What is your DWF Username? Rhonddas

What is your full name? Rhondda Scott Boutique Photography

What is your business Location? Located in the beautiful Glass House Mountains in Queensland Australia

What is your website URL? www.rscottphhotography.com (though I am working on a new face for my site with a whole rebranding)

What’s your facebook page URL? http://www.facebook.com/RhonddaScottBoutiquePhotography

How many years have you been in business? Been in business only about five years

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? My life before photography was music. I was born in NZ and in the 80s after being the opening act for Little River Band on one of their tours, I moved to Nashville because that is where my heart was. I was signed with CBS as a writer and they also recorded an album with me. It’s weird coz I know the exact day I panicked and stopped being a singer but that is a long story. I then became a journalist interviewing the same people I had submitted songs to as a writer. This is when I really started to love clicking my camera. It wasn’t until we moved to Australia that I really got serious about photography and now I can’t imagine life without a camera in it.

Want great advice, tips, and honest feedback from a community of real professional photographers? Sign up for a trial membership to the DWF!

What is your DWF Username? Hilda

What is your Full Name? Hilda Burke

What is your business Location? Chicago Illinois USA

What is your website URL? http://www.angeleyesphotography.com my new work is on the blog http://www.angeleyesphotographyblog.com/

What’s your facebook page URL? https://www.facebook.com/AngelEyesPhotography

How many years have you been in business? Seven

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? I always loved taking photos, but never really considered it as a career, until my husband encouraged me to pursue it…I’m happy I listened to him for once

How did you become a professional photographer? Quite by accident…a neighbor’s relative was getting married and they didn’t have a photographer. So I went because either it was me or no one, and even if I got 10 decent photos it was better than nothing. The bride was thrilled and started recommending me to her friends and so on. I booked 56 weddings my first year.

What’s been your biggest business challenge? How have you faced that challenge? Giving up control over editing my photos. I really want to hire someone, but I’m too much of a control freak when it comes to the final look of my photos. So I have not faced that challenge yet…working on it though.

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio? Blogging, keeping in touch with vendors and clients though Facebook.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? My charming personality and fun pictures!  ;)  Honestly though I hate ‘selling’ myself. The couples who are interested in hiring me, they either connect with me and my work or they don’t. It’s really that simple.

What makes you unique? My approach…I get excited every time I shoot a wedding, I’m thrilled to be there on their most important day and I think my couples love to see how much fun I’m having.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? My Nikons, (D3, D700) I love them.

What makes it indispensable? They have never failed me during an important moment, ever!

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer? Buying a fancy camera won’t make you a photographer, learn your craft, love your job, or you’re going to fail.

What has the DWF done for your business? It made me realize that whatever I’m stressing about, I’m not alone. Someone’s been though it and they are usually very helpful with their advice.

How do you use the DWF? Daily, if I don’t check in at least once I miss it.

Optional, but come on, be a sport: If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? My superpower would be speed, especially when it comes to processing images. I’d love to have an entire wedding edited in an hour.

As Hilda says, whatever YOU are stressing about with regard to your photography business, you are not alone! Get helpful advice and candid discussion on the DWF. Try a free trial membership and see what we’re all about: http://bit.ly/tuoDPx.

What is your Full Name? Elise Wessell Beall
What is your business Location? Jacksonville, NC
What is your website URL? www.elisebeall.com
What’s your facebook page URL? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elise-Beall-Photography/196086433793195
How many years have you been in business? 8

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? While I have always loved photography, this is my second career. I taught in the dental programs (dental assisting and dental hygiene) on the community college level for 30 years.

How did you become a professional photographer? When my daughter left for college, I had an empty nest and lots of time for myself. I decided to devote some of that time to becoming a better photographer. Through online forums, DVDs, workshops, books and journals, I gradually improved to the point that people were contacting me to photograph weddings, portraits and events. I had accumulated a significant amount of equipment and knew that retirement was just a few years in my future, so I started a business with another professional photographer. After about 18 months, I went out on my own and have never looked back!

What’s been your biggest business challenge? Treating this business like a true business – not a glorified hobby. In the beginning my pricing was much too low and I gave too much away to friends and family.

How have you faced that challenge? By setting guidelines and making myself follow them. I have learned to value my time and my investment in my business, so it’s easier to charge a reasonable fee for my work. While my fees appear low to many photographers, I’m actually on the high end for my location. Also, I keep a list of my annual expenses close by and view it often so I always know where I stand.

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio? By
creating a positive experience, delivering a quality product with exceptional customer service, I have formed a base of clients who return over and over again. And, these clients often refer friends and family. Referrals from happy clients and good word of mouth continue to be my best marketing strategy. I also give back to the community several times a year by donating sessions/print credits for silent auctions to good causes. The main goal is to raise money for the charity, but keeping my name in front of the people in the community who are my target market is very beneficial to my business. I also blog every session I shoot and use social media.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?I insure that my clients know that it’s all about them. I make an effort to never say no – to find a way to deliver what the client wants, if at all possible. My sessions are fun and stress free. I strive to learn new techniques to further my art and my business. I don’t follow fads. I deliver quality classic portraiture and wedding photographs that will stand the test of time.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? What makes it indispensable? I love my 5D MK II with my 100mm 2.0 lens. I have used this camera longer than anyI have owned and the lens is the first non-kit lens I purchased. I have a variety of more expensive L zoom lenses, but still prefer my primes when shooting portraits – and the 100mm is a dream. I am sure I could live without either of these – but don’t want to try! As for editing, I edit every image in Photoshop before the client sees it. In my experience, most clients can not envision what an image can look like after editing, so I show them. They don’t see straight out of camera images – they see the finished product. This takes much more time, but I believe it has helped me improve sales and keep clients coming back for more.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer? A photography business is more than taking pretty pictures. Learn the technical and business aspects of photography before charging for your work. And don’t sell yourself cheaply. If you start too low, it’s difficult to raise your fees to a sustainable level without losing your client base.

