how Marina Williams plans her colorpop styled photoshoot weekend | Build and Bloom Photography Podcast

In this Build and Bloom Photography Podcast episode, I sit with a friend and fellow photography educator, Marina Willaims. With over 1 million followers across her photography social media. Marina will walk us through the planning process of her elaborate styled shoot workshop, Colorpop.

Scroll to the bottom to expand a written transcription of the show.

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Join the Build and Bloom Facebook Group: it’s a kind, encouraging, and inclusive photography community for all levels of photographers. This is the best place to ask questions about your biz with 0 judgment.

• Listen to more episodes Apple podcasts & listen on Spotify here

• Leave a review on iTunes

• My online photography workshop, Business Basics, brings this episode to you.

Links mentioned:

Sign up for the Colorpop waitlist

Join Made to Make, Marina’s education platform

Follow Marina on Instagram

Follow Marina on TikTok

Honeybook, Photography client management program

Narrative, the best $6 blog tool for photography galleries

Contractista, reliable lawyer-drafted Photography Contract Templates

Love the show? Leave a review on iTunes!

〰️

Love the show? Leave a review on iTunes! 〰️

• Click here to expand the transcription of the episode

  Jessica Whitaker 0:04

  Hey, photographer Jessica Whitaker here. Welcome to the Build and Bloom photography podcas! Today as a special guest episode with my friend and fellow photography educator, Marina Williams. Marina Williams is a photography educator with over 1 million followers across our social channels. I love her work and we align in so many ways from our values as educators to our love for color. Marina teaches beginner photography tips and also breaks down the business in an easy to understand way on her Patreon, Made to Make. This conversation is actually a replay from a live we did together in the Build and Bloom Facebook group.

  Marina holds a photography workshop called ColourPop. And she is going to be sharing how she plans these elaborate styled shoots. There's actually 10 shoots during the workshop weekend. So it's a really interesting conversation, especially from an event planning perspective. So let's play the replay and remember that we have a Facebook group. It's kind, inclusive and encouraging. It's free to join, just search Build and Bloom on Facebook groups and also Marina socials and her education platform made to make will be linked down in the description of the show. She's the queen of Tiktok. So definitely search her up Marina Williams right now on Tik Tok and give her a follow up there. And if you're a photographer who wants to join ColourPop that will also be linked in the show notes.

  Marina Williams 2:54

  Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. My name is Marina. I'm a creative portrait photographer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. I moved here about four years ago from Florida. And I mostly focus on women's kind of fashion, editorial shoots and creative portraits. And it's been really fun to kind of dive into education over the last couple of years. And I found that so many people are interested in attending in person events and photoshoots. So my business partner Ashley, and I started an event called ColourPop. We hosted our first one last last summer. And our next one this year is coming up in July and August. We're hosting it two weekends of it.

  Basically, it is a portfolio building weekend for photographers to attend, to come take photos to revamp their website, have images for social media, and kind of just broaden their horizons. But basically this summer we'll be hosting the event twice. And over the course of three days. We're going to be hosting 10 photoshoots that are all very different but the reason it's called ColourPop is because it focuses around color so everything is going to be very saturated and fun and bright and colorful. So yeah, that's pretty much the basis of what it is amazing.

  Jessica Whitaker 5:06

  So Marina, what is a styled shoot or a content day.

  Marina Williams 5:11

  So it's been really fun to see styled shoots and content days or content weekends, there's a lot of different names for them kind of become popular over the past couple years. Even since I've only lived in Utah for four years. There's so many of them here. There's a big creative community here. But it's, I've seen so many of them hosted in California and Pacific Northwest. It's an opportunity for other photographers to pay a fee to come and join and photograph a concept that the host has totally styled themselves, hire the models, makeup artists, florists, stylists, whoever is involved in the team and executed this concept, you just as photographers show up, and you get to photograph it for your portfolio. So there's no planning on your end, it's all up to the host that does that. And there, they've become a lot popular, a lot more popular over the years, as I've said, usually in the wedding industry, there are a lot of weddings and couples photographers that host these events. But I haven't seen too many events like this hosted for portrait photographers. So that's kind of where my business partner, Ashley, and I stepped down and we're like, hey, it would be so cool to host an event like this, where we have so many photoshoots in a short amount of periods, people can get the most bang for their buck, but I'll be kind of around creative portraits, and kind of editorial style photoshoots. So that is the point of ColourPop. But yeah, that's basically what it is, it's an opportunity for photographers to come and build their portfolio, make connections, expand into a new line of work that maybe they haven't tried out before, you know, experiment. It's just overall, there's so many pros to them.

