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3 Steps to Rocking Your Portrait Sales

Lara White — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:43:32 +0000

The 3 Keys to Successful Portrait Sales

In order to have successful portrait sales, you must do in person sales. I know, I know, no one loves this idea at first. It’s not as easy as emailing a link, but the tremendous increase you’ll see in profits and client satisfaction is well worth the time. The key to successful portrait sales is a 3 step process that starts before you schedule the session. All three sessions should be scheduled at the same time, so it locks that time in for both you and the client.

The Planning Session

The process begins with an in-person planning session. The purpose of this session is to educate your client on how to get the most from their session, discuss clothing, location and activity options, and most importantly, get a sense for what finished products they are interested in. By going over the product options you offer and seeing what they are interested in, this gives the client time to consider the price and imagine the piece in their home. Think of it as “planting the seeds for the sale.”

Be sure to tie in the discussion of finished products with their home décor and the type of images you will create for them. For example, if they are looking for something to hang in their family room, what colors would look best in that room? Those colors or something complimentary would be ideal clothing choices for them. Do they prefer a single wall portrait or a collection of images? By getting an idea for the type of products the client wants, you will be better able to create images they will love, and that will work well for the products they have in mind.

The other thing you want to do is get pricing out of the way at this session. The last thing you want is to invest many hours in creating gorgeous images for them only to have them end up buying nothing more than a few 5×7′s.

The Photo Session

Once you’ve had time to sit down and discuss all the options in the planning session, review studio policies, see what products the client prefers, and get to know them, you will be much more prepared for the session itself, and so will the client.

Ask questions during the planning session that will help you get to know your clients better so you can help them relax during their session. With the planning session out of the way, you should have a very good idea of the types of images you are creating for them. Do they prefer a casual family portrait or more formal, everyone looking at the camera type of image? What do they like to do as a couple, as a family, and how can you incorporate that into the session?

After the session, be sure to remind clients that you look forward to sharing the images with them at their upcoming ordering session. This reminds them about the session and also lets them know not to expect to see a link to images online.

The Ordering Session

This is sometimes mistakenly called the “viewing session” but it’s important to give clients the message that they are not coming in to simply view the images, they are coming in to order images. That means they should be prepared to place their order right then and there with you. If you do not offer online viewing, and there is no other way to see the images, this will ensure you actually make sales and earn a profit from your work, instead of simply logging in to their gallery every time they want to enjoy your work (and therefore not need to purchase anything).

Most people find projection to be the best way to present images at the ordering session, but you can always work with proofs and suggestion sheets until you have a projector set up. Make sure the ordering session is fun and full of emotional high points as you present finished images and product suggestions based on all the information you gathered at the planning session.

Be prepared to offer a payment plan and collect a deposit on the full order before they leave. Once they walk out the door, you are not likely to get the sale, so it is important to create the environment and have the sales tools that will ensure a sale for you. It takes practice and fine-tuning, but after a couple great ordering sessions, you’ll never want to do it any other way.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

To learn more about photography marketing and sales techniques, check out Photography Business Secrets, the Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales, Marketing and More available on Amazon.

What’s a Wedding Worth to You?

Lara White — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:25:21 +0000

In my previous article we strategized that maximizing profits beats reducing costs.

But a lot of photographers have tunnel vision when it comes to how much their average wedding is worth to them.

One of the things that trips us up are the standard “rules” for determining how much of your sales should go to photography marketing. You’ve probably heard them. I know I’ve heard it said often to earmark 5%. That is, if you want to gross $100,000, for example, that 5% of that ($5000) should go to your marketing.

I think there’s a better way to figure this stuff out.

Grab a piece of paper right now and jot down what a wedding’s worth to you. Let’s not be concerned about hard goods cost for the moment, and let’s just work with gross revenue numbers, ok? What’s the value of your average wedding?

Under that number, write down what it costs you in advertising and marketing to get that one wedding.

Tuck those numbers aside for now. We’ll get back to them later.

If you’re like most wedding photographers, chances are you thought of your initial wedding booking average as the value of your wedding. That is, the average amount you write the contract for when someone books a wedding with you.

But your average wedding has more value to you than simply that.

For instance, you might do an engagement session. There may be a pre wedding bridal session. There may be those session fees plus whatever goods they purchase from the sessions on average.

There’s another buying opportunity for them after the wedding, when they add more purchases to what they’ve already contracted in the way of additional albums, prints, etc.

How about their referrals? The weddings you wouldn’t have gotten if you didn’t get this wedding first? What’s that worth to you on average from each client?

What about the weddings you get from having uploaded this wedding’s images on your blog? Bookings you get from random couples who’ve happened upon your blog post and contacted you because of these images from this one wedding? Or who’ve come upon this wedding’s images posted elsewhere?

What’s the value of developing a working relationship with the venue and the other wedding vendors you may not have had the chance to meet and work with if it weren’t for this wedding? And you now have the opportunity to provide them images because of this wedding?

Add all this value up.

If you could assign a monetary value to all this, it may look like the following (I’m making the numbers up just for illustration purposes, but please do yours):

Initial Booking: $3000
Engagement Session: $500
Sales from Engagement Session: $300
Bridal Session: $500
After Wedding Purchases: $2,000
2 Wedding Referrals on average: $6,000
More Weddings from Website Visitors: unlimited
Weddings from Networking with Vendors: unlimited

When you add it all up, you could be making up to around $7,000… with referrals even more, on average.

That’s the actual value of your one wedding.

Most photographers think about their client’s value today. That one booking. That first number.

That’s short term thinking, my friends.

You want to think of your client’s long term value. The actual value of your average wedding client is its long term value.

Now, what was that “client value” number of yours you jotted down earlier?

Chances are your average wedding’s value is actually far more than you originally thought?

So here’s the thing:

Like our example shows, if you originally earmarked 5% to market for weddings, you would’ve invested no more than $150 per wedding (5% of their $3,000 initial contract).

But if your client’s long term value is actually $7,000, then 5% of that is $350.

There’s really no rule saying it should be 5%. It could be more if you want or need it to be. But even at 5%, that’s more than twice the amount you were putting into marketing before. Just by realizing what your average wedding’s long term value actually is.

And with being able to invest over twice the amount into your marketing, what do you imagine your reach into your wedding market would be like?

This week’s article comes to us from G.E. Masana, a NYC based wedding photographer and author of “Advertise and Sell Your Wedding Photography” published by Marathon Press. His roster of clients have spanned from the Beauty Editor of ELLE to actors, cinematographers, and even a NYC art gallery owner. He was previously was on “The List” of contributing photographers for Martha Stewart Weddings. NYC Wedding Photographer.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

Do you want to build relationships with vendors that will turn into a steady source of client referrals and double your studio’s income? Check out Get Connected: Build Relationships to Drive Your Photography Business below:

Being part of the Google+ “ghost town” can help your photo business

Lara White — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:56:51 +0000

Google+ is the social media site that was designed for photographers. It’s the best place for photographers to interact with other photographers to learn about and be inspired by photography. But don’t think you are going to find your friends and family there. It’s not Facebook.

Aside from sheer inspiration, it makes sense to hang out on Google+ if you are a photo educator since that’s where your potential customers are. But otherwise it’s a bit of a ghost town … so far.

However, even if your target audience is not photographers, a presence on Google+ can still go a long way to help your business.

How? Search engine results.

But before we get to that, let’s look at how Google+ works.

First, a bit about the lingo. Google+ works with “circles.” On Facebook you “like” on twitter you “follow” and on Google+ you “circle.” Just like a circle of friends, your circles can have multiple people in them.

You can circle anyone you want and you will receive all the content they post publicly. Similarly anyone who circles you will receive your public content. Circles can be used as a filter so you don’t have to look at your entire feed at one time. You can choose just to look at posts from people in one specific circle at a time.

People also share their circles so you can add a whole group of people at once.

When it comes to publishing your content, you can choose to post content publicly or only to specific circles. If you have two distinct interest areas, like photography and cooking, you might divide the people you follow into separate circles. Not only can you view posts from your cooking circle separately from your photography circle, but you can also publish your own content to only one of the circles so your photography friends don’t receive all your new recipes.

You can have circles for a particular type of photography like High Dynamic Range (HDR). That gives you the ability to share your HDR images only with photographers who you know are interested in HDR so you don’t get inundated with comments from people who hate HDR. You could have a circle of people who you want to ask to critique your work – you wouldn’t ask the general public, only photographers you admire and trust. Or you could have a circle for past customers and send something specific only to them. It’s very powerful.

Google+ is not like other social networks where you might engage with your family and friends. Rather it is for keeping in touch with others that have similar passions. Hence the reason photographers go there share images, inspiration and keep up with trends in photography.

But what if you are a portrait or wedding photographer and don’t have time to hang around on Google+ just to be inspired? Well, there are other more important benefits to having a presence on Google+ and that gets us back to search engine results. Google is the biggest search engine in the world and if there’s any way you could increase your ranking on Google, especially for your target audience, that would have a big impact on your business.

Well there is a way and here’s how it works.

Google search is no longer a general search that relies on keywords. Now it’s personal. When I search for something I get entirely different results on Google than if you search for the same thing because Google knows me. It’s a bit scary isn’t it? Google knows what kinds of content I like because I +1 things and it knows who I trust because of who I put in my circles. Not only that but if I trust you and you trust a third person there is a link in Google’s mind between me and that third person. It’s not just one level deep. Everyone’s search results are greatly affected by their connections, interactions and activity on Google+.

Have you noticed this on the Google search page?

That is a tiny little switch that totally changes your search results. By default the “personal” search results are on so most people get search results that are customized to them (even if they don’t know this feature exists).

If I search for “Big Bend National Park pictures” guess what is on the first page of my search results? In addition to the big sites like trip advisor and National Geographic, the other results are articles posted by people I have in my circles! In fact, someone in my circles got a better ranking than National Geographic! Why? Because Google knows that I like and trust their content because I put that person in my circles. It is delivering search results specifically tailored to me.

When I do an image search, anyone who is in my circles who has posted images on my subject pops up first! Check out my search results on images of Yosemite National Park. First a couple of my own images followed by images from people I have circled.

So the more people who have circled me on Google+ the more people will see my content on the first page of their search results if they search for anything I have posted.

That is huge!!

Just imagine the potential. Let’s say you connect with someone who is involved in a community event. Perhaps there is a marathon in your home town and you circle the person in charge of the event. Obviously other people will circle the person in charge of the event too. Sometimes that person will share their circle of people who are participating and everyone adds the shared circle to their own circles. Suddenly you have hundreds or even thousands of people in your local community that have circled you for one reason or another.

The interesting thing here is that now Google knows there is a connection between you and those other people. Guess what is going to happen when those other people decide to do a google search for a photographer in your area? You are going to be at the top of their list! Or if they search for a photograph of the event or a photograph of the city or anything at all that you have have photographed you will come to the top of their list because Google thinks they trust your content.

So what I’m saying here is that the benefits Google+ are not necessarily in the social network itself. It benefits you because you pop to the top of google search results when anyone who has circled you does a search for anything related to you.

In addition to appearing on the first page of topic based search results, if you have a Google+ profile you will get better promotion on search results pages when someone searches for your name. Notice how the search results below display information and my photo from my Google+ profile.

Another way to increase your site’s visibility in Google search results is to claim authorship of your site on Google. By doing this your avatar will display in search results which immediately draws the eye and will increase your click through rate. It also displays a link to more content created by you.

Notice in the screenshot above how my avatar displays next to my content at the bottom of the screenshot. That avatar even shows up while I’m typing my search terms. I only typed “anne mc” before Google knew what I was going to search for.

To claim your authorship, follow the instructions on Google’s site.

It’s even easier to claim authorship if you use WordPress for your blog. Just add your website under the “contributor to” section of your Google+ profile and then use a WordPress plugin like “Google Author Link” which will create all the necessary markup in your blog posts for you.

So if you haven’t set up a Google+ profile yet, get started now!

In my next post I will share some ideas on how you can be popular on Google+ and get lots of people to add you to their circles.

Today’s guest post comes from Anne McKinnell, a photographer, writer and nomad. She lives in an RV and travels around North America photographing beautiful places and writing about travel, photography, and how changing your life is not as scary as it seems. You can read about her adventures on her blog and be sure to check out her free photography eBooks. Find Anne on Google+

Giveaway: Photography Business Secrets

Lara White — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:00:38 +0000

Hello Lovelies!

This week is the official launch of my brand new book: Photography Business Secrets: The Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales, Marketing, and More. Of course, I couldn’t be more excited! This project is the culmination of many, many months of hard work. I have tried to pack this book with all my experience, all my best tips, tricks, successes and failures. If you are starting a photography business or want to an inside seat as to how a successful photography business is run, you’ve got to get this book. To celebrate the launch, we are giving away a couple copies this week.

It’s super easy to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you haven’t heard about the book yet, you can read this review by photographer William Beem. He’s also part of the Wiley team, and served as the technical editor for the book. That means he read through every chapter, asking me to explain things in more detail and pointing out any concerns or issues he found with the material. Thanks William! I’m super happy to see this project finally out, and would love to get a copy into your hands immediately! Of course, if you don’t win the contest, you can still buy the book on Amazon: Photography Business Secrets, The Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales Marketing and More.

How to Get the Most Out of WPPI 2013

Lara White — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:00:36 +0000

Can you believe WPPI 2013 is almost here? I am sad to have had to cancel my appearance, due to some unexpected medical issues, but I’m sure you’ll have a great time regardless!

Now is the time to prepare for the insanity that can overwhelm you if you aren’t careful. To make sure you are prepared, I’ve made a list of 10 ways to get ready to have the best event of your business career!

1. Don’t overwhelm yourself. This is so important, especially if this is your first year. There is always something to do, someone to visit and something to buy. Partially, this is because it’s in Vegas which is the true city that never sleeps, but also, the schedule is constantly jam packed. It can be tempting to sign up for a class in each block and plan to spend hours wandering the trade show as well as plan on hitting up some Vegas sights. The truth of the matter is, even if you didn’t need more than 2 hours of sleep a night, there is no way you can successfully manage that schedule. Take a deep look at the schedule and plan out what classes you would die if you don’t attend, plan out when to eat and don’t forget to plan in lots of walking time!

2. Plan smart clothing choices. As mentioned above, there will be a lot of walking. There will also be a variety of temperatures to be had! This year, the event is in March instead of February so I’d imagine the weather outside the hotel (even if you only go outside to get from the airport and to it again) will be a bit warmer than previous years. It will also get really cold in some classes and freezing in others. Make sure you pack comfortable shoes (or at least foldable flats if you insist on wearing heels) and lots of layers. Fun accessories are always a plus as well, especially because they will be great conversation starters when in line for classes. And don’t forget to bring at least one fun dress or party outfit!

3. Be the outgoing version of yourself! You will most likely find yourself in line often. Waiting for food, for classes, for the elevator, etc. It can be tempting to try to be someone you are not. In fact, you will find yourself far more memorable and satisfied if you are yourself, but just a bit more outgoing. Introduce yourself to your neighbors. Be prepared to talk about the photography you specialize in, where you are from and your ideal session. Some friends you meet now may be next years roommates or even speakers!

4. Bring business cards. If you don’t bring them, you will constantly wish you had. There is not much that is more awkward than having a wonderful conversation with someone and then having to scramble and try to write down their name and email address on a scrap of paper only to return home and never be able to find it. Investing in a business card case that is attractive, durable and easy to open will be lifesaving!

5. Leave room in your suitcase. It can be so tempting to stuff your suitcase full with clothing and accessories that you think you need and then find that you don’t have enough room for the giveaways, deals and tons of information you will be receiving. It can end up being a major surprise expensive if you end up having to ship a box home or buy another suitcase just to get everything back to your house!

6. Don’t keep everything! Every class you attend will have flyers on your seat. Every event will have cards and coupons. Every single vendor will have a pile of things to hand out to attendees. Heck, the very moment you register the first day you will receive a big bright yellow bag full of papers. Before packing to head home, going through the piles and piles of paperwork is a good thing to do. You do not need coupons for products you aren’t interested in and flyers for things you’ve tried already and didn’t like. So place it in a pile to be recycled and leave it in Vegas. Some things you get in Vegas must stay in Vegas.

7. Budget. Vegas is well known to be a city where you always end up spending more than you plan. To combat this phenomenon, make sure the budget you prepare is realistic both with what you want to purchase as a business owner and what you can afford. You want to make sure that you also keep the receipts for everything purchased, from the taxi ride from the airport to your morning coffee to the new camera bag you purchase. Every single receipt will help you when the taxes come around.

8. Charge it. The hallways of the MGM Grand are well known for it’s lack of cellphone service. If you have a smart phone especially, be prepared to charge it whenever you can. Bring along a wall charger to plug it in when you have a free moment or you can also utilize the charging stations that are placed around every so often.

9. Hydrate. I cannot even begin to stress this enough. Especially if you are planning on going out at night and/or not use to desert weather. You will not be much use to friends or your business if you get dehydrated. Bring a water bottle and plan to refill it whenever you can. Of course, this means you should be ready for bathroom breaks , but it will be worth it.

10. HAVE FUN! Oh yes, it must be listed. It’s surprising though because so often it is forgotten. Yes, you are going to learn a lot and meet some fantastic people but don’t forget to take some time for yourself and enjoy your trip to Vegas! Whether you get a massage, tour the strip or just treat yourself to a fancy dinner you want to make sure that fun is involved! You will have a blast, if you let it happen!

Big Announcement: My Long Awaited Project is Finally Ready to Share!

Lara White — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:30:04 +0000

I am super excited to announce my newest book, Photography Business Secrets, The Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales, Marketing and More. This is something I have been working on for many months, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

To celebrate, I am offering a complimentary copy of Get Connected: Build Relationships to Drive Your Business + bonuses for you if you pre-order the book, which will be available in less than a month.

I have put my heart and soul into this project, and it is filled with everything you need to know to get your business on the path to success. It’s a guide to running a successful photo business, and represents everything I know to build an amazing business from the ground up, including my most successful strategies and my biggest failures. In order to round out the knowledge, I interviewed many other successful photographers and got their real, honest advice on what works and what doesn’t.

Sweet Deal

The book is available for pre-orders through the second week of March, at nearly 50% off. If you pre-order the book, I will send you a free copy of the ebook Get Connected: Build Relationships to Drive Your Business + bonuses,which sells for $49. So for less than $19, you are getting almost $85 worth of my very best knowledge and strategies for booking weddings and running a very successful photography business. Pretty sweet deal, right? This offer is only available during pre-orders.

Details

To get your complimentary copy of “Get Connected” go to Amazon and pre-order Photography Business Secrets, The Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales, Marketing and More. Just send me a copy or screenshot of your receipt (info-at-photomint.com) and I will send you a link to download your complimentary goodies. Super simple, and by pre-ordering you are doing me a HUGE favor. So thank you!

Why Pre-Orders are Important

Pre-orders (along with reviews) are really important for a book launch in the publishing world. It lets Amazon know that people are interested in this book, and they will give it more prominence and promotion, which of course increases sales. By pre-ordering (and later posting an honest review), you are helping me in a big way.

I really want to get this book into the hands of as many people as possible. It’s something I’m very proud of, and I truly believe that this book can make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of photographers. I’ve never had the opportunity to make such an impact on so many people, and it’s one of the most important things I’ve ever done.

**Highlights from Photography Business Secrets:**

Learn what you can expect to earn as a full time photographer, based on real salary information
Figure out what niche to specialize in, and how to find clients in your market
Developing a portfolio and a unique style
How to develop your brand and what common mistakes to avoid
Understand the different types of marketing and how to know what will work for you
Dealing with customer service issues
How to set up your business to maximize your time and automate time sucking tasks so you have more time behind the camera
How to develop tools that will increase your overall sales averages

Ready? Go grab your copy of Photography Business Secrets, The Savvy Photographer’s Guide to Sales, Marketing and More.

Photography Business Roundup: 2012′s Best Posts of 2012 from Around the Web

Lara White — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:00:37 +0000

Ready for 2013? We talked about the top 10 business articles of 2012 from Photo Mint and now I’m going to give you the top 10 posts from around the internet! Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

26 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Photography Business

Starting off in your business, mistakes are going to be made. This list of 26 things will give you things to watch out for and it’s not just a list of silly things. These items will definitely give you new ideas!

How to Best Advertise a Photography Business Online

Not only does this post give you tips on how best to advertise your business, but it has some tips on what not to do to waste time and money.

Does Your Website Have These Three Client-Pleasing Essentials?

So you have your website to explain who you are and what you do. Do you have all three of these items on your website? If not, get it done now and please your clients!

Why I Switched to Flash Drives Instead of DVDs and Why You Should Too

Do you provide digital files? If yes, are you using DVDs or Flash Drives? Here is a great breakdown of why you should spend the little bit more money to purchase Flash Drives for your products!

How Changing the Way I Sell Changed the Way I Shoot

Do you do in person sales? If not, this post will help you grow a desire to do so and also give you tips on how to shoot your sessions to showcase that.

What to Do When Selling Gets Awkward

Since we are talking about in person sales, here is an amazing post about how best to react when you are having awkward moments during conversations.

How to Say Goodbye to Copycat Negativity

We’ve all had issues with a fan, enemies or friend who has taken something we’ve talked about or shown that has been copied. Here is an amazing way to get rid of that negativity and embrace it for what it is.

22 Things You Can Do Today to Change Your Photography Forever

We started out with things we wished we knew when we started our photography and we are ending with 22 things that you can utilize right now to change for the future.

Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to Get You Started with Photographing Groups of People

This is a fantasticly simple guide to posing groups, and there is also a mobile app version available if you like the style.

5 Ways to Show Clients You Care

You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of marketing “buzz.” But what exactly does it take to create that buzz? It takes more than just a quality product; it requires a concerted effort to show clients how much you appreciate their business.

Why You Should Attend WPPI 2013

Lara White — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:00:24 +0000

Why should you attend WPPI 2013?

If you’ve never been, let me break it down for you. WPPI is in Las Vegas, NV every year and takes place in the MGM Grand. The events start Sunday, March 10th and the last day of classes is Thursday, March 14th. The expo takes place Monday through Wednesday. Some people go and stay more than a full week (Thursday, March 8th until Friday March 15th) and some people only come for the Trade Show. It is fully up to you and your schedule. Whichever you choose, you will be inundated with an overwhelming amount of information, fun, deals and TONS of photographer friends you haven’t met yet!

WPPI is the one event every year that you know you will get your moneys worth. If you are not a WPPI member, the ticket price is $399. Even if you just do that, the amount of classes and opportunities provided for that price are amazing. In addition, it actually includes TWO full passes to classes and the trade show. That means if you can get another photographer interested, that’s $199.50 for each of you. When you consider that most workshops are double this price for working with one photographer, you know you are getting a good deal.

Especially when you look at the line up of rockstars of our industry that are there to teach YOU!

Here are just some of the names that are teaching this year:

Kevin Kubota
Tamara Lackey
Zach and Jody Gray
Lindsay Adler
Jerry Ghionis
Jasmine Star
Sue Bryce
Jared Platt
Kirk Voclain
Bambi Cantrell
Sal Cincotta

Oh yeah, and little ole’ me, Lara White. That’s right! I’ll be teaching a class on how to get published. My class is Thursday, March 14th at 11:30. It’s a wonderful way to cap off your visit to WPPI, attending my class and getting to learn how to submit your work to be published AND get to meet me in person! It’s the perfect cherry on top of an already amazing opportunity.

