Business Cards for Wedding Photographers

One of the most important marketing tools that you have for your business is your Business Card.

Always bring some with you and be prepared to hand it out to people whenever you can.  Like if they ask you what you do for a living, you can give them some cards so that they can see your website.  Make sure to give each person at least three cards, making it easier for them to refer you to other people.

The essential information on your business card are:

• Name of Business
• What do you do?  (plumber, photographer, farmer?  what kind of photographer: wedding, fashion, landscape )
• Phone Number
• Website
• Email address

You can buy cheap business cards at www.vistaprint.com.

Don’t spend too much money on Photo Gear!

As photographers, there is a tendency (more so for guys than for girls) to buy the latest, newest, biggest (or smallest), highest megapixel, most bad-ass photo equipment there is.  For the business, we say.   But if we are really honest with ourselves, is it really for the business or is it just to satisfy our techno-lust?

Once you have your basic equipment (SLR body, a couple of lenses, batteries, Compact Flash cards, tripod and flash) and a backup set, all the other stuff is really just gravy and sometimes unnecessary. 

Don’t spend all the money that you earn on photo equipment.  If you did, that would mean you are just working so that you can buy and you are a slave to your gear.

Don’t BORROW money (or use a credit card) just to buy gear that you cannot afford with the mindset that this little baby will get you a lot of clients so it will be worth it.  It doesn’t really work that way.

Most clients don’t really care much about equipment and cameras and such. 

Free Canvas from CanvasOnDemand!

Get a free 16×20 sample canvas worth $84 from CanvasOnDemand! 

https://www.canvasondemand.com/studio/

We just got ours and it’s awesome!  

Top 10 Wedding Photographers 2008 by PopPhoto

PopPhoto Magazine has just released their top 10 wedding photographers for 2008.

My favorite wedding photographer, Jessica Claire, made it to the top 10.  Congrats!

Here they are in no particular order.  Make sure you check out all their websites for inspiration!

• Jose Villa of josevillaphoto.com from Santa Barbara, California
• Ben Chrisman of benchrisman.com from San Francisco
• Jim Garner of jgarnerphoto.com from Seattle
• Karen Wise of karenwise.com from New York City
• Elizabeth Messina of elizabethmessina.com from Santa Barbara, California
• Cliff Mautner of cmphotography.com from Philadelphia
• Curt Littlecott of nuvisionsinphotography.com from Orlando, Florida
• Gene Higa of genehiga.net from San Francisco
• Jessica Claire of jessicaclaire.net from Orange County, California
• LaCour of lacourphoto.com from Atlanta, Georgia

Here’s the link to the whole article at PopPhoto.com.

http://www.popphoto.com/americanphotofeatures/5260/top-10-wedding-photographers-2008.html

Free Magazines for Photographers

Here are FREE magazine subscriptions for photographers. You have to be a photographer to qualify.

What’s the catch? No catch! These magazines get their revenue from advertisers.

Free Rangefinder Magazine Subscription

Free Aftercapture Magazine

Free Professional Photographer Magazine

Free Studio Photographer Magazine Subscription

You can also read all their articles online at the website. 

 

If you know of any other free magazines, please add it in the comments below.

Photography on radio!

You can listen to interviews with photographers on Inside Digital Photo.

A website a day, keeps the doctors away!

When I was in a poetry class in college, my instructor told us that to be able to write well, you need to read A LOT!

Stephen King, who is probably the most prolific and published writer in the whole world, reads every single day.  He probably reads a book a day or a book every 2 days.  Whenever he gets on his car, he pops an audio recording of a book so even when he can’t read, he can listen to a book.

It’s the same with photography, you need to look at a LOT of photography to get better.

I try to look at photography websites everyday so that I can absorb different techniques and open my mind to new ideas.

Here is a good website with explanations of why he likes each photo.

http://admiredbybeckstead.com/

Rangefinder Magazine

I have a new favorite magazine…  it’s called Rangefinder Magazine and it caters to wedding and portrait photographers. I just got my first copy and I am a fan!

You can read the latest issue of the magazine here.

Aperture tutorial

Here is a video that will explain aperture more thoroughly.

Depth of Field tutorial

Here is a great video tutorial on depth of field.

Video about perception of beauty

Here is a cool (freaky) video about beauty.

Album Design Tips

I have a new hero… Suzette Allen from http://www.shootsmarter.com . 

You have to register to be able to view the tutorial but it’s a pretty painless process and once you’re in, it’s well worth it.  She teaches a lot about album and template design in photoshop and she has many many tricks up her sleeve. 

Check it out! 

Sample Album 2008

Here is the sample wedding album we ordered from Graphistudio. We will be getting it in a few weeks and we are really excited to see how it looks.

We are going to start designing albums for other photographers so if you are a photographer but you don’t have time to design albums and you want to offer this service to your clients, just contact us for more information.

You can also see this album at our website at www.SilvasPhoto.com.  

Know thy Gear

Here’s a great but boring-sounding tip:  Read your camera’s manual!  Read it from cover to cover.  Have your camera in hand so that you can see what the manual is talking about and try it all out as you read it.

It might sound obvious but honestly, how many of you have read through your camera’s manual?  Or your flash’s manual?  (Oops, come to think of it, I haven’t read my flash’s manual… so that’s why up to now I don’t know what GN means and what makes it different from TTL.  I have no idea where that manual is.)

It is pretty boring because you know a lot of the features of your camera already (presumably).  But what about the other parts of your camera that you never use?

Read your manual!  It’s like eating veggies: it’s good for you. 

Photo Album Suppliers

Here is a list of photo album suppliers. 

High end Coffee Table Albums
www.asukabook.com
www.zookbinders.com
www.graphistudio.com

Low cost photo books
www.blurb.com
www.mypublisher.com

www.storybookpages.com
www.artleather.com
www.albumsunlimited.com
www.caprialbum.com
www.cornerstonealbums.com
www.finaoonline.com
www.winkflash.com
www.exclusivealbums.com
www.hhcolorlab.com
www.leathercraftsmen.com
www.picaboo.com
www.pictobooks.com
www.proprints.us
www.proweddingalbums.com
www.queensberry.com
www.topflightalbums.com
www.thebookalbum.com
 www.wgbooks.com