  And, you know, when I first moved to Utah, I didn't know anyone, I had to, you know, start my business from the ground up. And I started attending some smaller scale styled shoots here. And it was such a great way to kind of, you know, revamp my website with images that were taken in Utah, because they were all just like the beaches before. So then I kind of got to experiment and do some bridal photos that I hadn't done before and whatnot. So I found it in my experience to be really helpful, not only in building my portfolio, but in like connecting with other photographers. So that's why I loved attending them. And that's why our attendees love coming to. That's so awesome. It's such a great opportunity. And it's so much easier than an individual photographer, especially just starting out or further, maybe a little bit further in their business, but you're new to an area. And you don't you don't have to do any of the planning. I love that you just show up, and you shoot.

  Jessica Whitaker 7:54

  So can you tell us about a little bit more about your event? ColourPop has how many photoshoots? Did you say you do 10?

  Marina Williams 8:04

  We're doing 10 this year, so last summer, and this summer, we do pretty much like a little bit more than half outdoors, and then the other half in studio. So it's like a fun mix to get kind of like a variety of different shots. You know, that's the whole point of this event is to diversify your portfolio in every way possible. So of course, people love Utah's landscapes for photography. I mean, it's the reason I moved here, I wanted to live somewhere that had a diverse landscape. And so we shoot at the beloved Bonneville Salt Flats. In the past few shot at the sand dunes, we're trying out some new locations this year in the mountains as well. And then we're also doing four concepts in studio in rotating kind of stations. So definitely a fun variety. We have like the main focus of the weekend, like I said, is creative portraits and editorial concepts. We have a couple of like bridles couple shoots going on, but there's like a fun creative twist with them. They're not your traditional bridal photos with a white dress. So it's kind of fun to you know, do a different kind of twist on bridles and couple shots, but still give people the opportunity to do that as well at our events. So, um, yeah, so this year, we're doing it a little bit differently. We're doing a kind of like retreat style where everyone's gonna stay together and a big Airbnb. So I'm so excited about that last summer.We didn't do that just because of COVID and everything. But a lot of the attendees ended up kind of splitting Airbnbs with each other anyways, and let us know that that was like one of their favorite parts and that one was something that we didn't even facilitate. And we were like, Okay, well this year, we definitely have to like, make sure that everyone can stay together, because it's just such a great way for people to really bond and like, make connections. So I'm really excited for that. We're spreading out over three days this year. And then I also just wanted to say all of our spots this year are filled already, unfortunately. But this is an event that we want to be doing more consistently than once a year, ideally.

  Jessica Whitaker 10:26

  It's so awesome for people like you and me who loves to utilize color in as many ways as possible in our business and to start life and having a color pop I mean it's the perfect name for it. It's truly like one of the most unique portfolio weekend's and events just even in the last like five years, it's something that really stands out. I mean, your use of color is so, so well done. It's so harmonious. It's gorgeous.

  What's your goal as the host for the event?