Do you need any more reasons to attend WPPI this year? How about it’s in Vegas, which means you can throw in a family/couple vacation in addition to a working vacation? Tack on a couple days before or after and bring your partner along for a great trip. There are events each evening that include free food and (usually) at least one free drink too! The Print Competition is pretty amazing too: have your work judged by top photographers and industry leaders and get real and honest critique!

Did I mention that I will be teaching a class too? Don’t forget: Thursday, March 14th at 11:30! See you there!

Hurry up because they’ve extended the Early Bird pricing until December 31st, so you only have a few days left!

Should You Offer Complimentary Engagement Sessions?

Lara White — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 12:32:30 +0000

Today’s guest post comes from Melanie Shields, and she shares why she thinks every wedding should have a complimentary engagement session.

Prior to 2008 I didn’t offer a complimentary engagement session. I still remember the date I decided all wedding packages would now include engagement sessions and it was October 6^th, 2007.

Once during the bride’s preparations I said, “let’s see your big smile,” she turned to me with a disgusted look on her face and remarked, “we don’t smile.” I think I’m still in shock! I realized I was doing a disservice to my clients by not knowing their needs. I didn’t know how they liked to be photographed, poses that worked for them, in this case how they smiled even and what they were truly looking for in their wedding day photographs.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider including complimentary engagement sessions if you don’t already.

To get to know your client.

This one is first and foremost important to me. Build rapport, ask questions about the couple and get to know them for so many reasons. I use these answers to surprise my clients before, on or after their wedding day. Maybe they mentioned casually they love a coffee shop so I send them a small gift card two weeks before the wedding with a note saying “Please take a few minutes without any wedding talk to enjoy some time together”

I also find out what style they are really going for, their personal interests and more details about the wedding day so I can be as prepared as possible. I listen to what they have to say about how everything is going, family drama associated with the big day and can relate so it’s a very helpful tool to be more than just a photographer on the day of. It’s also interesting to see if they mention they have a good side!

Upselling possibilities

I started by including the session fee and one 8×10. I explain to the clients the session fee is the largest portion of the cost of an engagement session and occasionally I will add either additional prints or a low resolution slideshow online for a value added incentive at the initial consultation as a signing bonus. Keep in mind these are low cost items to include which make the customer feel they are getting a nice bonus but you are not affecting profit margins by including these products.

Remember not to include ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ in your complimentary package, leaving yourself with nothing to up-sell I suggest you think about which products you want your clients to have and use to market your business to their friends and family. It can be a wallet sized album the bride could keep in her purse, a slideshow they will use as a computer desktop or small prints but be sure it isn’t a product that would compete with your best selling items such as: the full set of images on CD, a wall portrait or full sized album.

No cost marketing

The engagement session is your first opportunity to under promise and over deliver. Tell your clients it will be about 3 weeks to get the engagement files prepared for viewing and have them ready within 7 days or less. You are starting early in creating a remarkable experience which they will want to rave about to friends, family and coworkers

We know clients will want to share their images in their home and online. I like to entice my clients, if they haven’t already added my business Facebook page, to ‘like’ my page in order to view one low resolution sneak peak of their session before their proofs are prepared. This gets them and all their friends talking about the image, the fun session, and ultimately my business. On average, when a couple is tagged in an image, it receives 15 comments and up to 30 likes. When I post the image to show my work but the couple aren’t tagged I will receive approximately three likes and two comments. Consider the amount of promotion these commenters are providing to their network of friends free.

Establishing Trust

By getting to know your client before the wedding day, you will have established trust that will make the wedding day go smoothly, as the client knows you. You can also solidify yourself as an industry leader if you go into your session prepared with helpful tips on what to wear, where to shoot, and suggestions on other vendors that may be related to the session such as hair and makeup. Have a wonderful, engaging shoot and you will build confidence that you can do amazing job with anything that comes your way. Once they see their completed images and fall in love with them, they will be able to put their full trust in your abilities and this will make for a smooth wedding day for both of you.

Written by Melanie Shields, a wedding and portrait photographer from Ottawa, Canada. After graduating from Algonquin College’s Photography Program in 2003 she worked in fashion publications but found her true passion in wedding photography. She photographs 25 weddings a year and countless portrait sessions. Her work has been featured on Weddingbells.ca, Ottawa Wedding Magazine and other publications. Images by Melanie Shields Photography.

Secrets of a Story Teller: How Does Joe Buissink Compel Couples To Book Him?

Lara White — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:55:51 +0000

This week’s article comes to us from G.E. Masana is a NYC based wedding photographer and author of “Advertise and Sell Your Wedding Photography” published by Marathon Press. His roster of clients have spanned from the Beauty Editor of ELLE to actors, cinematographers, and even a NYC art gallery owner. He was previously was on “The List” of contributing photographers for Martha Stewart Weddings. NYC Wedding Photographer.

When noted wedding photographer Joe Buissink meets with prospective wedding couples, he doesn’t merely sell his service by detailing specifications. In other words, his presentation isn’t about telling couples that he’ll go to the park for bride and groom portraits or that they’ll receive thirty 8x10s in a leather album.

Then again, maybe he does mention some of these specifics… but my point is that’s not what his presentation’s selling.

Some say he sells art. And they base that on the fact Joe shows prospective wedding couples a handful of mounted prints, all of them signed. And that he charges additionally for his signature. Each image presented as a signed piece of art.

And you might think that’s what motivates couples to book him. That because this way of presenting his work puts the idea in couples’ minds that his product is something they can only get from him and nowhere else. And so, they book.

That may play a part in the booking. But I don’t think that’s exactly what’s at work here that motivates people to hire a photographer.

It helps to differentiate himself from other photographers showing their work in a more mundane format, sure. But sufficient enough to get someone to buy in? Don’t think so. Couples can opt for Buissink’s unsigned versions, which he offers at a lesser price point than his signed pieces.

So while it may increase its perceived value, people aren’t motivated to buy in simply because the thing’s signed.

Here’s the key: They still have to desire it first.

Here’s what I believe is at work that helps build this desire. And what you can do to put it to work for you too.

With each image Joe shows, there’s a story he tells with it. It’s the story behind the photo.

And the story isn’t about what aperture he used or which lens. A photographer may be interested in that kind of story, but not a wedding couple.

He tells stories which mean something to a wedding couple.

They buy in partly because of Joe’s artistry, and a few other factors, but that’s not enough fuel in itself. A photo may be worth a thousand words, but a photo with a hundred words is worth a thousand and one hundred words. This is a fact: People are moved by the stories Joe tells about the photos.

He’s a skilled story teller, sure enough. But the basic reason why storytelling is a wonderful tactic is because stories sell.

The late Don Hewitt was the producer behind CBS’ long running show, “60 Minutes.” Even surrounded by talent and the best circumstances, he once famously said, “the reason for my success was that all I did was tell stories every Sunday night. There is nothing magical about it.”

We take in stories starting from the time we’re babies. Bedtime stories. Fairy tales. Aesop’s Fables to teach us ethics. Ghost stories that delightfully scare us. Comic books. Kiddie movies. Then as we grow, we engage in stories found in the way of classroom rumors and playground gossip, tall tales. Then plays, movies, magazines, books, television shows, literature. We get stories from the news, from other peoples’ escapades, tales, histories, biographies, scandals and exposés. And we share these stories, and tell our own stories, with others.

Every culture, every civilization, has its stories. Its legends, myths and history.

And every family, every generation, every person, has stories, about family members notorious or not, about their trials and tribulations, whimsical stories, love stories, stories of daring and courage, and so on, passed down from generation to generation.

Storytelling is embedded in our core as human beings. It hooks us. Draws us in. Teaches us while entertaining us. There’s an element to stories we all relate to. Stories can move us on a deeper level than simply spouting facts ever will.

So try adding stories to your presentation. Make them compelling, compact, intriguing stories people can relate to.

And you can use your stories in several ways. But use them judiciously, don’t springboard everything into a storytelling tangent. You can tell stories as a way of explaining what you do. Have stories on tap that answer common objections you often hear.

And use stories that position yourself as the desired photographer.

6 Steps to Running a Super Successful Print Sale

Lara White — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:31:30 +0000

With the holidays upon us, now is the perfect time to offer your clients a special deal while earning some extra holiday cash for yourself. We have been offering a 2-1 print sale for our clients every November, and once we figured out how to make it work, we’ve had great success with it and I wanted to share it with you. We typically do anywhere from $3,000-5,000 in print sales during this once a year promotion, and it’s so easy to do.

We had tried this type of a promotion in the past without much success; we found the difference is in how you promote it. Don’t worry about bothering your clients with too many emails, because most orders come in on the last day of the sale, after we send out a final email reminder to get their orders in. Here’s how you can do it:

1) Reactivate all old online galleries from all past clients

2) Send an email to all the friends and family who have logged into the galleries, explaining that the galleries are back online for 1 week only during the annual print sale, and for any prints they order, they will receive a duplicate print of the same size. By making the deal a 2-1, it keeps things simple for us in terms of time spent retouching, cropping etc. All we have to do is order two prints instead of one.

3) Play up the holiday gifts angle, and be sure to let them know when orders will get out so they can plan accordingly for gift giving.

4) Blog about the print sale, post it on Facebook, add a mention in your email signature for the duration, etc. Don’t be shy about mentioning it several times, especially on the final day.

5) If you include prints in your packages, email clients separately encouraging them to use their print credits now, so they can take advantage of this once-a-year deal. Once they start ordering, most clients will get excited to place their orders and order more than what they have a credit for.

6) Some shopping cart systems will allow you to schedule an email blast in advance, and I recommend sending out three emails-1 to announce the sale is starting, one to remind there are only a couple days left, and then a final email on the last day. Be prepared that most orders will come in that final day (I make it a Sunday) and in fact, you may get orders in the final hour, like right before midnight.

This is so easy; don’t let this opportunity pass up this season. Start small if you don’t have many emails, and work out the details this year, so next year you can plan for an even better promotion once you get the hang of it. Good luck and let me know how it works out or if you have any questions with implementation!

Ready to earn more money with your photography? The pricing and packages guide from Tofurious is on sale this week for 20% off, code: blacktofu This guide is filled with dozens of tips and tricks for raising your prices and putting together packages that your clients will find irresistible. Use just one tip and the guide will be paid for many times over. Code: blacktofu

Black Friday Deals for Photographers

Lara White — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:31:03 +0000

Looking for some awesome Black Friday deals? You got it!

PhotoMint’s guide to booking weddings and getting on referrals lists: “Get Connected” 40% off code BLACKFRIDAY

All Photography Concentrate Tutorials are 40% off

Web marketing guides by Zach Prez, no code needed, 50%

Pricing and Packaging Guide for Photographers by Tofurious, 20% off Code: blacktofu

Need to get your contract together? Check out these awesome contract templates for weddings, portraits, second shooters and more. 40% off, Code: BLACKFRIDAYROCKS

Custom flash drives, on sale for 40% off. Code CSCW54DW7

Amazon Deal: Save almost 50% on the 70-200 Canon l series lens. There are tons of great lens deals happening day!

Amazon Deal: SanDisk 32GB cards on sale for 60% off

Stop wasting time answering the same client emails over and over. Learn how to respond to difficult client questions with ease. $50 off. Code SuperFun

5 Reasons Not to Use Groupon Marketing for Your Photography Business

Lara White — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:02:34 +0000

This week’s article comes from Melanie Shields, a wedding and portrait photographer from Ottawa, Canada. After graduating from Algonquin College’s Photography Program in 2003 she worked in fashion publications but found her true passion in wedding photography. She photographs 25 weddings a year and countless portrait sessions. Her work has been featured on Weddingbells.ca, Ottawa Wedding Magazine and other publications.

Group buying sites became increasingly popular about two years ago and started multiplying rapidly making the allure of quick money and promise of new paying customers who want your service appealing to small and large businesses. They guarantee paying customers who have purchased your gift voucher, but here is why this doesn’t work for photographers. Although it may have seemed like a good idea when group buying sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, TeamBuy and Dealfind just to name a few, came along to promote your business I feel the photography industry has realized how it is hurting our trade.

Brand devaluing: We create a devalued brand for ourselves and others in our industry by saying we are not worth full price. Photographers work very hard to build up value in our work in order to charge what we do, and saying “Take 50% off my regular package ” doesn’t bode well for our valued brands, and it starts a nasty cycle when clients are saying “Such and such down the street is only charging $50 on Groupon so photography must only be worth $50″
Discounting – It ties in with the brand disconnect and attracts price sensitive buyers. I will go into how I know this to be true later in this article but we should be using value added bonuses to attract new clients versus taking a percentage off because customers will no longer see your service valued at its regular price. It is like saying “I charge $500 for a shoot but for one day it is $250″; the perceived value of the session is no longer $500, it’s now $250.
Displeased regular clients. Either you run a group buying deal for everyone including your regular clients or for new clients only. Ultimately you are hoping to bring in new clients with this offer so it would make sense to run a deal only for new clients however a lot of your clients may subscribe to these group buying sites. I had one family client who saw my offer but didn’t purchase the deal because she had looked into it and saw that most group buying sites take 50% commission so I created a special package for her that still couldn’t have competed with my deal and in the end she probably felt ripped off.
Extra work; The amount of extra work it creates for not a very large return (financially and in repeat business) Not all customers who purchase group buying vouchers are only looking for a good deal, some do want to try new places but this works better for place such as restaurants where you would be visiting more often. There will always be group buying sites so it is easy to try one photographer for your holiday season, one photographer for Spring, etc.
Even if you do a remarkable job, clients aren’t going to come back enough to make the amount of extra time it takes to shoot the session, communicate with the client prior and after, edit the session, and deliver the finals worth the time investment. With all the increased client relations, shooting and editing it is easy to ignore marketing to new and existing customers who helped build your business.
Attracting price sensitive buyers. We want to attract clients who love our work and our personality so in turn they will enjoy their session, love the experience and rave about us to their friends and family. By discounting our services to a (usually) ridiculously low price point we attract those who are only willing to spend $39 on photography per year.

Some background on why I feel so strongly about photographers and many other businesses avoiding the group buying fad:

Our small photography business decided to run a deal on a local group buying site, early in 2011 that had a smaller mailing list, before these sites were popping up all over the place.

Why? I have no idea to tell you the truth! I thought their pitch was very strong and it made sense to me at the time to bring customers who wanted my service at no upfront cost (like free marketing). At the time I signed the contract and my deal ran, photography deals were common. I will fast forward to almost 2 years later and the trend has definitely slowed down. I see 1 every few months versus the two deals I would see a week, two years prior.

The breakdown of my experience:

I sold 82 vouchers; 25 were not redeemed
Of 82 potential new clients I have had 5 repeat clients; 2 who are great, 1 who purchased a gift certificate and 2 who were price sensitive and not what I would consider my ideal clients. The remainder of the other vouchers sold, although several were very impressed with the quality etc. they have not contacted me.

From each $59.00 voucher sold, I netted just $28.60 per shoot after commission, taxes and packaging costs for $412.00 worth of my product and service. I felt pressured by the group buying companies, when evaluating my options, to offer several high resolution images to drive the value up and I wanted to include 2-5×7 prints in case the customers never printed the digital files I still wanted a tool for people to use to talk about my service. This cost didn’t include gas, travel time, pre or post production.

I spent a total of 5 hours on average with each client and their images.
30 minutes pre-event consultation over the phone
30 minutes driving to and from session
60+ minutes shooting at session
60+ minutes preparing proofs for first viewing
60 minutes preparing images for final delivery
45 minutes at final delivery (as most clients were late or no shows)

That breaks down to under $6 per hour for those clients who didn’t choose to purchase any additional products and I spent over 285 hours laboring to earn 5 repeat clients whose current session/product purchases cumulatively totalled 2 of my average session’s sales.

I hoped for all clients to redeem their vouchers so I could wow them with my service and for a large return in repeat clients, instead I dreaded every time the phone rang.
Because most group buying sites discount photography services at least 50% of their regular value and take a 50% commission, you are left with essentially nothing. There have been multiple businesses that over committed selling their vouchers on group buying sites and filed for bankruptcy because the only business benefiting from the ‘Groupon Model’ is Groupon.

Was it a learning experience?

Yes, absolutely. It helped me to realize that I wanted to attract a different target market and provide a higher quality service at regular price so I could continue to offer amazing personalized service with reasonable turn-around times. I felt overwhelmed with adding just 57 more shoots as they came in waves along with seasonal holidays and 30% redeemed within 30 days of the expiry.

How may Groupon be useful for your photography business?

If you are not an established photographer with clients and you use Groupon as a way to build your portfolio and get paid (a tiny amount) it can work for you but you have to very carefully understand the outcomes before signing up. Don’t dive in without spending time researching and evaluating if it is the right move (short and long term) for your business.

Have YOU had a good or bad experience with Groupon? Please share!

Pricing Your Photography: How to Use Sales Psychology to Create Value

Lara White — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:00:51 +0000

As photographers, it’s our job to sell our services and convince clients that our artistic abilities and products have a value worth paying a premium for. It’s important in creating a strong brand based on value, instead of a brand that is perceived to be “cheap.” How do we do that? How can we create the message of value for our services?

When considering how to price your photography, one of the subtle things you can do to suggest value in your services is the specific language you use to convey ideas and concepts. This is especially important when it comes to your pricing. Using mass market, consumer terms will give buyers the impression that your brand is cheap. On the other hand, use terms that indicate something of greater value, and you will be giving clients the subtle message that your services and products are of value.

This is something that you should think carefully about, as it should be applied to your brand consistently to create the right impression in clients minds. The language you choose to use to describe your services and products should fit with your brand and be used everywhere-on the phone, on your website, on your blog, in conversations with clients, on your product guide, educational handouts and most importantly on your pricing.

Photography Terms and Language to Consider

investment instead of cost, price or rates

commissions begin at instead of prices or rates start at

complimentary instead of free

creative fee instead of session fee

capture the wedding instead of shoot the wedding

collections instead of packages

photographer instead of second shooter

artist instead of main shooter

images/photographs instead of shots

gift prints instead of 5×7′s

handcrafted album instead of 11×14 album

First edition prints instead of proofs

These are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. If you want more ideas, I recommend checking out the Tofurious Guide to Creative Pricing. It’s filled with many tips and tricks to create perceived value in your services and help you understand the psychology behind sales.

Depending on your brand and style, you would want to use words that are associated with your signature style. For example, if your style is more fine art, use words associated with art and artists. If you brand is affordable and fun, use language that will give that kind of a feeling. Think of some of your favorite brands and the type of language they use in marketing and product descriptions. With Apple for example, language is clean and the focus is on easy, simple technology that makes life better. St. Regis is all about refined elegance, and that message is clear from the moment you walk through the doors.

Being clear and consistent in your marketing will bring together all the different parts of your brand into a single cohesive message, as discussed in How to Take Your Photography Marketing from Bad to Great. Sometimes it’s the subtle things that make all the difference. When it comes to pricing your photography, don’t cheat yourself by quickly throwing together something that sounds good without thinking carefully about it. And if you did that in the beginning, it’s OK, with the slow season upon us, this is the perfect time to revisit your pricing and see how you can make some subtle changes to the language and packages in order to sell more of your services next year. This is just ONE tip you can use to put together photography packages. If you are interested in more ideas just like this, check out the Creative Pricing and Packaging for Creative (Photographers) Professionals below or read my review here. It’s packed with dozens of great tips like this that will help you earn more with your sales and have a more profitable business.

Stop the Insanity: How to Take Your Photography Marketing from Bad to Great without Running Ragged

Lara White — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:44:55 +0000

“I’m starting a wedding photography business. How do I get my name out there?” Should I be on WeddingThingy.com or is WhatKindOfWeddingWasThatAnyway.com better? Should I do bridal shows or not? What kind of business cards should I use? What should I say? Should I take out an ad or…?”

If you’re just starting to market your wedding photography, you may be staring into the big perplexing deep dark void and asking these questions. If you’re already marketing, you may be wondering why it is you’re paddling more furiously than ever but still seem to be in the same place after all your effort.

The good news is, it’s not your fault. The blame goes to the way you’ve been taught to think about marketing. You’ve been taught that marketing means doing all these “things” under the belief that marketing is all about engaging in a merry-go-round frenzy of tactics.

That belief is couched in statements such as “wedding marketing is different today.” What’s different are the tactics, for sure. But marketing hasn’t changed.

So let me save you some time and effort by having you think of your photography marketing in a different way. A more productive way.

Because this common misconception – and pitfall – is in believing all this chasing after every new thing and doing every wrinkle of it, is what marketing is all about.

And then there’s the trying to master these wrinkles. And the trying to stay on top of it. Like catching up with and doing every new trick coming out every other day about Twitter, Facebook, Google. LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+… and whatever else becomes “the thing to do” between the time I’m writing this article and the time you’re reading it (but what I’m about to show you will never change)…

… because let’s face it, that’s all you ever see everybody blogging advice about and giving tutorials about and to find out how you too can have thirteen gazillion followers and it gets you feeling like you have to jump on the bandwagon and copycat what they’re all doing… to keep up… to hopefully succeed…

… just to have the results fall flat, or worse: after all your determined effort, time and work, and monies spent, Google changes its algorithms and knocks your site back sixteen pages or Facebook decides on a different user policy and now one fraction of an eighteenth the amount of people are seeing your latest post. Or one site loses favor (remember myspace?) and another attracts all the cool kids (hello Zuckerberg) while yet another stands in the corner wondering why no one’s playing with them (uh oh it’s Friendster. No, wait! It’s Foursquare!).

And boom – everything you worked on now no longer works. Or it’s outdated. Or now it costs you money where yesterday it was free. And all that forces you two steps behind immediately overnight. Go to bed and wake up having to start all over again from scratch. Or maybe there’s yet another brand new thing that’s all the rage to do. Sooner or later there will be. All of which leaves you slumped in one big exasperated heap.

But that’s not what marketing is, my friends.

Marketing is the constant, consistent presentation of the right messages which point to you as the answer for what your target market’s looking for.

It’s like a perpetual radar sweep constantly hunting down new prospects as they come into the market and enlightening them.

All you’ve been doing are rounds of unrelated tactics, one after another, piled on top of each other, tricks, tips and whatever seems to be the popular thingy de jour.

But marketing starts with having a strategy in place first. Not tactics first.

And I don’t mean a strategy like, “well, I plan on sending out tweets every day and tagging on Facebook…” Because, again, those are tactics.

You need an overall strategic plan first which details [a] who you want as a client; [b] what it is you offer them that they want (and which they will buy) [c] how you’ll reach them (and now this is where certain tactics may come into use) and [d] a systematic and proven way to convert them to bookings.

It’s a basic formula for making money.

Which reminds me, have you heard of the “Pareto Principle“?

About a century ago, an Italian economist observed what most of us already figured out in kindergarten, namely, life isn’t fair (except he did it with math, so for Pareto it was evidently some kind of an advanced form of kindergarten).

