The first week of 2018 started with an amazing one-on-one mentoring session with Hannah Shinholser Photography. As soon as I met Hannah and got to know more about herself and her business, I knew she was totally invested. I could sense her determination and passion for photography and the people that come with it. I love getting to know my clients before jumping into the lesson plan. This allows us to get comfortable and really dig deep into the heart of the business. Hannah is so good at what she does and her work is stunning! I can already see business growth and another level of confidence shining through her since we met for the mentoring day.
My larger mentoring packages include a mini styled portrait session of choice. Hannah wanted to practice with a couple and asked for a location that represented her business. Luckily, the barn that I chose was one I have used for a previous mentoring shoot and it fit her personality and brand so well. I always want to make sure I am providing details for my clients that are customized to their business needs, not mine!
I love that my mentees have differences from me and my style, but still appreciate learning from me. I also found that adding a little bit of my own style encouraged Hannah to try something new. She soon stepped out of her comfort zone, and enjoyed it! As photographers, we should constantly push ourselves to step outside of our branding box and spice things up every once in a while! Hannah had the opportunity to try a couple of new techniques and she totally ran with it… that’s what these practice photoshoots are for after all! With a mix of our brands coming together, we had so much fun shooting side by side! Hannah is SO beautiful and I’m obsessed with her headshots, which shares her love for horses, her adorable style, and stunning features! See my favorites below!
Following the headshots, we had the most perfect and adorable couple modeling for us this day. The best part is that they had just gotten engaged over Christmas time and we were able to capture their first professional photos ever, along with their actual engagement shoot!! How special and awesome is that!? Plus we ended the evening with a slight sunset glow along the horizon through the trees, and we were so pumped about it! I loved working with this sweet couple, my amazing mentee, and the vendors who helped out! Just you wait until you see this fun-loving, romantic session- cue the heart eyes!!!
If you’re ready to make the next step in your photography business and you’re interested in one-on-one mentoring with Remy, visit the website for more information!
If you want to be the first to find out more about RTP Educational Events, exciting announcements, and early access for sign-ups, get all the notifications here!
I’ve been waiting too long to share this special day on the blog! Morgan and I had this ECU graduation session planned for a long time. Just a few days before I was going to meet her, I got a (secret) phone call from Morgan’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, Jenna. She informed me that Morgan’s boyfriend, Alex, was planning to propose at the end of the graduation session!!! Naturally, I freaked out with excitement and couldn’t wait for the big moment! Jenna and I came up with a solid plan and we were ready for the mission! 🙂
When the session/engagement day arrived, I met up with Morgan just like any other graduation session would start. I was introduced to some family members and Alex, who “just wanted to come along” for the session. Little did she know, they were all there for the big surprise proposal… but, I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
This was easily one of the best moments I was asked to be a part of through my business. I mean seriously, I love having a role in major life celebrations, and this was a BIG one. There’s nothing like seeing love explode right in front of your eyes and seeing that moment being shared with the people who love them the most. It was incredible and yes, I literally cried. In front of everyone.
Thank you, Morgan and Alex, for allowing me to be a part of this time of graduating at ECU and getting engaged to the love of your life. This is the most exciting time of your life, and I hope you enjoy every moment of it! CONGRATULATIONS, wishing you all the love and blessings in your future!!
FINALLY, I can announce the winner of Giveaway #2!!!!
THANK YOU to everyone who joined in the celebration of my Website + Brand Launch for Remy Thompson Photography!!! If you haven’t seen the new website, I would LOVE if you could take a little visit and share some feedback!
CONGRATULATIONS,
Sarah Kircher!!!
You are the winner of the giveaway Sweetheart Session in Richmond, VA!! I am SO excited to meet you! 🙂
If you entered the giveaway and are interested in booking a session or wedding with RTP, visit my website to contact me or to view packages, galleries, and more!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at remybthompson@gmail.com! I would love to chat with you!! Subscribe to my website and blog if you’re interested in getting updates about giveaways, promotions, new offers, exciting news, fun photoshoots, and getting to know Remy a little better!