  Marina Williams 13:48

  So I would say my goal is ideally, when it comes to like the attendees, the photographer's that are coming, I want them to like leave the event feeling confident, number one, and supported by other creatives. I feel like you and I talked about this a lot about like the kind of competitive aspect of like the creative industry. And that's why I love building bloom so much. And like this awesome community and I just want ColourPop and you know, any future events that I host to make people feel like they're supported by other creatives in the industry, because, you know, a lot of photographers don't have that support at home with their family, or their friends. Maybe people are doubting their ability to do photography as a career. And so I hope people can attend to this and of course, leave with an amazing array of like images that they can use for months and months. And you know, have that kind of portfolio built but I want people to feel like they have left with like a whole group of amazing friends. And that's what I've seen happen from last year. It's been so cool, like, so last year we hosted the event twice the same event. So that More people could come because we were just like blown away by the, like response we got from applications there were so many. And we are trying to keep it really small so that it's a good experience for everyone coming to photograph and for the models, of course. But so we had 20 photographers both weekend, so 40 total. And it's been almost a year since the event. And it like the attendees have visited each other across the country. They've gone on trips together, they've hosted their own events. And it's so cool to see them kind of like make the strides in their career just from like the network that they've made. And the friendships that they've made. Honestly, it feels like photography, summer camp, especially now that we're going to like, stay together in an Airbnb. I'm like, it's basically summer camp, but for creative, so really fun. So awesome.

  Jessica Whitaker 15:46

  Yeah, the adding in how everybody can launch together is going to just amplify it. So with that being said, what did your attendees most enjoy about ColourPop last year.

  Marina Williams 16:00

  So of course, like making the friends and the connections was like their favorite part. We sent out questionnaires to everyone that attended our events and asked a lot of like, really specific questions on like, what can we improve next time? What was your favorite part? What was your least favorite part like, and so we got a lot of really, really great feedback. And we use that when planning our event this year. So we're doing things like kind of differently. We are. But we've kind of taken into mind how important like the community aspect of it was. And that's why we're kind of we added in like an editing night, we're all going to edit together into Portfolio Review night, and stuff like that. So that's definitely what they loved the most was the network of other creatives that they've met. But it's also been cool to see that like, you know, when you're taking photos, just over these three days, where we're hosting 10 photoshoot concepts, like people are having content to post on social media and their website for like a full year. Like I'm still getting tagged and stuff by attendees from last year that are like I still haven't shared all these photos. So that was definitely one of their favorite things about what they enjoyed about ColourPop was like getting so much content from one weekend that you can spread it out over time, they don't have to worry about like running out of anything, they can always you know, have that in their back pocket to kind of share. So that's been cool as well to see. It's so awesome.

  Jessica Whitaker 17:24

  It's so valuable for their business is that just the volume of, of the shoots. 10. That's so crazy! Oh, I would I would love for us to talk a little bit about, like the planning process, especially for those watching who are interested in in hosting their own styled shoots and workshops. So okay, what made you land on the number 10 for the photoshoots?

