senior Portrait Session - Rebekah Beaty | Emily McGonigle McGonigle

Emily Rose McGonigle August 5, 2017

Hey everyone! It's been a busy blogging week.

Today, I have something a little bit different for you, but it's definitely awesome!

In the fall of 2015, I had the immense pleasure of working with Rebekah Beaty on a shoot to celebrate her turning 16. She then came back again during the summer of 2016 to schedule her senior portrait session. But what was especially unique about this session was the idea behind it. Rebekah and her mother asked me if I would be willing to split Rebekah's session into 4 mini sessions: one for each season. Of course, I loved the idea and enthusiastically said yes.

The sessions started in the summer of 2016 and ended in spring 2017, in time for Rebekah's graduation. It was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to do something this cool again!

Take a look at all the images we took throughout the year!

(Click the thumbnails to view larger -- It may take a moment to load. :) )

Summer

Fall

Winter

Spring

How awesome is this concept?! I had so much fun on each of these sessions, and I was honored to have been able to watch Rebekah grow throughout her senior year.

After Rebekah's last session, we got together for her image premier and ordering session, where she bought an extended album, mounted prints, and a wall canvas. Take a look at how beautifully everything turned out!

When Rebekah received her order, she took it home and created an adorable display to put out during her graduation party. She sent me a photo of the setup:

I love tangible products so much. It's such a great way to preserve your session and share it with your friends and family in a meaningful way.

If you haven't booked your session yet, it's not too late! Submit a form through the contact page and let me know you're interested in booking a session!

Also, I want to give a special shout out to Gardens of Babylon for allowing us to use their space for Rebekah's spring session!

Until next time, fam!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin and Nashville Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Behind the Scenes Senior Portrait - Kyli Barr | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle August 3, 2017

GUYS. I HAVE BEEN AN EDITING MACHINE LATELY.

Seriously. I have so much stuff in the queue, it's amazing. But, I'm taking a break from Photoshop to bring you another sneak peek of one of my lovely seniors: Kyli Barr!

Kyli is a senior at Ravenwood High School, and not only is Kyli a Senior Portrait client, but she's a senior model for EMP. AND... not only is she a senior model for EMP... she's my INTERN!

Kyli wasted no time asking about an opportunity to intern with me in her consultation for her senior portrait session. I just so happened to be contemplating looking for an intern for the summer, and she had great timing in asking. So after I got to know her a little bit, I knew she'd be a great fit on the team, and officially brought her on as an intern!

You may remember Kyli from a few months ago, when I posted images from her senior model session. She had her adorable pupper Milo with her for some of the shots. During her senior portrait session, we decided to go sans doggo, however that didn't stop all the dogs from finding her anyway!

For Kyli's makeover, we met with the ever fabulous Katrina Brooks. We chatted away, played with Katrina's dog Opie, and definitely made sure to have some Starbucks drinks on hand.

Okay, but seriously. Everywhere we went... dogs would find Kyli. She is the dog whisperer. I'm convinced.

The only thing that I think Kyli loves almost as much as she loves dogs, is her adorable baby blue Volkswagen Convertible Beatle. For her senior model session, we made sure to take photographers of Kyli with her dog, Milo. For her senior portrait session, we took photos with her car, and it was epic.

Take a look!

Don't forget to leave this pretty lady some love in the comments below!

Special thanks to Katrina Brooks for doing a fabulous job, as always, on Kyli's hair and makeup; to Matthew Simmons for shooting some BTS footage of the shoot; and to Haili Schubert for being an excellent assistant and intern.

Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin and Nashville Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Behind the Scenes Senior Portrait - Alexis Herr | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle July 28, 2017

Happy Friday everyone!

For today's blog I bring to you a sneak peek and a behind the scenes look at Alexis Herr's Senior Portrait session. Alexis is the younger sister of Elizabeth Herr, whose senior portraits I did back in 2014. It was really awesome getting to work with the Herr family again!

Alexis is a cheerleader at Franklin High School, with a bright personality, and a fabulous sense of style.

We started Alexis's day off with the lovely Katrina Brooks, who styled Alexis's hair and did her makeup. We then started off in the studio for a sister portrait with Alexis and Elizabeth, which was a nod to Elizabeth's session when we did the same.

After the sister portrait in the studio, we headed outside for some gorgeous photos in a field, images in downtown Franklin, and then ended at the Franklin High School stadium for some fun photos of Alexis in her cheerleading uniform.