Oh, happy day!!! It’s time to announce the winner of Giveaway #1!!!!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who joined in the celebration of my Website + Brand Launch for Remy Thompson Photography!!! I decided to offer TWO giveaways for this special occasion because I am so humbled and overwhelmed by the love and support you all have given me and this business! The best way I can show my thanks and love back is by giving and giving a little more. See Giveaway #2 at the bottom!
CONGRATULATIONS,
Kimberly McGee!!!
You are the lucky winner of a $20 Amazon gift card! YAY!!! Go treat yourself, girlfriend!
GIVEAWAY #2
Learn how to enter by visiting today’s Instagram/Facebook post!
Sweetheart Session based in Richmond, VA!
This includes all couples, anniversaries, engagements, and announcements- YAY!
Friday’s blog will announce the final giveaway winner at 10am, along with more fun branding images to celebrate the RTP Launch! Thanks for following, friends!
In honor of these two lovely people getting married this weekend (EEE YAY!!), I figured I would share their sweet engagement session from this past winter! Kayla was my random roommate during my first year at East Carolina University. Sure enough, after her soon-to-be hubby proposed a few years later, she reached out to book their engagement session with me!
I was seriously SO excited for this! Kayla and Randy are crazy fun, so in love, and they just radiate happiness!! This particular winter day was, of course, absolutely FREEZING. I don’t know how she did it, but she was really a trooper wearing those dresses in that frigid weather! She looked stunning and these images are some of my favorites!! Cloudy skies turned into the most perfect golden hour. You’ll definitely want to stick around to see how this session ended on Libby Hill! Allll the heart eyes for that lighting and these two love birds! 🙂
I’ve been obsessed with cameras and taking pictures since for-ev-er. I think I’ve gone through about 20 different types of cameras. You know, there’s the disposable cameras (let’s say 50 of those), old and new polaroid cameras, digital cameras (a lot of those too, mostly in pink), pinhole, film, and one of my favorites: the I-Zone pocket sticker camera. Those stickers were literally all over my house and my sisters face-sorry Tori. I wanted to bring a camera everywhere I went! In college, my parents gifted me my first Nikon DSLR. That’s when the party started. Just kidding, I didn’t pick it up for a long time until it snowed one day and then I said “what the heck is this thing, I can’t take a good picture.” Then my frustration led to a lot of youtube videos and I started figuring it out (a little)! Here is an example of my first-timer photos..and yes, I forced my dogs, friends, and family to be my models – YOU’RE WELCOME… JK thanks to all who have been my model in the past and sorry to anyone who feels used! 🙂 Oh, and a major shoutout to my parents (Roe, Peej- you know who you are) who bought me every camera ever since the beginning of time. Thanks mom and dadddd, I actually seriously wouldn’t be doing this right now if it weren’t for your support, LOVE YAZ.
Before I knew it, I was shooting several back to back graduation sessions with an entry level Nikon D3200, set to auto or maybe Aperture, using a kit lens, two sketchy memory cards, one battery, one prayer, and not a clue about lighting. The outcome? Weirdly successful..not the BEST quality..but it was fun, and my clients were always happy. I was so excited about my work when I first began taking portraits! Although I have improved an insane amount with practice, education, and mentoring over the past two years, I am still so proud of myself for just going for it!! Sure, my images weren’t amazing and I partly didn’t know what I was doing, but I wanted to get out there and take some freakin’ pictures! So I did and I LOVED everything about it. I loved trying new things, meeting new people, reconnecting with friends, practicing, learning, and seeing myself improve every time. These senior sessions were some of my firsts, and I still love them even though they aren’t my current editing style!
My photography style was in the “middle school” stages for a little while. You know, like when you have braces, you randomly get the chicken pox which creates more awkwardness, you wear striped turtle necks for the yearbook photos, have fluffy hair that takes over your tiny face so you wear it in a tight boyish bun, you’re scared to hold a boy’s hand, and you’re only allowed to wear eye shadow and lip gloss…..yes, that was me, and I am no longer ashamed..