Specifically, he observed that eighty percent of the wealth was owned by twenty percent of the people. Sometime later it was found this 80 / 20 “rule” could be applied to most anything. That is, in any slice of life, there’s a vital few… and a trivial many.

Such as 20% of the workers produce 80% of the production. 20% of the customers create 80% of the revenue. 20% are the biggest P.I.T.A. And so on.

Of course, it’s not a hard and fast rule. It could be 75/25 or 40/60, or just about anything but it’s always a small percent of some category yields the biggest percent of some category (and it’s reverse, that typically a large percent of some category yields the smallest percent of some category) and for our purposes what it does mean is…

80% of what you’re doing right now in your marketing is bringing in 20% of your business. Only 20% of what you’re doing is bringing in 80% of your profits. Statistically speaking.

But all the same, woah! That means…you need to refocus your energies and concentrate on the 20% of marketing that will bring in 80% of your business.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? So let’s apply the Pareto Principle.

Here’s how. I’d like you to shift your perception. Instead of getting caught up in any particular medium, be it Twitter, Facebook, etc., in an insane whirlwind of tactical activities, think more about your message and your market.

What would happen if you turned your effort to what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to over the tricks, tips and tactics?

Because what matters far more than posting on Facebook, or tweeting; what will help you clearly see if you should do a bridal show, and if so, more easily determine which one; what will become plainly evident to you as to which sites, if any, should you be on, in short, define, focus and boost your marketing power, is the message you communicate and to whom you’re communicating it to.

And this holds true across all media.

So your primary focus should really be, not Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, or Google, Google Plus or Yahoo or Bing, or this site or that site, but on your communicating to the target you want to reach.

Because it’s the message that speaks to the desired client. Not the media.

Media is simply a distribution channel. It’s the vehicle that your message is transmitted on. Which means you need to choose the media your target client can be found on. And if you really know your target market (and you should), then you can determine which media are the most viable to efficiently reach them. And how you go about using those channels to accomplish that task, that’s finally where the tactics come into use.

Because then you can wisely choose the tactics to deploy which line up with and fit in your overall strategy and are viable for the media you use. Instead of trying to do everything.

Then what you’ll experience is this: you won’t be spinning your wheels wondering if you should take that special deal to be in that bridal show or grab an ad the latest web site is pitching you with their (usually worthless) claim of having one gazillion hits a month.

You won’t be spending hours of your life away engaged in creating low results.

Because instead of trying to do anything, everything, the latest trick and all the “trivial many” things you can choose from every day, not knowing which to do, you’ll identify the “vital few” to put your time and effort toward, selectively, intelligently, placing blinders on everything else.

Because you’ll know if fits in with your marketing strategy – or not. Which will make your marketing focused. Solid. Results oriented. Save you some money. Make your time more efficient.

Here’s the basic formula, all summed up pretty like just for you:

The right message + the right media + to the right people

Sure there’s more to it, obviously. But there’s where you start the path that leads to successful marketing.

Top 10 Most Useful Blogs for Photographers

Lara White — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:35:25 +0000

Besides PhotoMint, there are a few more blogs you might want to add to your weekly reading list. These are my favorites and the ones I think you will enjoy as well. If you don’t have time to read business books regularly, reading short articles on photography business related blogs is a great way to keep up to date with new techniques, tips and tricks. With the slower season upon us, there is no better time to start educating yourself about photography business tips and tricks.

1) The Modern Tog

The Modern Tog by Jamie Swanson takes the number one spot because this blog is filled with excellent business advice that helps photographers build a better business, find greater success with marketing strategies and earn more money. Its hype free, good stuff. If you read this blog regularly, your business will certainly benefit.

2) Psychology for Photographers

Psychology for Photographers continues to blow me away with its incredible insight into the minds of our clients and how to create a better experience for our clients and ourselves. The author, Jenika has an M.A. in clinical psychology and runs her own photography business. The way she is able to put together the two fields of knowledge is just incredible, and if you read her stuff regularly, your understanding of your clients will improve dramatically.

3) Photography Concentrate

Photography Concentrate is another one of my favorites because Rob & Lauren Lim, two Canadian photographers put out so much fantastic information for photographers that is super simple to understand and extremely relateable. As if that’s not enough, they frequently put out these crazy-good posing guides, totally free.

4) Elizabeth Halford

Elizabeth Halford is a photographer in England who blogs from the heart about what she has learned in business. What is so refreshing about her blog is that she doesn’t worry about her image or pretend things like “Oh, every single one of my clients LOVE me, and never complain!” She speaks honestly and openly about the challenges we all face.

5) Ground Glass

Ground Glass by Spencer Lum addresses many of the issues facing the professional wedding industry. The blog takes a hard look at serious issues and encourages us to “course correct” when we get away from our original purpose as photographers. It’s truly beautiful and incredibly moving.

6) The Photo Life

This consistently excellent blog focuses on useful business tips and tricks for photographers. It’s put out by Pictage and has a number of regular writers who share their secrets for success in portraits and weddings. Topics include everything from how to sell large wall portraits to how to connect with your wedding clients on the day.

7) Tofurious

Tofurious is the alter ego of photographer Lawrence Chan, and he shares his insights into what makes clients tick. The blog focuses on pricing, marketing tidbits and SEO (search engine optimization) strategies. And Lawrence’s love of food.

8) Marie Forleo

Marie Forleo is an international business and marketing powerhouse. She puts out 5-minute weekly videos that address challenges and issues facing most small businesses. Her advice is spot on, and she is able to get to the heart of the matter very quickly. If you need a weekly confidence boost, this is where to get it.

9) Photography Web Marketing

Zach Prez is an established SEO expert in the photography industry, but his blog tackles so much more. Marketing, social media and online web presence for photographers all topics you can find here.

10)Digital Photography School

This comprehensive blog focuses mainly on the craft of photography, gear and post production. There’s also a weekly photo challenge, which is a fantastic way to improve your skills and keep personal projects alive. It’s great for both amateurs and professionals.

There you have it! These are my top blogs that I read each week and have been sharing with PhotoMint readers via Twitter and Facebook. If you have trouble keeping up with blogs, check out PhotoMint’s post on how to set up Google Reader. You can set up Google Reader as a home base for all the blogs you like to read regularly so you don’t miss anything. It’s a great replacement for TMZ and other celebrity news. OK, maybe that’s just me…

What are your favorite blogs for photographers?

Photography Workflow for Wedding Photographers

Lara White — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:59:46 +0000

This week we welcome back guest blogger Matteo Cuzzola from Milan. Matteo travels all over Europe to photograph weddings, and developed an efficient photography workflow system. He shares his system with PhotoMint readers, and I think you’ll enjoy the simplicity and ease of workflow. Here’s a bit more about Matteo:

If you like stories in pictures, travelling and food, we’re going to be good friends. I am an enthusiastic photographer since childhood and I have the privilege of documenting the most important moments in people’s lives. To see Matteo’s work, visit his website: Matteo Cuzzola.

Photography Workflow for Wedding Photographers

Implementing a consistent photography workflow for a professional photographer is an important part of organizing the job.

Only in a structured way can all phases of work be efficient and safe. The working essential parameters for a wedding photographer, but not limited to weddings, are the following:

- Efficiency (time and resources savings)
- Quality
- Effectiveness (goals)
- Backups
- Minimum downtime

Once we understand how to implement a backup and a consistent and efficient workflow, we can ensure a high quality product for our clients.

The workflow that respects the prerogatives of a professional photographer must cover all phases of work:

- Import
- Image catalog, selection and rating
- Development of images
- Export
- Upload and presentation on the Web
- print
- Backup! Backup! Backup!

The solution I choose for my workflow is Abobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1, a software that allows me to follow all the steps of the workflow. Using a single software for my work is the key that gives me consistency and rationality to the process. If I have to spend less time on the boring and routine steps, I can dedicate more time to the creative part of my job.

Now let’s take a look in detail to the workflow that I use to handle a photo session. The resources at my disposal are:

MacBook PRO 17″ – My Lightroom machine External hard drives: RAID (2 physical hdd 2TB mirrored) contains all the original raw files and Lightroom catalogs External HDD contains the MacBook backup (TIME MACHINE)

How to approach a Wedding Photography Workflow

Conditions:
- During the post-processing of a session I want a copy of RAW files on the MacBook PRO and a copy in the RAID. This choice gives me ‘flexibility’. I am able to process images anywhere anytime, without being tied to the RAID.
- Do not use a single catalog for all images, for performance reasons (big catalog = slower catalog) and for safety reasons (having all the information and changes in one file gives me goose bumps just thinking about it). So I decided to have one catalog for each photo session.

At work: WIP is a folder (where I put all the “Work In Progress” only for the processing time) located in my MacBook PRO. I create an empty catalog and I name it in this way: Wedd-NAME_OF_CUSTOMER_DATE.cat I import to the catalog all the files from the memory card by copying the original files into a subfolder of WIP that I will call Wedd-NAME_OF_CUSTOMER_DATE and simultaneously (Lightroom has this great feature) creating a copy of the RAW in the RAID. While importing I enable the feature to convert my Nikon RAW file to DNG (Adobe Digital Negative) for three reasons:

It will probably be the standard in the future.
Can save the file inside all the LR post-processing actions, so you don’t need the catalog to open the file
You save space

Now my original files are located in 3 different physical HDD:
- 1 MacBook HDD
- 2 HDD RAID Just because I am a little bit paranoid I launch an incremental backup with Time Machine software (included with OS X) to have copies of the WIP (RAW and Catalog) immediately accessible with a restore (just in case :-! ) The special feature of Time Machine is that it stores multiple versions of files, so in the unlikely event that we find the catalog file corrupted, I’m sure to minimize job loss, since I can access all the different versions of the catalog (I can lose no more than the ‘last hour’ of work). Not bad, right?

Summing up the situation of copies of the files is as follows:
- My Mac: \WIP\Wedd_FOLDER: RAW + LR Catalog
- RAID: \Weddings\2012\Wedd_FOLDER: RAW + LR Catalog
- TimeMachine: backup files versioning of the Mac HDD During photos selection/post-prod/rating the TIME MACHINE is always on, so it makes a backup of the catalog every hour.

Now, once all the pictures are developed, it’s time to Export the files ready for printing. This step is not particularly critical. I export files in JPEG format. The next step is preparing the web gallery for my clients. I use the LR Slideshow Pro plugin, which allows me to publish a high quality slideshow directly to my site with background music and customizable effects. Take a look at http://slideshowpro.net site it is a great plugin and web service.

However, the job is not yet finished.

The WIP folder on the MacBook is only temporary and after those steps it will be deleted, so we move the catalog (including all changes to files) in the corresponding folder on the RAID (RAID\Weddings\2012\Wedd_FOLDER). Lightroom at this point needs to RELOCATE the path of the files (because they are in the RAID now!). In the past, I used to create a DVD backup also, but is too time consuming, so I decided to buy another HDD (same size of the Raid Mirrored) and I sync to it every night. Remember! I store this HDD in a different place (secret

Last but not least: Every wedding photographer has a respectable ALL THE BEST to show to his prospects, but what if the images of each photo session are located in dozens of catalogs? I created a catalog where I import, at the end of each job, all the images without copying the file but just pointing to them (to RAID). This way I can create my Collections, filters, Starring as I prefer. I keep this catalog in the MacBook so it is always with me (just the preview of the files). For customer presentation, I export my best to my iPad- a great device for presentations, especially if you go to your clients houses as I often do. The images are stunning; the contrast of the screen is great. And you can show your work as slideshow with music with just a few “taps.”

Photo Delivery: Simple! I deliver my work using DVD. Yes, I use this media because it permits me to create a cool packaging for my clients. A personalized cover wrapped with a nice ribbon. Want more from Matteo? Check out his article on Managing Wedding Clients with Gmail and Google Docs.

3 Questions that Will Help You Understand What Your Client Wants

Lara White — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:27:51 +0000

This week’s guest post is by Eli Powell, a wedding photographer based in Boulder, Colorado. Before escaping the corporate box, Eli was a consulting engineer. The creative juice behind Eli Powell Photography, Eli continually strives to improve his work & business (sometimes to no avail!).

Do you know what your clients want? I mean, what they really want? I’ve found that in most cases, I don’t, so I have to ask. There are lots of photographers out there that can meet your client’s needs, but only a handful that can identify and meet their wants. So to book the work and thrill your clients, you have to discover their needs and wants, then deliver the goods!

The client’s needs are usually what they ask for, a head shot, family photos, or wedding photography for example. But even this may not be totally clear. How do they expect to use the photos? Do they have a spot on the wall picked out, or are they looking to make their own Christmas card? Ask as many questions as needed to make sure you can fully meet their needs.

The wants are a little trickier. Your client might not even really understand their wants, so it’s up to you to help them through the discovery process. This may be the first time they’ve hired a professional and they might not know what to expect. Ask probing questions to discover their hopes, goals, and expectations for the shoot. Below are some example questions to get you on the right track…
Wedding questions:

Photos aside, what do you want your wedding to be?
What’s most important to you about your wedding?
Have you ever been part of a wedding, seen a wedding photographer in action, etc.?

Portrait questions:

Tell me about your [family/job/client/etc.]
Have you ever hired a photographer before?
What’s most important about your photographs, is there something special you want to capture?
Who are we making these images for?
How are you planning to use the images?

The idea at this point (and this is the hard part) is to actually listen to your clients, and communicate how you can meet there wants and needs. So if a wedding client says “We just want to have a fun wedding” maybe you can talk to them about how, as a photojournalist, they get to enjoy the day instead of doing a photo-shoot all afternoon. If a clients says “I want a family portrait with all three generations, this is a gift to my mother.” maybe you can talk about how you’ll shoot at grandma’s home to make the shoot easier and more intimate.

This is also the time when you need to figure out if you actually can thrill the client and help them set realistic expectations. For example, this is the same time many portrait photographers introduce their detailed products costs.

Below are some examples of photography needs and wants.

Need: Headshot. Wants: client will be using the photo on upcoming RFPs (requests for proposals). They were recently promoted, and think having a professional looking image on their RFPs may help them get more business. They’re trying to project an image of success.
Need: Wedding photography. Wants: To spend a lot of time with their guests, guests to have a great time, to look their best. etc.
Need: Food and detail photos for magazine spread. Wants: to save money while impressing the boss, to have photos that match the money and time they spend prepping everything.
Need: School yearbook photo. Wants: to feel like a model for a day (daughter), child to never grow up (parent).
Need: After wedding portrait shoot. Want: To not feel disappointed about crummy wedding photos (with another photog, of course).

You get the idea. It should be noted that some wants may be too personal to share, no need to pry. In short, using smart questions to identify what your clients wants and needs will help you (and the client) know if you’re a good fit and knowing expectations will help you thrill another client.

If you would like to write for PhotoMint and share your experience with thousands of photographers, email me with your topic ideas!

The Secret to Attracting Your Ideal Client to Your Photography Business

Lara White — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:21:21 +0000

This article is by guest blogger Katie Humphreys. She’s co-founder and Chief Action Officer of MatchStick Strategies. As a photographer herself, she loves working with other photographers to reach their business goals using content marketing.

No matter how long you’ve been in business, you rely on word of mouth and your marketing efforts to book enough jobs to sustain your business year after year. But it’s not enough to just book any client…you want to attract the right client!

Because when you spend more time strategically working to attract the right client, you end up spending less time (if any at all) dealing with the hassle that comes from the wrong clients and more time building relationships with clients you adore. It’s a win win.

So what’s the secret to attracting the right clients to your photography business?

Creating and distributing valuable free content for your ideal audience, also known as content marketing.

You may already be familiar with the term “content marketing” (or you may already be doing it without knowing it!) but just in case, here’s a quick definition of what content marketing actually is:

Content Marketing: Creating and freely sharing valuable content as a way to convert prospects into loyal customers.

In an age where your potential clients are likely being bombarded with ads and sales pitches, free content is the perfect tool for connecting with your ideal audience in a non-threatening way. Here are three tips for using a content marketing strategy to attract your ideal client:

Clearly define your ideal client.
The truth is, the prospective clients that you’re trying to reach are just looking for information that is relevant to them. When they’re looking for a photographer, they don’t really care about the long list of cool shoots you’ve done or what equipment you use. Ultimately, they care about whether you can make them happy. If they believe you can, they’ll hire you.

That’s where your content comes in. Clearly understanding who your target client is will help you choose what types of content you should share that will show your ideal client that you indeed understand their needs and desires. For instance, If you shoot portraits, think about who your target client is (ie: the person who is making a purchase decision.) Most likely, it’s the mom in the family. The type of content that will appeal to a mom of small children is different than the content that will appeal to a young, hip bride who’s getting married. Their pictures of happiness are different from each other, so if you want to create content that resonates with your ideal client, you need to know who you’re talking to!

If you’re still working on identifying your ideal client, check out this post for some specific questions to ask yourself.

Understand how to utilize your chosen social media channels.

The channels you use to share the great content you’re creating will completely depend on who your target audience is. Don’t make the mistake of simply utilizing the communication channels YOU spend time on. Think about where your target audience spends time. If they’re young couples getting married, are they on Facebook or Pinterest? If you have an older clientele, are they more likely to visit certain websites or prefer receiving information via email?

Once you know where your ideal audience spends time, you can choose what the most effective communication channels will be for reaching them. Each communication channel you choose needs to have a clearly defined purpose and the way you share information should be tailored to that particular channel. You can check out this quick reference guide for the basics of how to effectively use some of the most common social media channels.

Make it easy for a prospective client to take the next step.

When you’re using content to connect with your ideal audience, selling is no longer about convincing your audience to hire you. Instead, selling becomes a process of simply finding ways to make it easy for your prospective audience to take the next step of hiring you. This means that your content needs to be strategically crafted as a natural gateway that directs your prospective client to where you want them to go next. Do you want them to visit your pricing page? Your contact form? Call you? Whatever you’ve identified as your sales process, your content needs to make it easy for your prospective clients to take these next steps.

Think of the instances when you go to a store ready to purchase a product. You don’t need the sales person to convince you of the value; you’re already convinced and ready to buy. You just need the sales person to help you find the right size and take your credit card. In the same way, content marketing helps your potential clients determine that they want to hire you so that by the time they’re actually ready to book, they just need you to show them the next steps. If you want to take a closer look at how to effectively guide prospective clients to take the next step, you can check out these tips for making the most of your blog and website.

Want more? Check out this new ebook from Jenika of Psychology for Photographers that will show you how to attract your ideal clients by putting together a portfolio, website and marketing that will appeal and attract the type of clients you are looking for.

Client Meetings: Your Home or Public Spaces? The Smackdown

Lara White — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:54:06 +0000

The recent article 24 Tips to Rock Your Client Consultations sparked a lot of discussion about the pros and cons to meeting with clients in your home versus meeting clients in public spaces, so this is a follow up piece. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each option so you can decide the best route to go. I’ve done both, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes you don’t have a choice, and circumstances force the decision for you. Roll with it. It’s all boils down to your attitude anyway.

Home Studio Pros

When you have appointment no-shows, at least you’re still home!
Tax write-offs! Any space in your home that is 100% dedicated to business is eligible for a tax write-off.
No commute.
No overhead costs of a rented space.
You control the environment: the temperature, the wall art, the noise level.
Your artwork up on the walls.
You can add lots of warmth and cozy touches-soft music, candles, wine.

Home Studio Cons

You have to keep the entire path from door to meeting space totally spotless.
Family has to be virtually silent, go into hiding or leave the house during consultations.
A key part of your home (like a living room or dining room) gets taken over by your business. Over time, this becomes harder and harder to live with, and family may resent it.
When you have a scheduling mishap (um, like totally forgetting to put an evening consultation on the calendar) you might accidently open the door in your pjs to find clients expecting a consultation. I guess this is only a con if it actually happens (I don’t want to talk about it!).
When the client is rudely 45 minutes late, you can’t just leave.
Pets can be a…challenge. Not only for clients with allergies, but it can be very distracting to have a dog barking like a maniac through your (entire) presentation.

If meeting in your home is not an option, what should you do? First off, think of it as an advantage to the client and keep that attitude in your mind. A photographer’s confidence (or lack thereof) can be our own worst enemy, so don’t think about the negatives. Focus on the positives.

Outside Meeting Location Pros

Can meet at locations convenient to the client.
Takes the formality edge off the meeting, and sets a more friendly, casual vibe. This can help make everyone more comfortable and less “business meeting” and more “friendly chat.”
Can keep your home space private. This will mean a lot to you, especially if you have gone the home meeting route for a couple years. (Trust me, hiding family gets old after a while).
If the client is a no-show, you can leave. You aren’t trapped there waiting for them to show up at their convenience, like you kind of are in a home. What are you going to do, not answer the door?
The price is right! No extra overhead other than those coffees you’ll be buying for clients.

Outside Meeting Location Cons

You don’t have a dedicated spot, so you need to arrive early in order to secure a table and set yourself up.
If you are a worrier type, you may feel uncomfortable with the lack of control. Practice and prepare until you are comfortable.
You can’t permanently display wall portraits or have a large slideshow presentation, so a nice laptop, Ipad or tablet is going to be the way to go.
You can’t always use your own music for slideshows.
There is added time for driving and set up.

There you have it. From experience, I can tell you that you can make either option work, it’s about your commitment and your attitude. I’ve heard from photographers that could not accept how you could book clients or be professional when meeting in a café. Well, I guess those photographers can’t make it work. They need to control their environment and have their own meeting space in order to feel professional. But it all boils down to attitude and confidence. You set the tone. If you show confidence and ease, you will put your clients at ease. My last job? $19,000. Met the client in a hotel lobby. It’s all in your attitude.

Home Studio Client Consultations: Pros and Cons

Lara White — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:44:55 +0000

Trying to figure out where to hold client meetings? It’s debate that most photographers go through, and there are no easy answers. On the one hand, if you have the space in your home to meet with clients, there are certainly advantages to that, but there are many drawbacks as well, as anyone who does client consultations in their home will tell you. I’ve done both, so I can share with you the pros and cons of each option.

Home Studio Pros:

When you have appointment no-shows, at least you’re still home!
Tax write-offs! Any space in your home that is 100% dedicated to business is eligible for a tax write-off.
No commute.
No overhead costs of a rented space.
You control the environment: the temperature, the wall art, the noise level.
Your artwork up on the walls.
You can add lots of warmth and cozy touches-soft music, candles, wine.

Home Studio Cons:

You have to keep the entire path from door to meeting space totally spotless.
Family has to be virtually silent, go into hiding or leave the house during consultations.
A key part of your home (like a living room or dining room) gets taken over by your business. Over time, this becomes harder and harder to live with, and family may resent it.
When you have a scheduling mishap (um, like totally forgetting to put an evening consultation on the calendar) you might accidently open the door in your pjs to find clients expecting a consultation. I guess this is only a con if it actually happens (I don’t want to talk about it!).
When the client is rudely 45 minutes late, you can’t just leave.
Pets can be a…challenge. Not only for clients with allergies, but it can be very distracting to have a dog barking like a maniac through your (entire) presentation.

Outside Meeting Location Pros

Can meet at locations convenient to the client.
Takes the formality edge off the meeting, and sets a more friendly, casual vibe. This can help make everyone more comfortable and less “business meeting” and more “friendly chat.”
Can keep your home space private. This will mean a lot to you, especially if you have gone the home meeting route for a couple years. (Trust me, hiding family gets old after a while).
If the client is a no-show, you can leave. You aren’t trapped there waiting for them to show up at their convenience, like you kind of are in a home. What are you going to do, not answer the door?