Check out this sneak peek from Alexis's session! This girl ROCKED the camera.

Be sure to leave Alexis some love below in the comments!

Thank you to Katrina Brooks for being fabulous as always, to Matthew Simmons for capturing video BTS of this session (stay tuned for that), AND...

...to my lovely interns Haili Schubert and Kyli Barr!!!! WOOT!

Haili and Kyli joined the team this summer as my interns and it's been great having them on set, and really awesome to be able to help them learn along the way. Keep an eye out for them lurking in BTS photos and videos. ;)

That's all I've got for now! Until next time!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin and Nashville Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

How to Business When You're Not Business Minded - Part 3 | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle July 27, 2017

A few weeks ago I posted part two, "Organization", of my three part mini blog series "How to Business When You're Not Business Minded." I covered topics like studio management software, templates, and routine.

In this blog post I want to cover how to preserve your mental health as a business owner, and a few other general business practices that are important to mention.

Mental Health

This is a really important topic. There are a lot of people, like myself, who suffer from anxiety or other mental health issues, that can get in the way of running a smoothly productive business. Some days you wake up and you just DON’T feel like you can do it. I totally get that feeling. I really do.

But the thing is, despite you waking up with a heart rate of 95bpm, or with that gut-wrenching, “If I get out of bed the world will crash around me” feeling, you’re still a business owner, you still have a responsibility to your clients, and things still need to get done.

Does that mean you CAN’T take a day off? Absolutely not. I take mental health days all the time, but that’s why the previous articles are so important. Having templates in place to respond to clients keeps you from having to spend emotional and mental energy coming up with a new response every time. Having a studio management solution allows you to visually see your tasks in small chunks, as needed, so you can breath easier knowing that while you have things that need to get done, you have a few days before your hard deadline, so you’re allowed to take some time to yourself.

A couple other sure-fire ways to help your mental health are some of the following techniques.

Overpromise/Underdeliver

Wait… didn’t we talk about this already?

Why yes, yes we did. You read about this in the “Customer Service” blog post, but it *also* has a place under mental health. Why?

Because not only are you overpromising/underdelivering in order to make room for multiple clients at once, but you’re ALSO doing so that way you can take days off in between, whether planned, or impromptu mental health days. If I woke up this morning feeling like everything was wrong, and I have one more day of editing to do on a client’s session, but they’re not expecting their session for another week… I have time to take a day to myself, if I need it. Isn’t that awesome?

Set Realistic Deadlines For Yourself

This goes hand in hand with the above school of thought. Not only are you overpromising/underdelivering, but you’re basing that quoted turn around time on a realistic amount of time you know it takes you to get something done.

So what if Joe Smith can edit a portrait session in 2 days? Are you Joe Smith? No. You’re your own brand, with your own style, your own products, your own images, and your own turn around times. If it takes you 5 days to edit a portrait session, own that. Own that and then set your deadlines around that fact, and as long as you’re *setting proper expectations* with your clients, they won’t have an issue with it. I promise.

Office Hours

Have office hours and display them on the contact page of your site. Not everyone will see them, but at least you have the piece of mind of knowing that they’re there, and you can refer to them if needed. These office hours denote the times you are available to respond to your clients. This allows you to keep your evenings and weekends sacred (or whatever time you hold dear), without being bombarded by people who don’t realize that “freelance” doesn’t mean, “She who is at your beck and call every second of every day”.

I have found that since I put office hours up on my website, the number of clients who email me, then text me an hour later, then call me an hour after that, then email again… has declined. I love excited and enthusiastic clients as much as the next gal, but you still need SOME portion of your day to be “off the clock”. A least a little bit…

In addition to that, always give yourself a large window of response. I typically respond to my clients within a few hours, if not immediately (depending on what I’m doing), but SOMETIMES… sometimes I’ve had a long day. Sometimes I get home to an inquiry after a 12 hour shoot, and I’m tired, and I just need to be dead to the world for a little while. I give myself 24 hours to respond to clients, and it says so on my website.

Again, it’s about protecting a little of your personal space to allow yourself to breath and keep a healthy mental state.

General Business Practices

So we've talked about good customer service, solid organization, and good mental health. There are just a few more things I want to address that don’t *necessarily* fit into those categories.

Pricing

“FINALLY. She’s gonna talk about pricing!”