  Marina Williams 17:51

  So it's just such a clean number 10 is so great. Um, I would love to do more, but it's just, it's a lot for one yen, especially since. So what was important to us, when it came to like choosing photographers to attend, we ended up doing an application process instead of first come first serve. Because it was important to us to have like a diverse group of photographers in like niche and skill level. So we, we have 20 photographers for each event. And we wanted to make sure that there was, you know, a good amount of like beginner photographers, and then like intermediate level photographers, and then advanced photographers that have been running their business for years. And same thing when it comes to niche. We last year, we had a lot of portrait photographers, we had some wedding photographers, we had commercial and brand photographers, we had concert photographers, it's been really cool to see, like that group come together. And I feel like they learn from each other more when everyone comes from kind of different backgrounds and niches and stuff like that. So that was important to us from a planning perspective to like be able to choose photographers in that way. And then, sorry, I feel like I didn't even answer your question. Your question was like the plant out choosing 10 photoshoots. But that was perfect, though, to set it on your genius that was perfect. Curious about like the setting up process, but knowing the application process is super valuable, too. I mean, that was like really, right. And I feel like so we had 20 photographers, we wanted to do 10 photoshoots. And then we spread them out over three days. Last year, we did it over two days, just Saturday and Sunday. And our attendees let us know that like it was great, but they did wish they had like an extra day or that they were they had a little bit more free time because it was so go, go go. So that's what we did this year. We're spreading it over over three days. So just like listening to that feedback of like how we can improve next time is important to us. And so we decided to again, land on 10 concepts but spread them out a little bit. So we're doing like, to the first day, for the second day or something like that, like splitting them up pretty evenly. So yeah, that's how we landed on 10. And it's cool because you know, we have a few like one or two couples bridles kind of shoots. And the rest are creative portraits, editorial, some of which are just female models, some of which are like solo shots, some of which are male models, or like group concepts as well with multiple models. So we have like a whole variety of different types of shoots going on. And we just wanted them to all be like kind of different so that everyone that attends is maybe shooting a concept that is a little bit outside of their comfort zone. Like a lot of our attendees last year, we had a concept of two male models, and they were like, I never shoot guys, like I only shoot women, like, I don't know how to pose them. And so like it was cool to kind of like, guide them from like a host perspective, like, Okay, here's what I would do, and kind of give them the opportunity to go outside of their comfort zone. And a lot of them were like, Oh, that ended up being one of my favorite shoots, because it challenged me. So yeah, that's how we landed on the shoots. How do you come up with the concepts for 10 for 10 photo shoots, and they're all so brilliant, like, I'm honestly I feel like for so I host it with my business partner, Ashley, she is our art director and stylist. Ashley and I have worked together since I first moved to Utah, we used to work full time for a kid's clothing company in the photo department. So she was the art director and I was the photographer. So for back at our old job, we planned shoots all the time, that was our job. And then since we both left that company, we've you know, even we work there, were always like, oh, like, it would be so cool to do like a monochromatic rainbow concept where we shoot every color of the rainbow and like put it all in one. Like, we've always kind of had these like ideas in our back pocket that we've like wanted to do, but never really had the time to do or the resources to do. So now ColourPop really gives us the opportunity to just like go all out with every dream that we've ever wanted to do. And I feel like coming up with the 10 concepts is the easiest part. Because we have like a Pinterest board of like 1000s and 1000s of like pins with like clothing and paintings and music videos and you know, photography and all that kind of stuff that we like have to narrow down and that is the hard part. So I feel like our we have so many ideas, but um, we're just actually so good at what she does as well. She has 10 plus years of experience and like design and styling. And it's really awesome to work with her because she's so great at color and, you know, planning and styling, the wardrobe and the set building and everything as well. So, yeah, we kind of just want to have a variety of different types of shoots that involve different types of composition, if that makes sense. So like, some of our shoots will involve, like big set building. And then some of them will involve like last year, we did a shoot with all professional ballerinas. So there was no, the focus was on the ballerinas. And we had them wear like long flowing gowns and the point the whole point of that was like movement and getting those like action shots and stuff. So we just want the kind of composition of the different images to be very different and allow people to get different types of photos. So yeah, kind of just inspired by all sorts of things. But yeah, what has been your favorite shoot, like? Yeah, what has been your favorite shoot within ColourPop just your personal faith. That's hard. I don't know if I can choose one. I feel like I owe 30 of them. Last year, um, my favorite was probably we did so we went to the sand dunes here in Utah and we did two concepts at once and had the groups rotate back and forth as the sun was going down. And one of them was like the bridal one that we were talking about. And then the other one was we got these huge neon acrylic panels made basically these like really tall arches and like hot pink and lime yellow and had the models like interact like shooting through the neon with the with the desert in the background. And it just turned out so sick like and the way that the neon panels like glowed as the sun went down it was crazy. So that one turned out really cool but everyone that comes to our events is really excited to shoot at like the sand dunes and salt flats because you know they probably a lot of them live in places that don't have you know locations like that. We're so lucky here in Utah but I just have a soft spot in my heart for all of the studio shoots I really love shooting in studio like the most probably so those always ended up being my favorite and I'm excited for the series too. I love that you do the mix of the of the environment and then in studio I think that's really If it's smart, and especially if you're attending, like the people who are attending are coming from out of state. It's yeah, I've actually never been. I went to Utah last month for a conference and I was like, Oh, I really want to go to the salt flats. You'll have to come back. Well, you have to come back and we'll plan something. That'd be fun. The only thing that sucks about the salt flats is that it's in the middle of nowhere. And that drive is like brutal. Oh, dang. I kind of figured I was like, it's either like next to Salt Lake City, like two minutes from the target and whatever, or it's like in the middle of nowhere. It's on the border of Nevada and Utah. Literally, it's a rest stop on the side of the road. And it's just like, it's an hour and a half west in the middle of nowhere. And so the drive is brutal, but the location is always worth it.