What has the DWF done for your business? The DWF has really helped me with the
business aspect of my photography business. I make smarter decisions now based on sound business principles and don’t just fly by the seat of my pants. Creatively, seeing the talent on this board makes me work to improve what I deliver to my clients. In particular, the senior thread in the Portraits forum opened my eyes to so many possibilities. I am in awe of many of the photographers on the DWF. There is enormous talent and a willingness to share information.

How do you use the DWF? I spend the majority of my time on the Portraits, Business,
and Marketing and Sales forums. I have learned so much from these forums! Any time I have a question, I come to DWF and search the forums. Often I find that the question has already been answered. I also look through images produced by photographers here to get inspiration.

Optional, but come on, be a sport: If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? I would love to be invisible. Just imagine the possibilities! I doubt seriously I would use my superpower for good – I would probably spend most of my time playing practical jokes on my husband.He has been playing them on me for over 37 years – it’s time I got him back.

Don’t just fly by the seat of your pants! Tap into the “enormous talent” that Elise is talking about on the DWF. Take a free trial membership here!

What is your DWF Username: Hannah Suh

What is your Full Name: Hannah Suh

What is your business Location: San Francisco Bay Area

What is your website URL: www.hannahsuh.com

What is your Facebook page URL: http://www.facebook.com/hannahsuhphotography

How many years have you been in business: 5 years

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? How did you become a professional photographer?

I’ve always been into photography but always as a hobby. Growing up, I never knew that photography was a viable career option. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, and I never personally knew of an adult who worked as a photographer so the idea of being one myself never occurred to me. I took my first black and white film class when I was in the 4th grade and I thought developing film was the most magical thing. I always had a camera with me, would take photos for the yearbook, acted as a school “Historian” and would take photos and create a slideshow at the end of the year. I even did my final high school project on photography. I joined the website Deviant Art when I was 16 years old and that was my first real exposure to a community of photographers and artists. I went to USC to pursue a career in the film industry, found that I sucked at it, and switched majors from print journalism, fine art, then Sociology. During all this switching about, I had people ask me to shoot their weddings, and so I did! I found DWF when I was a Sophomore in College and that was when I seriously began to work on doing wedding photography as a career.

What’s been your biggest business challenge? How have you faced that challenge?

Not knowing ANYTHING about the business side of photography. I mean, I didn’t know the business side of *anything*. I started my rates at whatever people wanted to pay me. I hobbled together whatever information I could on operating a legit business and just struggled along for the first few years. I didn’t have regular office hours, because for one thing, I didn’t have an office. I would surreptitiously respond to emails during class lectures, and edit photos at night. And during Finals? Forget about it, my early clients would hardly get a peep out of me. It was a pretty crappy operation. It wasn’t until I graduated in 2008 that I started really putting things into order. I re-did all my contracts, got myself Tave to keep me organized, got an office and office hours, got myself a business banking account, etc. I think DWF was invaluable for me during those early years, when I was just trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio?

I moved from LA to San Francisco after I graduated college, and so I had a whole new market that I had to wedge myself into. I only knew 2 people in the area, so I couldn’t rely on referrals from my immediate circle of friends and family either. I know people have issues with the site, but Yelp REALLY helped me out during those first few months in a new territory. I booked 10 weddings my first year in San Francisco just by utilizing Yelp. And also reaching out to other photographers in the area was immensely helpful. I owe a lot to my current success to the photographers who were willing to let me come second shoot and afterward by sending me referrals.

How has the DWF helped your business? How do you use the DWF? I think I mentioned this in one of my previous answers, but DWF has seriously been an invaluable resource for me, in so many different ways. First and foremost, DWF introduced me to a great community of photographers. A lot of those photographers offered me my very first second shooting gigs when I started out and that early experience was critical for me. I think being a wedding photographer can be a pretty solitary gig sometimes. You don’t have an office full of coworkers like other more traditional jobs and so it’s great to have this huge community of photographers all sharing and giving advice, tips, and even just chatting about random fun things. I’ve been able to turn to DWF whenever I’ve had client issues, or when I needed advice on taxes or album companies, or pretty much any other question that I might have regarding running a photography business. That kind of collective knowledge and sense of community is priceless.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

Well for one thing, I never went vintage. That’s pretty unique! I decided a few years ago on some key words that I wanted to describe my work and I tried really hard to stick to those words and not allow myself to be swayed by new trends (although I can’t say that I’m immune, it’s just so tempting to jump on bandwagons). I keep my photos clean, vibrant, and romantic. And I think I have a well roundedness to my work that comes not sticking stridently to one school of thought as far as wedding photography goes. A lot of my work is photo journalistic, but I also really enjoy taking detail shots, the posed lifestyle-esque shots that brides today are so keen on, and as someone who comes from a large and picture-crazy family, I don’t mind doing lots of family portraits as well. And I really try and do all this while keeping my eye on the ball, which is to create timeless photographs that don’t age horribly, and that clients will love for decades.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? What makes it indispensible?

I LOVE photomechanic. I cannot imagine culling without it, and culling is probably my least favorite thing to do in the whole post-production process.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer?

Make friends! Those photographers that might be viewed as competition can totally be your allies in this business.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? The ability to stop time. Although if I did that, I might be perpetually frozen in time, reading one book after another with a tub of cookie dough ice cream at my side.

What is your DWF Username? Lynn Michelle

What is your Full Name? Lynn Michelle

What is your business Location? Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas What is your website URL? www.lynnmichelle.com What’s your facebook page URL? www.facebook.com/lynnmichellephoto How many years have you been in business? 8 lovely years ——– Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you? I was a telecom engineer in my previous life. Coding, project management, software upgrades… zzzzz.

How did you become a professional photographer? I’m feeling feisty today so my initial answer was “when I passed the certified professional photographer (CPP) exam earlier this year”. Actually, I officially picked up a camera my freshman year in college. I was being social against my better judgement (remember I was studing to be a people-hating cubicle dweller) and decided to join the newspaper staff. I wanted to be a writer and they needed a photographer. Arguing with the editor didn’t help my cause, she sent me out the door on my first assigment with a camera instead of a pen. From there, friends started getting married and offering me Dr. Pepper and film to photograph their weddings. One morning, I woke up with the realization that I had the client base and the equipment to go full time. And I did.