Not really. The only thing I want to say about pricing is that it varies from business to business. There are definitely industry benchmarks to look at. For example, if you’re charging $50 to your neighbors for shoot and burn services, you’re not a sustainable business, nor are you anywhere CLOSE to industry benchmarks. Sorry. But price *does* vary by business.

Things that affect different pricing across photography businesses are things like overhead, desired income, services offered, etc.

I’m sure you’ve heard this A MILLION times, but DO NOT. JUST PULL. RANDOM NUMBERS. OUT OF YOUR BUTT.

I hate math. A lot of people hate math. Math gives me a nosebleed, but the fact of the matter is BUSINESS IS MATH. So sit down and do your homework. Figure out what your cost of doing business is, figure out what your cost of living is, and set your pricing based off of those numbers. You’ll never have a sustainable business otherwise.

When I first started out, one of the guides that I found online that really helped me to wrap my head around things and start on the right path of creating my pricing was: “Photographer’s Pricing Guide Series” from The Modern Tog:

https://www.themoderntog.com/free-photographers-pricing-guide-overview/

If you have no idea where to start, check that out. I used that as a starting point. I had a lot of other resources that I’ve taken from and thusly my business structure and pricing has evolved over the years into what it is today, but that series is a really solid start.

Contracts and Model Releases

The only thing people seem to hate almost as much as Math is paperwork. Why? It’s not that difficult. Just like you’re going to have your email response templates made up, have contracts and model release templates ready to go too. Because here’s the thing: You need to have paperwork for EVERYTHING YOU DO. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. PERIOD.

Doing spec work? Write up a contract.

Doing a test shoot? Model release.

“What if she’s my best friend?”

CONTRACT AND/OR MODEL RELEASE.

“What if it’s my sister?”

CONTRACT AND/OR MODEL RELEASE.

“What if it’s just for fun?”

CONTRACT AND/OR MODEL RELEASE.

“What if it’s my first time shooting a wedding?”

CONTRACT AND/OR MODEL RELEASE.

Are you picking up what I’m putting down here? You have LITERALLY NO EXCUSE to NOT get paperwork done. It’s to save BOTH parties from headaches, and it’s to cover your butt should something go awry. Most of the time it won’t, and good for you if it doesn’t, but for that ONE TIME that it inevitably will… you’ll be glad you had that paperwork done.

Conclusion

So there you have it! There’s obviously a lot more detail that we could go into on any of the 4 major topics we covered, but there’s only so much attention span you (and I) have. If you have questions about things, that’s good! That means you’re thinking. Use your resources to find the answers and become that much more business savvy. Use Google, use photo groups you have access to, use colleagues with more experience than you… but I’ve given you a solid start here so go forth and business!

I believe in you!

Until next time, fam!

How to Business When You're Not Business Minded - Part 2 | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle July 6, 2017

Two weeks ago I posted part one, "Customer Service", of my three part mini blog series "How to Business When You're Not Business Minded." I covered topics like setting proper expectations, over promising / under delivering, and giving options instead of saying "no".

In this blog post I want to cover how to concentrate your business practices, so that you're feeling less flustered and more focused.

Organization

Being organized is one of the things that instantly makes your business life a lot smoother. Organization comes easily to some people, and to others it’s a lot of work. But wherever you fall on that spectrum, it’s well worth it to try and stay as organized as humanly possible. You’ll have less headaches and an easier time dealing with clients.

Studio Management Software

The first thing that I would suggest is to find a good CRM (customer relationship management) software. There are a TON out there, and each has a different set of features and benefits, which means that some will be more appealing to you than others. I hesitate to say that one in particular is THE BEST, because it really depends on the type of business you’re running and what you need your CRM to do for you.

The one I currently use is called Sprout Studio (www.getsproutstudio.com). It allows me to keep track of leads, contact information, shoot workflow, contracts, invoices, and host proofing galleries and album proofs. It also tracks revenue and expenses, but I admittedly don’t use it for that at all.

If you’re at a point in your business where you’re starting to gain multiple clients at once, or you’re just overwhelmed with not every really being sure where in the process you are with a client, a program like Sprout will help you immensely. I log on every day and see my to-do lists for the day, as well as what’s coming up for the week, and if there’s anything past due. It helps me be able to decide what to tackle first so that I get back to all my clients in an orderly fashion, and everyone stays happy.