MIDDLE SCHOOL REMY AWWWW
In those stages of my photography, I was inexperienced. I was teaching myself editing in Lightroom, I didn’t know how to shoot in manual, I knew nothing about lighting or my camera, and I couldn’t find my own style. Every picture and every album looked different. I didn’t have that consistent style that clients would expect of you. Once I really found MY style, I started going through the “high school” stages. In real high school I got my braces removed, I wore Abercrombie and Hollister, wore cooler belts than the one photographed above, started wearing mascara, had some boyfriends here and there.. you know, basically I thought I was getting the hang of life. So in these stages of my photography, I was new and improved. I upgraded to new gear, took an intro to photography class in Richmond, began following the leaders in the creative industry, and studied my butt off. Because DUH I was trying to get to “college”, people!!! 🙂 I knew it was time to invest in more education. I knew I was ready to take the next step and I knew I had it in me. I went to my first Hope Taylor Workshop in March 2016. It was a complete game-changer. I learned SO much from Hope (truly a genius, wizard, fairy, angel girl). I was encouraged by her and the other attendees and I became inspired. I was more knowledgeable and I was ready to move forward in my business. That was my high school graduation and I was ready to move into college. (wink wink, not in real life, I hope you’re following the metaphors..) Here are some photos of when I started improving and seeing more consistency in my work!
Here are a few from the 2016 HTP workshop:
Now, here I am, exactly a year after Hope’s workshop, and I think I can now say that I’m moving onto my second year of [metaphoric] college. I am proud of my work, I love my style, and I love where I’m at right now. This past year I watched LOADS of free webinars and read every blog I could find. I also invested in two major educational courses. I purchased the Amy and Jordan Demos Online Shooting+Editing Course. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone in their first couple years of the photography business. It taught me so much about literally every topic you can think of. The smallest things made the biggest difference for me. Then I signed up for the 2-day Hope Taylor Senior and Wedding Workshop. WOW. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the workshop and Hope. It’s only been a couple weeks since the workshop and I already feel like my business is 100% growing and moving in the right direction. It gave me a major push. I now feel ready for any challenge, and I have so many goals to work towards. I am finally figuring out my schedule, daily and weekly tasks/goals, my calendar organization, and my workflow!
This “college” phase is a major learning experience through trial and error, successes, failures, fear, excitement, changes, highs, lows, everything. I don’t plan on “graduating” for a long time. I know that I have so much more to learn and I don’t plan to stop now or anytime soon. I will never stop growing as a person and the same goes for my business. I believe in myself, even more so after looking at how much I have grown in the past couple years. I have the drive, the motivation, a community to cheer me on, mentors, and a support system. I know that I can keep moving in a positive direction and I plan to do just that. Underneath is an example of my most recent engagement shoot. This is my favorite lighting and Kayla was an absolute dream!!.. Keep up with my blog posts and see more pretty images like this every Tuesday!
Quick Announcement:
While I’m on the topic of learning and growing as a photographer, I have some fun news! I am going to begin a blogging series about my fiancé, Eli, learning how to be a photographer LESSON BY LESSON, every Thursday. It will be called the “Photography for Hubbies” series..you know, like “Photography for Dummies”, but it’s for hubbies, because he’s my future hubby (and sometimes a dummy), okay I think you get it.. I am in no way, shape, or form, experienced in teaching someone else the basics about the camera, how to shoot in camera, shooting techniques, or editing because I’m still learning myself! But, I am going to try my hardest step by step, and you’re going to be able to follow along with us! We will try to blog about it week by week, but forgive us if we get a little busy from time to time (we are getting married in June)! So, if you want to learn with Eli, watch his journey, create your own journey alongside his, or if you want to just laugh at us, we can’t wait to have you as an audience! 🙂 Our goal is for Eli to become my second shooter as I enter the wedding photography world, and we are determined to get him there! If your photographer hubby has a few tips he’d like to share, we would love to see them in comments! Expect an introduction about Eli this Thursday! We can’t wait to begin! GO ELI!