What’s been your biggest business challenge? Not strangling other photographers.
How have you faced that challenge? The photographers in our region have built a wonderfully supportive community to educate our new peers. We have headed free lighting, posing and business workshops to help them mature in their craft and understand what price undercutting, stealing images/verbiage, delivering shoddy work and not setting up a proper business does to lower the repuation of all photographers. Knowledge is definitely power.
What three words best describe your shooting style? happy, happy, joy joy
What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio? My blog. I actually have stalkers – clients who know every personal detail I devulge and every person that I photograph by name. I love it, it’s instant conversation and the easiest way to constantly showcase my most current work. I started blogging Monday through Friday and I thought it would wear me out, but I have gotten such amazing feedback that I want to keep posting.

What has the DWF done for your business?

It’s impossible for me to put into words exactly what the DWF has done for me. First and foremost, it has been an amazing support system; a real community of skilled professionals who brought together their own experiences and personalities and helped me make some tough decisions when I needed a helping hand. They brought incredible smiles to my face when I thought I was the only one out there starting from nothing and struggling through the business.

Looking back, the members that said the meanest things back then are the ones that I respect they most because they cared enough to tell the truth. Even when I wasn’t ready to hear it. And those bonds that I have formed are so incredible to me. I know I can call up a group of real friends in the business and they will be there to guide me, support me and lift me up when I feel like I am the only one out there.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? I pink puffy heart love formal portraits and I make them oooo so fun.

What makes you unique?: I shoot fabulous people ™.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? Compact flash cards. Those buggers are freaking important to this whole operation!
Right, a serious answer. One item? Just one? Really?

Alright, Lightroom. It’s everything and a bag of chips. I never want to do batch editing in Photoshop again. I love you, Lightroom, yes I do.

What makes it indispensible? two words: batch straightning. I have days where I am just off by anything from 2 to 10 degrees, always to the right.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer? Some days I want to scream “don’t do it!” other days I want to sit them and give them a cheat sheet. Laying the right groundwork in place before going full time is so essential. What would my cheat sheet say?
- have a solid business plan
- specialize
- know when to say no and how to say it
- know when it is time to outsource
- never stop learning
- be fearless. make mistakes.
- always wear sunscreen

Optional but come on be a sport: If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? Elasticity. I’m 5 feet tall. I could use an inch here and there without having to carry around a stepstool.

Do you have a group of real friends in the business? A community and support system you can turn to for help making tough decisions? Take a trial in the DWF and find out what we’re all about. It’s free and easy to sign up here.

How many years have you been in business?

I started my photography business a little over 10 years ago.I still can’t believe it has been that long! I guess time really does fly when your passionate about what you do for a living.

Was there life before photography or has this been a lifelong passion for you?

I did not discover photography until I was in college. I had taken a few film courses that were part of my major, but it never really stuck with me. Maybe because I could never get that film roll around the reel in a room with zero light haha. It was only, while attending college, that I ended up working for a local music store as their on-site web designer. I was forced to buy my first digital camera in order to take photographs of the instruments we had for sale in the showroom. That is when my journey started into photography.

How did you become a professional photographer?

I started up my own business right out of college and as time went by, more often then not, my clients had needs for digital photography. So more and more of my money went to investing in new lenses, cameras and lighting equipment in order to meet the needs of my growing client base. Pretty soon I found myself deeply entrenched in photography. Then I finally discovered wedding photography and I knew this was what I was destined to do. I love it more and more each day.

What’s been your biggest business challenge? How have you faced that challenge?

My biggest challenge has been balancing my time between my work and my family. Once the wedding is over it is easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of retouching photographs, putting galleries together and getting all of my client’s images ready for consumption. Knowing when to step away from the computer to spend time with my wife Melanie is very important to me. Family should always come before work.

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market your studio?

I know this is going to sound corny, but the most effective way to market my services has just been to be myself.

I’m a bit of a goofball and overall a nice guy who really does enjoy working with people. In this business, like any other, there is no better marketing then word of mouth. People trust the judgement of their friends and family. Nothing in the world makes me happier then to receive a glowing review from a bride and groom.

If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

One of the comments I hear often about working with me is how laid back and genuine I am. I’m a very relaxed kind of guy and I think my brides and grooms appreciate how easy it is to work with me. I often get along so well with my clients that I have become great friends with several of them. Planning a wedding is hard enough and the last thing the bride and groom need on their special day is more stress. I think another thing that makes me unique is my age. Being only 29 years old makes me very relatable. Couple that with also being a newlywed myself and my clients become very relaxed with me.

What is the one item used in your shooting or editing workflow you can’t live without? What makes it indispensable?

Ok I didn’t even have to think for this question. It is by far my Canon 70-200 f2.8 L series lens. That thing is just magical. I’m a big fan of shooting with a long telephoto lens. It lets me capture moments without letting people know I’m capturing their moments. It also does a great job of flattening out facial features. Plus when shooting at f2.8 provides a gorgeous amount of background blur. This lens stays on my camera 80% of the time. I often find myself making up excuses about why I should be using it haha.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer?

Shoot what you love. Do not compromise. If you love photographing something strange like frogs then go ahead and shoot frogs! haha

If you love working with architecture, then save up your money, travel the world and photograph beautiful architecture. You will always do your best work when you shoot something you love. I love people and that is why I love shooting weddings.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Again didn’t have to think too much for this one. Wolverine Claws! Do I even need to explain? Ummm…they are unbreakable adamantium claws. What else needs to be said?! haha

Location – Three Bridges, New Jersey (central jersey)

Business Name – Ryan Sands Photography

Websites - www.ryansandsphotography.com

(click above to see the full gallery at Vogue)

Lauren Bush has married Ralph Lauren’s son David and now DWF members are talking about the timeless images that have been revealed in Vogue magazine. To quote one member…

Dear Norman Jean Roy (the photographer), you win!

