When I first picked up a camera, I had no idea it would eventually turn into a business.
Photography started as a hobby. I wanted to take better pictures of my kiddos as they grew up, and somewhere along the way, I realized I really enjoyed taking the pictures. But I also loved everything that came after… the editing, experimenting with different looks, and figuring out how to turn an ordinary moment into something a little more special. Eventually, friends started catching wind of my photography hobby. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had a photography business.
And I love it!
But as with any job, even one you genuinely love, there are parts that can start to feel a little… well… routine.
Emails. Editing. Galleries. Scheduling. Inquiries. Contracts. Social media. Repeat.
And when photography is your job, it can be surprisingly easy to forget why you picked up the camera in the first place. That's why every once in a while, I like to do something completely and totally just for fun. No client expectations. No shot list. No worrying about whether this will fit into my marketing strategy. Just a camera, an idea that makes me laugh, and the opportunity to play.
Enter: The Spice Girls!
If you know me, you probably know that I'm a bit of a musical theatre/pop culture nerd. And as a millennial who grew up in the 90s, the Spice Girls were very much part of my formative years. As many other millennials can attest as well, I still know all the words to Wannabe in addition to many more 90s hits. Obviously, there was only one reasonable thing to do with that information… Recruit my daughter and her friends for a Spice Girls-inspired photo shoot!
I bounced outfit ideas back and forth with one of the other moms, we gathered the girls together, and turned an ordinary afternoon into a photo shoot play date. And it was exactly the kind of photography I needed!
We played around with poses. We tried different combinations of the girls together. We took some intentionally silly photos. We leaned into the 90s aesthetic and, of course, gave a little nod to the British girl group who taught us all how to spice up our lives.
Was it a traditional family photography session? Nope.
Was it going to become my next signature photography offering? Also nope.
Was it ridiculously fun? Absolutely!
It's easy to fall into a creative rut when you do something for a living. When you're photographing families regularly, you have poses and prompts that you know work. You know which locations photograph well. You know how to get a toddler to smile. You know how to wrangle a family of five into one frame without anyone looking like they desperately want to escape. And that's a good thing… Experience allows you to do your job well.
But there's a difference between being experienced and doing the exact same thing every time. Creative businesses need room for experimentation. Sometimes that means trying a new editing technique. Sometimes it's photographing in a location you've never used before. Sometimes it's playing with dramatic lighting or a different type of composition. And sometimes it's dressing a bunch of kids up like a 90s girl group and making them pose like they're about to drop the hottest album of 1997. All of those things count!
When photography becomes a business, it's easy to approach every session with a mental checklist. Get this shot. Get that pose. Make sure everyone is looking. Move to the next setup.
A just-for-fun shoot gives you permission to forget the checklist for a minute. You can experiment. You can make mistakes. You can try something weird simply because you're curious about what will happen. And honestly? That's where some of the best creative ideas come from!
If you've been feeling a little creatively blah lately, maybe you don't need a complete overhaul. Maybe you just need to spice things up!
Take a walk and turn left instead of right. Venture away from Taco Tuesday and eat breakfast for dinner. Give yourself permission to make or do something that doesn't have to serve a purpose beyond "This sounds fun." Because sometimes the best way to fall back in love with the thing you do is to remember what it felt like to do it simply because you loved it.
And if that happens to involve 90s girl groups? Even better!
Now tell me… What would your completely just-for-fun photo shoot be?