*Check out this article for more tips on client meetings in public spaces.

Outside Meeting Location Cons

You don’t have a dedicated spot, so you need to arrive early in order to secure a table and set yourself up.
If you are a worrier type, you may feel uncomfortable with the lack of control. Practice and prepare until you are comfortable.
You can’t permanently display wall portraits or have a large slideshow presentation, so a nice laptop, Ipad or tablet is going to be the way to go.
You can’t always use your own music for slideshows.

What are your thoughts?

Fundy Album Builder v4.5 Review

Lara White — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:06:17 +0000

This week guest blogger Wendy Roe steps in for me while I am out of the office. Wendy has spent the last 10 years ingrained in all things web marketing – from design/development to search/social media. In May 2010, she quit the corporate life and joined forces with her husband, Byron Roe, of Byron Roe Photography, based in Bend, Oregon to shoot full-time one of life’s ultimate highs – weddings!

She is the co-author of “55 Smart Web Ideas for Photographers” , a 2-time speaker at WPPI Photographer’s Ignite, and has traveled the west coast speaking and consulting with photographers.

Are you one of those photographers that doesn’t want to outsource your album design (that’s just too scary!) but you also don’t want to spend endless, countless, hand cramping hours custom designing your client’s album? I totally get it and think I may have found a great solution to your quandary. It’s called the ‘auto’ feature in the Fundy Album Builder Photoshop plugin. If you haven’t looked at this product and need some help with your album layouts, take 15 mins and (link to their page, videos on the home page) to get started and you’ll be well on your way to realizing the value of this simple product. Spending approx 15 minutes with their video tutorials gave me all the ammo I needed to jump start into my own album and get the hang of the buttons. Kudos to Fundy for the great tutorials and making software easy to understand, that’s a feat in and of it itself.

You get the best of both worlds by starting to easily organize your images into individual spreads with a one button click (via Adobe Bridge) and a small form because Fundy builds in page title templates for you. Once you’ve organized your images, you click ‘new album’ and fill out another simple form to define the size and attributes of your album. That’s it! Now you’re ready to start designing. 80% of the time, when designing your spread, you click one button called ‘design spread’ under the auto menu and BOOM your selected images for that spread gets automatically placed beautifully. Looks good? Click, ‘save and next’ and you’re on to the next spread. The last 20% of the time, or in my case, for a really important set of photos that you want to customize for this spread, you can use a whooping TWO button clicks and custom design any page you want. Yup, it’s just that easy.

For those that want ultimate control, yes you can easily custom design your whole album but I think the software really shines because of it’s auto feature. It just takes the pain away from alignment and placing images, then tweaking, then swapping, then bumping up and down pixels – I know, we’ve all been there! Moreover, you’re using Bridge and Photoshop, two platforms that are native to photographers. Okay, since I’m being honest here, I have never used Bridge before watching these tutorials but it was just so dang easy to learn with the album builder plugin, I wouldn’t worry if you haven’t used it before.

Other secondary areas where it shines? Well, you can swap images in a spread with one button click (starting to see the theme here?). You can also apply your own filters, actions, keylines, background color or image and do a multitude of simple adjustments to get your images to match up with the others on your spread with ease. All in the software, all in Photoshop – yeah!

Things I’d love to see would be another way to organize images outside of Bridge; we use Photo Mechanic or even in conjunction with Lightroom would be great! Or maybe a way to do it in the plugin so that you didn’t have to switch back and forth between programs all the time (Bridge and Photoshop). I’d also love a way to preview all the spreads together and then click on one to open and edit, that’d be a great addition too!

Once you’ve completed your album, export to JPGs is…one button click. You guessed it! You can also print a contact sheet from there and utilize their ‘process proofer,’ for clients of their other software ‘Album Proofer.’

Overall, this is a great product for photographers that want an easy design solution for their album designing but don’t want to click a million times, or spend countless hours, or spend the money for outsourcing for a beautiful album layout. It takes the guessing and the tweaking to save you time, and your body from computer exhaustion. Wouldn’t you rather go for a run anyhow? A time-saving app always wins in my book. Kudos to Fundy Album Builder!

24 Tips to Rock Your Client Meetings in Public Spaces

Lara White — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:45:47 +0000

Take photos of client albums so you can show the different cover style options. This is a photo plate cover from Leather Craftsmen with spine imprinting.

One of the biggest questions new professional photographers have is where to meet with clients. It can be really nerve wracking because you are unsure of yourself and your pricing. The phrase “What I am thinking!?!” probably runs through your mind at least once a day. You want to appear to be a professional, and yet you don’t have the experience, the professional portfolio or product samples that you would like to have. Add to that that you have to meet clients at Starbucks, so unprofessional!

Actually, it’s only unprofessional if you allow it to be. It’s all in your attitude and the way you present yourself. You can turn this into a quick positive by reframing it as your commitment to customer service is meeting clients in a location convenient for them. You are all about service. See what a difference a simple change in attitude can make?

Here are some tips on how to make the most of client meetings in public spaces.

Choosing the Location:

Starbucks isn’t the only game in town. Try nice cafes, hotel lobbies, local coffee shops or wine bars. You can also look into renting an office or meeting space that is available for entrepreneurs that need an occasional meeting location. Alternatively, consider renting space from a collaborative artists group with shared space. Wedding vendors often rent a central meeting office as a group and everyone shares the space and a group calendar for holding client meetings. If you are shooting weddings, you can often meet at the venue, which allows you to personalize the presentation, mention lighting, etc. like a pro.
Choose a place that is a relatively good match with your brand. If your services are more on the high-end side, think swanky hotel lobby.
Scout locations in advance. Consider parking, noise level, ability to get a table easily and if you can comfortably meet clients there frequently and hold the table for an hour. That way, instead of walking into a brand new situation every time, you’ve got a couple options in different neighborhoods that you can suggest depending on the client’s location.

Preparation:

Get yourself a rolling professional case to store your samples. Scrapbooking cases can work beautifully for this purpose.
Set up a time to do a product shoot where you take 4-5 photos of various albums, canvas wraps, printed cards, framed options etc. You can put together a product slideshow to showcase everything you offer. These photos will come in handy in all sorts of ways.
Hotel lobbies can be fantastic-find one with a nice lounge area, but visit a couple of times to understand how busy it gets. It can go from quiet as a mouse to the loudest place in town if they have an active happy hour.
Tell the client what you will be wearing in advance. This helps ease their comfort when walking into a strange place to meet a stranger. If you have a bright colored coat or something that will “pop” make it part of your standard meeting attire.
Make a list of the general points you want to cover-your process, pricing, payments, how images are delivered, etc. basically let the client know what to expect when working with you.
Plan to listen much more than you talk. Have a few good questions/conversation starters in mind if there is a dip in the conversation.

photos of your product offerings are a great way to show clients what you offer when you can't bring every sample to the meeting with you.

What to Bring:

The ipad is your friend! Otherwise a tablet or laptop with slideshows ready to go works beautifully. Make sure whatever you bring is fully charged before the meeting.
Pricing sheets and package information
A blank contract and payment form in case the client wants to book you on the spot (think positive!).
Bring a few choice sample albums and products that are small enough to be shared without taking up the entire table.
Contact information form with details so you have a specific record and a mailing address to send over a thank you.
Money for parking and drinks.
A few extra slideshows or samples in case they ask for something unexpected.
A warm, friendly personality. Get to know the client, laugh with them, and work to establish a connection. Understand what they are looking for.
Some photographers take the approach that the client has probably already spent enough time on the website looking at images, so the meeting should be all about the personalities and getting to know one another.

The Client Meeting:

Arrive extra early! The last thing you want to happen is the client gets there before you, there are no tables available, and you don’t have a way to do a comfortable presentation.
Start the meeting with buying them drinks after the hellos. It’s a nice way to “host” and gives everyone a few minutes to settle in. Plus you can leave your samples out for them to glance at while you are gone.
Have a basic routine of what order you are going to cover different info in, so that you ensure you don’t leave anything out.
Ask lots of questions-get to know the client as a person.
When it’s time to wrap things up, that’s a great time to pull out your contract to go over the details of what needs to happen if they want to work with you.
It is perfectly fine to end the meeting with, “do you have any more questions?” “OK, would you like to go ahead and book today?” (and then you go perfectly silent and let your face relax.) Give the client the option to take care of it right then and there. Be ready with a payment form and blank contract.

More Consultation Tips:

How to Organize Wedding Inquiries

Email Follow Up for Wedding Photographers

OK photographers, your turn! Share your best tips or your most burning questions in the comments below.

7 Major Time-Saving Tips Every Photographer Should Know

Lara White — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:25:26 +0000

This is an article I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. It’s about something that has made a real difference for me; streamlining and automating business processes. Run your business more efficiently by implementing these incredibly easy time savers.

As your business becomes more and more successful, you also become more and more busy. Like, crazy busy. There are so many hats we have to wear on a daily basis; photographer, blogger, sales person, editor, kid wrangler, accountant, marketer etc. etc. It’s too much for one person to handle alone, but unfortunately, most of the time, that’s the way it is. The secret is to figure out where you can automate processes, streamline things or outsource them. Here are my best time-saving tips, and after reading this article, I hope you’ll share yours.

We let our album company take care of printing the album prints and binding them.

Print and Bind Album Services

Print and bind services are offered through a lot of album companies, and it makes things so much simpler and easier than ordering the prints yourself, checking them over carefully (we used to spend an hour) and then packaging up the prints and shipping them off. Now that album companies offer this, you can send in the layouts and have the album maker print the images and bind the album for you. It’s a great way to save time in the office and also get your client albums back faster.

Print Fulfillment

Some labs like WHCC and ProDPI will drop ship prints directly to your client without the invoice. ProDPI offers an upgraded packaging option if you want the prints delivered in a nice box. It’s another time saver because instead of receiving prints, reviewing them, packaging them and mailing them out to clients, it’s all done on auto-pilot. Now you do lose the option to add your branding with personal packaging, but that’s not the end of the world, and I would say it matters less if you are not a high-end photographer, charging high-end prices. The other thing is, sometimes you have to put your family first, and some of these time-savers can go a long way to giving you your life back. And, yes, I am speaking from personal experience.

Photography Business Systems

Hands down the best thing I ever did for my business was set up (and start using) a business system called ShootQ. There are a number of different software systems designed for photographers, so look into a few options to see which is right for you. If you feel like you need an office assistant to send clients directions and reminders, send out emails in a timely manner, collect payments, get your contracts signed, help stay on top of leads, keep track of routine tasks and collect key info from clients prior to or after their sessions, you need to look into photography business systems. I can’t say this enough, but having a system like that is absolutely like having an office assistant.

Office Scanner

At some point a few years we had seven (7!!!) file drawers filled with client files, vendor files, historical documents, old print orders and all sorts of stuff. The files had outgrown the office space and it was time to either get another file cabinet for the garage or make a change. We decided we wanted to try to go paperless. So we bought a scanner and over time, we started going through all those old files, scanning and shredding as we went. Each time we liberated another file drawer, we had a mini celebration. (OK, not really, but in my mind, I said a little prayer of thanks and/or awarded myself a glass of champagne).

At this point, all of our business documents and personal documents are scanned and saved in Dropbox. It’s the coolest thing-not only do we not need a bunch of file cabinets, but we can put our hands on anything in about five seconds. All bills and anything paper gets scanned immediately, and goes into our cloud based storage system. Which means I can pull up documents while out of the office, on my iPhone.

I’m a big fan of scanning everything. It’s made such a difference in our life, not only getting rid of all the paper everywhere, but being able to get to what I need instantly.

Online Fax

Along those same lines, we gave up our big bulky cumbersome fax machine in favor of an online fax number. Basically, you send and receive faxes as emails. It’s easier to manage, and you pay a small monthly fee. Again, if you are on the road a lot, this is the way to go.

Online Payment Processing

In the old days, we used to have clients fill out a payment form (paper or online when ordering prints) and once a week we’d go through and process each payment. This didn’t take more than about twenty minutes, but usually there would be at least one charge that did not go through. Credit cards have a strange habit of being maxed out around weddings. Or, I would flat out write the number down wrong. Or the client would not remember the card had a different billing address. So these always required another call, another email and so on to track down a working credit card number.

One day, I decided I’d had enough of that, and I called Ryan from Photography Merchant Systems and got set up to have payments taken online. Clients enter their credit card information and the charge goes through immediately, and money is magically deposited into our bank account. It’s connected to both our print shopping kart as well as ShootQ. Clients can still pay by check, but for those that are paying with credit card, it’s now on them to make their payments and to shuffle credit cards as needed to get the payment taken care of in a timely manner. ShootQ sends auto payment reminders until money is deposited into my bank account. I like it!

We created a set of labels for each type of disc or session, so that when we burn a slideshow or make digital negatives, instead of futzing with a custom label, we use our branded labels which are already ready already.

Bonus Tip: We used to painstakingly create custom disc labels for each client slideshow. We’d try out a number of images, and only certain ones worked well due to the shape of the label. Don’t laugh; we used to spend about 45 minutes or more making this custom label. And then one day we wised up and created a set of branded disc labels (thank you Edyta!). Sometimes, it’s the little things that make you slap your forehead and wonder why you’ve been doing it the hard way for so long.

Honestly, I could have called this article “How Lara Got Her Groove Back” or “How to Be a Photographer and Not get Divorced”. This business we are in is a real labor of love, as we all know. There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done you want. You don’t have to sacrifice every free minute to your business. Learn to be efficient. <– Click to Tweet. By implementing at least a few of these ideas, you might just be saving your marriage. Or at least your sanity.

What are your best tips for streamlining and automating?

Photography Portfolio Tips: 5 Ways To Create an Outstanding Portfolio

Lara White — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:25:24 +0000

If you are trying to break into professional photography, there’s no better time than now to build your portfolio. How do you book clients if you don’t have a portfolio to show? Simple. You create a portfolio. It’s actually not too hard to do once you get your creativity flowing. Here are some ideas to get you on your way to an awesome photo portfolio.

Shoot for Free or Trade

If you want to quickly build a portfolio of work that you can use to get paid bookings for, the fastest and easiest way to do this is to shoot for free. Now before all the “never work for free” people chime in, let’s just acknowledge that at this point your work probably isn’t at the level where you should be charging anyway. If you don’t have a firm grasp on your camera settings, you should not be charging for your work, period. <–Click to Tweet

If you are still learning your camera settings, don’t be ashamed; many photographers may have an eye for composition but not the technical know-how to make it happen. This can easily and painless be addressed by picking up the ridiculously cheap (on sale this week for $34.95) and super, super easy to understand via Photography Concentrate’s Camera Skills (aff link) multi-media tutorial which takes about 3 hours. I highly, highly recommend this for anyone wanting to master their camera settings. I’m telling you, I would have saved myself several season of really and truly learning my camera way back when had I had access to this kind of visual learning.

Free invitation samples can be ordered online.

If you already know what specialty you want to work in, shoot in that niche. Here are some examples of portfolio building activities

Weddings

Approach some wedding photographers at your local PPA, SmugMug or PUG group. You can also email them, but your chance of success will go way up if you talk to people in person. Let photographers know that you will second shoot for free if you can use images to build your portfolio.

Spice up your wedding portfolio with staged images. This is actually quite easy to do, and once your creative juices start flowing, you will likely come up with many more ideas:

Images like these can easily be staged to add depth to your portfolio.

A custom martini or even a single glass of champagne
Wedding invitations (you can order free samples online)
A single wedding favor, up close
A veil gently laid out on a bed
Have a bouquet made (or make it yourself) and find the best spot to capture it
A nice pair of white, ivory or bright colored high heels arranged artfully
A pair of wedding rings, captured in creative ways
The front of a beautiful church or venue

If you know what niche you want to get into (like pets) focus on building a portfolio that features that specialty.

Portraits

Let friends and families know you are scheduling some sessions to expand your photography portfolio and you have two or three spots each available for each: families, couples, maternity, pets and kids. Scout out in advance a couple of different locations such as local parks, landmarks, a beach, red brick buildings (I love red brick backgrounds for some reason) main street type setting etc. Let people know upfront what you will give them in exchange; prints, a disc of images, etc. or you can load images onto Shutterfly.com or equivalent to allow people to order their own prints.

Commercial

Building a commercial and product photography portfolio lends itself perfectly for bartering. You can approach your favorite restaurants, cafes or other small business retailers about a trade for services. Photography in exchange for a credit towards their services, such as a restaurant credit works well for both parties. Before the shoot, discuss the types of images they are looking for and how they want to use them, to guide you in creating the right images.

Once you get started, the creative ideas will start flowing.

Events

Events are a great way to build your photo portfolio because the event organizers are often looking for low cost or no cost photography. Non-profits especially have all sorts of fundraisers that offer great shooting opportunities-everything from family picnics to upscale galas. If you are looking to get into pet photography, find dog shows and horse shows to shoot.

Once you have a number of shoots or sessions under your belt, it’s time to turn that body of work into a portfolio. This is where the hard part comes in.

Only Show Your Very Best Work

After you have finished each session, you want to do a strong edit. This part is going to hurt, but trust me on this. The quality of your work will be judged by your weakest image. You must be ruthless in culling your images. Get rid of everything that is mediocre. Get rid of images that are oh-so-slightly different; pick the best, dump the rest. For your actual portfolio of work, you will want to limit it to 1-2 images per session, max. I know there are lots of good ones in there, but what I’m talking about is the best one. Period.

Get a Second Opinion

Now that you’ve got some work you feel proud of, get some opinions. Ask a few trusted friends, family and other photographers to give you honest feedback and critique. Your local photography association is a great resource for this. Most people will say nice things and leave it at that; listen closely to the most critical feedback. This is where you may get some pointers on how to improve.

Online Portfolio Presentation

If you don’t have a professional looking online blog or portfolio, now’s the time to get one. As you move into the next stage (charging) you’ll want to establish an online presence that is clean and professional (not Flickr). You don’t have to invest much to get a nice online site, and the knowledge you gain in putting this together will serve you well down the road.

If you are going to focus on a certain niche, you will want to feature that type of work in your main portfolio, and keep other work separate. It can be quite jarring to see a high fashion editorial type of shot right next to a sweet little baby’s face.

Charging for Your Work

Once you have figured out how to create a stunning photography portfolio and mastered your camera, it’s time to start charging. Depending on your goals and your skill level, you can determine if you should start small and work your way up or put your business into place and go for it. There are pros and cons to charging appropriate rates (that you can make a living from) from the beginning or to raise your rates over time as your skill level and confidence builds. Personally, I’m in the “go for it” camp, but you must be able to back it up with mastery of your camera settings, composition and lighting.

What other ideas do you have for creating a photography portfolio? What worked well for you?

Photography Pricing Guide Review: Creative Pricing and Packaging for Photographers

Lara White — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:57:57 +0000

How to price photography is the number one thing I am asked about from photographers. So in light of that, I have put together a review on a photography pricing guide by Lawrence Chan, also known as Tofurious. Let me just start off this review with letting you know I highly recommend this ebook for wedding photographers (obviously, or I would not be promoting it!). If you are trying to figure out how to price your packages, you will find a lot of guidance in here.

The advice and strategy works for both emerging photographers trying to figure out how to price photography from the get-go as well as established professionals with pricing already in place, but considering some changes.

What is different about this pricing guide is that instead of providing you with pricing formulas, it delves into the psychology of pricing and putting packages together in a way that creates the desired effect. Let’s get straight to it, shall we?

The first topic Chan covers is choice and the psychology behind offering enough selection versus overwhelming prospective clients with too many choices to the point of paralysis. He makes a lot of good points and uses lots of examples to illustrate his points.

The next area of focus is discounting and how that can adversely affect your clients’ perception of you and your services. Again, it’s the many examples from restaurants (he’s big on food) that help drive home the points. Later in the guide, he circles back and talks about freebies and incentives, but as an added value instead of simply discounting your pricing. It’s a subtle difference, but he explains that it’s the perception that clients have about your services is most important. He explains that if you first establish the value in your services, you can later add incentives.

This leads right into the next section on quantity, quality and value. As wedding photographers, we can all offer 8 hours of coverage, two photographers and a Leather Craftsman album, so how can we distinguish ourselves other than price? This is a key area for wedding photographers to understand because it gets right to the heart of being compared to your competitors, and how to avoid competing on price or specific type of service or product.

Over half the book is dedicated to discussing how to set up your packages-from how many to include to what to call them. This is my favorite part of the guide-I have not seen this kind of information available in the photography industry, and it is very comprehensive, in an easy-to-understand format with all his food examples.

I am a firm believer in the importance of offering packages as part of your photography pricing strategy. I know from experience I have booked bigger packages and sold more products than my competitors (and friends) simply due to having a well thought out package structure. In my opinion, if you don’t offer packages to your clients you are leaving money on the table. <–Click to Tweet. And you know how I feel about that!

The book wraps up with several chapters that offer tips on presenting your pricing and packaging when meeting with clients. A lot of the advice feels very familiar to me because I have used many of the principals to develop my own pricing.

You’ll still need to do the actual work of figuring out your pricing, but armed with this information, you’ll be much more likely to succeed. As a bonus, you’ll also get to see the packages offered by this high-end photographer, so you can see the different strategies in practice.

Once you go to his site you’ll find it filled with reviews from happy photographers saying how after they implemented some of his strategies, they saw an immediate increase in earnings to the tune of thousands of dollars. I can personally attest to this because I’ve been using these strategies in my packages for years. At $69, it’s a great investment, go grab it: Creative Pricing and Packaging for Photographers!

5 Steps to Manage Wedding Clients with Gmail and Google Docs

Lara White — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:39:04 +0000

This week we welcome guest blogger Matteo Cuzzola from Milan. Matteo travels all over Italy and Europe to photograph weddings, and developed a simple and efficient system for staying organized while on the road. He shares his system with PhotoMint, and I think you’ll enjoy the simplicity and ease of this wedding client organizational system. Here’s a bit more about Matteo:

If you like stories in pictures, travelling and food, we’re going to be good friends. I just know it. I am an enthusiastic photographer since childhood and I have the privilege of documenting the most important moments in people’s lives. My style is to capture the great moments and those are usually the images that the subjects didn’t even know I was shooting. To see Matteo’s work, visit his website: Matteo Cuzzola.

For weddings, I travel often and my office is always with me, in the Cloud. Let me show you how I do it.

Let’s take a look at how you can organize requests for quotes, email clients efficiently and accurately with Gmail in 5 steps. The most important Gmail feature we will be using is Labels, check out some tips here and here. Since 2005, Google has provided a simple and powerful interface for email and documents management. Five year ago, I decided to switch to Gmail Google Apps service with a clear aim to have all my office documents and CRM online.

First, I create three “father” labels for every year:

P12 for prospects for 2012

W12-TODO for clients (weddings) in 2012

-W12-DONE for finished projects, 2012

The concept is to have one label per client and move it through these three father labels, from the first contact to the delivery of the package. Let’ s see the five steps:

Step 1:

When a prospect writes me for a quote I assign a label to the email called:

P12/mm-dd_surname (So it will be nested to P12)

Note: mm is for month and dd for day. Note that using this format month-day will automatically sort the labels by ascending date.

