One thing I’ve taught my son over the past year is that he needs to always have a back-up plan in case his plans and expectations for things to come don’t go his way.  Like a few times this past summer as we made our way to our local park, he’d say “I sure hope there are some kids there for me to play with” and on a time or two, there wouldn’t be and he would be pretty sad and disappointed.  For a 5-year-old it’s seriously no fun just playing with your mom at the park, especially when you’re home with her all day as it is.

So, one day on our way to the park, I suggested he have a plan B or a back-up plan in case there were no friends to play with at the park.  We talked about various other things we could do and one of them was to simply go for a walk around the neighborhood instead.  As we made our way around the corner and to the park he could clearly see no one was there.  Instantly he raised his hand in the air, pointed up and said “back up!  Let’s go for a walk instead.”  So we strode past the park and continued on our walk with no one being sad or disappointed.

Setting expectations for my photography sessions with my clients can be quite similar.  I know how exciting it can be with all the anticipation for your photography session, but sometimes there are glitches in the plan and we need to think about a back-up plan.  One of the reasons I started renting a studio space was in the case of our oh-so-unpredictable Minnesota weather, which came in handy for this session, which was originally scheduled for outside at the Sculpture Gardens in Minneapolis.  It turned out to be one of the coldest and windiest days in October, so instead of rescheduling, we went to the studio and still had a great time creating some beautiful photos for their daughter’s 1st birthday.