P.S. THANK YOU to my sweet friends for subscribing to my blog!!
I’m so excited to start this new journey so that I can really begin growing this passion and business of mine! Normally I would think to myself, “nobody actually cares what I have to say..nobody is going to read it..most people will just laugh at me..nobody takes me seriously..” But now, I’m saying “GOODBYE negative thoughts, GOODBYE fear, and HELLO to an encouraged, inspired, first-time blogger, Remy!”
Name Rant: Yes, my name is Remy and no, I’m not a dog. I swear, I have met ONE human (a boy) and 10 dogs named Remy. This can get pretty weird when the dog isn’t behaving and the owner is yelling at it… No, Remy isn’t short for Remmington. Yes, I despise the movie “Ratatouille” because the rat’s name is Remy and now every time someone hears my name they think of a rat…that’s awesome. Also, the famous lines I have always gotten when I introduce myself: “ohhh, like Remy Ma?”…”ohhh, like Remy Martin?” Yep, you got it! 🙂 But anyway, I just wanted to get the name questions out of the way. Now for the real introduction!
Photo by Blessed Beginnings Photography.
I am a Portrait Photographer currently located in North Carolina, yet always willing, and even hoping, to travel! I grew up just south of Richmond, VA, graduated from East Carolina University in 2014, and found love on Hatteras Island, NC (that’s a whole other blog post). My best friend and fiancé is a super cool, part hippie, dread-head, surfer, musician, fire-spinner, who can-basically-do-everything, and he’s kind of my total opposite (and I love him for that).
I’m an obsessed Aunt to the cutest nephew on the planet! I’m inspired by my crazy, New York, Italian family, who I love to death and miss 24/7, even though they live 3 hours away (that’s sad). I most definitely have an obsession with pink. I mean.. you know you have an obsession when you are separating your laundry and realize you have an entire pile for just the pink clothes and then still believe you don’t have enough pink in your life.. I LOVE pink. It’s just so pretty and girly and fun!!! 🙂 Other things I really love: white chocolate mochas, vanilla chai, flowers, candles, LOTS of pizza (I mean like, a LOT of pizza), sunsets, and adventure. Oh, and I can’t forget my sweet pup, Behr. He sleeps all day, every day and I love his cute cuddles more than anything!
Photo by Hope Taylor Photography. The Biase clan!
I’d also like to share that I cry at just about every movie because, well, I’m emotional. The Biase’s are an emotional bunch. I wouldn’t have it any other way. My parents are amazing and taught me how to use my emotions in the best ways. This is where it gets juicy… Being emotional is what makes me care a weird amount for just about every person that comes into my life. I care a lot, I pour my heart into everything I do, and I love to love. Love is what we LIVE for. Some may not think so, but I do. Love is to give, to sacrifice, to serve. Love is real and raw. Love is what we share with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, and yourself. Love is what this world thrives off of! Love is everything. And that’s why I was called to study hospitality management in college. Hospitality is practicing friendliness, kindness, welcoming, and serving. No, I’m not always the perfect example of hospitality, I constantly face lessons that humble me; but my heart is in this industry and I want to use it to spread love and light to the world. Ultimately, I feel that light shining through the most when I am celebrating with my clients during a session.
I believe in celebrating each milestone in this wild life. I find passion in sharing your love story, popping the champagne because you’re graduating, showing off your first baby bump, and remembering each minute of every special moment.
I think you probably know me a little too well by now, and that’s fine with me! I can’t wait to begin this blogging journey with a fresh post each week…I already have so many ideas that my head could explode! Expect a little bit of every topic of my life and an inside look into all my portrait sessions coming up. I’m so happy you’re joining me on this exciting adventure! Have a topic you want me to share about in the future? Email me with suggestions, I’m open to anything!