For every request for a quote I create a label and I put it nested to the label P12/ in this way:

So I have the list of the requests for quotes per year, collapsible with a click.

Step 2:

When I set an appointment with a client I create the event on Google Calendar and I save in the notes a link to the label of Gmail, so I can have access to all the history of the client/prospect with just a click from the Calendar.

Tip: search on Gmail “label:name_of_the_label” and you will get the link for the label in the address bar

Step 3:

When a prospect becomes a customer (yesss!) I change the prospect label in this way:

from: P12/mm-dd-surname to: W12-TODO/mm-dd-surname

So it will automatically be nested under the label of weddings for the year 2012, which is called W12-TODO in this way:

At this point, I have a group of labels for the prospects and a group for customers. Note that the labels are automatically ordered by date and this is very useful when I check at a glance which days for 2012 are already booked. I generally scan the contracts of the wedding services and send it to myself via email and assign it the right label. This way, I have all the information of the wedding in Gmail under one label.

Tip: the color green is for the customers that have paid the booking fee. If not yet paid, it would be red

Step 4:

After the wedding day I change the father label this way: from: W12-TODO/xx-xx-xxxxx to: -W12-DONE/xx-xx-xxxxx

Step 5:

Once the package is delivered, I change the color from green to grey. Finished!

Note: I use -W12-DONE with the - (dash) because I want it on top of the list of labels, so it is separated from W12-TODO .

I know it sounds complicated but it allows me to create groups to be organized with a simple interface that can be accessed from anywhere with any device connected to the Internet. For this reason, I don’t use gmail-labs or browser add-ons that would not be replicated on mobile devices.

Data management on Google Docs

To save all the details for the wedding day, I decided to use one spreadsheet per year (called “Weddings 2012”) with one single sheet per client. All the sheets are ordered by date of event and contain all the information I need that day:

A few days before the wedding I check all these information with the bride and the groom (note: a few days before, not weeks, as schedules can change!) On the day of the wedding I print this sheet in two copies, one for me and one for my assistant.

There is another important sheet in this file. It is called The Summary Grid similar to the image below:

This is a simple snapshot of the work in progress of all my scheduled weddings. The rows are all the steps of my workflow (but this is another story :-) The columns are the dates of the events. I maintain this grid updated every day (OK not quite:-P) to always have the status of my work in progress available. This is an easy way to ensure I complete all the steps! You can’t imagine how beautiful it is to see all OK (green) cells at the end of the year!

This is my way of working, and I wanted to share this system in case it helps others. If you have any suggestions or just to tell me I’m crazy, write to me and I’ll take that as a compliment!

Want more organizational goodness? Here you go:

How to Name Image Files

8 Tips for Taming the Production Beast

Get More Bookings by Staying Organized

The Secret to Growing Your Photography Business Quickly

Lara White — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 19:03:26 +0000

Today’s guest post is by Kate Anderson of Plumeria Album Design. Kate started her album design business after realizing how much she enjoyed designing (and redesigning) her own wedding album. Kate’s wedding photographer jumped at the opportunity to have Kate start designing client albums for her, and Plumeria was born. Read on to see how you can outsource as a way to grow your business. I am super, super excited that Kate is offering a FABULOUS giveaway for one PhotoMint reader, a 30-page wedding album design. Scroll to the end (I mean, read the entire article) to enter the giveaway.

Outsourcing can be one of the best things you do for growing your business. Outsourcing work like editing, color correcting and album design allows you grow your business faster, and have a life outside of your business. You may think outsourcing means losing all creative control of your art, leaving your art at the whim of some other artist. Of course, no one wants that. However, outsourcing has less to do with the artist side and more with the business side.

As a photographer, you’re both an artist and a businessperson. Outsourcing allows you to be a better businessperson, by giving you time to focus on the business more, or have more time for your family and friends. This can have the pleasant side effect of allowing you more time to work on your art, too.

Planning for outsourcing

If you’ve read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, you’ll know that the basic premise of the book is to work backwards in your business. Decide where you want your business to go, then put things in place to get you there. <– Click to Tweet

You may want your studio to become a busy wedding studio with a full calendar of weddings and portrait sessions, so make it part of your plan to outsource parts of your business that keep you from growing it.

Unless you have a super-efficient workflow (most photographers struggle with this), chances that as you get to the point of having a fully booked calendar, you’ll be too busy to do everything that needs to be done to run your business plus get sleep. Set up your pricing right from the start to account for the expense of outsourcing, so your business is ready to grow into it.

A great album design takes your work to the next level and will help you sell more albums.

You’re the business owner, the heart and soul of the operation. You should be focusing all your energies on growing the business and all the things needed to grow it. The big picture stuff. That’s probably shooting weddings and sessions, marketing to new clients and networking with other vendors to build up your referral base. If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, you know that’s a full time job right there! That’s what working ON your business means. You are working on building the business bigger and better.

Album design or editing is work you do IN your business, and that’s not the best use of your time or money. Say it costs $500 to outsource the album design and editing of a wedding, work that would take you 6-10 hours to do. If you take those 6-10 hours to network and do photography marketing, how many new clients could you potentially get? And how much would those new clients potentially spend? If you don’t waste the time you get back that $500 that you spent could allow you to bring potentially thousands more in bookings and sales. Can you see how this can start to snowball?

One of the biggest problems that prevents photographers from outsourcing or taking on some extra help when they really need it is they haven’t charged their clients enough. This is especially problematic in weddings.

Say your clients buy their wedding package in January of 2012 for $2000; the wedding is in June 2013. At this price, you may just barely be making money if at all. During 2012, you get a lot of success with bookings, and 2013 is a full schedule. Awesome! As 2013 gets well into the busy season, you’re getting overwhelmed with editing and album design, and your customer service is starting to slip. You need to outsource, but can’t afford it because you didn’t build that cost into your packages booked in 2012.

Most of that money is spent on taxes, insurance, your costs for goods sold, your second shooter fees, and other overhead expenses; there’s not even much for you to pay yourself. In fact, there might not be anything to pay you. Bummer! Now you’re stuck; you raise prices for 2014 weddings, but that’s doesn’t help you make ends meet any easier in 2013. It’s going to be a long year.

That’s why it’s important to think and plan in terms of where you want to be. Even if you’re just starting out, you need to account for the cost of outsourcing right from the start if you plan to be busy enough to need it. And if you aren’t planning to be busy enough to need help, is your business plan strong enough?

Pre-designing albums for clients not only creates a better product (you KNOW your clients don't choose images that tell the story!) but it also allows you to sell more albums.

What to outsource?

Outsource what you suck at, and what you don’t want to do! Or the tasks that you can do, but takes you longer than it should take.

For some people, that’s album design. It could be editing. If an editor can process a wedding and have it ready for you in a week or two, think of how impressed your client will be, especially if their friends have had to wait 4-6 weeks for their wedding photographs? Or it could be designing marketing pieces or accounting (I outsource this stuff). There’s an option to outsource just about every business task out there.

Decide what you’re really good at and love, and keep doing that. Let someone else do all the other stuff.

Why I know outsourcing works

When I started my album design business, I bought a website theme and customized it for my branding, and was putting together all my own marketing pieces. I could do it, but it took me weeks and months. Not because it was necessarily hard, but because I would be repeatedly changing my mind, tweaking this or that, coming up with a better idea. Little bits of everything were changing throughout a whole year. It was a huge time suck. So, I decided to outsource a brand new website and marketing suite (I used Braizen if you’re curious, they’re awesome!).

It was a far, far better business decision. By having them design the website and marketing pieces, I could stop spending hours redoing this or that all the time, and instead work on marketing and getting albums out faster. I gave them money, they gave me time, which for me is worth much more than it cost me in dollars.

Plumeria Album Design creates custom wedding and portrait albums, starting at $200 for a wedding album and $100 for a portrait album. With quick turn-around times averaging a week or less, think of how impressed your clients will be if you had a gorgeous album pre-design ready for them to view before they were back from their honeymoon?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Photography Contracts and Retainers: Why Mine is Non-Refundable

Lara White — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:11:06 +0000

In theory, it’s hard to understand. But once you’ve actually suffered a major financial loss due to a wedding cancelation, it starts to make more sense from a business perspective. Let me explain.

Our contract terms have always been to collect 1/3 of the payment at the time of booking. It is a significant amount; and I am making a significant commitment to the client. Doesn’t matter if a “better offer” comes along (or I change my mind, or I win a free trip to Europe, or J.Lo wants me to photograph her 4th wedding) I am committed to the original client and their date. It works both ways, and the non-refundable retainer is the client’s way of making that same commitment to me.

Many people think, well, if the wedding hasn’t happened yet, you haven’t done much work, so why not offer a refund?

You haven’t done the bulk of the work, true. But wedding photographers are often unable to get similar work on that date or replace that lost income due to the nature of the wedding business. And you might be surprised at how much work and time are involved in the administrative side-let’s talk about that for a minute.

In order to book a client, we would typically meet with two or three couples. Each consultation takes about two hours, an hour of travel time (for off site meetings), an hour of preparation time and about an hour of follow up time. So that puts us in the neighborhood of fifteen or more hours of time to book a client (2-3 consults). If that client later cancels, and we have to try to rebook that date, we are now looking at an investment of another ten to fifteen hours to meet with new potential clients. Following up with leads, consultation meetings, follow up, this all takes real business time.

OK, fine, so you waste ten to fifteen hours, just charge an administration fee to cover your time, and then rebook the date, right?

Not so fast. Wedding photographers have 3 distinct seasons throughout the year-the busy wedding season, the slow season (marketing season in my book) and booking season. Most wedding photographers will get the bulk of their inquiries and bookings during a certain window of time each year-booking season. The problem with trying to rebook is that if the wedding cancels after your booking season is over, it becomes very difficult to rebook a date.

First Cancellation Experience

Our first cancellation started out as a postponement. We got an email from the groom about 2 months before the wedding (just before the second payment was due) explaining that due to unforeseen circumstances, the wedding was postponed. We suspected a case of cold feet, but the couple assured us everything was on track and they rescheduled to the following summer.

So we book off the new date for them, turning down other couples and other work. And guess what happens right before the second payment is due, one year later? Yep. They email us again, saying that they have had to call the wedding off. This is two months before their wedding, and it’s very unlikely we are going to rebook this date. Not only that, but this couple ate up two (!!!) prime wedding dates, and caused us a double financial loss due to losing out on not one but two bookings!

Obviously, they were suffering as well; a breakup is not fun for anyone. Even though our contract very clearly states that the retainer is non-refundable, the client expected that we would “do the right thing” and give them the money back.

We experienced a financial loss of $12,000 or more due to this client rescheduling and then cancelling. The $2,000 retainer was a very small compensation. This was a real financial loss, and it was hard on us. Imagine cutting $6,000 out of your expected revenue for the year-that’s gonna hurt, isn’t it? That money is earmarked for expenses, bills, mortgage. Now do it twice.

This is part of the business. If you haven’t had a cancellation yet, you will. Hopefully you are prepared for it, with a good legal contract in place. <– Click to tweet this

Hopefully, that contract indicates what will happen to the retainer in that case-that it is non-refundable. Encourage your clients to read the terms carefully, and if they do not agree, they should not sign.

The thing about a contract is, it goes both ways. It protects the client, and commits you to their wedding date. It’s not a “I’ll shoot your wedding as long as nothing better comes along” commitment. It’s a “I’ll shoot your wedding even if my mom’s in a coma in the hospital” contract. (2 years ago my friend, I shot a wedding 2 days after my mom unexpectedly went into a coma and on life support). On my end, that contract is a rock solid commitment. Come hell or high water, I will be there, and god forbid I don’t make it, I will personally pay to send someone better than me in my place.

The client has made a commitment as well, and so it is only fair that the contract protect YOU and your business as well as the client.

Exceptions for Every Rule

Do I make exceptions? Sure I do. Last year I had a client who about a week before her wedding, began to realize that all our correspondence with her mentioned a different date than her actual wedding date. She had actually filled out the wrong date in her consultation notes (hey, it happens…I guess), and then when we created the contract (with the wrong date) she signed that as well. Yep. Hard to believe, but true. She’d already paid in full, which according to our contract terms, all payments are non-refundable. If we could have switched her date, we gladly would have, but we did not have her date available. In this case, I refunded all her payments, and that was a big hit financially. I pretty much ate it on that one. But these things balance themselves out, and you have to take each case individually. And because my contract is set to protect me, I was able to make the decision. What if I didn’t have $9,000 sitting in the bank, what then?

A Double Whammy

Last year, I also had not one but two postponements. We got client calls on the same day (kinda twilight zone like). In these cases, we always try to accommodate new dates, but the contract states that the choice is entirely up to us, giving us the flexibility. Sometimes you just don’t know what the situation will be and if you can financially weather the situation at the time.

For both of these clients, they had extreme emergencies in their lives that caused them to need to post-pone their weddings. Of course we were sad for them to be going through a rough time, and certainly don’t want to make things any more difficult on them.

But from a purely business perspective, this was another double whammy, and here’s why. Both brides had prime summer wedding dates last year, and when they rebooked their weddings for this year, they chose prime wedding dates as well. Those are dates I KNOW we would have been able to book. But those are two wedding dates we will not earn any income from this year. And that is a real loss, and it is significant. Of course, our brides have suffered devastating personal losses as well, and as people I care about them. But that is different from the financial loss my studio is absorbing due to the situation. By having a flexible contract in place, I have options. Do you?

This is just part of the balance of keeping a retainer on a cancellation. You HAVE to have a contract that protects you. Sometimes the client takes a hit, sometimes you take a hit. But if you don’t have a policy in place that retainers are non-refundable, its always going to be you taking the hit. <– Click to Tweet

Need to pull together a wedding photography contract but can't afford an attorney?

If you are starting to freak out a little bit right now (cause your so-called contract is a fill-in-the-blank form out of a book) I highly suggest you check out these photography contract template options by Rachel Brenke, a photographer and business consultant with an MBA and law degree. For $89 bucks, you can rest at night knowing your a** is covered in case of (in case of what, I’m not saying. Just in case of.) A photography contract template should not replace consulting with an attorney, but if you aren’t ready to hire an attorney (and pay hourly attorney fees) then this is a good option.

Have you experienced a cancellation? What do you think? If you want more info on sample photography contracts, check out the post on photography contract ideas.

Enter to Win a Copy of Kevin Kubota’s Lighting Notebook!

Lara White — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:23:26 +0000

This is your chance to win a copy of Kevin Kubota’s Lighting Notebook, courtesy of Wiley & Sons

PhotoMint is celebrating reaching 4,000 Facebook fans this week (with your help of course!) and YOU can enter to win this great prize. Entering is super-duper simple and fun. You can register with your email or log in with Facebook, and you can increase your chances of winning by earning several entries into the giveaway. It couldn’t be easier!

Kevin Kubotas Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Details:

Use the widget above to earn several entries into the drawing.
1 winner will win a copy of Kevin Kubotas Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers
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Winner must provide a mailing address to receive prize.

Good luck!

The Quick & Easy Guide to Photographing Fireworks

Lara White — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:32:42 +0000

Ready to get out there and enjoy a fireworks show with your family? Want to know how to shoot fireworks? No problem! Here is a very simple and easy list of fireworks photography tips that will have you creating gorgeous images in no time. Depending on where you are in the world, that could happening very soon (Hello Montreal!). It’s super easy to get started on photographing
fireworks, just follow these quick steps:

How to Photograph Fireworks:

Use a tripod
Turn your flash off
Use a zoom lens if you can (until the fireworks start, you won’t know exactly where in the sky the fireworks will appear).
Shoot in manual mode
Use a low ISO like 50 or 100

Set shutter speed to bulb
Aperture should be between f/8 and f/16
Hold the shutter open for about the amount of time you see the fireworks in the sky you are capturing, somewhere between 1-15 seconds. Experiment with this a bit to see what you like.

That’s it. Easy, right? Here are some bonus tips for you over-achievers:

Bonus Tips:

If you can, get set up prior to the show, because once fireworks start, they usually go quickly.
If you have a wireless remote or cable release, use it.
Play with framing. If you are at a scenic spot, it adds a lot to the image to have a bridge, landmark building etc. in the frame. The other option is to go tight on the fireworks, pretty much filling your frame.
Take a small flashlight so you can easily adjust settings
Over shoot to give yourself more options. Some of the best fireworks images are actually composites of multiple firework blooms.

Because our readers are a super globe-trotting bunch of artists, here are some locations around the world with some amazing opportunities to work on your fireworks photography.

Photographing Fireworks Around the World:

June 30 – International Fireworks Competition, Montreal, Canada

July 1 – Canada Day, throughout Canada

July 4^–Independence Day, throughout the US

July 7 – International Fireworks Competition, Montreal, Canada

July 14 – International Fireworks Competition, Montreal

July 14 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

Play with different compositions to get some different effects.

July 14 – Festa del Redentore, Venice, Italy

July 15 – Festa del Redentore, Venice, Italy

July 17 – International Fireworks Competition, Montreal, Canada

July 21 – International Fireworks Competition, Montreal, Canada

July 21 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

July 28 – Celebration of Light, Vancouver

July 29 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

August 1 – Celebration of Light, Vancouver

August 4 – Celebration of Light, Vancouver

August 7 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

August 11 – Fetes De Geneve Fireworks Show, Geneva, Switzerland

August 15 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

August 20 – Budapest Fireworks Show, Budapest

August 21 – International Fireworks Festival, Cannes, France

August 25 – Omagari National Fireworks Competition, Japan

November 5 – Bonfire Day, London, England

December 31 – New Year’s Eve Celebrations, Everywhere

2013

January 26 – Australia Day, throughout Australia

April 20, Thunder Over Louisville, Kentucky (US)

Pinterest: What Every Photographer Ought to Know

Lara White — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:43:45 +0000

Today I’d like to introduce Christina Gressianu, this week’s guest blogger. Christina is an award-winning photographer, whose work can be seen in publications such as The Knot. Her success required a merging of photography skills with brand-building expertise, honed in the world of New York City ad agencies. Christina is also the author of Zap the Gap, a guide to building a brand the closes the gap between your business and the hearts of your customers. PhotoMint readers, please give Christina a warm welcome by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

Photography for me is one part about making the best work I can, and the other part about getting it as visible as possible. Once I started being in business as a photographer, a third part entered the mix… the part called making money. So I make great work, get as many eyeballs on it as I can and convert those eyeballs into paying clients. The Internet is beautiful for the eyeballs part.

When Pinterest hit the scene about a year ago for me, before I knew anyone else using it, I thought it was the coolest thing since the internet itself. The whole bookmarking thing had been a problem for me, because I’m visual… I don’t remember the title of that webpage with the awesome peanut sauce recipe, but I remember the photo of noodles and broccoli in a square white bowl on an orange placemat. You get my drift? So me and Pinterest were like Forrest and Jenny… like peas and carrots. Then one day, I found that people were pinning my work! People I didn’t even know where pinning and repinning my photographs… do you know how many new eyeballs that is on my work?? I don’t either, but it’s A LOT! And as we know, eyeballs can mean $$.

Then Pinterest got big, like really BIG really fast, and suddenly people were misusing it. I don’t think it was intentional, but people where pinning photos without linking back to the source or giving credit. Photographers started getting upset about this and blaming Pinterest, and then there was that lawyer who said she was deleting her account, which made me leap to Pinterest’s aid. Because any photo you put out on the Internet is stealable, and has been since browsers first started supporting photos. Flickr had the same problem a few years ago. But you don’t have to be a victim and get angry about it… here’s what you can do:

1 – WATERMARK your images. Whether you prefer to drop your logo in a white border at the bottom of your jpg, or overlay it on the actual photo, pick a style and do it. If you’re putting your photos anywhere online—Facebook, your website, Flickr, etc. without a watermark, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. Not only does watermarking protect your images from “theft” but it also puts your business name and logo in front of all those eyeballs too. When your photos are used somewhere other your website, you want them branded the same way Starbucks wants your coffee cup branded long after you walk out of the store. There are great tutorials on how to automate watermarking both in Photoshop and Lightroom. This plugin for Lightroom makes watermarking a breeze.

2 – COPYRIGHT your photos with the U.S. Copyright Office. In most states if you clicked it, you own the copyright. Registering the copyright makes it iron-clad official. It costs $35 for each batch of images you register. I had an excellent intellectual properties lawyer recommend I register any images published in a magazine. And I said What? $35 for each one??” He told me that if the photo is not worth the $35, then…

3 – LET IT GO. That’s right. Someone is using your image without credit or outright stole it and put his own name on it… consider it a compliment and move on. You’re only as good as your last wedding or session anyway, so create more… that’s what we creatives do anyway—create. The legal battle will be lengthy and costly… can you afford to drop out of your business for 6 months to fight in court? Shouldn’t you be more worried about booking and taking care of your clients? And what’s the pay off? Pretty much just that you get to be right.

I know, letting go seems hard. It’s the last thing anyone wants to hear. I want everyone to love my work and know it’s MINE. But I let it go. Apple gets knocked off all the time, as does Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton, and everyone else who makes something great. In college, one of my art class sculptures was stolen out of the gym locker room. I left it out because I never thought anyone would steal my crazy artwork, and then it was gone. First I was confused, then I was angry and then I arrived at “Isn’t it exciting to create something that people want to steal?” Yes it is.

Lastly, consider this. If someone steals your image off the internet, how big is that file? What are they going to say when The Knot emails and says, “Hey, we love your image? Can you send over the 3000px file?” Ummm… no… The truth always comes out in the wash.

I haven’t policed my photos on Pinterest to make sure they link back. I’m just happy they are out there. And, I cannot tell you how many inquiries I’ve gotten in the last 6 months from people who say they don’t know how they found me, I was “all over the place online.” Win!

So don’t just let go, push your photos out there! Add buttons to your website to make your photos more easily pinnable. If you’re using WordPress for your website, here’s a great Pinterest plugin. Watermark your images and then hope for the link back. If someone goes through the trouble of editing out my watermark, she must need it more than I do. I can make new, better photos anyway. And so can you.

Photography Pricing Smackdown: Packages vs. One Price

Lara White — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:24:27 +0000

This article is inspired from my talk at the Sonoma/Napa Pug group last week. I gave a presentation on upselling photography products and pre-designing albums, and the conversation naturally meandered towards pricing and package models. I thought you might appreciate discussing this as well.

Should you offer one set price or packages? How can you know which model is going to be the best for your business? It depends. There is no simple answer-your business is unique and you need to find a solution that works with your selling style and will allow you to be profitable and stay in business. What works for me is not necessarily going to work for you. Your location, competition, style, price bracket, and sales skills all factor into this decision.

There are two basic models you can offer, a single price for your time (the coverage) and an a la carte menu for products, or a package model, which groups together the coverage and popular products such as albums, disc of images, engagement sessions, and so forth. Let’s take a look at each model and what you need to understand when determining your best price structure.

One Photography Price

This method works best for photographers who hate selling and want to keep things as simple and easy as possible. The biggest drawback is that there is less opportunity for upselling photography products such as albums, wall prints and all the extras.

