A bride-to-be is on a hunt for her wedding photographer. She scours the Internet for every photographer in her area that will fit her budget, and fills 27 tabs with their beautifully designed websites. Their images take her breath away, and their homepage promises tug on her heartstrings. How is she ever going to choose!
She clicks over to the About Me page on each photographer’s website, and after just three bios, they begin to blur. She was hoping to find even a hint at the soul behind each camera, but all she’s found are variants on the same idea — the same phrases repeat over and over and over until they lose all meaning.
But then, she finds it! The mystical, magical unicorn she’s been searching for! A bio page that exudes sincerity, originality and a real sense of self. It’s filled with incredible stories she can’t wait to share with her friends, and she starts to imagine what it will feel like to be in front of the camera on her wedding day. Just like that, she found her wedding photographer!
Brides all over have started to realize that the person they will spend the most time with on their wedding day isn’t their mom, their maid-of-honor or even their husband-to-be…it’s the photographer. This means it has become more vital than ever to share your unique, vibrant personality through your bio.
The only problem is that we all follow each other on social media and relentlessly stalk the beautiful websites of photographers we admire. We absorbed the language that struck a chord in us and reused it. But after it gets reused a thousand times over, it loses all its punch.
I’ve written countless bios for photographers and studied gazillions more, and I see the same overused phrases popping up over and over again. By eliminating these five from your About Me page, you can cut through the noise, use words that matter and stand out from the crowd.
1. “I’M A STORYTELLER PASSIONATE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.”
Yes. We know.
This sentence is just about as useless in a photographer’s bio as “I have a camera.” And the phrase “I am a storyteller,” has somehow come to mean “I’m not just a photographer…I’m a REAL photographer.” But to be honest, it doesn’t really mean all that much, especially not to clients hiring a professional photographer for the first time. It’s all just empty calories.
Potential clients have a short attention span. They may not even make it through your whole bio before deciding whether to hang around or move on. Including this phrase in your first paragraph is a waste of that valuable, limited attention span, and it takes away time you could be sharing about how you once photographed a wedding at 9+ months pregnant and went into labor 3 hours after the sparkler exit!
2. “A PHOTOGRAPHER FOR THE WILDLY IN LOVE”
Sure, this phrase sounds really cool and seems to promise windblown hair and mountaintop views. And the first, second and fifteenth person to use the phrase probably delivered on those things. But now, it’s become so overused that it has lost its meaning. What does it mean to be wildly in love, anyway? What are you telling potential clients about who you serve?
When photographers reuse the exact same phrase, they start blurring together. “I know I liked the photographers who talked about wild stuff…but was that Becky or Brittany?” You don’t want to give clients-to-be a reason to confuse you with someone else, and because this phrase is everywhere now, it’s sure to create confusion. Instead, share who your ideal client is with a phrase that hasn’t been used a million times before and actually captures who you are as a photographer.
3. “I TREAT MY CLIENTS LIKE FAMILY.”
…what does that even mean?
So many photographers say this, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single one follow this phrase up with a concrete example. So skip it. If you don’t have an example to share that shows how your service is elevated even beyond friendship to family, you should probably lose the sentiment.
If, however, you DO have an example, why just say this empty phrase? Tell us about it! If you once babysat a bride’s 2-year-old so she could go wedding dress shopping, share that story! The client will draw the conclusion you hoped to express, but it will stick with them in a deeper way.
4. “COFFEE IS LIFE!”
Trust me, a grande cappuccino makes a long work day infinitely more bearable. I’m literally drinking one at this very second. But this particular phrase comes off as a little vapid and irrelevant. I know it’s somehow become as synonymous to photographer culture as a camera, but I have literally reworked this concept in every single bio I’ve ever written. It’s becoming a little tired and doesn’t share anything about who you are…beyond a debilitating caffeine addiction.
Rather than turning yourself into a cardboard cutout of a photographer who loves coffee, work another relatable food or drink (but be careful with wine…it’s becoming overused as well) into your bio. If you’re really, really dead-set on including coffee, there are ways to do it. Instead of using this phrase, try something like “you can usually spot me in the wild with a vanilla latte in hand,” or “let’s meet up for cappuccinos and talk about telling your love story!”
5. “I CAPTURE REAL EMOTION/HUMAN CONNECTION/GENUINE INTERACTION.”
There has recently been a backlash against overly-posed images in wedding photography in favor of a candid, documentary style. And while this is an important quality to share on your website, as some couples may be more comfortable with that than others, to simply state it without example or explanation feels like an attempt to fit in with a trend.
If this truly is your approach to photography, share a method you use to relax couples in front of the camera. Describe a time that you caught a treasured, candid moment. Express why you prefer the look of documentary-style images over perfectly posed ones. In the words of writing coaches everywhere, “Show, don’t tell.”
6. “I CREATE AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE FOR MY COUPLES.”
This is another case where photographers everywhere would prefer to tell rather than show, and it does them no favors. I would like to assume that you try to create a positive experience for each of your clients, but without concrete examples, this never sticks with me. It just rings a little hollow.
Instead, share the specific luxury experiences and products you provide your clients and tell us about a time that you accommodated a particularly picky bride or brought coffee to your couple to start a chilly engagement session off right. These are the stories that brides will share with their moms as they fill out your client interest form.
The great thing about each of these phrases is that they are easy to fix. Some hold ideas that can be removed altogether, and some are obscuring incredible stories that clients can’t wait to hear! By removing these phrases from your bio, you’ll no longer be one of the many causing a bride’s eyes to glaze over. You’ll be her mystical, magical unicorn.