See the full size photos in the December issue of Vogue and then join the discussion in this already 4 page long DWF Artistry Forum thread.

Be sure to tell us what you think.

New York, NY (October 13, 2011) – Award-winning online video creation service Animoto (www.animoto.com) announces today a new free webinar on October 20, 2011 for photographers interested in learning more about how to successfully add “Fusion” into their photography business.

“Fusion has become a rapidly growing force in the business and profit plans of professional photographers,” said Erik Bjornard, Animoto’s Vice President of Marketing. “This forward-thinking Fusion webinar will help professional photographers get the most out of their HDSLR cameras by teaching them how to incorporate not only still images but the high-quality video clips these powerful new cameras are capable of creating.”

Dive Into Fusion: a webinar with Vanessa Joy & Rob Adams, focuses on “Fusion” – the blending of short video clips with still photography. Fusion will inevitably change the landscape of the photography industry and New Jersey-based award-winning wedding photographer, Vanessa Joy, and her husband, award-winning wedding cinematographer, Rob Adams, are at the forefront of the Fusion movement. Together, they travel the country teaching fusion. During this one-hour webinar they will share insightful tips on the practical side of how to shoot compelling video, how to easily incorporate Fusion into a photographer’s workflow, how to price and how to market Fusion into a photography business.

To register for this webinar visit: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/985614654

Click here for all the details.

From The Ragin’ Cajun Floatin’ Finao Party around New Orleans, to the DWF KaREs Katrina Shoot.. DWF 2012 will feature meaningful, exciting events that span 4 exciting days as well as a speaker lineup second to none!

Get All the Details!

DWF CONVENTION  2012 UPDATE

We’ve secured the beautiful Loews New Orleans as the site for a major convention built around one important concept: Photographers need to network with each other! We’ll have a host of non-stop DWF community events, top speakers, and intimate classes in one of the world’s most exciting cities, plus admission to PPA’s ImagingUSA trade show.

Click on over to your calendar and block out January 15-18th, 2012 because this is one DWF convention you won’t want to miss!

Marco Fine Arts is honored to have been chosen as a beta-site for Epson to test and approve their latest generation of equipment. Which means that you are purchasing the best available canvas prints in the market today.

Reviews

Marco Fine Arts has fantastic quality and has allowed me to almost double my margins on canvas prints. – Justine Maccario Photography

Using the acrylic as a way to showcase my fine art has been an amazing presentation; feedback is out of this world and I couldn’t be happier with the final product as well as professionalism + care from the team!!! –Danielle, Skye Blu Photography

AlbumExposure is a comprehensive online album proofing solution that makes presenting and selling your designed albums easy and effective. Present in a realistic and interactive format while effortlessly receiving client feedback with chat style conversations.  Maintain a history of all revisions for clarity and protecting yourself from any misunderstandings with the final client album.  Up-sell pages. Streamline your workflow by creating a seamless process with our design partners and our killer Send to Print feature.  No more multiple uploads and timely steps, AlbumExposure makes it simple. Maintain your brand at all times and use the public embed option to promote and sell more albums.

Want to learn more? Visit Photo Dough now.

See all the details on Photo Dough.

Dane Sanders recently updated his popular book, Fast Track Photographer.

The book is practical, easy to read, and surprisingly controversial for what it is: a middle-of-the-road business book for photographers.

Okay, so maybe that last bit might feel unkind. Middle of the road makes it sound … boring. Which it isn’t. Well, not totally. It did take a lot longer for me to read the book that other books on either photography or business that I’ve read the last couple of years. Considering that it stands at the crux of two of the genres that I read most of, you’d think I’d devour it like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (Chocolate *and* Peanut Butter? Oh, yeah!). I’ll get to that later.

One of the books greatest strengths and weaknesses is  that it doesn’t stand on its own, but is an adjunct to the pDNA (photographer’s Discovery, Negotiation, Activation, and only by some complete coincidence that it comes perilously close to Dane’s own name…). Much of the book revolves around how you, the reader, interpret your pDNA test, available on-line for an extra price, though a code for the first one is included with every copy of the new version. This is a fairly standard, though extensive character analysis test that suffers the same weakness as all of these tests: depending on your mood that day, the results can vary fairly wildly. Also, it is an easy process to jack, answering the questions the way you think you should be, and not the way you are.

However, the two parts used in tandem can serve as a springboard for photographers, to get a grasp on who they are and what style of photography. Dane breaks the world down into two types of photographers: ones who shoot for themselves, and ones who shoot for others. (In his terminology, the signature brand and the Freelancer.)

There is a frustrating mix of the wonderful and the mundane here, even in his terminology. Dane refers to photographers trying to ignore the tectonic shifts in how the industry works as “grumpies” a term that resonates with many and has even entered the lexicon of the DWF. Then he describes this new landscape as “digiflat”, which might convey his idea of a level playing field but resonated like a lead pipe filled with sand every time I read it.

Fortunately, Dane is smart enough to recognize when certain metaphors don’t fully explain things, or when certain concepts have not been completely undefined, and unlike a lot of business writers (who say “this is how it is and must be done”), is willing to say “you know what? The pDNA isn’t meant to be a straightjacket, but rather it’s designed to offer you a leg up into your career.

The trouble with the book, at least for me, is that it doesn’t really break new ground. If you haven’t read books by folks like Seth Godin or Michael Gerber, then perhaps the ideas in this book will seem new and exciting. But ultimately what the book is trying to do is bring business concepts to photographers with little or no business expertise. It’s not trying to be a bold new statement on the nature of work in the twenty-first century, it’s trying to explain these concepts to people who have little or no experience with them before. It’s also a workbook. Again, useful, necessary, but not something that is easy to read through.

