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!
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.
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.
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
Some people email me to ask if they can second shoot for me and when I ask them if I can see their work, they don’t really have anything prepared.
It is VERY important for a photographer to have a portfolio of your own work because this shows people your photography level and skill.
Make sure your photos are technically decent. Meaning, no blurry photos, no snapshots, make sure you edit your photos in Photoshop to make them the best photos they can be.
Try to keep only your best photos in your portfolio. On the other hand, don’t be so paralyzed by not having great photos that you don’t include any photos at all.
ONLINE PORTFOLIO
At first, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can create an account in the many photography sites for free. Personally I prefer Flickr. See my portfolio there at http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvasphoto/.
Some people use their myspace or facebook account as their portfolio.
You can also use a blog such as WordPress. Just make sure you can post BIG photos. See my other blog at http://SilvasPhoto.wordpress.com .
The good thing about this is that you can just give people a link and they can view a lot of photos. This is better than emailing photos because you are limited by the no. of attachments allowed by your email (which is probably around 3-10 depending on your email provider.)
Note about emailing photos: if you absolutely have to email photos, make sure they are resized to a smaller size otherwise, when the person opens the photo, it will be too big for the browser and there is no way to view the whole photo unless you save it on the computer, then open it with a photo viewer, which most don’t people don’t like to do.
Eventually your goal is to have your own website that showcases your work.
Things to remember:
PRINTED PORTFOLIO
When meeting people in person, you’d want to bring a printed portfolio. The photos in your portfolio should be in a big size, such as 8×10 or larger.
You should select a number of your photos to include in your portfolio. 15-20 images is a good number. The portfolio that you present should be relevant to the job you are applying for. Example: if you want to be a portrait photographer, your portfolio should have portraits. If you want to be a landscape photographer, you should have some landscape photos.
I have different portfolios depending on the client that I am talking to. I have a wedding portfolio, a portrait portfolio, a landscape portfolio and a boudoir photography portfolio. Now, I don’t want to show somebody who’s not really interested in landscapes some landscape photos since that is not relevant to them.
Here is a good wedding photography tutorial from photographersacademy.com.
Some other useful videos.
Fashion Photography
Professional Photography Secrets
Commercial Photography
The greatest people to create bonds with in your career as a wedding photographer are other wedding professionals.
Wedding Professionals such as wedding planners, makeup artists, caterers, florists, DJs, videographers, wedding venues, officiants, dressmakers, etc. share something in common with you: you have the SAME target market! What you can do is pool your target markets together and eventually share some of your client base.
Everytime you meet a wedding professional during a wedding (wait for a quiet time, not when either of you are busy), introduce yourself and give them some business cards.
(When giving out business cards, always give at least 3 so that they can give it away to other people if they need to and still have one left for themselves.)
After the wedding, you can email or mail them prints and/or digital files of the wedding that might help them. Like if it’s the caterer, give them some nice photos of the food. If it’s the florist, give them some nice photos of the flowers. Make sure you put your logo and website and contact information at the bottom of the photo.
Tell them that they can use the photos for any advertising as long as they credit the photos to you. When they do need a photo for advertising, they will most likely choose yours because you have made it convenient for them.
If you have a wedding couple that needs certain services, make sure you refer them to your network and make sure that they know who referred the couple. In return, you can ask for referrals as well.
These are people that will help you out throughout your career so cultivate these relationships.
Google ranks websites through its relevance via Pagerank.
Knowing your Pagerank is important because it helps you keep track of your search engine optimization efforts as well as it helps you rank higher in the google index.
LINKS
Pagerank measures how many websites link to your site. More important than the quantity of the websites is the QUALITY of the websites that link to you. This means, the higher their pagerank is, the better your rank is.
You can submit to a lot of directories such as the search engines (google, yahoo, msn, aol, etc) and directories (dmoz.org) but don’t forget about portals specific to your website (ie, if you have a wedding photography website, submit to wedplan.net, wedj.com, etc.) as well as regional websites (specific to your country, state and city). Some website will call you on the phone trying to sell you higher placement, but in my experience, it really is not necessary. Just tell them, no thank you and just hang up. But expect a LOT of phone calls especially from the wedding industry.
