PORTFOLIO REVIEW OR COACHING SESSION (1.5 hours)

Why work with Sarah?

Personalized coaching with an experienced mentor can be a transformational experience, especially in a creative field like nature photography. Through supportive feedback, you can gain an external perspective and insights that can be clarifying, time-saving, and confidence-building. Working with a coach can help you identify priorities, improve your skills, or work through creative challenges more effectively than you might be able to do on your own. A coach can also help you see themes in your work, hone in on your personal style, and work towards developing a stronger creative voice. While all sorts of educational resources are available for nature photographers, most are not tailored to your specific needs and goals. Coaching can bridge that gap by focusing entirely on you and your creative goals.

Prior to becoming a full-time nature photographer, Sarah worked as a management and leadership consultant with nonprofit organizations and foundations. A major part of her practice included working with leaders and staff on setting and achieving personal and organizational goals. Thus, Sarah brings many years of experience in mentoring and informal coaching to her photography business. Sarah also has extensive experience in teaching professional development sessions and is known for her practical, accessible teaching style. All of this is in addition to her extensive experience as a nature photographer, photography educator, and writer. Sarah’s coaching starts with your goals in mind and is offered with the intention of being kind, helpful, encouraging, and practical.

Portfolio Reviews, Photo Feedback, and Personalized Coaching

Through this service, Sarah offers personalized, in-depth coaching in 1.5 hour blocks on all topics related to nature photography, including:

• Detailed photo and portfolio reviews, including personal expression, storytelling, composition, light, technique, and photo processing.

• Composition, including feedback on current photos and coaching on improving your compositions in the future

• Personal expression, including exploring what you want to express through your photos and exercises to hone in on your personal style

• Improving your field practices, especially around seeing opportunities, improving your observational skills, and taking advantage of all conditions

• Black and white photography, including seeing opportunities in the field, experimenting with files you have on hand, and photo processing

• Improving your ability to see and photograph nature’s small scenes

How do these sessions work?

Generally, these sessions happen online through Zoom and last about 1.5 hours. Since we all learn in different ways and this kind of session can feel intimidating, we can also mix up the format so it works best for you. For example, I can also provide a recorded video of my feedback on your photos or we can work through written correspondence. Please contact me if you would like to discuss one of these alternative formats, including timing and cost.

The coaching process starts with a brief written interview so Sarah can get a sense of your personal photography goals and gain an understanding of what you hope to get out of the session. You will then have the opportunity to submit photo files related to your goals for the discussion, which Sarah will review in advance to make the most of our time together. Photo review sessions typically an in-depth discussion about 10 finished photographs. During the session itself, we will have the opportunity to discuss your intentions for each photo and specific areas of feedback you wish to receive. Sarah will also provide feedback about composition, technique, use of light, photo processing, things that work best, and things that could be improved. The session will wrap up with some general observations and recommendations for areas of study or practice that could help you improve your photography moving forward. For other types of sessions, we can discuss the format that will work best for you in advance of our time together.

This service is available to photographers of all skill levels. Sarah’s feedback starts with your goals in mind and is offered with the intention of being kind, helpful, encouraging, and practical.

What to talk before signing up? Contact Sarah here.