A few other CRM options to check out are:

Tave (www.tave.com)
17 Hats (www.17hats.com)
Honeybook (www.honeybook.com)
Pixifi (www.contactmystudio.com)
Studio Ninja (www.studioninja.co)
ShootQ (www.shootq.com)
StudioCloud (www.studiocloud.com)

There are even more than that, those are just all of the ones I have tried out myself before landing on one that I felt was most beneficial to the way I run my business.

And what's even better is that most (if not all of them) have a free trial you can explore to really figure out which one fits you best!

Screen Shot 2017-07-06 at 4.33.43 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-07-06 at 4.34.30 PM.png

Response Templates

When a client emails you an inquiry, don’t start your response to them from scratch every single time. You’re not only wasting time, but energy by doing this. Have a template response ready to go.

I have templates for initial inquiries, meeting reminders, session reminders, order reminders, etc. I always make sure to address my clients by name, and to answer any additional questions that they may have had that aren’t already answered by my templated response. But having the skeleton of the email already pre-built, saves me A LOT of time, stress, and mental power.

In addition to having pre-made email responses, make sure you have pre-made price sheets (or starting price sheets… or whatever information you like to give your clients prior to booking), and save them somewhere easily accessible. This way you’re able to present your brand in a professional way, and are also not having to write things out over and over.

Make A LOT of notes

I mean a lot. Think you've made enough notes? You didn’t. Make more. lol

Seriously though, once you’re juggling a few clients, especially if a few of them take a little more time to get back to you in between interactions, it’s SUPER helpful to have notes to reference along the way. You’ll be able to see when the last time you spoke to someone was, whether it’s time to follow up, and specifically what you chatted about. You don’t have to go digging through your email to remind yourself, because all of your client notes will be in one spot. In your CRM of choice that you totally went out and subscribed to after reading the Studio Management section above. ;)

Make notes after sending an email about what you said in the email. Make notes about your client’s response to your email. Make notes about the phone call with your client. Make notes about anything you need to research or accomplish before your sessions with the client.

MAKE. A LOT. OF NOTES. <3

Have a Morning Routine

Not a morning person? Me neither, dude. Me neither.

I get up, I make a cup of coffee, I play a few rounds of Overwatch, and by the time I’m done with that cup of coffee, I’m awake and ready to tackle the first part of my work day.

The first thing I do is go through my email. I check to see if I have any new inquiries or communications from existing clients that need to be addressed. After that, I switch over to Sprout where I check my “Past Due” list, my “Due Today” list, and I take a peek ahead at the rest of the week to see if there’s anything I can move up on the schedule. Once I'm through with that I may blog, or I may go straight to editing. This part of my schedule varies day by day, but I actually go a step further and loosely schedule out what I want to work on each day, week by week.

Your morning routine might be completely different. It doesn’t matter in what order you do it, or how you approach it, as long as you have a fairly solid, frequent, morning routine. It’ll give you a sense of mental organization and help you to keep calm as you chip away at your tasks for the day.

Next Time On the Blog…

Those are a few organizational tips that I use frequently that work well for me. One of the other things that I do, that I didn't really touch on, is carry a notebook with me everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. It helps me with random one-off thoughts while I'm out doing something else. It helps me to see part of my to-do list written somewhere tangible that I can make additional notes on or cross off (who doesn't love crossing off to-do lists with a pen?). You may love white boards, cork boards, or a particular app on your phone or computer. Everyone's organizational methods will be different, because everyone's brains function differently. But what is important is that you find what works best for YOU.

If you have any questions about anything I wrote above, or you have tips that you think might be helpful to your fellow photographers, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below, or feel free to shoot me an email!

The next blog post in this series will deal with maintaining good mental health while running your business, and will also go over some general good business practices. Stay tuned until next time!

Thanks for reading!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin Senior Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

How to Business When You're Not Business-Minded - Part 1 | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle June 23, 2017

Now I'm going to start this off with saying that I've never been to school for business or marketing, I don't have a degree or any special business accolades... But what I *do* have are happy clients, a sustaining business, and a *general* sense of organization.

Owning a business can be stressful, and if you’re like me and you already deal with issues like anxiety, it can seem downright daunting on some days. But being a business owner is one of the most full-time of full time jobs, so you have to find a way to deal on those days.

I’ve written a 3 part mini blog series on how to deal with four major topics:

Customer Service
Organization
Mental Health
General Good Business Practices

In the paragraphs of all 3 parts you will find advice on how to deal with clients, how to make your business life feel a little more organized, productive, and healthy, suggestions for tools to make things easier, and pricing.