If you don’t charge by the hour, you may end up losing quite a bit of additional profit in extended coverage hours. One way to handle this is to let clients know that complete coverage means you decide when the coverage is complete, and you will typically leave sometime after the cake is cut or when you think things are starting to wind down.

If you go with this method, be sure to offer a la carte items, and that you talk to clients about them so you have the opportunity to create albums and wall prints for them. You should price yourself expecting not to sell any a la carte items, that way you are not dependent on income you may not make. With this pricing model, it is difficult to upsell and add additional profit since products are not included in the base price. Many studios find that most of their profit comes from albums and upselling additional products, so if you don’t give yourself a head start with packages, you’ll either want to create opportunities to highlight additional products or simply price yourself with the expectation that you will not sell much else.

If your creative fee is $3,500 for complete wedding coverage, assuming you won’t sell additional products, and you book 25 weddings you can expect to gross just under $90,000. Just remember that number is gross studio earnings, not your personal earnings. Photographers typically clear 30-35% of their gross earnings (remember all that stuff you have to buy, like equipment, insurance, marketing, website design, production software etc.), so in this case take home pay would range in the $30,000 range.

One of the biggest benefits to this model is eliminating the back and forth negotiating that comes with offering packages. Your pricing structure is transparent and some clients will prefer this approach.

Photography Packages

Packages tend to be more popular among photographers and there is good reason for that. A package model tends to maximize your profit, offers you the opportunity to upsell products and services both at the initial consultation as well as later. 20-page included album seems too small? No problem, upgrade. 7 hours not enough? Add 2 more hours. See how this works?

Here are some of the other benefits to using packages:

Packages are great because you can use them to attract different types of clients. For example, your lowest package may bring in clients who aren’t sure if they can afford you, but later realize they want some of the extras included in a higher package, especially if it’s priced as a great deal. On the other side, your biggest packages appeal to the client that wants to go all out. Many photographers use a “whopper package” to make the other packages look affordable. It’s a psychological trick, but one that works. That doesn’t mean you won’t book your top package though. Many photographers find that about once a year, a client comes along who wants the very best you offer, and they go straight to your top package.

In a package model, you get paid for your time. Additional hours are offered for an additional fee. My studio averages about $4,000 in additional income each year through added hours, so it’s a nice bonus. Most weddings don’t need more than 8 hours of coverage, and 7 hours tends to work for most, so my middle package reflects that. As I’ve said before, Album predesign sales range from $29,000-$60,000 per year since 2006. That income is critical to us. Read more on pre-designing albums.

What’s great about the package model is that you can set up your packages to guide the clients towards the package you would like to book most of the time. How do you do this? Start with a stripped down package with minimal offerings for perhaps a very small wedding. This lower price will bring in people who aren’t sure if they can afford you, but they are willing to meet with you since your lowest package falls within their budget range. Your middle package is the package you actually want to book most of the time, and you can include the most popular coverage and products so clients are automatically drawn to it. Finally, you can offer a larger package for your clients wanting the best of everything.

You’ll want to structure your packages so that there are very clear differences in price and offerings. If the packages feel too similar, clients will get confused and discouraged.

One drawback to offering packages is that you may spend quite a bit of time negotiating back and forth with a client wanting to take this out, add that, etc. If you don’t know exactly what your costs are, you might end up not making any profit at all. For example, let’s say you include a slideshow in a package that costs only 2 hours of time, but it is listed on you’re a la carte pricing as $400. The client might want to remove that item and expects to receive $400 off the package price, which is only going to cut your profit. So it’s key that you understand your costs in both labor and hard costs for each item included in every package. That way you always know what your bottom line profit is when you are negotiating or customizing.

I offer 5 packages including a top tier package designed to make the other packages look affordable-but it still gets booked. The package I like to book includes lots of extra goodies to create outstanding value for the client. These are items which don’t cost me much, such as a print credit, DVD slideshow and extra coverage. By loading up the packages I want to sell with lots of extras, it makes the price feel reasonable. If you are interested in learning more about the psychology behind pricing your packages, Click here to visit Tofurious and check out his ebook “Creative Pricing and Packaging for Creative Professionals”.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the single price model, simply due to the lack of profit opportunities. Most photographers have no idea how much it costs to run their studio. If they did, they would probably be horrified to learn that with their current pricing structure, they are most likely losing money each year, meaning the expenses are more than the income. Not pretty, people. Oh well, we all have to learn. You can try one approach for a season and if it’s not working right for you, change it up.

What do you think? Are you currently offering a single price or packages?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

Overwhelmed? Simplify Summer Madness with an Easy System to Keep Track of Your Clients

Lara White — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 10:00:52 +0000

A guest post by Vivian Chen.

Wedding season is upon us and it’s very easy for your studio to become completely disorganized and overwhelmed. With multiple clients with various dates, requests, timelines and orders to juggle, your workload can go from manageable to massive headache in a few days. The best way to avoid a mess is to have a simple organizational system to keep everything separate, neat and tidy.

One system that seems to work really well is having separate folders for each client. Even though can do the same with spreadsheets, there’s something about a tangible folder that you can stack next to your desk when you’re working and file away when you’re done. I’ve found that anytime I use a spreadsheet to track progress, it tends to get lost in the shuffle of open windows on my computer. I don’t update them in a timely fashion and then they cease to be useful. An actual physical file folder is harder to ignore.

Here are a few suggestions as to what each client file should contain:

1. Client contract, which includes client contact information and wedding day information (dates, times, type of wedding, and location). Don’t forget to ask if their mailing address will change after the wedding.

2. Any email correspondence that may be pertinent to the wedding day. Any emails from the client and/or wedding planner. This includes timeline, group portrait lists, and special requests for the day. As with anything business related, keeping a record is key and having it in writing is even better.

3. After the wedding, you can place any follow-up orders and correspondence in this folder as well. This includes invoices, album orders, and print orders. Make note of when items are paid for and delivered.

4. Your workflow progress with each client can be documented with this folder. Print out your workflow checklist and include it with each client folder so you can easily track where you are for each client. When things get busy, you won’t be wasting time trying to remember if you backed-up the client files or where you are in the editing process. You can also indicate where the files are stored if you have multiple hard drives or computers.

5. Extra client information for vendors and submissions. Use the folder to store vendor information for each client’s wedding so you send vendors wedding images when you’re done. Do the same for blog and magazine submissions.

These client folders are also very helpful if you hire an assistant. This way, everyone can be on the same page and each person’s separate progress can be tracked without confusion or redundancy.

(Even with all this organization, you may still fall behind with your workflow. That’s okay as long as you are honest and in communication with your clients. Most people are very understanding as long as you explain. Where you fall in trouble is when there is radio silence. Most bad reviews of photographers I see happen when the client cannot get a hold of their photographer. Hiding and lying does not help anyone. As embarrassing as it is to not be on top of things as much as you would hope, it is better to be honest and upfront about it from the get-go.)

What else would you include in the client folder? How do you stay organized during the busy wedding season?

Vivian is a long-time studio assistant for several well known San Francisco photographers. Her roles include second shooting, editing and color correcting, album design, customer service and studio operations. Because she is familiar with the inner workings of some of the best studios in town, she knows how to streamline day to day operations to keep everything working smoothly. In her free time, she works at building her own photo business. PhotoMint readers, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

My Life Without Sugar and a Challenge for You

Lara White — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:00:31 +0000

Today I want to share something a little bit personal in hopes of inspiring you. This week is my two year anniversary of life without sugar. No cupcakes, no hot fudge sundaes, no blueberry pancakes covered in syrup, no french apple pie, no three musketeers, no just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies for me.

Crazy, right? I bet I know exactly what you are thinking right now-that you could never, ever do that.

It’s something I never thought I could do either. And here’s the thing-I love sugar; more than anyone I know. I have extremely detailed (and lengthy) fantasies involving Mrs. Fields cookies.

For some of us, sugar is like crack

Some people can have just a piece of chocolate or just a bite and feel satisfied. And then there are those of us who pretty much need to stuff as many pieces of cake/candy/pie as possible into our mouths when no one is looking. I’m talking about when everyone else helped themselves to one cookie; you’ve helped yourself to six (and you’re thinking about sneaking one in your purse for later). For those of us in this particular hell, sugar represents an unbelievably good high that our bodies are constantly craving. Each bit, each slice is another attempt to get that feeling, that rush of joy.

I have always been this way. At one point back in in 2008 I even tried acupuncture to deal with chocolate cravings, and in fact that worked quite well for a while. If you are interested, you can read about that here. Eventually though, I was back to my old habits.

In 2010 I read about someone from Google (Matt Cutts actually) doing a 30-day no sugar challenge, and the idea appealed to me. After a party featuring my favorite cake (chocolate cake, raspberry filling, vanilla buttercream frosting) I committed to 30 days without sugar. It was hard, no doubt about it. During this time I researched all the damaging things sugar does to a human body to help me stay focused.

Once I got over the intense withdrawal cravings, I really liked that I was free from this constant, constant need to get more sugar, find more treats, run errands (so I could get candy). I regularly embarrassed myself at the grocery store by eating those stale donuts from the bakery section. To justify eating two, I’d eat the tops only (the frosting part of course). It was kind of pathetic to tell the cashier, “oh, and two donuts, please. I already ate them.” I’d actually try to hand over the grimy wax paper wrapper to the cashier, who typically gave me a dirty look, or worse, a look of pity. So yeah, you can see where I was coming from.

My results

After completing the 30 day challenge I kept it up for 52 days while I decided what I wanted to do moving forward. Basically, I wanted to set up some rules in my life, such as only on special occasions or only at afternoon tea (my most favorite thing in the world). On day 52, I went out for afternoon tea and enjoyed a scone covered in delicious lemon curd and sweet whipped cream. Before I had even finished it, I felt absolutely horrible. Nauseous and shaky. My body had a violent negative reaction to putting sugar in my stomach.

Driving home, I made the decision that I was done with sugar. My body didn’t want it, and I knew there was no way I could control myself with a “special occasions only” rule (it’s my birthday, it’s your birthday, it’s PhotoMint’s birthday, it’s the waiter’s birthday…).

How has it been these past two years without sugar? It took a while to adjust. I still get my sweet fix by eating lots of fruit. I had to figure out what was off limits and what was OK for me. After more than a year I introduced honey in very small quantities. I eat ketchup, which usually has sugar in it, but I stay away from sweetened salad dressings etc. I don’t allow myself the pure fruit jam, it would be my gateway drug. I’d be having toast and jam every night. Then I’d be having (healthy) peanut butter and real fruit jam sandwiches every day for lunch. Soon, I swear to god, I’d start having those pb & j sandwiches for breakfast too. So no, I cannot handle pure fruit jam in my life. Sad, but I know my limits.

I feel more balanced, more focused and my energy is more consistent. I lost almost 30 pounds, but I also started eating much healthier. It wasn’t easy, but it has given me confidence in my own abilities and what I can personally accomplish. Every time I tell someone about this, and they say they could never do it, I feel more proud of myself for what I have done. It truly is a badge of honor for me. If I can do this, I can probably do anything, I tell myself.

The challenge to you

If you are inspired by this post, I want you to know that you can do anything you set your mind to. You don’t have to give up sugar completely; maybe you choose one thing like soda. Or maybe you challenge yourself to an exercise program for 30 days. Maybe you want to challenge yourself to stop checking email and Facebook on your phone after work hours.

Is there some roadblock to your health, happiness or productivity? Rather than taking it on forever, let’s just commit to take it on for 30 days, see what happens. Anyone can give up any bad habit for 30 days. What’s great about a 30 day challenge, is you are not committed to anything beyond 30 days. You can try out life without your bad habit for one tiny month and see how it feels. It’s YOUR challenge to yourself. You own it.

What kind of 30 day challenge would you like to embark on? Let’s do this as a group! I’ll start. I have always struggled with starting my day early, even though I feel it is one of the key ingredients of my productivity. Starting today, I challenge myself to 30 days of getting up at 6:30am or earlier. When I do this, I’m so much more productive and happy. It’s just the actual getting out of bed part that can be tricky. So that’s gonna be my thing.

What about you? What’s your 30 day challenge to yourself? What’s the one thing holding you back? Are you ready to conquer it?

Resources for Pregnant Photographers: New Mommas Share Experiences and Tips for Shooting While Pregnant

Lara White — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 10:00:17 +0000

Wondering how you will manage your photo business while pregnant? I recently researched this topic and unearthed many great resources. If you are a pregnant photographer or trying to figure out how to photograph weddings during your pregnancy, here you’ll find a great collection of tips, stories, advice and shared experiences. This might just be the most comprehensive collection of pregnant photographer stories anywhere! These honest and open mommas share experiences on everything from morning sickness

at a wedding, fertility issues (and shooting maternity sessions while fighting fertility issues!), figuring out how to balance your family with your business, miscarriages and pumping on the job. Oh yes, if you are a newly pregnant photographer and gathering everything you possibly can on this subject, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve googled, sifted, sorted and looked under every online nook and cranny to find the very best information on this subject. You can also check out PhotoMint’s article on shooting weddings while pregnant.

Amazing Advice from Pregnant Photographers and Professional Momtogs

Chenin Boutwell’s FAQ’s for New Mommies that addresses shooting while pregnant, nursing at weddings and everything in between.

Jen Skog blogs about her personal journey to getting pregnant, including the miscarriages and fertility treatments.

Advice from Stephanie Karen, a wedding photographer mom of four (including twins) and making the difficult decision to take time off after her twins were born.

Drew B of momtog.com shares her advice on how to survive being a pregnant photographer. Drew didn’t realize how much being pregnant would affect her business. She shares her lessons learned, including to take flip flops to change into at weddings when your feet swell!

Charlotte Geary blogs about her ordeal with morning sickness, and how she dealt with it on wedding shoots.

Photographer Jennifer Buehrer of Luna Dulce shares her pregnant photographer wedding day essentials to keep you hydrated, fed and on your feet for an all-day shoot.

Jocelyn of Studio Mathewes shares her approach to wedding days and a backup plan. Since this is her second time around the block, she knows when to push on through and when take it easy.

Recommended Resources for Pregnant Photographers:

Nice flip flops for changing into if your feet start to swell
Maternity Support helps with back support.
Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump with On the Go Tote if you plan to pump at weddings, this is the way to go and allows you to pump more, and more quickly
lots of water & protein bars for meals on the go
an assistant to carry your bags and shove protein bars into your mouth (women say this added cost was a key factor in getting through the day)
A backup plan and cell phone numbers for a photographer who can step in on a moment’s notice

What else? Please add your thoughts in the comments and this list will be updated! You can also check out this roundup of pregnant photographer stories and resources

Business Books for Photographers: PhotoMint’s Top 5 Recommendations

Lara White — Sun, 27 May 2012 10:06:06 +0000

If you are looking to beef up your business know-how but don’t want to drop hundreds (thousands) on a workshop, there is the tried and true path of books.

Here are PhotoMint’s current top recommendations for business books. These are books that I can credit with guiding my photography business towards the path of success, and personally recommend to you.

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

This book is absolutely essential reading for photography business owners. So many photographers start out with encouragement from family and friends, and a hope and a dream, possibly some talent. And that’s it. There’s this idea that if you do what you love, the money will follow. This is the biggest load of BS that has ever been sold to photographers, in my opinion.

It feels good, and its what we want to hear. But it’s not the truth. When you start a business with that mantra, you are headed for several long years of struggling, working hard in ways that most likely don’t pay off, and after 8 months or so, the disappointment starts to set in. The thing is, business skills and know-how do not come easily to most people, particularly photographers.
The reason this book is so, so great is that it is aimed specifically at small businesses, the one-woman show (or one-man band) most of us face each day. When you read about the clever things they are doing over at Starbucks, it’s hard to see how you are going to implement that all by yourself. This book really dives into the common pitfalls of most small businesses, and what you can do to avoid it.

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

This is a must-read for anyone in the boutique business, which is what most of us are. What we are selling, as wedding and portrait photographers, is the experience. For low volume photographers, we aren’t selling the 8×10, and the sooner you figure that out, the better. This book is fantastic, because most books on selling focus on a product, which doesn’t quite relate-we sell a service and an experience. The insight into our customers is highly useful for putting together an approach to marketing and selling your services. I know many photographers who consider this book essential reading for photography business owners, and I agree.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This is my all-time favorite business book, hands down. I’m somewhat of an introvert, and this book taught me how to get out of my shell and connect with people. For many photographers, this is the case-creating images is something you are skilled at, while people skills elude you. I know that’s how it’s been for me, so if you find yourself in the same boat, you just might find this little gem to be a lifesaver. It’s truly an outstanding philosophy that has changed many lives.
It’s super simple and easy to read, with lots of little exercises that you can start implementing right away. If you struggle a bit to connect with potential clients during the consultation or need some ideas for making people comfortable during sessions, you should absolutely read this book.

Hug Your Customers by Jack Mitchell

This book is about putting your customers first. I’ve read a number of books talking about customer service, but in my opinion this is one of the best. Besides plenty of examples and case studies, this book is truly inspiring. Many customer service books give examples from a particular type of business, but the reader if left on their own to translate the concepts into something useful for their own situation. What makes this book stand out is that the author goes into detail about how you can apply the advice and techniques to your own business.

How to Work a Room by Susan RoAne

This is an easy and fun read on the basics of networking. If you are shy and unsure of what to do at networking events, this book is for you. Many photographers tend to prefer being the fly on the wall instead of the life of the party. If that’s you, this book is filled with practical tips that you can implement quickly and easily at your next event. If you are a social butterfly, this book is not going to tell you anything you don’t already know. But for those of us who don’t shine naturally, this is a true gem. If you are choosing between this one and “How to Win Friends…” it’s a no-brainer, the Dale Carnegie book. But if you are wanting to maximize your networking opportunities (especially in the wedding industry) then I suggest both.

Honorable Mention:

Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen

There are lots of books out there right now on how to use social media for businesses, but in my opinion, this is one of the best. Photographers are so overwhelmed with so much to do, so if you don’t understand the value in social media, it’s hard to justify the time to learn and implement it. And if you get to that point, how do you know whether or not it’s effective? Filled with practical tips, this book is that it illustrates the very real value to businesses willing to engage in social media. Personally, I resisted Twitter for a long time because I just didn’t get the point. Now though, I love it, and use it every day. It’s important to understand what medium or platform makes the most sense for you and your business. There are many different marketing paths you can take, but if you want to embrace social media and need to understand the how and why, this is a great book to get you started.

What books have you read that changed the way you run your business? What’s your top business book recommendation?

Want MORE business tips? Check out 11 Free Ways to Pump Up Your Marketing and 8 Killer Marketing and Strategy Tips

3 Easy Steps to Doubling Your Photography Income

Lara White — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:00:20 +0000

A Photographer’s 3 Step System for Add-On Sales

You can add significant income to your bottom line by designing and offering a great selection of add-on products for your customers. However, in order to sell them, you will need to develop your sales tools, create a sales environment and plant the seeds for a sale.

Adding extra pages to the wedding album is the best way to increase your income with wedding photography.

Have you been thinking about how to increase your studio’s revenue? After sales is a fantastic way to do it. There are three steps you need to make it work for your studio. Your photography business should always be growing and improving-here’s how to grow your profits.

Add-on sales can be very effective, because you do not have to incur additional marketing costs and typically, you already have the images, so what you are doing is increasing your bottom line without additional costs other than the product and creation time. The other obvious reason add-on sales work is that you are selling to people that already love your work. It’s kind of a no-brainer, once you see how well it works.

Once you get your pricing straightened out and your basic photography business systems in place (forms, procedures and so forth) it’s a great idea to expand on what you are currently offering. This is not to say you don’t have some products featured on your price list, but I’m talking about the actual sales of those products happening. Where that line item on your pricing sheet translates into a line item on your studio budget in the income category.

Signature albums with engagment images are EASY to sell IF don't give away the disc for free.

Many photographers understand the basic concepts, but struggle with the actual implementation. It’s not as easy as simply saying “today I’m going to start selling engagement albums!” and poof, your clients start phoning in with their credit cards to get this great new product from your studio.

What are add-on sales or upselling? Anything not included in the client’s basic package. This could be a framed wall print, extra album pages, a parent album, a DVD slideshow, engagement album, baby’s first year album and so forth. All the extras.

There are three basic things you need in place in order to start increasing your after sales and a la carte items. It’s what is going to make the difference between an idea and the actual sale taking place.

If you don't have a studio space to show samples, have photos of your products to sell them.

The first thing you are going to need is sales tools. You will use these things in your presentation that will help the clients envision this product for themselves and help you actually sell. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “you sell what you show.” The client needs to see and touch the item, be educated about how it might enhance their experience or be given an incentive to buy.

Without the proper sales tools in place, your after sales will never get off the ground. That is why you’ll need to spend some time creating these tools; the time spent is an investment in your photography business. Creating these tools to improve your sales is working on your business to grow and expand.

Sales Tools

Mix and match these items depending on what you plan to sell and your abilities. I recommend choosing at least 2-3 tools in order to get started, and add more tools as you go. The more tools you have available, the easier it will be to sell.

Sample Products
Product Guide (a handout or pdf for clients to take)
Projection (great for portrait and engagement sessions)
Prices for a la carte items
Photos of sample products (used for your product guide, your email promotions, your blog and for sales consults where you cannot take all your products to show
Template emails that promote the products
Client newsletter

Whenever a client orders Save the Dates, keep a few extras to show as samples.

The second phase is creating an environment for you to sell and for your clients to buy. Rather than create confusion and disappointment for yourself, start with one product (like engagement albums) and focus on that selling that particular item. This way, you learn from what’s working and what’s not working. Next season it will be much easier to add on the next product line and begin selling that.

So what do I mean by create a selling environment? Let’s say you want to sell engagement products. In order to create the right environment to sell engagement add-on products, you need to be sure that you aren’t giving away the product free of charge, as this kills any hope for a sale.

Create the Sales Environment

Remove the freebies and the product giveaways (I’m talking about including a free disc of images from every session) so your clients have a reason to buy (this will be painful as clients may revolt against the idea that you should work free and provide them free products and services). However, this does one thing and one thing only DESTROY any hope of after sales.
Talk about products on the blog: highlight the products and display images of interesting products people get (oh look at how cute the save the date cards turned out for so-and-so!)
Perhaps offer a bonus item to reach a certain product total. This creates an incentive to buy and is a win-win for everyone. We offer a complimentary disc of engagement images with the purchase of an engagement album.
Use your sales tools throughout the consultation and client relationship. Make it clear that you offer many other options (available for purchase). While you will get occasional clients expecting you to provide them with free products, you need to continually reinforce the message that you create gorgeous products for them to purchase and enjoy, and that you do not simply give away your work.

Plant the Seeds for the Sale

Albums should be a cornerstone of your add-on sales. You can offer an album credit in your packages as a way to let clients know they can buy additional pages.

If you want to sell additional products and sessions to your clients, you need to plant the seeds for the sale. They initially come to your studio with a particular product or session in mind, but that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t educate them as to the different possibilities you can create for them.

Rather than springing a big money product on an unsuspecting client, it makes more sense to give them an opportunity to think about some ideas. Let them know during the consultation different types of products you can create for them. Giving clients subtle indicators of what other clients typically do will help them feel comfortable in their decisions.