But as a workbook? As a book to bring concepts from the broader business community and make them appropriate for photogs? It succeeds wonderfully. If you are a new photographer, or have little business sense, then yes, this book is for you. If you are trying to find your passion and direction? Then yes, this is the book for you. If you are feeling frustrated and lost? I bet this book would help you, too. If you know who you are and where you’re going? Well, parts of this book will probably be interesting and helpful, but a lot of it will be old hat to you. Same thing if you have been reading a lot of books on business theory and technique. Some good points, and some interesting chapters, but probably a lot of information that you won’t need.

Photo Dough (that’s the DWF’s Daily Deal Site for Photographers) is selling Dane’s Fast Track Photographer Audiobook (with pDNA assessment tool included) for 51% OFF

• The Pro Template Collection / The Pro Template Collection II
• The Wedding Album
• The Ever After Collection
• His eyes Only
• Senior Collection
• Sports Collection
• Fun Action Pak (works with PSCS and above)
• The Border Collection
• Christmas Collection
• Animal Collection
• Cards, Collages, and More
• Business and Marketing
• Beautiful Babies
• Senior Grunge

Reviews

I received the CDs – WOW what a ton of great stuff! I am thrilled with everything. It was hard for me to commit to making this purchase, but I am very happy I did. It is an amazing collection of so much really great work. – Nancy R.

I’ve been using Michelle’s template for 5 years and still use them. There are so many to choose from and so easy to use. And you just can’t beat the customer service she provides with all her templates. – Ruth D.

Michelle’s custom designed templates are fabulous!!! She provides the best service, and designs templates that are nicer than any I have seen. Unlike other templates, some of her newest templates come in layers and are easy to use and customize. They provide complete control over every element of the design, including layout and color. – Erica L.

See all the details at www.photodough.com the DWF’s daily deal site for wedding and portrait photographers.

Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to help ease the pain. The key is to break down the entire process into little baby steps. Here, I’ll go through these steps one by one and discuss options that might solve your problems.

1. Choosing the images – The very first step is to choose your album keepers. I like to use an image browser, like Bridge or Photo Mechanic. Bridge is great, because it comes free with Photoshop. Photo Mechanic is by far the fastest image browser on the planet. But you have to buy it separately from Camera Bits. I like to quickly scroll through the images and tag the images that I think would look nice in an album. For weddings, this ends up being 100-120 images. For portraits, this ends up being 15-20 images. As you see below, I’ve used the “Label” menu in Bridge to tag the photos red. Then I take all of the photos tagged red and copy them into a folder called “Album Selects.”

Images © Michael Corsentino

2. Organizing the images – the next step in my process is organizing the images into pages. The majority of photographers that I know, organize images into “sections” of the wedding, for example “getting ready” or “formals.” For myself, these sections are too broad when I start designing. I prefer to organize images into page numbers. I have a set of folders I use over and over again. The folders are named the same as the page numbers of the album. I simply drag and drop the images into the pages that they will go into. Then when I get ready to design, I am only looking at the images for that page! It makes things so much easier. I just click on that folder in Bridge or Photo Mechanic.

Images © Michael Corsentino

3. Pre-Design – At this stage I like to pre-design the album. There are benefits to letting the bride and groom choose their favorites, but I feel the benefits of pre-design outweigh these. Brides and Grooms can take a long time choosing their images, up to a year or more. I feel like taking this out of their hands, speeds up the process. The faster your turnaround on any business transaction, the better it is for business. Most likely they have an album credit or an album in their package. While you are waiting their images, your album company might raise their prices, and you are out money. Add inflation to this and you could lose 10% of your profits due to just waiting on your bride and groom. Also, pre-design allows you to showcase your images in their best light, letting you tell your story. Additionally, it lets you tell the full story, possibly with extra pages and extra profit.

4. Proofing – I highly recommend proofing your album in some sort of visual way with your client. The most inexpensive way is to physically meet with the client. Secondly, you could print off some 8×10′s of the album and give the clients a sharpie to mark the changes with. Lastly, an online proofing solution can solve many of these problems. We’ve created our Fundy Album Proofer. There are also other solutions out there, just Google “online album proofing.”

5. Contract – Albums can be very expensive. One misprint and you could be out hundreds of dollars. Be sure to have an album specific contract that details the number of pages, the cover materials and anything special in the album and have the client sign off on it. In the event of a mistake, many album companies can replace just one page. This is not ideal, but it can save you a ton of money.

6. Delivery – Albums are a very emotional, a hand-delivered album will do wonders for your business. The more emotional the better. Even better, deliver it at the bride’s work and let all her friends see

I hope this helps a little in the entire workflow process.

Fundy

A special thank you to Michael Corsentino for use of his wonderful imagery. Fundy is the creator of the award-winning album design software Fundy Album Builder, as well as other photography tools including the Fundy Album Proofer. Free trials are available at FundySoftware.com.

DEAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Get a great price on a 20×30 Gallery Wrap Canvas! Only $65.00 for this wonderful ProDPI product. Use this deal as a studio sample or pass the savings on to your clients!

ProDPI brings gallery wraps to you! We have added our green touch and impeccable quality to gallery wraps.

Using the latest in eco printing technology we print on 400GSM white poly-cotton canvas. This canvas is optical brightener additive-free and fluorescent whitening agent-free. Excellent color rendition, saturation and sharpness make your canvas prints shine! The manufacturer of this material is also proud to help to rebuild forests by planting a tree for every roll of material that ProDPI uses. They do this by partnering with American Forests, you can read more about this great organization here.

Extensive independent testing by a UKAS accredited laboratory has concluded that our canvas meets and exceeds the standards set forth by the Fine Art Trade Guild for pH and lightfastness. The Fine Art Trade Guild has established these standards in order to protect the interests of consumers. The canvas and ink combo used by ProDPI will insure that your canvas will have 100+ years of display life.

We offer a bunch of different sizes and have fast in lab times! Canvas prints come stretched gallery wrap style, have black paper backing, sawtooth hangers and rubber hanging bumpers.

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What a difference a few months make as today you’ll find DWF members speculating about the current status of this controversial project.