In today’s blog post we’re going to address the overall topic of how to deal with Clients.

Customer Service

Having good customer service is arguably the most important thing you could do for your business. This seems like common sense, but after being in photography forums and Facebook groups for years, I’ve seen a surprising amount of bad customer service stories, or stories where the photographer simply didn’t think to do something simple that would have made their client’s experience exponentially better.

Set Proper Expectations

Most of the issues that I read about can be boiled down to one simple concept: Set proper expectations.

This goes for *everything* you do with your clients. Make sure they know your full price list and what they’re getting into, before they book. This doesn’t mean you have to have it displayed on your website, or that you have to send it fully in an email or run over it via a phone call. Whatever your pre-booking method is, just make sure that before that retainer is paid, and that contract is signed, your clients fully know what to expect from your service, product offerings, and pricing.

There’s nothing in the world worse than sticker shock or that email from a client telling you they’ve changed their mind about their purchase, because they felt pressured to buy more than they could afford, due to not being aware of pricing.

Make sure your clients know what your contract says. Don’t leave it up to them to read on their own, they won’t. When was the last time you read the terms and conditions portion of any service, software, or product you’ve purchased? We’re all guilty of it. I don’t read them either, so why are we expecting our clients to read our long contracts before signing? I always go over the contract with my clients before asking them to sign. I verbally condense it into laymen’s terms, but if they have a question about something, we’ll go over the actual text and I make sure they understand and are comfortable with everything.

Always be upfront about your creative process, your shoot workflow, and your turn around times. This might sound insane, but before your client books, make sure they like YOUR work. In this digital age everyone and their mother has a digital camera and some app or piece of software that can add pretty filters to their photos. Because of this a lot of inexperienced clients will assume that since you’re a photographer, you can do (or want to do) anything and everything they ask, and will shoot and edit according to their specifications.

Go over your website with your clients. Make them point out what they love about your work. Make sure they’re down with the way you shoot and edit, because if they’re not, everyone is about to find themselves having a bad time.

Overpromise, Underdeliver

Listen, I know you can edit a session in two weeks if you have to, but here’s the thing: Telling your clients that you’ll have their stuff back in exactly two weeks can result in problems for you.

When you start to get really busy and you have two sessions in one week, now you’re not having to edit one session in two weeks. Now you have to edit *two* sessions in two weeks. You’ve just effectively doubled your workload (and thusly your stress-level), by not overpromising and underdelivering.

Tell your clients that your turn around time is four weeks instead of two weeks. This way, you can edit your first session right away, and when it takes you two weeks instead of four, your first client will be thrilled they got their photos back early. Then your second client will, at the very least, get their photos back within the quoted four week time. Or lets say it only takes you one and a half weeks to edit the second client’s photos, they’ll *still* be happy that they got their photos back a little earlier than expected.

Don’t do yourself the disservice of quoting EXACTLY the amount of time you think it’ll take you (unless we’re talking about a rush/priority job… that’s different), and make sure that you’re allowing for time off, multiple clients, and unforeseen circumstances like computers crashing, software issues, etc.

Don’t just say no, give options

I had a conversation with a friend who was describing a situation where a client wanted him to edit their photos in a style that wasn’t consistent with my friend’s brand. He asked me for advice on how to handle this type of situation and I told him that rather than telling his client, “No I won’t do that”, he should should tell his client what he *could* do for him.

I actually put this into practice when clients ask for certain services or products that I don’t offer. I’ve been asked serval times if I do mini shoots from clients who are looking for just a few portraits to walk away with. I don’t do mini shoots, but my response to this question isn’t, “No, sorry.” I always answer with, “I don’t have a mini shoot option, but all of my products and images are sold a-la-carte, so you can essentially create your own package to fit your needs and budget”. Then I also let them know that if I’m not a good fit for them at this time, I’d be happy to refer them to some of my colleagues. I give them options.

The same thing occurs often when a client wants to shoot at a specific location that charges for photoshoots. I let them know what the fee will be to shoot there, and then also let them know that there are some similar options that may fit their budget better. Instead of a “No, they charge too much”, I give them their options and let them pick what they’d prefer.

Next Time On the Blog…

Those are just some customer service tips that I use frequently that work well for me, and have worked well for my colleagues. If you have any questions or other tips that you think might be helpful to your fellow photographers, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below, or feel free to shoot me an email!

The next blog post in this series will deal with the overall topic of Organization. Stay tuned until next time, to see tips on making your business feel a little more fluid.

