Inspirational Quotes on Photographs

To be honest, I've never been a big fan of putting quotes on photographs. I prefer to let the image speak for itself. However, if that's what a client wants, then that's what I'll do to the best of my ability. Sometimes it can be very beneficial from a social media standpoint as I learned today. I recently photographed three hockey-loving siblings in my studio. I was experimenting with some edgy lighting with a plan to make the shots even grungier with post processing. The parents absolutely loved the images and they garnered a fair bit of attention on FB and IG.
The dad asked me to add a quote to one of the boys' photographs, which I did. That resulted in more likes, views and shares.
Then the mom asked me to add a different quote to her daughter's photograph. That's when things got crazy. I posted it yesterday (Jan. 22, 2015) and as of this moment (12:08pm Jan. 23, 2015) it has reached about 40,000 people on Facebook alone and has been shared over 400 times! If you're a small business owner who doesn't pay for FB adds, you know that that's a lot of attention. Hopefully it results in some sessions booked. If you're interested in a session, check out my website at HERE or email me at mail@chrismccooey.photography
Here's the photograph that's blowing up my analytics.
Update: this photo continued to be viewed, liked and shared and now stands at about 462,00 views on my page and 6,600 shares all over the world. Unfortunately, it has also been downloaded, degraded and reposted without any links to me or my business resulting in thousands more 'orphaned' shares. I've also seen it printed without permission, in violation of my copyright. So, I've also learned about the negative side of viral content. Once it's on the web, it's impossible to control. It's great that a lot of young girls have found this inspirational, but it sucks that people would print this without my permission, or the permission of the parents!

#NiagaraPortraitPhotographer