The [b] School

Here are some great tutorials about wedding photography.  They are done by Becker and it’s in video which I don’t usually like because I can read way faster than a video plays but he has some really good tips for beginners and intermediate photographers as well about workflow and marketing and networking and almost everything about wedding photography.  Best of all, it’s free!

http://www.thebschoolblog.com/

I’ve just also recently discovered Actions in Photoshop.  A lot of wedding photographers use Kubota Actions by Kevin Kubota as well as Totally Rad Actions by the Boutwells to make their photos POP!  Here is Becker’s post about actions. 

http://beckersblog.com/index.cfm?q=sotc&x=1&y=1
http://homepage.mac.com/thebecker/iblog/B533212817/C1640960333/E20060125154844/index.html

How to price your Wedding Photography

Pricing your wedding photography is one of the trickiest part of being a wedding photographer.  How much is your time and effort worth?

In the beginning, when you are still trying to build experience and portfolio, you might work some jobs for free or very little money.  This is okay and extremely natural as it would be unethical for you to charge very high when you don’t have the experience.

But as you improve and your business grows, how much should you charge?

It all depends on a lot of factors and each photographer is different.

• Location.  The price of photography is different in a big city such as New York as opposed to a small town.
• Experience.  Are you just starting out or have you been in the business a while?

What most people don’t realize is that photography is a full time job even though they only see us on their wedding day, we are also working the entire week editing the photos, creating the albums, marketing, meeting with clients, etc.  So your wages should be at least what somebody working full time is making.

You should raise your prices whenever:

• when your expenses increase.  As your business grows, your expenses increase too so your prices should cover that.
• Whenever you get a lot of bookings.  This means that you are in demand so you can raise your prices a bit.  At first, the bookings will lessen, but you will be doing less jobs for the same amount of money.
• Whenever people tell you that you are affordable.  This means that you are worth more so you can charge more.
• Raise your prices at least every year consistently.  This ensures that your prices are keeping up with the increasing prices of everyday things. 

View this blog about pricing:  http://photolovecat.blogspot.com/2007/03/pricing.html

Celebration Studios filed for bankruptcy

Here’s the latest news in the wedding photo world.  Big wedding photography company Celebration Studios filed for bankruptcy and closed down, leaving lots of their wedding couples high and dry.  Most of them paid in full because they get a 20% discount if they do so but now they don’t have a wedding photographer. 

Celebration Studios services the tri-state are of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.  Most wedding couples paid from $4000 – $6000 upfront.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/consumer&id=5898234
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/299/ripoff0299561.htm
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/NEWS/80117003

Here is the Yahoo Groups of the Celebration Studios brides and groom with over 1000 members.  They are planning some legal action (probably a class suit) so if you have been wronged by Celebration Studios, please join their egroups.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wrongedbycelebrationstudios/
http://wrongedbycelebrations.freeforums.org/index.php

If you are one of these wedding couples needing a wedding photographer, please contact us at hontes@gmail.com or (843) 597-3518.  You can view our website at http://SilvasPhoto.com .   We only have a few wedding dates left in 2008 but who knows, we might be able to accomodate you.  We are South Carolina based but we do travel anywhere in the USA.

We also make wedding albums so if you need some wedding albums designed, we can help you with that. 

Unfortunately we are quite far from the PA, NJ, NY area so we can’t help as much as we’d like but if you go to this website and you were wronged by Celebration Studios, you might get a free wedding photography package.

 http://jasongphoto.blogspot.com/ 

This is one wedding photography website that offers discounts to those wronged by Celebration Studios:

http://www.1lovestudio.com/help.html

If you are a wedding photographer and would like to help, please post in the comments below.

Master Tips from the Wedding Photography Experts

Here’s some wedding photography techniques from master wedding photographer Yervant Zanazanian:

http://www.wedshooter.com/2005/12/20/soft-touch

Here is Jessica Claire’s photographer FAQ from her blog which gives a lot of detail about her equipment, techniques and workflow:

http://www.jcsphoto.com/photographerfaq.html

And here is her blog posts where she answers photographers questions.

http://jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?catID=10

Awesome wedding photographers

Here is a list of some awesome wedding photographers.

Alt-F by John Michael Cooper http://www.altf.com/
Bebb Studios http://www.tyingtheknot.net/
Becker http://www.thebecker.com/
Boutwell Studio http://boutwellstudio.com/
Cantrell Portrait Design http://www.cantrellportrait.com/
Dane Sanders http://danesanders.com/
David Beckstead http://www.davidbeckstead.com/ & http://admiredbybeckstead.com/
David Jay http://www.davidjay.com/
Dino Lara http://www.dinolara.com/
Elizabeth Messina http://www.elizabethmessina.com/
Jeff Ascough  http://www.jeffascough.net/
Jerry Ghionis (XSiGHT) – http://www.jerryghionis.com/ & http://www.xsight.com.au/
Jesh de Rox http://www.jeshderox.com/
Jessica Claire http://www.jcsphoto.com/
Jessica Strickland http://www.jessicarstrickland.com/
Joe Buissink http://www.joebuissink.com/
Marisa Holmes http://www.marisaweddings.com/
Mike Colon – http://www.mikecolon.com/
Storybook Weddings – http://storybookweddings.com/
The Image Is Found – http://www.theimageisfound.com/wedding/
Yervant – http://www.yervant.com/

Best FREE Classified Ads to submit to

Submitting to classified ads sites is a great way to get free advertising, reach more people who are actively looking for service as well as increasing your search engine ranking. 

Make sure you have an actual working link from your ad to your website so that search engines can find your website.

I use gmail as my email address because it is very good in separating spam from valid emails and I can always tweak my filters so that I don’t get any emails with the word viagra or stuff like that.

Craigslist – Without a doubt, the MOST popular classified ad site in the USA.  It is a very effective venue because lots of people look through craigslist everyday.  Right now, I get more traffic from craigslist than from any wedding planning website.  Lots of bargain hunters though, as with all classified ad sites.

It has a very simple, zen-like interface which you might find boring in the beginning but once you get used to it, it’s really refreshing.

You have the ability to incorporate some HTML into your post so you can embed images in your post as well as layout your post with tables.  Javascript, video, flash and some attribute inside <style> tag are not allowed.

Being a very popular website, it is prone to spammers so expect a lot of spam from nigerian scams and other scams.  The nigerian scam is discussed in detail in another post.

Oodle - This is a great way to submit to lots of different classified ads site at the same time. 

Oodle is partnered with:

• Lycos
• Local.com Classifieds
• PennySaverUSA.com 
  National classifieds with the possibility for print in the Pennysaver magazine.
• eBay
  A global online marketplace.  Shop victoriously.
• OLX

Kijiji

Jaabu.com

Bestweddingpros

www.craigslist.org
www.backpage.com  
www.kijiji.ca
www.gumtree.com
loquo.com .
classifieds.myspace.com
expo.live.com
www.adlandpro.com
www.usfreeads.com 
www.adpost.com
www.TheFlyer.com
www.salespider.com
www.ozfreeonline.com
www.ClassifiedAds.com
www.freeadvertisingforum.com
www.sell.com 
www.InetGiant.com
www.adquest3d.com
www.recycler.com
www.chooseyouritem.com
www.domesticsale.com
www.epage.com
www.classifiedsforfree.com 
webcosmo.com 

StumbleHere.com
iSell.com
base.google.com