  Jessica Whitaker 27:08

  What would your advice be to somebody who is wanting to host their own event style jute, what's like the best way to get started with it?

  Marina Williams 27:20

  I would say like listening to your peers in your audience about like what type of work that they like to, like, have the opportunity to shoot. So the thing about ColourPop that I love is that we're executing these like high level concepts that are frankly very expensive to produce. And, like most of the time, you know the photographer's that are coming to shoot them, like don't necessarily have the funds or the resources to like plan something like that. And so it's kind of our opportunity to again, like go all out in the styling so that they can have a photoshoot that they are so excited and proud of to photograph for their portfolio. So I think that kind of like listening to your peers, you know, people that would attend your events on what type of photography that they want to add to their portfolio, what type of style they want to photograph. And kind of like running with it to plan something really unique is really important. That would be like the first step is I guess just like gathering research from your peers. And then like going from there. We have a lot of really amazing vendors we work with and Utah, florists, hair stylists, makeup artists, all that kind of stuff and brands that want to work with us on the events and like lending, wardrobe and stuff. So I guess building your network is also really important. We have an open vendor call on our website, as well for people to submit their information if they're interested in working with us. But kind of just becoming active in your local community with other vendors outside of photographers is super important. Just to like make those friendships and, you know, start collaborating with them. So that like when it comes down to like hiring them to work on a styled shoot with you. You can kind of already know who you want to work with, because you've kind of been building that friendship and network online, if that makes sense.

  Jessica Whitaker 29:28

  For number of attendees, would you recommend for somebody hosting their first one like 10? Or would you recommend 20?

  Marina Williams 29:36

  I wouldn't recommend 20 for your first one. I think that I think that any more than 20 for us for our events, even with like the fact that we it's like me and Ashley plus a bunch of assistants. We're hiring and like we have a large team and still having 20 photographers is a lot because you don't want to have your photographers feel like they're fighting for the shot. If That makes sense. Yeah, too many people, especially if it's just like one model, if there's too many people trying to photograph at the same time, they will get in each other's way they'll bump shoulders by accident. And you just want it to be kind of as seamless as a seamless experience as possible for everyone involved. And, of course, it's a styled shoot. So there are going to be multiple photographers there, like you kind of just have to accept that as an attendee, but to kind of from a host perspective, to kind of narrow that down as much as possible is really helpful. So what we always do, what we did for color pop last year, that helped a lot was, um, we like, So say, for example, our first shoot of the weekend was to female models. And we had two different at one location, we had two different setups going on. So it was one shoot, but the models were separate. And we split the group of 20, photographer's into 10. And then we had them rotate back and forth. And then at the, and then we also like, if we have more models, we would also break them off into groups of five. So like it was like five with one, model five with another if we had multiple models. And then at the very end, we would bring models together for group shots. And then everyone would kind of photograph as a larger group. And those would be kind of like farther away distance shots, if that makes sense. So that no one's and we'd also make sure to give everyone a few seconds of one on one time with the model. So at each concept, all the attendees got the opportunity to get up close and personal with the models introduce themselves and direct them for some close up shots to so there's like a variety. So kind of managing the logistics of that is really complicated. So just keep that in mind. If you're interested in hosting, like your first ever styled shoot or event that, like, if you are prepared for this type of types of situation, you have a plan for how to make it seamless, it'll be great. But if you kind of go into a blind lane, or like, Okay, go photograph the thing, like it could be a bad experience for everyone involved. So just try to be over prepared, I guess is my advice.

  Jessica Whitaker 32:03

  That's really, really good advice, because that was gonna be my question of how then do you? How do you do the one on one shots of the model looking directly at each person's camera, essentially.

