The first few times I was approached with the request to mentor, my initial internal response was “with all due politeness, heck no.” Not because there’s anything wrong with mentoring, but I love large groups of people- I’m very much an extrovert, and the idea of spending three hours with someone I didn’t know at all, only to dump EVERYTHING on them at once, seemed like it would be exhausting for both me and the mentee. But when I thought about it, what I think really turned me off about the idea of mentoring sessions was that there typically wasn’t much room for follow-up, and as someone who loves relationships, that was a hard pill for me to swallow. You pay your lump sum of money, you have your amazing afternoon with the photographer, and then you go on your merry way. That’s a model that works for a ton of photographers, but it just didn’t seem like a good fit for me.

I had a coaching session with Katelyn back in March during which she pushed me; to think in new directions, to consider teaching sooner rather than later, to make my educational opportunities look DIFFERENT than what I see others doing. It’s hard to come up with a “new” format, since there’s already so much diversity in photography education, but I definitely knew I didn’t want the same standard format that I’d seen out there. Again, not because there’s anything wrong it, but because the format of standard flash mentoring sessions just didn’t look all that enjoyable to me. I LOVE getting one-on-one time with people I can pour into, but it was the lack of a continual relationship, the lack of an ability to come alongside someone over a several-month period of time to for check-ups, follow-ups and new ideas based off of new lessons learned that was leaving me less than enthused about offering one-on-one education.

Cue: Connection Mentoring. I am so freaking excited about this!!

What is it? It’s mentoring in a long-term capacity. It’s a four month commitment, an hour once a month, so that you can grow and I can come alongside you as you do, offering guidance and feedback based on how we see things unfolding. It’ll allow you to take what you’ve learned from session to session, apply it, and then step back and we can evaluate together how it’s going. If you leave a session and feel completely overwhelmed, that month between sessions gives you a change to mull things over, try it out, and come back with more questions. This is more than just mentoring- this is a relationship. When you walk away from the end of a semester of Connection sessions, I want you to feel like you’ve gained an ally in the photography industry.

So, how does this work? Beginning in January, I’ll be offering four-month semesters with room for just a handful of photographers per semester to make sure I’m able to give my full attention to each group of photogs. The semesters will run January-April, May-August, and September-December. Sessions are spaced once a month to, like I said, give you a chance to really digest what we’ve talked about and mull things over.

Where will we meet? We can either set up your sessions over Skype, or you can meet me in my home in Reston, Virginia. Totally up to you!

What shall we talk about? It depends- what do you feel like you need help with? Where are you struggling? That’s the beauty of mentoring sessions- if you’re having a hard time with lighting, editing, posing, bookings, etc., we can address it throughout the course of your four sessions. We’ll talk about which categories will take preference according to urgency and such, but I’m down for pretty much anything!

What’s the investment? $500

Sweet! How can I sign up? Registration launches next Friday, so keep an eye on the blog!

I had an awesome hair day yesterday so I decided to take a self-portrait. Both topics (having good hair days & taking non-iPhone self-portraits) are on the table for discussion during Connection sessions, as well as how a dab of red lipstick makes me feel invincible.

I’m so excited for this next chapter and for the new photographers I’ll have the opportunity to form relationships with! As always, feel free to shoot any questions over to me via email- abby [at] abbygracephotography [dot] com.