Sarah Phillips
Sarah Phillips is a self-taught photographer who lives on Boston’s North Shore (Eastern Time). She shoots with a Nikon D700, 24-70 2.8, 50 1.4 and 85 1.8, 80-200 2.8 and uses SB800 speedlights. Sarah specializes in children’s and family photography and loves to capture her everyday life. She uses ACR and CS5 to create clean and bright images. Sarah is the instructor for CM’s on camera flash workshop, “Speedlight for Beginners” and is a teaching assistant for Lynne Rigby’s “The Best Darn Beginner Course Ever” and Sarah Wilkerson’s “Elements of Design”. You can view Sarah’s work at www.sarahphillipsphoto.com.
“Open Book” Q&A
Start-to-Finish Editing
Edit My Images
Portfolio Review
Website Review
Customized One-on-One Mentoring Session
Mornings
After 10:00am Eastern / 7:00am Pacific
Weekdays and Weekends
Evenings
After 7:00pm Eastern/4:00pm Pacific
Weekdays and Weekends
Email sarahp@clickinmoms.com to request online mentoring with Sarah.
Please confirm Sarah’s availability and type of session requested, then purchase your session HERE.
I recently had a portfolio review with Sarah Philips and it was so incredibly enlightening! I was nervous but Sarah was so easy to talk to, from the second we started. This is not to say she went easy on me though, there were a few photos in my portfolio that she said to simply remove, they were not cutting it, and she explained why very well. We went through every photo, and Sarah was great about specific issues and general overall goods and bads about the group of photos I had selected. I walked away knowing my specific strengths and weaknesses, and with a specific plan of what to do next. This portfolio review exceeded my expectations. Thanks so much Sarah!
Hello!
I think this is my first forum post outside of workshops! I’m so excited to share my experience with my first mentoring session. (I say first because after this experience I will definitely do another one!)
So … I had the pleasure of doing a mentoring session with Sarah Phillips last month. I had “met” Sarah when I took her Speedlight workshop last spring, so I already knew she was kind and funny and talented. I also knew I liked her style of providing feedback: supportive, honest, direct, and helpful.
As background, I have taken several workshops here at Clickin’ Moms since I joined at the start of the year and thoroughly enjoyed them and learned immensely from them. I took the first run of Lynne’s 301 Finding Your Style workshop this summer and, as part of that class, had created my first portfolio. After finishing the workshop, I felt I was in a really good position to have a mentoring session. I had a better understanding of what I love to shoot, of how I approach photography in general and my subjects (my kids) in particular, and what I am striving for in terms of my style and voice.
I wanted to do a mentoring session for a couple of reasons. First, I have a very difficult time looking at my own images and evaluating them. I can quickly cull through a set of images and identify the ones I like and do not like, but I have trouble evaluating the good images as “portfolio worthy” versus “family scrapbook worthy.” :) Second, I consider myself a lifestyle photographer and I strive to have my photographs capture the natural unfolding of my children’s stories (their emotions, their interactions, their lives). I think it can be difficult to create a moving photograph that speaks to people who do not already have a vested interest in my children’s lives. So, I wanted to have someone who was unbiased to look at and consider my photographs.
Sarah and I Skype’d for about 90 minutes. We shared a desktop, and she pulled up my portfolio as well as my recently created (but currently inactive) blogsite. Let me start out by saying that the hour and a half I spent with her was just so much fun. Sarah is incredibly easy to open up to, and I felt like we connected instantly over photography (and the chaos of three children!!!). :)
Sarah reviewed every single image in my portfolio. She took her time and really looked at each image. She listened to my thoughts about each image (what I liked, what I didn’t like) and then offered her own critique and insight. As I expected, Sarah is very positive and supportive and she made me feel very good about my photography, especially helping me to believe in the images that she felt were strong and emotive and utilizing light well. She has a keen eye for photography and helped me to see the elements in my images that were working and making the photograph stronger and to pick out the elements that were distracting or hindering to the image. She offered suggestions for making images strong, either through editing or even recreating the image entirely. She answered all of my questions throughout the session, even when I promised “oh wait, just one more …” :)
Most importantly to me, Sarah quickly understood that I wanted to gain a better understanding of which photographs should be in my portfolio, which photographs could either be edited differently to be more consistent in my portfolio and with my style, and which photographs would be best saved for family. We went through each image with this goal, and I finished the mentoring session confident that I could create a much stronger portfolio.
I left the mentoring session feeling really good. I tend to be very critical about my work and hard on myself in general, but I felt I had really gained an understanding of my work as a whole and what my strengths and weaknesses are as a photographer. Sarah gave me concrete recommendations for different shooting goals to expand my portfolio. She also left me feeling more defined as a photographer and very positive about where I am right now and where I want to be in the next few months.
I highly recommend a mentoring session and especially a session with Sarah. I think as photographers we can really grow when someone outside of our immediate circles takes an honest look at our work and is genuinely interested in our success. Last month, Sarah was that person for me!
Sarah is great. She was open, honest, and totally down to earth. Speaking with her was so easy-we just hit it off. I felt like I was reconnecting with an old pal. :)
Sarah gave me great insight into my work-things *I* could not see with my own eye. :) After our time together…I really feel more confident, refreshed, and ready to proceed with my photographic journey. :) This truly was a wonderful opportunity that will help me grow. I highly recc Sarah!!! :)
I highly recommend Sarah as a mentor! I had specific Q/A questions for our session and Sarah came to our session prepared to address all of them. I had many light bulb A-HA moments during our session. The session was also over web cam so I could see Sarah’s desktop as she explained particular elements using her photos. Not only is she rocking in her camera, she is personable and friendly – exactly the qualities I needed to warm up quickly and feel comfortable. Definitely gives me the confidence to address the next step in my photography journey. Thank you Sarah!