  Marina Williams 32:14

  So giving them that time, it sounds like it's a lot of organization. And and so knowing that going into it. And maybe if organization, you're like, I think I might need some help, maybe having somebody that you can partner with who is like with you like with Ashley, where they can help do the art direction and the styling and then they can be on the on the shoe with you. And then that work is at least split between two people. Yes, yeah. So I'm hiring assistants, I would always recommend. So when it comes to like the one on one, close up shots with the models looking at your camera, we would have the attendees get in a single file line, and an assistant would run a timer. And so they would get their time to approach the model, get the shots that they want, when the timer went off, it was the next person's turn. And so we made sure to, you know, block those times out on our schedule. So we knew okay, we're going to do 10 minutes of the group shooting, and then we're going to do 10 minutes of one on one time shot. So it was a lot of planning and logistics that went into that. But being over prepared really helped us and having a partner or someone is super helpful. So when we split the group's up, if there were two groups, I was always with one as she was with the other, we'd bounce back and forth. So like, we would also be leading the kind of like overall direction for the models and the shots. And we're also just kind of keeping an eye on making sure that all the photographers are getting the shots that they want. Because sometimes there's a shy photographer that's in the back that doesn't want to approach or speak up too loudly, we'll take note of that and make sure that that photographer gets an opportunity to get in the front, even if they didn't say like, Hey, I haven't got that yet. So it is kind of just a lot of things to keep in mind when you're hosting. But I guess my advice is a host would be your job is to is to facilitate this event to run smoothly, smoothly and make sure your attendees get the shot. It's not about you getting shot. So I would leave with not nearly as many photos as my attendees did, because I was doing other things. But having a partner or an assistant or something to help you run these events will like help it run more smoothly and allow you to photograph as well. That's a really good advice. And especially I was gonna say how do you as the photographer then also, make sure that you're getting a few shots to use in your own like promotions for ColourPop. Yeah, so honestly, so we hosted two weekends last year. We're doing it again this year as well. And it's the same exact concepts and shoots and everything. We're just doing it twice that we have more people can come and join. There will be some things that are changed depending on like model availability and wardrobe and stuff like that. But after last year is first weekend I was just like so exhausted from hosting the event. And we had only one week, only five days in between the events, it was back to back weekends. This year, we're giving ourselves two weeks. Because we're so exhausted. But during that one week, I definitely had a lot of FOMO. Because all of our attendees were immediately adding editing their photos and sharing them on social media, they were so excited. And I was like, Girl, I don't even have time to breathe yet. Like I haven't edited my photos. So I definitely had FOMO from the first weekend. And I was like, dang, I didn't get as many photos as I thought I would, because I was so busy. So then the second weekend, I made sure to, you know, maybe on the first weekend, shoot, number one, I didn't get that many photos, I made sure to really take photos at that same shoot the following weekend. So it's helpful that we get to do it twice, because it allowed me to take more photos. But yeah, I just, it's not that important to me to, like, get the most amazing photos, because I'm like the host, I'm not in attendance. So it's more of just a bonus. But I would make sure to like get a few from each shoot that I'd be proud of. But yeah, that's really good advice. So it's not, it's not like, if you're planning a styled shoot to host it's not with the intention for you as the as the host to be able to use this as like a proper styled shoot for your own portfolio. Rather, your job is to, like you said, facilitate the session, so that the other photographers who are attending and paying to attend, are able to utilize the images. So the priority, it kind of, you have to shift the priority rather, like when you set up your own styled shoot, it's just you, your job is just to get those images. But in this case, it's really important to keep in mind and go in with the mindset that you're there to host. And then that way it will prevent you from being like, Wait, I didn't get any weight. I didn't get any photos like that was that was what I was really hoping to get out of it. You have to shift your mindset in that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's a total different, like, role and job basically. So it's hard not to be like as a photographer, you know, we love taking photos. That's what we love. And so it is kind of hard to get out of that mindset. And like if you have FOMO, or like, Oh, I wish I shot more wish I got the shot differently. Or, like, if I had more time I could have done this. But like that's not your priority. Your job is to host an event. That's like a totally different role. And anything that you're able to get is really a bonus. If you kind of accept that mindset, like you'll feel a lot happier and it will be like a much better experience for you to!

  Jessica Whitaker: Marina, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing with us all about ColourPop both as an attendee and from the perspective of that attendee too!