Was it all ‘much ado about nothing’ as links to the DRex now appear to be missing from the Bella Pictures website? Also, the DRex page itself is now titled “Access Denied – Wedding Photography.”

Discuss the DRex in the DWF Pro Business Forum now. (Not a DWF pro member? Grab a free 14-day trial now)

Think of it as Groupon for Photographers. – Seshu (tiffinbox.org)

The DWF community is no stranger to collective buying power. For years we’ve offered our members the chance to save with our DWF Group Buys right here on the forum. We’re proud that we’re now able to use our longstanding relationships with so many of the vendors in our industry to get great and sometimes never before seen discounts for hard-working pro photographers.

Want to know what Photo Dough is all about? Head on over, subscribe by picking the location closest to your and enter your email address. Our current deal is a 51% discount on Fundy SOS Image Brander…

Image Brander, Fundy Software’s brand new product, makes it easy to protect your images for Facebook and blog posting. Simply choose your input folder, output folder and your setting and Image Brander quickly produces elegant, resized images with your logo and an optional color bar.

Start saving today with Photo Dough and the DWF.

To help you plan this important day we’ve created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!

Yup.. plan your wedding on Google. Oh and did I mention EDIT YOUR WEDDING PHOTOS on Google too? That should be interesting…

Then their is their budget planner with <insert drumrolll> a default of $400 for wedding photography. Thanks Google! We love you too.

Discuss this one in the DWF Pro Photography Business Forum. Not a member? Snag a FREE trial.

Read more on the official Google Blog

]]> http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/google-weddings-yeah-i-said-it/feed 9 http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/7-tips-to-selling-more-albums-tip-4 http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/7-tips-to-selling-more-albums-tip-4#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:45:07 +0000 Fundy http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/blog/?p=20535 If you are not capitalizing on album sales in your studio, you’re leaving money lying on the table. If you missed the first three tips, you can find them here.

Tip 4 – Shooting for the Album

Jim Garner, American Photo Top Ten Wedding Photographer and creator of the Boda Bag v3, speaks of this often. When he’s shooting a wedding, he looks for “the shot” in the current situation and then looks for ‘accent shots’ that help tell the story. If you are consciously shooting for the album during the wedding, then designing the album is even easier. You spent all day shooting the story, in “main” shots and “supporting” shots. Now, you just need to take those photos and lay them out.

The exact same can be said for portrait shoots. Portrait Albums can be a huge profit center. I live in an area where people tend to not put huge family prints on the wall. It happens, but it’s not the norm. High end, portrait albums can drive serious profits in a studio with everything from seniors and families, to boudoir. Shooting portraits is all about backdrop/location cohesiveness.

At this photo shoot. I had two classic lifestyle portraits taken against this great blue wall. I knew that I needed a matching photo for the album layout. The two boys, are typical boys and they loved nothing better than tormenting their brother. So, I let them have at it. The parents loved it.

If you shoot for the album, half the work is done. You’re able to lay out an album that the bride, mother, father, groom, etc. are going to love. People buy on emotion. If they love the album and the layout, they’ll find a way to make it work. If you work hard on creating albums that clients love, the selling will take care of itself.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder, the 2011 Hot One Award Winner for best album design software. Fundy Software also has solutions for studio pricing, online album proofing, and Photoshop work flow. Free trials are available here.

Peter tells the DWF that…

Peter tells the DWF that…

After seeing our wedding productions Phamie Gow is commissioning us to do a series of videos for her latest album. She is tipped to be  the next Ludovico Einuadi and named as the UK’s ‘rising star’ by Classic FM.

Well done Peter. Discuss this post on the DWF. Not a member? That’s ok,  trials are FREE to working pros.

You may have seen the news footage of the significant flooding that occurred throughout Queensland Australia during late December 2010 and January 2011.Many lost their lives, many more lost their homes. Three quarters of the state was declared a disaster zone. This is an area roughly the size of Texas.

A resident of Brisbane Queensland, award-winning photographer Marcus Bell is raising money to help flood victims, by placing ten of his own classic images up for sale. All proceeds from each sale will be going to the Queensland Governments Flood disaster relief fund. Each signed Artist Proof print is an original award winning photographic work. Each unframed 24 inch print for sale for $950 (plus postage) and is printed to the highestquality 300GSM Archival cotton paper. Many of these prints represents a saving of between 50 to 75% off the normal edition print price.

In addition 20% of ALL of Marcus Bell Photographer Resources Products sold during January and February will also be donated to the fund. This also includes the 5 new Instant Effect Presets products recently released after a year in development.

For more information in relation to the floods and how you can help please visit Marcus Bell’s Blog where you will find links to both the Fine Art Gallery and the Resources site. You might also like to donate directly to the Queensland Premiers Flood Disaster Relief Fund by going to this link..

Please help to share this link and information with your friends on your twitter, facebook and blog. Your help is greatly appreciated and together we can make a difference. Warmest regards, Marcus

Tip #3 – Let people know what is popular and what most people are getting.

Most clients don’t get married every year, have family portraits taken every year or have their senior photos taken every year. They don’t know what the current trends in photography are. Maybe their friend got married 5 years ago and those cool metal covers weren’t even available then. Or maybe she’s never even seen a nice portrait album in her life.

Image from Finao Albums

Without educating the client about our products, the chance that they’ll buy one is next much slimmer. We can increase the chances  our album “buy-through” rate with simply phrases that, not only educate the client, but help our bottom line.

• “Most brides are ending up with between 38-42 pages in their album.”
• “Most seniors are getting an 8×8 album and a canvas wrap.”
• “Most families are choosing the 10×10 album with a leather cover.”
• “This is our most popular leather cover.”
• “This is our most popular cover upgrade.”
• “This album is my favorite.”
• “Most couples end up getting our medium sized album.”

With simply phrases like these, we can guide all of our clients to our best products. If we truly believe in our albums and products we aren’t really selling. We’re helping them make better decisions. If I shot the best wedding of my life, I wouldn’t want my client to get a 10×10″ leather album with 20 pages. I’m sure you wouldn’t either.