Thanks for reading!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin Senior Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Senior Model Portrait - Anna Leigh Campbell | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle May 26, 2017

Hey everyone! I hope your Memorial Day weekend activities have gotten off to a stellar start! Before you settle into your outdoor gatherings and summer activities, I wanted to share a recent session I did with my most recent Senior Model, Anna Leigh Campbell!

Anna Leigh is the younger sister of a previous client, Kathryn Campbell. I was so excited to hear back from Kathryn's mother about hiring me to photograph Anna Leigh this year! It was such a pleasure working with Juanita and Kathryn, that I knew getting to work with Anna Leigh was going to be a blast!

Anna Leigh is about to go into her senior year at Franklin High School. She's a cheerleader, a sweetheart, and has a heart for mission work. It was wonderful getting to know her a little bit more while she got her makeover done with Katrina Brooks. I was also really glad to be able to catch up with Juanita too!

Check out the BTS images, as well as the finished images from Anna Leigh's model session below!

WHEW, girl. I can't wait until our next session together!!

Special thanks to Katrina Brooks for doing such a wonderful job with Anna Leigh's hair and makeup, and to Matthew Simmons for his help on set!

If you are a rising senior and you haven't booked your senior portrait photographer yet, give me a shout! I have some openings for summer and fall sessions, so let's get that booked for you now, before they fill up!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin Senior Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Behind the Scenes Senior Portrait - Madison Carrier | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle May 18, 2017

A few weeks ago I had the special privilege of working with the lovely Madison Carrier. Madison is actually from South Carolina, but her mother surprised her with a trip to Nashville and a photoshoot! The other special thing about Madison's session, is that she is Katrina Brooks's cousin, and as you all know... I love me some Katrina Brooks! So it was only natural that I immediately clicked with Madison and her mother, Rebecca!

We had such a great time hanging out while Katrina worked. Madison and I got to know each other better, and Katrina and her got to catch up some more. There were a lot of random things happening that morning (from Katrina putting in the wrong house address into her GPS, to my... just generally not knowing how to construct coherent sentences due to lack of caffeine), so we laughed a lot.

And of course, I had to snap a photo of the lovely ladies together, once Katrina was done with Madison's makeover!

After Madison's hair and makeup was done, and her outfits were picked out, the team and I headed over to the location for Madison's shoot. Here's a sneak peek of one of my favorite shots from her session!

Stay tuned for more of the finished images coming to a blog post near you! ;)

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin Senior Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Modern Portrait - Mom and Dad | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle May 13, 2017

In honor of Mother's Day tomorrow, I wanted to share something with you all that I never got a chance to publish until now.

About a year ago my mom and dad came to Nashville to visit for the first time. I was really excited to show them the city that I love and now call home, but even more than that, I was excited to do my first portrait shoot with them. I've been a photographer for 7 years and I had never made a portrait of either of my parents, so I was determined to change that.

I wanted to do something special and fun, so I treated my mother to a makeover, thanks to Katie Vellman, surprised her with a Belle inspired gown, and styled Dad to match. My mom really loves Beauty and the Beast and Belle is her favorite Disney princess, so it only made sense to me. Funny enough, the remake of Beauty and the Beast came out shortly after that, which was a complete, but neat, coincidence.

After the couple's photos, I did some portraits individually with both of my parents. It was awesome to be able to demonstrate to them first hand, what it is I get do every day.

Take a look at the finished images:

I'm so glad I got to make these images and spend this time with my parents. Even thought it's been a year, I still think back on this fondly, and hope to do it again next time they are here!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! (And happy early Father's Day to you, Dad!) I love you both, and I couldn't be more blessed to have such awesome and supportive parents!

Emily McGonigle Photography is a Franklin Senior Portrait Photographer, and can be contacted for booking inquiries here.

Senior Model Portrait - Savannah Lingle | Emily McGonigle Photography

Emily Rose McGonigle May 8, 2017

A lot of exciting things are happening over here at Emily McGonigle Photography! One of them includes this awesome shoot I did with one of my 2017 Senior Models, Savannah Lingle.

Savannah is part of the class of 2018 at Eagleville High School, and slays in front of the camera.

Savannah had a GORGEOUS prom gown that I couldn't wait to photograph. In addition to that, we also did some fun casual looks in the studio, after Katrina Brooks finished working her magic on Savannah's hair and makeup.

Take a look at the final images!