My Favorite Session Locations - Las Vegas Newborn and Family Photographer
I’ve been in Las Vegas for exactly TWO years now! Therefore, I’m officially an expert in the BEST locations for your family session. I hope you sense a lot of sarcasm there. Scouting locations is a major part of being a photographer. There are places that I want to try but haven’t, and probably so many places I’ve never heard of, stumbled upon, or considered going to. However, I have done my fair share of scouting so far, these are simply my favs!
Las Vegas Nevada Family Photographer. I’ve been in Las Vegas for exactly TWO years now! Therefore, I’m officially an expert in the BEST locations for your family session. I hope you sense a lot of sarcasm there. Scouting locations is a major part of being a photographer. There are places that I want to try but haven’t, and probably so many places I’ve never heard of, stumbled upon, or considered going to. However, I have done my fair share of scouting so far, these are simply my favs!
My first favorite place will always be your home. Please, please, please don’t be scared to do an in-home session. The focus is on your family, not your interior design skills. These images are for you and your kiddos to look back on. Decades from now, you’ll more than likely not be in the same home or even same city. However, you’ll look at the images and remember all the memories that a home can have. It really is sentimental. Personally, I haven’t had an in-home session, but I so wish I could go back in time and get one done at our home in Texas. It’s where we brought our babies home, where they crawled on the floors, where we held the most amazing impromptu parties with our neighbors, and so many other memories.
Let’s venture outside.
Symphony Park is in Downtown LV. I LOVE this place! So colorful, green grass (like real grass, not turf), room to run. It just really embodies my style. So perfect for a kiddo milestone or family sessions.
I absolutely love going to the Dry Lake Bed. This was new for me recently to try out. The place is so big and open, I was kind of intimidated by the whole location. Woah, was I missing out! It is the perfect backdrop for family sessions. The dry lake bed is basically a blank canvas. If you like to dress in bright colors and fun prints, this is the place to get your session done! And what can I say about the lighting? In a span of 20 minutes, you’ll get bright sun, golden hour (like golden 10 minutes) and then cool hues of sun behind the mountains. Just gorgeous!! If you hire me and want to go outside, let’s go here!
Downtown Las Vegas is such a fun spot, but I must admit I have only done senior sessions there. The sidewalks are colorful, new murals are always popping up, funky alley ways, and then I’ll make you go to the top of a parking garage for a few more pics. Trust me, parking garage pics are fun!
I started venturing to Mt. Charleston this fall for family sessions, and I fell in love. When the Aspen trees turn golden, it is a completely different world up there. October is definitely the month to book your session there. There were colorful flowers, pops of pink and purple, yellow flowering bushes everywhere, green and golden leaves, it was literally magical! That’s where I WAS going to have my own family’s pictures taken, until Little League changed our plans, I’m not over it. 😤
Of course, there are so many other places that are beautiful in and around Las Vegas, but when clients choose one of these, I do a happy dance. Want to have a session at one of these amazing locations and make me happy dance? Let’s chat!
How I Set Up my Photography Business for Success
This post shares the single most important step I have taken to improve my photography business. Learn what it is and the woman behind the plan!
Las Vegas Newborn and Family Lifestyle Photographer
Fellow photographers, this blog is for you! "Never stop learning; for when we stop learning, we stop growing." I first read a short essay on this quote by Loyal 'Jack' Lewman about 10 years ago when I was at a teacher inservice. Normally, I would skip over these articles and go about sipping coffee, but for some reason, this quote really stuck with me.
Fast forward almost a decade later, I had taken a leave from teaching and started up a small photography business. As any fellow photographer will know, it is an evolving and steep learning curve when it comes to photography. Those first few years were filled with hours of video instruction, lots and lots of free shoots, teaching myself Lightroom and Photoshop, and an unhealthy addiction to buying newborn wraps and tiebacks. I was improving, but I still felt that I had no real personal photography style and definitely no business plan.
Welcome to the stage, Sabrina Gebhardt. Her lovely images first filled up my Instagram when she teamed up with fellow Fort Worth photographer, Jodie Miears from Reverie Photo Co. for a newborn lifestyle workshop. During that workshop, holy moly, my eyes were opened!! Here was this woman that made me feel so comfortable, forming a group of like minded photographers, and really truly wanting to help us and our business!! The session went great, and us photographers got a great hands on practice following Sabrina's lead. The best part though, was after. Myself and the other photographers from the workshop were in a private Facebook group and formed a small sense of community. We were able to ask questions and get to know each other a little. That was the first time I felt that I had another photographer or two to talk with. That in itself is worth it!!
Fast forward a few months, and Sabrina was offering a new course, The Organized Photographer. This course would cover everything and more that I desperately needed to know. How to set up a business, how to manage social media, what exactly SEO is and how to improve it. ALL. THE THINGS!! This course was a lifesaver and I highly recommend this to every photographer that is feeling a little lost with their business. However, this was more that just modules. My favorite part was getting to know the other women in this group. We were all in it together!!
You see, Sabrina has a knack for forming a community. During our course, she hosted Q&A's, Zoom happy hours, round tables, and more. After the past year, I now have photographer friends all across the country!! I cannot tell you how much I have gained since I first started learning from Sabrina. I now have a firm ground to stand on when it comes to running my business. I am growing as an artist, I have the confidence to try new things with clients, I have FRIENDS in the business, and I am continuing to grow personally into a better business owner, and wife/mom!