Fundy

Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder, which was just awarded the Hot One Award for best Album Design Software of 2011. You can download a free trial, here, at Fundy Software.

DWF – Let’s start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.

NICK - Photography was something I was intrigued by, but didn’t try until my late teens.  At university I was able to borrow cameras from the photographic society and my interest built up from there.  My involvement in photography now spans 3 decades.  I have a wide variety of photgraphic interests, in fact I used to photograph everything, except people!  My love of the outdoors led me to doing a lot of landscape photography, but this had to compete with my sporting interests too, mainly cycling, also running and sailing.  I became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society for my landscape work back in 1993.  I was a little late to the digital changeover, this means I have a lot of catching up to do on digital processing skills.  I haven’t managed to go into my darkroom for 2 years now and do miss this side of things, there is little time now to pursue personal work.

I have been married for 22 years to my wife Karen, she is a very good photographer who second shoots with me where necessary.  We have 3 daughters.

DWF – How did you become a photographer?

NICK- About a dozen years ago, I attended a cousin’s wedding and produced an album of prints for her.  Then mainly due to lack of time, I would pass on most wedding enquiries to a friend, but gradually took on more myself.  Wedding photography now forms the majority of my income.

DWF- If we needed a photographer  today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

NICK - I want to create great pictures and I will work with enthusiasm to make a true record of your wedding.  My style is very unobtrusive and I concentrate on capturing the precious moments that mean so much.  However I can also use my experience and eye to create a beautiful picture on location if you desire.  If people connect with my style and value their photography, I am keen to work with them.

Every couple are special to me and I want to do the best I can for them.

DWF- Who or What inspires you as an artist?

NICK - I feel under pressure to produce pictures I am happy with and want to produce exciting work for my clients.  This is what drives me.

DWF- If you had to pick a favorite “Tool of the Trade” what would it be? and why?

NICK - My D3 cameras are wonderful.  I love low light and feel these help to make use of conditions that excite me.

DWF – Care to share your favorite photographs?

NICK -

DWF – How about some final words to live by?

NICK – There is so much to do and learn, I am keen to keep improving.

Location - Guernsey, Channel Islands, British Isles

Business Name – Nick Despres Photography

Websites - www.nickdespres.com

DWF – Let’s start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.

CHRIS -I was born in Coventry, England, and studied Archaeology and Ancient History at Birmingham University. There being no money in archaeology, I worked in retailing for a few years, ending up as Sales & Marketing Manager for a chain of nine stores selling fireplaces. I also pursued a sideline as a freelance writer, writing comedy sketches for BBC Radio and plays and poetry for kids – my work was featured in several anthologies, now alas out of print! After that I had my own business doing software training on graphics and web design applications, before moving to the Turks & Caicos Islands in 2003 to join my brother Andy’s photo/video business.

Since May 2010 I’ve been back in the UK building up my business in both stills and video as Chris Mann Photography and Lumière Films. Originally I was going to concentrate on stills only, but I had requests for video so ended up doing both!

DWF – How did you become a photographer?

CHRIS- My brother Andy invited me to come out to the Turks & Caicos Islands to join his photo & video company, Tropical Imaging – they were expanding and having recently gone digital they needed help with the computer side of things. So I joined the team and ended up shooting weddings, portraits, and commercial jobs in both stills and video.

DWF- If we needed a photographer  today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

CHRIS - Always hard to analyse yourself in that way, but I think my strengths are that I’m quite versatile – working on a small Caribbean island had to be adaptable and take on all kinds of different jobs – and I have an eye for colour – I do shoot black and white but often I think my colour images are more successful. And I’m happy shooting formals, posed images or PJ stuff, so can adapt my coverage to whatever the client prefers.

DWF- Who or What inspires you as an artist?

CHRIS - Like most of us I’m inspired by the leading photographers of past and present – people like Avedon, Bill Brandt, Stieglitz, Salgado, Cartier-Bresson and so on. But increasingly these days I’m looking to movies and (to a lesser extent) TV for ideas and inspiration – not only because I’m shooting wedding and promotional films myself but because there’s such a huge variety of style to draw on, in terms of lighting, composition, camera movement, and so on.

DWF- If you had to pick a favorite “Tool of the Trade” what would it be? and why?

CHRIS - Can I have two?

For stills I would have to say my Canon 135mm F2 L lens. I love its sharpness, its beautiful bokeh, and how it allows me to stand back and observe and catch moments. In some situations I feel it’s a tad long, but I would be reluctant to part with it.

And on the movie side of things it’s my Steadicam Merlin – that’s a really neat and lightweight camera stabilizer that lets me float the camera and create smooth moving shots that are impossible to do handheld, and it’s much less obtrusive than a slider or dolly and track system.

DWF – Care to share your favorite photographs?

CHRIS - My favourite photo is probably this one – the bride’s veil floating in the breeze. It’s really a grab-shot, not directly posed or planned; actually the couple were posing for my Tropical Imaging colleague Ileana and I was moving around looking for alternate angles and just saw this shot as the breeze lifted the veil and the bride happened to move her arm out. I think it’s the balletic curve of her arm, and the perfect way the veil happened to curl around and echo that shape, that make it my favourite. It bothers some people that their heads are cut off, but I like it that way.

DWF – How about some final words to live by?

CHRIS- Keep looking, listening and learning! My hope is that I never get to feel as if I “know it all” – there is always something new to discover and learn – not just from books or workshops or seminars, but from colleagues, friends, clients, and the world around us.

Location – Guildford, Surrey UK

Business Name РChris Mann Photography & Lumi̬re Films

Websites - www.cjmann.com and www.lumierefilms.co.uk

Joe Bussink’s new book is about how to focus on clients, how to connect with them, and how to capture perfect moments (not perfect pictures).It is not a how-to take pictures book, about apertures and sync speeds and stuff like that, though he usually does give the technical details for each photograph he shows.