For example, when we are showing couples all the different products we can create from their engagement images, we will let them know that the signature album is our most popular product. And it includes a complimentary disc of the session with the album purchase. We show them a sample album during the consultation, and these are all ways that we begin planting seeds for that sale. This works just as well for a family portrait or baby session. Start talking about finished products early.

After we have scheduled the session, we send them an email with our product guide and ask them to let us know what type of product we should be creating for them. Again, this is a subtle indicator that we are creating the images for some sort of final product.

We follow up with a phone call to discuss clothing selection, locations and products. We explain that we shoot differently for different types of products, so we need to know what we are aiming for. For example, if they want a traditional signature mat product, that is typically a vertical image in a traditional pose. If they want an album that is going to be a lot more variety of backgrounds and a good mix of close-ups and wide angle shots. For details on our wedding album sales process read selling wedding albums and pre-designing albums.

If you want to start selling add-on products, you’ll need to implement each of the three areas in your photo business. One will not work successfully without the other two. Be patient, it may take 1-2 seasons to get everything in place and working smoothly; there will be some hiccups along the way. It’s getting that right mix that works for you and eases clients into the benefits of owning beautiful products you have created for them.

This is the type of thing you want your competitors doing. The more photographers in your community accept and offer after sales products, the easier it will be to educate your clients that this is simply how it’s done. So I urge you to pass this info on!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing on Facebook. Thank you!

How Many Images Do We Get?

Lara White — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:03:11 +0000

A guest post by Vivian Chen.

One question that clients often ask is “How many images are we going to get?” When you are starting out, you may also be wondering what is the proper amount of photos to release to your clients. Having worked with a lot of different photographers, everyone has their own final amount. Some may release all the unedited shot images to the client while also releasing a small set amount that have been edited and color corrected. Others may release only a set amount of edited and color corrected images to the client.

When thinking about the numbers, you must keep in mind the variables that come into play such as the amount of coverage hours, number of photographers shooting and amount of events covered. Obviously a three hour elopement wedding shoot will have significantly less images than a two-day Indian wedding celebration. Each event will have a different total to be released to your clients.

In general, when I am editing a wedding that I second shot with another photographer, we will end up with about 3-5,000 images for a six or eight hour wedding. I’ve found that after culling the images, we will end up with about 600-800 images to edit and color correct for our clients. That works out to be about 100 images per hour of coverage. 100 images per hour is a great rule of thumb to use when estimating how many images clients can expect to receive.

However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Like I mentioned before, variables of the day will alter the final number. The main thing to keep in mind is quality outweighs quantity. Releasing 1,000 images to your client will not have the same impact if the majority of those images are repetitive or don’t help in telling the story of the day. If you have 50 portraits of the bride, but 20 of them basically look the same (same angle, same lighting, similar facial expression), you will only succeed in overwhelming the bride with too many similar choices. Learning to edit effectively is important. Giving your client 500 strong images is better than 1,000 weak ones. If you need convincing on this, read How to Instantly Improve the Quality of Your Work.

Some clients may see this as getting less, when in fact by providing a stronger edit you are adding additional service. Instead of forcing the client to sort through several thousand images, you have done some of the work so it’s not quite so hard on your client. Communicate this as a level of service and educate your clients to want quality over quantity.

Be mindful of this when you shoot. As long as you are capturing the key moments, the numbers will usually work out and allowing you to present a powerful collection of images to clients. The quality of your work will speak for itself. What do you think?

To read more of Vivian’s thoughts, check out 10 Tips Every Second Shooter Should Know and Shoot Like An Editor to Minimize Your Time in Post.

Shoot Like an Editor to Minimize Your Time in Post

Lara White — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:07:04 +0000

A guest post by Vivian Chen.

I have been working for other photographers for over the past five years. Within that time, I have been able to connect and work with a lot of other photographers in the Bay Area. I have worked both in the studio doing post-production editing and album design as well as second shooting for other photographers. The obvious end result of this is that I have seen and edited a lot of wedding photos. I would guess the total would be in the millions at this point. And while that number might make you dizzy to think, all those photos I’ve seen and edited are a valuable resource as a photographer.

Shoot For Your Clients

It’s easy to pull up wedding blogs or go to other photographers’ websites and see examples of wedding photos. But you have to keep in mind that what you are seeing are the edited versions of best of the best. You don’t get to see the in-between shots, the “bread and butter shots” as I call them. Editing weddings allows me to see the whole picture. These are the candid photos, the group photos, the photos that may not have editorial appeal but are essential for telling the story of the day. These photos that make up the majority of the wedding day are the ones that the client cares about. When I design wedding albums for other photographers, I see the images that the clients choose to use and they are often not “blog worthy.” And this is what I keep in mind when I shoot my own weddings. I’m shooting for my clients, first and foremost, not for the blogs.

Learn from Your Mistakes

In editing other photographer’s work, I see what they are shooting and how they are shooting. In the same way, we all can learn from our own shooting mistakes, I am able to learn by seeing other photographer’s mistakes. Well, “mistake” may be a bit harsh since everyone has their own aesthetic choices. But sometimes it’s hard to tell what may or may not work until after you take the photo. For example, I remember editing another photographer’s work and when it came time for the wedding toasts, this photographer chose to shoot everything with a 50mm lens. However, the reception space was crowded and there were several tables of people between her and her subjects. For each image, I ended up having to crop in closer to the subjects to make the final image stronger. Through this editing process, I made a mental note to myself that if I am in the same situation to use the 70-200mm lens to save myself time in post production.

Approach Photography from an Editor’s POV

My approach to photography is from an editor’s point of view. Digital photography makes it too easy to overshoot a wedding and end up with 10,000+ photos. The more efficient you can be with nailing the exposures, color balance and composition the first time around, in camera, the less time you will have to spend in the studio on post-production. (And I’m not going to lie, post production is extremely tedious.)

Essentially, don’t shoot like you have a 16 gig card in your camera, shoot like you have a 36 exposure roll of film. (Remember film?) Make each shot count.

To read more of Vivian’s thoughts, check out 10 Tips Every Second Shooter Should Know

Review: “The Go-to Guide for Client Emails” by the Modern Tog

Lara White — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:03:24 +0000

Photographer Email Templates: Every photographer needs email templates to run an efficient studio. Why waste hours responding to email questions when you could use templates instead?

Looking for photographer email templates? Do you stress out about how to respond to client emails? Especially when they are asking something that makes you uncomfortable, like how come your prints are priced higher than Costco or why can’t they get products for free? This is a special problem that most businesses don’t experience. I mean, can you imagine walking into a Macy’s, and after purchasing a handbag, becoming absolutely irate to learn that the matching pair of shoes are not included??

But as photographers, we face these kinds of situations all the time. The lines between personal and professional, friends and service providers get blurred. It’s hard to stand your ground about your studio policies when someone else feels adamant that you are wrong. So how do you deal with this? How to prevent these kinds of things from ever happening?

Here’s the thing-it’s up to us to establish the ground rules and manage client expectations from day one. If we don’t do that, we get into trouble, and our clients get upset with us.

What does “managing client expectations” actually mean? It means explaining to clients exactly what they can expect from you, when they can expect it, and what’s going to cost extra. If you deliver finished prints in 6 weeks (but you never mention this), and the last photographer they met with just explained that he delivers them in 1 week, it would be easy for clients to get confused and upset if they are expecting prints a week after the session but haven’t heard from you for three.

Explaining your policies and procedures up front gives clients a chance to ask questions or let you know if something is especially important to them. This is so, so critical for having a great relationship with your clients.

One trick to getting all this info to clients is using template emails. Since so many of the same questions come up, or you are sending out the same information, it makes sense to save yourself hours at the computer by using pre-written email responses.

I had the opportunity to review a complimentary copy of a new product out on the market for busy photographers. It’s called “The Go-to Guide for Client Emails“, but it’s actually much more than just email templates, it’s also a great guide to customer service.

The guide is set up in three sections: the first section covers customer service in depth and explains how to set up your studio policies and communicate with clients to prevent misunderstandings from happening.

Photography Customer Service

What I loved most about the material is that is really helps you to understand the mindset behind customer service in photography.

Once you understand what potential problems are and how to avoid them, it becomes easy to adopt and implement a professional attitude towards your clients who might also be friends. Photography is a very personal service, and weddings are very highly charged with emotion, so if situations are not handled properly from the beginning, it is easy to turn a happy client into a dissatisfied one.

This is the kind of training many photographers need since most lean more towards artists than business people. By having a solid foundation of policies that protect you, your work and your personal life, you will be a happier artist and your clients will also be happier because they will know what to expect.

Email Templates for Wedding Photographers

The second section covers email templates for wedding photographers. These emails felt very familiar to me, as I have spent many hours writing emails just like that over the years. Eventually, like many photographers, I wrote my own templates so I would not be overwhelmed by emails asking the same questions over and over every week.

Email is a huge time suck, and having template responses is a major time saver. It also allows you to not get caught up or emotional (read unprofessional) in your responses. (Do you know how many times I wanted to explode when someone insisted they could only meet on a Sunday because they worked during the week-do I not deserve a day off too?!?!)

Email Templates for Portrait Photographers

The third section covers email templates for portrait photographers. Again the real value here lies in the time savings. If you are not using email templates to respond to common questions and provide basic information to your clients, you are probably spending a lot more time at your computer than you need to be. When a good chunk of your day is spent answering emails, you are working in your business instead of on your business. And after a few late nights like that, the fun starts to wear off, let me tell you!

If you don’t have them already, eventually you will want email templates, so it’s up to you whether you spend hours writing them yourself and figuring it out over the years or you would rather just have them done for you and move on to the next stage in building your business.

One thing to note that is not covered by the email templates are situations that truly call for you to pick up the phone. When a client is angry, crying or is basically expressing some seriously strong emotional response, it’s time to pick up the phone immediately. Email is not the best thing for handling delicate conversations, as tone and meaning can be lost or misunderstood. Also, it is much easier to feel free to let loose and be rude in an email, and you don’t want to allow a client situation to get to that point, believe me.

If you don’t have photographer email templates for your business, I recommend these from The Modern Tog. It’s priced at $147 and represents many, many hours of saved time. I’m a big believer in automating your business as much as possible, so you can focus your time on the things you truly care about-shooting more, spending time with your family, creating gorgeous works of art. Sunday picnics…you name it. Learn how to have a stress free photography business with clients who can’t stop raving about you. Get “The Go-To Guide For Client E-mails” today and spend more time doing the things you love. This is THE guide to follow up email, wedding photographer and portrait photographers will both save themselves many hours with this guide.

10 Tips Every Second Shooter Should Know

Lara White — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:00:58 +0000

Today I’d like to introduce Vivian Chen, who will be guest posting on PhotoMint from time to time. Vivian is a long-time studio assistant for several well known San Francisco photographers. Her roles include second shooting, editing and color correcting, album design, customer service and studio operations. Because she is familiar with the inner workings of some of the best studios in town, she knows how to streamline day to day operations to keep everything working smoothly. In her free time, she works at building her own photo business. PhotoMint readers, please give Vivian a warm welcome by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

As a second shooter, your job is to be back up to the main photographer. An effective 2nd shooter is one who can balance understanding what the main photographer is expecting while also having enough initiative to capture moments on your own.

What it boils down to is clear communication with the main photographer. It’s obvious to me when I edit other photographer’s weddings when there was clearly little communication between the main photographer and the second shooter. What results is repetitive images (both photographers shooting the same things which slows down the editing process), bad angles, less than ideal lens choices or missed moments.

Communicating expectations benefits both photographers. The main photographer should be able to trust their second shooter to get the shots they need without feeling the need to manage their second on top of managing wedding coverage. <–Click to Tweet

Here are 10 things to keep in mind before you second shoot for another photographer:

This image by lead photographer Michelle Walker is the "safe" shot. The leads photographer is responsible for capturing the expected, safe shots of the day.

1. Learn the other photographer’s style

Try to view a full wedding they’ve shot beforehand and study the images. If you can’t, study what images you can find of their work. Every photographer is different and having a feel for how they shoot is crucial to having your images seamlessly integrate with theirs.

2. Ask what the other photographer is expecting of you

This is probably one of the most important aspects to second shooting. Have a talk with the main photographer before the wedding. Some photographers may want you to mostly handle their equipment and shoot when you can, whereas others will want you to be more autonomous. If they want you to shoot more on your own, ask them what they want you to concentrate on. Close-up details? Lots of wide shots? Candids of the guests? Also, find out how much of a directorial role they want you to play. For the most part, the main photographer should be calling the shots with posing, but some may be open to your ideas.

3. Review the wedding day timeline

Go over the timeline of the wedding day with the main photographer before each wedding. This will help set a game plan of where you need to be and when. Sometimes you will be asked to cover the groom getting ready while the main is shooting the bride, or you will be asked to shoot cocktail hour while the main gets portraits of the couple. As stated before, when you are sent off on your own, ask the main what type of coverage they are looking for.

4. Take care of the equipment

Find out if your main photographer has an organizational system to their bags and whether or not you are expected to maintain order. Keep an eye on everyone’s equipment or stow it away in a secure location. Make sure to grab the main photographer’s camera bags too if everyone’s moved to a new location quickly.

This image, taken by Vivian, gives the client a second perspective, capturing the bride's emotions perfectly. Second shooters should always try to get something "different" from the main by choosing different angles, perspective and lens to create enhanced coverage.

5. Figure out where you need to be during the ceremony

The ceremony is one of the more important parts of the day. There are no redos, so being in position for the crucial moments (walking down the aisle, the ring exchange, the kiss) is key. Some photographers will prefer you stay in one place and while others may give you free reign to move around (venue permitting, of course). But for the most part, try to get a different view or angle of the ceremony than the main photographer.

6. Deal with group portraits

Group portraits can be an unruly part of the day. Ask the photographer how you can help facilitate these portraits. If the client provides a portrait list ahead of time, the main may want you do have the groups lined up prior to each shot or need you to gather the people involved. Some may want you to shoot the portraits at a different angle while others may want you to capture the behind the scenes of the guests interacting and mingling.

7. Don’t get in the way

Shooting a wedding can feel like a choreographed dance. You are working together as a team. Always check in visually to see where the main photographer is. This will help you get a different angle on your subject while also being mindful to stay out of the other photographer’s shot. My general rule of thumb is that if you can see them in your camera, they (and their camera) are seeing you. If you don’t have much flexibility with movement at the time, try to obscure yourself behind another person or object.

Here, the lead shooter captured the bride and groom's response to the ceremony reading.

8. Check in with the main photographer throughout the day

Shooting a wedding can be very tiresome and there is undoubtedly a lot more pressure when you’re shooting as the main. When you have a few moments of downtime, check in with your main to see if they need anything. Often times they may be too busy to remember to drink water or may need a battery charged, but haven’t had a chance to take care of those needs. Any way you can help out the team is beneficial to the overall coverage of the day.

9. Injecting your vision into the day’s work

After you’ve made sure to get the shots that are expected of you, then have some fun. As a second shooter, you have the luxury to experiment with composition, lighting, etc. It’s nice to see unexpected shots or angles that the main photographer wouldn’t have been able to get to. Just remember to do this after you’ve taken care of what the main photographer asked you to do.

Meanwhile, Vivian captured the reader's expression. The two images compliment each other perfectly, and tell a more complete story of the moment.

10. Ask for feedback

When all is said and done, always ask for feedback. As a photographer, we should always be striving to grow and learn from our mistakes. Working with different photographers can help hone your skills and stretch your shooting muscles. Ask for feedback immediately after the shoot, as well as during the editing process. Seeing your work alongside of the main photographer’s is a valuable way to improve as a photographer and as a second photographer.

Constant dialogue will help build your relationship with the main photographer and help you both on future weddings. What else do you think is important for a 2nd shooter to keep in mind?

For more tips, read shooting a wedding or a wedding photography checklist to help you prep the night before the shoot.

How to Shoot Weddings While Pregnant

Lara White — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:00:18 +0000

One of our PhotoMint readers recently asked for some advice on how to shoot while pregnant, so I talked to a number of photographers who have been there and done that, so I can report back. If you’re thinking about a pregnancy now or in the near future, there are probably a million questions running through your mind:

What do I tell my clients? How to make it work financially? How long can I shoot for? How long after the birth before I should plan to shoot again? How do I nurse at weddings? We’ll get to all those questions and more.

Planning

One of the biggest misconceptions of wedding photographers planning a pregnancy is the belief that they can control when they get pregnant, and schedule their baby during the perfect time of year-off season, of course. Many wedding photographers choose December /January as the perfect time for their baby to be born, thinking they can safely get through the end of wedding season and then have several winter and spring months on maternity leave, so to speak. It turns out that people can’t schedule their pregnancies quite so perfectly.

“I wanted to have a baby in December, so that I wasn’t too pregnant for my Fall weddings but would still have a couple of months off before my Spring season started up. So my husband and I started “trying” in earnest around March of that year. March became April, April became May, May became June and still no baby.” –Chenin Boutwell, Boutwell Studio.

Not to say you don’t want to have a target date in mind, but just know that things don’t always work the way you plan.

Another photographer, Jennifer Skog of Jennifer Skog Photographers, had a completely different experience. Thrilled beyond belief at her luck in getting pregnant right away, she immediately began to turn work down during the 10-12 week window she expected to be in her last stages of pregnancy. And then she miscarried. Not only did she have to deal with this devastating emotional loss, she had to deal with a financial loss as well. After a series of several miscarriages, she chose not to start officially planning until she was much farther along.

Jen’s tips for planning your pregnancy while balancing your studio schedule-get as many albums done as you can while you are pregnant. This way you won’t have such a backlog waiting for you when you return to full time status.

How Long Can You Shoot for?

That’s impossible to say. Every pregnancy is different, and you really can’t know how yours will go until you get there. Portraits are easier as you don’t have to be on your feet for 8 or more hours, and you can reschedule if needed. Many pregnant photographers are able to shoot weddings up through their seventh month, but there are no guarantees.

In order to make sure your studio and weddings are able to run smoothly as the date gets nearer, you should have a backup plan and a lead photographer who is prepared to shoot your weddings for you should you You’ll want to put together a backup plan and a support team, so that you can smoothly deal with changes as they come up.

The other thing that may impact your shooting is morning sickness. Some people experience morning sickness all day long, and there’s nothing to do but shoot through it, and hope the adrenaline kicks in.

With a little planning, most photographers are able to shoot throughout most of their pregnancies, as long as they make some adjustments in their approach.

When and How to Let Your Clients Know

How and when you let your clients know is up to you. Some people prefer to keep it to themselves, while others enjoy sharing their news on the blog, and therefore with the world. You are not obligated to tell everyone, the choice is up to you.

Chenin Boutwell shares that she chose only to tell clients that would possibly be directly affected. “I considered my pregnancy as a private health issue and my decision to work through my pregnancy as a personal issue. Other than those few clients, I did not feel the need to discuss my pregnancy with my other couples.”

Jen Skog took to her blog to share the happy news, and also shared her journey and trials in getting pregnant. Unlike the first time, however, she waited until she was 4 months along before sharing with anyone or making business plans.

Whatever you are comfortable with, you’ll still want to let clients know that may be directly affected. Weddings happening during the 8 week window before and after your due date are most likely to be impacted. Most photographers choose to offer clients within that 8 week window the opportunity to cancel without repercussions if the client is uncomfortable with the situation, but it may not be technically required, depending on the terms of your contract.

When informing your clients of your situation, it’s best to present them with your backup plans at the same time, so they know you have it covered and they don’t have to worry about it.

Financials

One of the biggest impacts your pregnancy will have on your business is on the finances. Some things to keep in mind:

Jen chose to book as many shoots as possible leading up to her due date. She knew that she would need that financial cushion to help deal with some of the expenses and loss of business when you have to turn away business.

Chenin recommends that you have enough business savings to offer refunds to those clients who might choose to cancel their contract and book another photographer.

What about insurance? If your spouse has good insurance coverage, this is likely something you don’t need to worry about. But if not, you’ll want to make sure your medical insurance covers pregnancy or upgrade your insurance before you get plan to pregnant. Remember that besides pregnancy medical costs, you may also incur additional costs due to fertility issues as Jen did.

After Baby is Born

You should plan to give yourself a minimum of five weeks off prior to any shooting engagements. If you have a cesarean, your healing time could keep you from shooting for up to eight weeks, but every situation is different. Jen was able to shoot her first wedding 5 weeks after a cesarean, but it wasn’t easy.

If you have weddings booked for after the baby comes, the biggest factor to consider is if you are nursing, how to do that on a wedding day. Most new mommy photographers say this is one of the hardest parts of shooting a wedding. Your body knows it should be nursing about every 3 hours or so (every time your baby needs to eat) but it’s next to impossible to find the time to pump every three hours at a wedding. Jen says she was able to pump right before the wedding coverage began, during the dinner break and then at the end.

Be prepared to be uncomfortable, but you should be able to get through it. Chenin highly recommends using a Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump with On the Go Tote so that you can save time and pump both breasts at once.

In the day to day studio operations, one of the best things you can do is take advantage of a system like Shootq or Tave to help your studio run smoothly. Jen says one of the most helpful things she has done is set up email templates.

Obviously, having a baby is going to affect everything in your business. If you run a full time studio, you’ll need daycare. If you meet with clients in your home, this becomes tricky-it’s harder to keep the client areas clean, and a crying baby in the background does not exactly help bookings. But how do you kick your baby out of the house for every consult? This is why Jen is now looking for a studio space, as it has become more challenging to maintain her business in her home.

The point is, you can make it work with some careful planning. Hopefully this gives you some ideas and things to consider. Many, many photographers have done it, and so can you. It’s not a piece of cake, so the more you can plan and be prepared, the better off you and your family will be.

Photoshop vs. Lightroom: What to Consider When Choosing Software

Lara White — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:24 +0000

Photoshop vs. Lightroom – which should you use? What software is going to be the better choice? Part of the difficulty in this decision is that there is now more overlap between the two products than there used to be, so that makes the decision less straightforward.

When you are considering which software to use as part of your digital workflow, you should consider it like this: your post production workflow should consist of a number of different software tools that form the workflow or funnel that your images go through, and not every image will make it all the way through. If you are using LR and PS, then you should think of LR as the step before PS, and not all the images need to make it to the PS stage. You may very well use different software at each stage of the process.

You need to think of your post production as a funnel with stages that look somewhat like this:

Stage 1: Image Capture

You take all the photos with your camera; end up with hundreds or thousands of images on your memory cards.

Stage 2: Initial Download

You use some type of software to download those images to your computer (and make backup copies that are safely stored somewhere else).

Stage 3: Editing Stage

You use some type of software to edit the photos down (split the keepers from the rejects).

Stage 4: Color Correction

You use some type of software to take the keepers from step 3 and doing basic images adjustments (color correction / exposure and contrast adjustment, etc.).

Stage 5: Retouching

You use some type of software to take some of the keepers from step 4 and do enhanced retouching, such as skin retouching, artistic enhancements, head swaps, etc. etc.

Some people try to use one piece of software for all steps 2 through 5, though there are not many software options that will do all those steps, and none that will do them all really well. In our studio, we use a different piece of software for each of those steps, software that has been carefully chosen to do that step very well and more importantly, very efficiently, to save us time and get consistent results.

