Ever see another photographers photos and think to yourself, "Man, that's an awesome location, I wonder where that is?!"? Me too! So I've put together a guide on how I've found some of the best locations and what has worked for me. Enjoy!

1. Location scouting. This may not be the answer you want to hear, but it's a tried and true method for finding some amazing hidden locations. A boots-on-the-ground approach can not only find you an awesome location, but will also help you become familiar with the terrain and lighting so that you know how to prepare for a session there. It's always a great idea to bring someone with when you're location scouting (if for nothing else than great company), and never trespass on others' land.
2. Become familiar with your county assessor's site. This site is a gold mine for contacting landowners to receive permission to use their location for sessions. If you have the address of the location, you can look up who owns it, and write a letter to their address asking if you can use the location. Sometimes the owner will let you use the location free of charge, and others may charge a small fee. I've even bartered before and offered a free session in exchange for using the location. 
3. Network with other photographers. I've said it before and I'll say it again, community over competition! Networking with other photographers in your area isn't just a good way to get referrals, it's a great way to share locations! As long as you aren't offering the exact same type of sessions in the exact same area, many photographers are willing to share some of their public locations. This is especially true if you have a location you are willing to share with them.
4. Reach out to past clients. Have a past client who had an amazing property? Or a client who had an amazing spot picked out for their session? Reach out to them and ask about using their property or location. The worst they can say is no. Chances are, if they are a past client, they would be willing to trade use of the location for a discounted session. 
5. Talk with family/friends. I know this one seems obvious, but family and friends know of locations you may have never even thought of. My mom knew of some amazing locations in the area that I had never heard of, and I've lived here my whole life! 

These tips have helped me broaden my locations from just the same old county parks. Hopefully they help you, too! Happy location hunting!
​-Grace

I know exactly how frustrating it is to put out content on social media, expecting to get tons of comments, likes, and follows, but then... crickets. So frustrating and disappointing. But doing these three things let me see a consistent increase in my engagement rate among my followers, and they are things you can start implementing today!

1. Be consistent. If you only take one thing away from this post, let it be this tip! Being consistent will let your followers know that you aren't going anywhere anytime soon. If you go AWOL for two weeks without a peep, your followers will lose trust in you and your brand will lose accountability. If your followers can't count on you to show up consistently, how can they trust your messages and advice?
2. Show more of you. While this sounds vain and self-centered, it's not about you. Showing your face, even if just in your stories, makes you more relatable and shows your followers that you're a real person. Hop on in the morning when your hair is still messy and tell them about something funny that happened to you this week, or just tell them to have a great day. This builds brand association with your face, and makes you much more relatable.
3. Put a call to action in every post. This will be hard at first, because it can feel like you're talking to an empty room. Ask your followers to drop an emoji, tell you their favorite season, ask them their favorite movie. Another great way to do this is polls or quizzes in Instagram stories. Facebook now also offers polls, so this is a great way to know what your followers want and easier for them to interact with than making them type out an answer to a question.

I know that you have what it takes to become successful on social media and increase your engagement rate. Let me know what your favorite ways to interact with your followers are below!
​- Grace

Today we're talking about how you can plan social content and save TONS of time in your business. It's no secret that the best way to get clients engaged is to consistently product content, as this is one of the factors in how much your content is shown on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. When you are consistently producing great content, it will be seen more often than sporadically posting when you feel like it. But it is HARD to know when to post and it can feel like you're glued to your phone or computer just trying to create enough content to post. Let me show you what I do to make content creation 10x easier, plus, watch for the free content planner and content ideas at the end of the post.

1. Batch content out. Create your Instagram content for the next month using an app like Planoly (it's free, and you can use it on desktop or mobile). This saves so much time, as you can schedule out content and select when you want it to be automatically posted. For Pinterest, Tailwind is great and only $10 per month if you pay yearly. Facebook has a great in house scheduling feature, and now they also have integration with Instagram, so it's a win win!I love to write down what I have scheduled for that day using a content planner (giving you a free one below!) so that I know what is going up that day.
2. Make graphics ahead of time. Use an app like Canva or Adobe Spark to create any graphics you may need to use for Pinterest or Instagram stories ahead of time. I prefer to sit down once a week and crank out 10-15 graphics that I'll be using for the next week, which makes it so much easier for me to batch out my content ahead of time.
3. Only spend 5-10 hours per week on your content creation. That's right, less than 11 hours per week. Otherwise it's so easy to get sucked in and make your whole business about creating content, when it doesn't need to be that hard. As Jenna Kutcher says "Done is better than Perfect".  If you're spending 15-20 hours a week just on content creation, then you're going to get burnt out fast and not even have time to interact with followers or clients. Have some ideas at hand when you have brain block so that you're not wasting time coming up with ideas, then getting on your phone, then maybe doing some cleaning, and before too long you have 0 content created. I know how that goes, so I'm giving you 35 free content ideas below!

Hopefully these helped you figure out some strategies to implement when you're creating your content. Tag me on instagram @gracefullycapturedimagery if you try them!
​- Grace
Here's your free content planner and content ideas:

It's world mental health day, and we can't talk about mental health without talking about the mental load on small business owners, especially right before the holidays. This time of year we are known to burn the candle at both ends, working to get holiday promotions and products ready, or in my case, editing the slew of fall photos that I've taken.
Being in my 20's with no children, it is so easy to think "just one more session and I'll go to bed", while simultaneously peeling my eyes open like an old cartoon. I don't do photography full time right now, which means after I stay up until the wee hours of the morning working on photography, I have to go to my full time day job at 8am. This is a routine many small business owners are far too familiar with, but there are several things I do to avoid burning out.

1. Set business hours. Seriously. While you may not have a physical location, it's so important to set a limit to your working hours. For example, I don't answer messages past 8pm, and I set my working hours from 7pm-10pm. I have those 3 hours to get what I need to done each night, and I shut it down after that.
2. Batch out your work. If you have blog posts to write, it's easier to write 5 at once than to sit down and write one, create an Instagram Post, then maybe do some invoicing. When you batch your work, you are saving the time you would have otherwise spent switching back and forth from tasks (and probably the time spent checking your phone in between). 
3. Take a break. Yes I'm talking to YOU. Take 3 hours to do what you want to do and need to do to take care of yourself. If you're spending 8 hours at your day job, and then spending 5 hours when you get home working on your business, when will you have time to take care of yourself or spend time with family? Taking a vacation day (or even a few hours) can help recharge your mind and body, so that you are better than ever when you return.

While these can help prevent burnout, there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you find that you are burning out and needing a break. If you don't ask for help, the workload can get overwhelming.

These are a few strategies that help me, but it can be so hard to stick to them sometimes, especially during the fall. How do you handle burnout?

- Grace