Joe loves himself some photojournalistic action, which shows in his writing and in his mantra throughout the book: there is no such thing as a perfect photo, only perfect moments. I’m not quite sure if he’s saying you can’t capture those moments if you are actively posing your clients, but he certainly isn’t afraid to express his preference for unposed shots. Even the staged shots he shows are often fired on the sly, while people are still getting ready.

This is not an educational book in the strictest sense of the word. His concern is more with the heart, and with feeling and with learning to be sensitive for recognizing moments, without really covering off how to learn these skills.

Which is not to say that there aren’t a lot of helpful tips to be found, especially in the first chapter, just that this isn’t the main concern of the book.

If it isn’t a how-to book, and it isn’t educational, then what is it? Well, at its heart, it is a collection of images—more than 150—presented with some tips and tricks, but mostly with Joe’s ruminations on the nature of wedding photography: how to see with the “eyes of your heart”. How to build relationships with the clients at the engagement session. How to tell the story of the wedding day.

By the end of the book, you will have learned something about the way Joe shoots, and hopefully, picked up a couple or three tips or tricks, either from the text or from the images, that you can apply to your own weddings.

Is this the essential guide to wedding photography? No. Should it be on every wedding photographer’s bookshelf? Nope. But it is a well written, thoughtful book on wedding photography that says what it has to say, as much, or more, through the images presented than through the text itself. Which, considering the book is about photography, is not really such a bad thing.

Wedding Photography From the Heart

I was pretty pumped when Western Digital offered to send us over a My Book Live to review for you guys. The My Book Live they sent to DWF world headquarters is basically a 2TB network attached storage device (aka NAS). I know that many of you non-geek types abhor the thought of setting up an NAS so let me start by saying that setting up a NAS device doesn’t get much easier than this. I currently have 3 NAS devices in my home office and this was by and far the easiest of the bunch to configure. I actually can’t imagine how they could make the My Book Live installation any easier short of coming over to your office and installing it for you.

Awesome news right well here is some more good news… The My Book Live is FAST. Data transfer was quite robust and I didn’t find myself crawling to a stop as I do with my Buffalo Terraserver Pro and it was quicker to respond than my Drobo (which I have set to spin down after it’s inactive for some period of time) The trade-off I assume is that the drive is spinning most of the time and that could effect life expectancy. But then again, you’re not buying a NAS as a working drive, you’re buying it because you want to share data across your network.

And share it does… I have had no problems whatsoever networking the drive across my multiple OS home/office comprised of Mac’s and PC’s so mission accomplished.

Another notable feature of the My Book Live and one of the main reasons I suggest that any iPhone or iPad or Android photographer owner should snag one is the ability of the device to share, via internet connection, your photos anywhere in the world. I know it sounds like one of those… “do I really need it” features but I’m going to argue that as a photographer, you do.

Before the My Book Live entered my life I had about half of my iPhone storage dedicated to my portfolio. A self imposed limit in an attempt to not fill my device to the brim. I’m a huge fan of showing off my work when someone asks me for a business card. I’ve actually booked weddings from the reception hall dance floor due in no small part to having lots of my images on my iPhone in the past and now thanks WD Photo I can have access to up to 2TB worth of photos anytime I want.

And once again, the My Book Live doesn’t dissappoint with it’s simplicity. You simply create a share, and upload the photos. It creates them in the proper size all optimized for transfer.  I currently have access to some 5,502 client photos and 8,478 personal photos and I’ve not even come close to filling the drive (I’ve setup my iPhone to dump it’s images into a folder on the device on synce so even my iPhone camera isn’t hogging up all that precious space). I would note that as expected Edge network performance for the app is on the slow side but on 3G and or Wi-fi the photos are cached quickly enough for me to be happy.

Bonus Points: The WD Photo app has a built in slideshow function that works quite well. You can also email photos from the WD Live drive, Assign a photo to your contacts, add a photo to your “in phone” camera roll or share a photo via Facebook.

Overall, I give the WD My Book Live 2TB (it comes in a 1TB model too) two enthusiastic thumbs up. One for being easy to use and the other for not being a slouch in the speed category.

I’d be happy to entertain any questions that anyone has about the device.

Read the full Tip 1 article here.

Tip 2 – Show Big and Fancy

It’s a proven fact that people buy on emotion. Studies have been done by all of the big business schools in the world and the conclusion is that people buy on emotion. Sure, they will shop around on prices, and do research, but when that final day comes, they buy on emotion. As a business, we are required to tap into that emotion at every stage of our sales process. The very first stage of the album sales process is when the client first looks at sample albums. Imagine your sample album showing as the show room of a BMW dealership. What does the dealership have on the show room? The bottom end cars with the fewest features? No, they have the coolest, fanciest cars with all the bells and whistles. Does everyone buy these? No. But it taps into their emotion. It makes them want to buy a car, buy a BMW.

Image courtesy of Finao

So, the logical conclusion for photographers is to show the biggest albums possible with the fanciest covers available. Christine, the owner of Finao Albums, turned me on to this concept. It costs approximately the same to order a 12×18″ album with 20 pages and a cover upgrade as it does a 40 page 10×10 album. Most album companies also offer discounts on samples, so any price differences really come down to $20-$30 per large sample album. Additionally, Brides and Grooms really don’t want to look through 40 pages of people they don’t know. They want to see the pretty getting ready and bride/groom portraits. They want to see the ceremony and ONE spread of formals (just to make sure you can do them) and the key moments of the reception. They don’t want to see 8 pages of people doing the Conga that they don’t know. 20 pages is enough for samples.

If people ask what a 10×10 album looks like, pull out a 10×10 portrait album and show they the size. Guaranteed that the clients will see it as a small option. They may not opt for a 12×18 album, but they’ll probably opt for a 12×12″ inch album. Secondly, showing large, elegant albums creates value in the album itself. It says to the client, that an album is a valuable product. Lastly, an investment in fancy albums pays off in bookings. If all of your competition is showing 10×10 leather albums and you are showing a 12×18 horizontal album with a metal cover, then clients will gravitate towards your offerings.

Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder™, design elegant albums right in Photoshop. You can download the free trial here.