The main thing to understand that the software you choose is ultimately just a tool to get the job done. The tools themselves will not do the work for you. It doesn’t matter if you use a Nikon or a Canon; you still have to know lighting, exposure, and so forth, right?

If you are starting with both Lightroom and Photoshop, you could use LR for steps 2 through 4, and PS for step 5. What’s important is that you try some different approaches and see what style suits you and your workflow best.

Photoshop is very powerful for retouching but you can also get lost for hours working on individual images and then you are suddenly working for less than minimum wage. The goal is to spend as little time as possible per image while still attaining great professional results. This is a constant struggle for many photographers, and is actually a topic we’re thinking of publishing a book on next year. What has been your experience?

For more reading see digital workflow tips and staying organized with client deadlines

Photography Marketing: 11 (FREE) Ways to Pump Up Your Marketing

Lara White — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:00:38 +0000

If your calendar is not completely booked up yet, you are not done with marketing. Maybe you haven’t gotten started yet. That’s OK. We can fix that. Here are 11 great ways to get some marketing mileage when you’ve got zero budget for marketing.

Some of these ideas are quick and easy and others are more of a long term strategy that you should start now and will build up steam over time. Let’s get to the good stuff, shall we?

1. Networking with Vendors and Photographers

Networking is a great use of your time when it comes to marketing. In order to get results with this strategy, you need to take it seriously. Put together a solid plan of what you would like to accomplish (who you want to talk to, what aspect of your business you want to promote) and then after the networking event, follow up with whoever you met. If instead, you simply go without a plan, talk to no one except those you recognize, and then never call anyone to set up a follow up meeting, then networking will not be very effective for you. However, when done right, you would be amazed at how effective it can be. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “people do business with people.”

TIP: Two great books to help you become a networking ninja if you are on the shy side:

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed, and the Underconnected by Devora Zack

Check out these videos for more networking tips for photographers and networking with other photographers. Here’s an article for networking at weddings.

2. Partner with Vendors

There are a lot of vendors out there who could give you client referrals if you approached them with the right offer. Cross marketing means partnering up with another business and helping each other out with marketing. Perhaps you could approach a children’s clothing store about offering a photo shoot with their latest clothing collections, perhaps even featuring the kids of their best customers? In exchange for the session and the wall prints at cost, you can offer clients a mini session at the store each season? Or maybe the owner needs images for a direct mail campaign?

Think outside the box and figure out where your clients are at, and then go to them. This concept can be applied to any type of photography. Boudoir photographers can team up with makeup artist and lingerie boutiques. Pet photographers can find creative ways to partner with grooming services, pet stores and so forth. It’s all about being creative. Not everyone you approach will be receptive, but others will be, so you keep trying until you find a good match.

TIP: This has been our single best marketing strategy by far. If you want to make this the focus of your wedding photography marketing efforts, check out my photography ebook, Get Connected.

3. Pinterest Can Drive Traffic to Your Website

Pinterest is the new kid on the block when it comes to social media, and it’s already becoming a major player. It’s basically a way for users to collect and share images of things they like or convey a certain theme or concept they want to express. It’s another great way to connect with your clients and prospective clients about creative ideas for their sessions or to express your own creative vision. Wedding professionals are having a lot of fun with Pinterest as a way to connect with brides over wedding planning ideas, but it’s a diverse platform that works for photographers in all fields and is a tremendous source of inspiration. Here’s a very informative post from the Modern Tog: Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Photographers.

TIP: add Pinterest pins to your blog so your watermarked images can spread on Pinterest.

4. Wisestamp Turns Your Emails into Marketing Assistants

Wisestamp is a cool free email app that lets you add an automatic email signature to every email you send out. What this does is effective turns every email into a mini marketing campaign for you. The app allows you to insert Facebook, Twitter and blog links into your email signature. What’s special about it is that you can actually bring the feed of your choice in-your latest blog post or latest Twitter or Facebook post.

TIP: Don’t list every possible link but but pick and choose the best ones to share with your audience, or whatever your (social media) strengths are.

5. Get Your Studio Listed in Online Local Listings in Google Places, Yelp etc.

Local listings are very quick to do and will greatly improve your customer’s abilities to find you. All you have to do is check that your business information is properly listed in online directories like Google Places, Bing, etc. This directory Get Listed is a free one stop shopping service (for US only), and will check listings for you and let you know what sites need to be updated with your business information. This process can easily be completed in about fifteen minutes or less (more if you add photos etc.), so it is well worth the time and simple to do. Not only will it help customers trying to find you online, it also gives your blog or website more authority according to Google, meaning it will have a positive impact on your SEO rankings, which is always good.

TIP: This is the one to do right this minute because it’s so fast and gives your website a nice burst of SEO immediately.

6. Referral Gifts for Clients and Vendors

Past clients are a great source of referrals, and what better way to thank them and encourage referrals than by offering an incentive? You’ll want to offer clients something of value, something such as a service or product you can offer them that doesn’t cost you too much but has a high perceived value. If you are going to build a solid referral stream of business, you need to let your clients know through repeated messages how important it is to you that they refer you, and how much you appreciate being referred. When business owners say things like “my business is based on referrals from happy clients” and “the greatest compliment you can give me is a referral” you are letting your clients know what you would like them to do that for you. As with any marketing, it takes time to build up a good base of referrals.

TIP: Referral gifts are appreciated by vendors that have given you business as well. Offer a headshot session or family portrait to keep it on the free side.

7. Facebook to Build Interest from Fans

Facebook is no longer a new social media, but an accepted and effective strategy for marketing and reaching your audience. Many photographers are successfully building their business with Facebook marketing. Facebook marketing only requires about 10-20 minutes per day, and you will start to see your reputation grow. You do not need hundreds or thousands of fans, so don’t fret about that. What you want to focus on if you choose Facebook as a major marketing strategy is to get your work shared by clients and friends, so that your studio is getting exposure within a new group of potential clients. More free ideas can be found here: Facebook marketing for photographers.

TIP: Post lots of watermarked photos and encourage sharing if you want to make your Facebook page a major part of your photo marketing.

8. Start a Blog to Showcase Your Work and Personality

A blog is a great way to start communicating with your audience what you are all about and what you can offer them. Blogs do require a serious time commitment, but the great thing is, your blog is basically a blank canvas for you to express your creative ideas, share bits about your personality if you choose, educate clients and share with them the types of images and products you can create for them. A website is like a brochure, a blog is like a conversation. We’ve booked a good number of clients through our blog each year as well as began working with a wedding planner-right after we sent out an email blast announcing our new blog; she contacted us with the first of many referrals. Well worth the time, believe you me.

TIP: A blog is a major project, but you can start quickly and simply with a free wordpress blog. If you need ideas about what to blog about, check out my three part series here, here and here.

9. SEO Your Blog and Website to Be Found Online

If you have a blog, that’s a great place to get started with search engine optimization. In a nutshell, SEO is simply giving search engines clues as to your location and the types of products and services you offer. SEO is not nearly as complicated as it is made out to be, and anyone with a blog can start implementing SEO tactics into their routine. You want prospective clients to find you when they are in the midst of online wedding planning. You can focus on terms like “Wake Forest Children’s Photographer” or other similar terms that you think prospective clients might use to find you. You would place these terms in the body of your blog, with tags or image naming. You can create a blog post about each location or venue in your area. If you want to focus on your SEO, I recommend reading Zach Prez’s blog, Photography Web Marketing.

TIP: SEO is something you work on over time and build up a stronger online presence. It’s not something that you can do today to get clients next week, but again, it’s an important part of a long term strategy.

10. Contests and Giveaways to Build Buzz Online

If you want to build some buzz on your blog or Facebook page, contests are a great way to get participation up. You’ll want to strategize where to hold the contest, what to offer and how to make the best use of the buzz generated. In terms of prizes, it is generally better to offer a prize that is going to be of interest to your potential clients and not just to people who like to enter contests in general. Something related to your products or services that will create sharing and excitement among your fans and followers. Ideally, you want followers to share your message with their friends in order to gain as much exposure as possible. When doing contests on Facebook, it is very important to follow their rules and terms of service, otherwise you could get your account shut down. Here’s a great intro video to using contests to market your photography business from the Modern Tog.

TIP: Keep your contest timeframe short (1-2 weeks) to build some buzz while keeping readers interested.

11. Getting Published in Wedding Magazines and Blogs

If you want to focus on building press and prestige for your work, getting published is a great way to go. You can submit images and story ideas to trade publications in your field as well as local media. Once you’ve been published, you can use that publicity as a tool to promote yourself and your work. I’ve written an entire guide on getting published that you can download: the free photography marketing ebook if you haven’t already.

TIP: Getting your photos published only works as a marketing strategy if you actively promote the feature to potential clients and vendors.

There you have it. My best tips for free marketing. Now it’s your turn-what marketing tips can you add to the conversation?

Have You Filed Your Taxes Yet?

Lara White — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:01:04 +0000

This is a quick post today for for those of you still ahem, ~~procrastinating~~ I mean working on your taxes for last year. (for U.S. readers) You might want to dig in over the weekend and get it done.

Here is some very helpful advice from Photo Lovecat on things you’ll need to know to get your taxes done, including how to file an extension if need be.

Here is a great primer on paying taxes as a photographer with lots of great tips from the Wedding Photojournalist Association.

That’s all I’ve got to say on this subject. Remember, taxes are due April 17th, so get on it.

“Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots” Book Review and Interview with Suzy Clement

Lara White — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:57:47 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with friend and fellow photographer Suzy Clement, a San Francisco wedding photographer whose work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Town and Country Weddings and InStyle Weddings, to name a few. As the author of the recently released book Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots
, Suzy writes about core shooting basics in a very accessible manner (if you are secretly tech-challenged, you’ll get this). For new photographers considering the wedding industry, this book is a great introduction to the fundamentals of photography within the context of a typical wedding day.

LW: What inspired you to write this book at this point in your career?

SC: I’ve had a feeling for a while that the industry is creeping towards the idea that the work doesn’t matter as much and that the marketing and branding was more important. The work is important, the craft is important. Let’s get back to thinking about building a solid foundation. When a former bride working in the publishing industry approached me about a year ago to write a book on wedding photography, it felt like the right project for me.

LW: It’s interesting to hear that perspective, as you are so proficient in both areas. I mean, you’ve pretty much single-handedly set the bar in terms of getting work published, and yet you’ve also got such a strong shooting philosophy. It’s so important to have a good balance of photography fundamentals as well as the marketing and business side of running a photo studio.

LW: How did you get your start in photography?

SC: I’ve been shooting weddings for 15 years. I started out with a “manual everything” camera. I took photography classes, and at first I just asked friends, and friends of friends, if I could show up at their wedding with my camera to begin building my portfolio. I learned the basics-looking at light, using a light meter and so forth. That gave me a very solid foundation.

LW: What’s different about your approach to teaching this subject than books on the same subject?

SC: It’s not just a technical guide; it’s laid out and written specifically for wedding photographers, presenting the information according to how things tend to unfold at a wedding day.

I found a couple of different approaches out there-books with beautiful imagery featuring a very specific look or style, but light on technical instruction. On the other hand, there are also books with very good technical instruction but not very inspiring visually.
Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots starts with camera settings and core shooting basics and then goes into different stages of a wedding day. Each chapter focuses on a particular stage of a wedding and addresses common challenges that come up and strategies for how to handle those situations. For example, wedding photographers are often faced with photographing a backlit wedding ceremony, so I offer a couple of strategies that photographers can use to deal with those types of situations.
LW: For beginners, it can take a while to understand the different camera settings and how to apply them to various lighting situations. For myself, it was a solid two seasons of second shooting before I felt truly competent with my camera. How long did it take you to learn?

SC: I felt pretty secure in my camera skills because I had taken excellent classes in photography and had a very solid educational experience. But a wedding is a different animal, and I’d say it was about 3 wedding seasons before I started feeling really confident that I could handle whatever came my way. I think that is probably a pretty typical timeframe.

Image by Suzy Clement

LW: What would be your advice for someone looking to learn wedding photography?

I wrote Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots specifically for anyone who wants to become a wedding photographer. It’s filled with a mix of core shooting principals, assignments and picture call outs, which explain why I composed an image in a certain way.

It’s hard to try things out on the wedding day because you are so busy just dealing with what’s coming at you. The idea behind the assignments is learning strategies for dealing with common situations you’ll encounter on a wedding day, so that when you are in that situation, you’ll know what to do.

For example, one assignment is to put a fake centerpiece in a window and shoot it from every possible angle. This teaches you to understand directional light in a very similar type of situation you would encounter on a wedding day.

Another assignment involves enlisting a couple of friends to re-enact a “first meeting” between a bride and groom. A wedding day is NOT the place to learn how to position yourself or the couple. By practicing it at home without wedding day pressure, you will learn how to position yourself for that type of shot, so when it happens, you are ready.

LW: What mistakes do you see when looking at the work of new wedding photographers?

SC: The most common mistake I see beginner photographers making is blowing out the highlights. No details in the dress, no details in the shadows. A good quality photograph should have those details. You can’t leave it up to the camera to make judgments for you. That’s why it’s critical to understand how to use your meter.

LW: As a wedding photographer, what would you say is the hardest thing to master?

SC: Two things. Being in the background and capturing moments without drawing attention to yourself. Reactions to touching toasts, emotional responses to key emotional moments. The other thing is staying present during these moments throughout the day. There are these sweet little moments happening all around you, but you need to be attuned to them.
You can only achieve that level of awareness if you know your camera settings intimately. If you have mastered a level of skill to be free to capture the essence of a moment.

image by Suzy Clement

LW: I noticed you have a lot of examples of certain shooting techniques throughout the book, such as panning, blue hour and freezing motion. We (Geoff White Photographers) have always used these techniques routinely. I personally find these types of shots go a long way in adding some flair and visual interest to a wedding day, yet I am always surprised that I don’t see these techniques being used very frequently by others. Why do you think that is?

SC: Many photographers simply don’t know how to capture these types of images. It’s critical to have this kind of basic shooting knowledge so that when opportunities present themselves (for example “an open getaway car provides the perfect opportunity for a quintessential panning shot” from chapter 2) you can take advantage of them.

LW: Where do you stand on the idea of “momtographers” entering the profession?

SC: More power to them. Everyone starts somewhere. You can’t tell people they are not allowed to make a living at something. As professionals, it’s up to us to create the value so people can see that. Most people do not have a trained discerning eye when it comes to photography, so it’s our job to increase the bar of quality and educate our clients.

LW: What’s next for you?

SC: In writing the book, I did a lot of soul searching about what matters most to me in wedding photography. I feel so passionate that wedding photographers have a real responsibility to create something truly authentic and meaningful for their clients, and that I have a lot to share to help them do that. My goal in writing the book was not to teach you how to shoot like Suzy Clement, but how to understand the basic photography techniques as they apply to a wedding day so that you can learn to develop your own creative vision, and then execute it with confidence. I’d like to explore more ways of sharing that type of education.

WRAP UP & FINAL THOUGHTS

This is a fantastic guide for beginners, as it walks readers through different stages of a wedding day and explains what to expect and how to deal with it. It can be quite disappointing and frustrating when you’re used to seeing wedding images that are completed staged and styled to perfection, and left wondering why you can’t create those types of images yourself. It’s because a real wedding day and a styled fashion wedding shoot have very little in common.

Wedding magazines and blogs are featuring more and more of these fashion shoots and calling it wedding photography, when in fact, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Gorgeous sunset ceremonies with perfect lighting? I wish! What’s great about Suzy’s book is that it gets down to the business of authentic wedding photography- real moments captured at a real wedding.

The information is very well laid out and easy to understand. Even though there is a lot of technical information and instruction, it’s not quite so intimidating because everything is tied to a certain kind of outcome related to a wedding.

The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the assignments. Weddings can be very stressful for a new photographer trying to learn so much on the day. Exercises allow you to practice common scenarios like less than perfect lighting situations and how to approach different moments of the day. Wedding photography is unlike anything else, and there is a certain flow to the day that you need to understand and anticipate in order to truly capture the key moments. If this year is going to be your first, second or even third season, you should absolutely take a look, and set aside time for the exercises. With the summer wedding season quickly approaching, now is a great time to brush up on you skills. Read more reviews and check it out below. To learn more about Suzy and her work, visit her blog.

8 Tips for Taming the Production Workflow Beast

Lara White — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:56:32 +0000

As the spring and summer season begin to heat up, photographers are faced with the problem of getting our digital workflow under control, or getting buried. If you don’t get your production workflow streamlined now, it will be difficult to grow your photo business to its fullest potential.

Getting out from under the pile of albums that begin building up at the start of summer is not easy, especially since that pile starts on top of last seasons unfinished albums. Oh yes, I am intimately familiar with the production workflow beast. But guess what? I know how to tame it too. Read on for my best tips. Here are eight tips for getting things under control.

1. Edit. Cull. Delete images like your life depends on it. The fewer images to color correct and Photoshop, the better. Plus your best images stand out even more when not surrounded by mediocre shots.

2. Let clients know when they can expect their images from the get-go. We tell clients 4-6 weeks, but we aim for four weeks. When it’s the end of the season and things are crazy, we might need that full six weeks, but not usually. By letting them know this when you meet them, before the wedding, and just after the wedding (via automated emails, thank you Shootq) clients know what to expect and you don’t have to waste time answering anxious questions. Plus this really eases up on your anxiety that you know you have a little more time than necessary, so hopefully you can over-deliver.

3. Set dates for client deliverables, and then develop a production schedule based on that. If you know when things are due, and work from that, it makes it possible to stay on top of your workflow without constantly feeling buried. Schedule everything due so that you know when you need to start working on each project.

4. Set a cutoff date for holiday deliveries and put that date in writing on the contract or album details. Share this information in several places. Our cutoff date is weddings after September 1st will not receive albums until the following year, and album orders not received by the end of September will not be ready until the following year. We do this so that we can point back to the standing cutoff date during Thanksgiving week when clients ask if they can get their (yet to be finalized) album back by Christmas. You can do this will all products and prints. If you are constantly feeling the pressure during that week before the holidays this is a great way to relieve that pressure, and it lets clients know well in advance what to expect.

5. Print and bind albums- we used to order the album prints ourselves and spend an hour checking them over for any blemishes, and frequently sent prints back, which caused a delay and was a huge time suck. We wanted everything PERFECT for our clients, but we finally admitted to ourselves that our clients were not going to notice a tiny (tiny) speck of something on an album print and it was not worth all that time for a level of perfection that was not likely noticed by anyone but us. Once we gave that up, it was easy to make the leap to having Leather Craftsmen and Queensberry just print and bind the album.

6. Change your contract to state that clients have one year to complete their wedding album, otherwise it’s a done deal and the contract is considered complete. I thought this was super harsh and hated doing it, but the truth is, it gives us the room and justification to insist clients complete their albums by a deadline so we don’t have 3 years of old albums hanging over our heads. We used to have 20-30 incomplete albums at any time (combination of those feet draggers plus the ones we were just behind on). Over several years, we revised and streamlined our process significantly, so we only have a small handful of albums to do at any given time.

7. Shootq-this has been a HUGE lifesaver in terms of pretty much everything from getting contracts signed, payments collected, tasks organized, clients informed. It has a very high learning curve and takes a lot of time to understand and implement, but so worth the time. Basically, you set up a production workflow for each item and then each time you book a new client, you set up the workflow that goes with that package and the add-ons and it sets up the task list for you so you don’t forget a step along the way, which usually happens for us in October. Plus it is set up so when you check off a task, it can send out an auto email to the client asking for album cover options, letting them know the album was just sent to the lab, etc. So it really keeps us organized and on track and also keeps the client informed of the process along the way. Read more about problems ShootQ solved for our studio and how to set up Shootq.

8. Batch processing-doing similar production tasks in a batch process will save you time. For example, instead of ordering prints a few at a time, put incoming print orders into a folder for 1-2 weeks and then order them all at once.

Look at the entire production process for little places you can make small improvements. You can really streamline the process over time, but don’t expect to do it all in one season. What tips do you have to streamline your workflow?

More tips for organizing your workflow and staying ahead of client deadlines.

Blogging Ideas Part 3-Desperately Seeking Content

Lara White — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:00:25 +0000

By popular demand, here’s another post on what to put on your photography blog. Apparently a lot of you have been suffering quietly. I’ve heard from photographers who had not updated their blogs in 3, 8, 10 months and even longer (!). The problem is once you start to let it slide, then you feel guilty about it, which only drives the procrastination cycle. Well never fear, more ideas are coming your way this minute.

Here’s the thing: we photographers are at a SERIOUS advantage over all the others bloggers out there in the world blogging their little hearts out day in and day out. What’s that advantage, you say? Well a photo library at your disposal, of course.

With thousands of photos at your disposal, you should have no problem whatsoever coming up with creative content for your blog. One of the ways our studio does this is with posts related to a particular topic, or highlighting a certain wedding element. For example, here are 2 examples of blog posts that feature a theme (grooms style and autumn wedding ideas) and then pull images from various weddings to put together a collection of the best images that represent those ideas:

http://blog.geoffwhite.com/weddings/grooms-style-file/

http://blog.geoffwhite.com/weddings/autumn-wedding-inspiration/

Note that if you are interested in this idea, it really helps to either have a tagging system for your images or a really excellent memory. Personally, I happen to be able to recognize cakes and bouquets by wedding, even 8 years back. My brain just works that way.

Another approach is to pull from other sources, like photographer Edyta Szyszlo does:

http://www.edytaszyszlo.com/blog/2011/09/07/enchanted-meets-boho-floral-head-hair-wreaths/

http://www.edytaszyszlo.com/blog/2008/10/14/trends-of-2009-wedding-dresses/

Edyta is very crafty herself and she probably spends a lot of time on sites like Martha Stewart, Etsy and Pinterest. So sharing the ideas and trends she sees is a natural extension of her own personality.

Without further ado, here are 33 ideas to keep you blogging through the next couple of months and beyond:

1. Bridal dress styles
2. Grooms cakes
3. Lounges
4. Bouquets-brides
5. Bouquets-bridesmaids
6. Dessert bars feature
7. Candy bars feature
8. Invitation ideas
9. Cute favors round-up
10. Seasonal theme ideas
11. Hair ornaments
12. Bridal wraps, shrugs
13. Bridesmaids dresses
14. Signature drinks
15. After dinner bars
16. Pew and aisle décor
17. Signage
18. Transportation ideas
19. Shoes
20. Flower girl baskets
21. Makeup styles
22. Hair styles-updos
23. Hair styles-curly hair
24. Hair styles-short hair
25. Boutonnieres
26. Ties
27. Suits
28. Tuxedos
29. Escort card tables
30. Menus
31. Centerpieces
32. Lighting
33. Cupcakes

Brides are constantly searching for new ideas and trends, so if you begin posting wedding ideas and themes on your blog, you will get more traffic and exposure from brides all over, but most of that traffic will not be useful to you, as a bride 3 states away who has fallen in love with a groom’s tie featured on your site is not likely to hire you. But a magazine editor searching for that perfect image might contact you about publishing one of your images (we’ve had that happen quite a few times).

If you are looking for even MORE blogging ideas, you can check out this post or this one.

Happy blogging. Ideas you want to share with us? Let us know in the comments below.

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