Also, links to your website without a reciprocal link from your website to theirs are measured higher than if you link back as well.
A great way to increase your inbound links without having to reciprocate is by participating in message boards, classified ads and forums. Some forums allow you to create a footer so you can include your website in all your posts. Trying to mess with the pagerank by spamming and other similar ways is frowned upon and your website might get penalized because of this, so make sure that what you post is relevant to the topic.
CONTENT
PageRank is also judged by how relevant your website is with regards to specific keywords.
Make sure that you have a lot of text in your website. If you have a flash website, make sure you have a HTML site that is text-rich with your important keywords.
Create articles and tips that you can place in your website. It does not have to be complicated, just a simple guide for beginners will usually do.
BLOG
Funnily enough, the single thing I did that increased my google pagerank 2-3 points higher is getting a blog. Not just getting an ordinary blog, but getting a blog here at wordpress that is hosted on THEIR server. I’ve had blogs on blogger and blog.com before but they didn’t really affect my rank. I switched to wordpress because they allow bigger photos. Less than a week after I created my wordpress blog, my pagerank jumped for my 2 websites. I don’t have any proof that it’s due to wordpress, but I’ve been submitting my websites everywhere and only when I got a blog did it jump higher.
FIND OUT WHAT YOUR PAGE RANK IS
You can find out what your page rank is by going to this site and typing your url in their form. http://www.mypagerank.net/service_pagerankbutton_index
You can also install a pagerank button on your website by copying the code from mypagerank.net to your footer.
Nigerian scams are one of the most popular spams on the internet. If you have posts in classified ads or ebay or if you have your email somewhere on the internet, it is only a matter of time before you get one of these.
The reason it’s called the Nigerian scam is because Nigeria has very weak laws regarding this so it’s very rampant in Nigeria. They also have really good counterfeit services and it is quite an industry there.
They generally start out as trying to buy a product from you or a service. They then send you a check with an amount larger than what you asked for. They ask for the change back. The problem is, the check is not real but the bank will cash it. After a few days, the check will bounce and the amount will be charged to YOU. If you sent them back the money, then you are gonna be in debt.
Some characteristics of a Nigerian scam is that the grammar is very off. Not just normal grammar mistakes but really weird phrasings. Weird punctuations as well.
Another characteristic is when they tell you too much detail. Like they tell you how they fel in love and how his fiancee is a beautiful American damsel and they’re so excited.
Sometimes they don’t even know what you are selling or where you are located. Like they didn’t read your website or your post.
If you they tell you that he’s British or from Africa or Nigeria, that’s a foreshadowing so that you won’t be surprised when they tell you to wire back the money in Nigeria.
Here are some examples of the email.
SUBJECT: I need your service
How are you doing ? . I will be glad to know more about how you give out your service as a Photographer or vidieographer . I request the service to help me with my wedding party on 19th of october 2007 . I want to know what is it like getting your service I will love to know how you charge and what are the things you consider for an event. I want to know more about your service. Pls if you are intrested in having a job from me let me know. I will love to know what your service area is so that I can work out a prefect venue. I hope to read from you as soon as you get this email because dont have much more time to make the plans and because of my job ………Looking forward to read from you soon.
Regards
Martin
Here’s another one:
Hello,
Good day to you.i was searching for a Good Photographer for my Daughter`s birthday,so i came across your advert on CRAIGSLSIT. So what i will be needing now is that,i want to know your schedule on 15th of Oct,cos thats when Karen(my Daughter’s,birthday will be coming up) So i want you to get back to me asap concerning the schedule and the amount i will be paying for the whole hour(like 5-6hrs),and the address where the event will be coming up so let me have the whole quote total,and pls i will be needing the best of your service. thank you and God bless as i look forward for your reply
Regards Dr Jonathan
Here is one where I replied so this is a whole conversation.
Hello, I was going through all the ads here and i came across yours… I am hoping that i can secure your services for my wedding to a nice American Damsel which am in love with.. I am Charles Depp by name.. I am hoping to have the wedding in New York where my fiancée live.. I am a Briton, however i will like the wedding to have the perfect American setting…. I will like to know the Kind of songs and music that you play… Will you be able to travel to New York? How do you charge? I am hoping to have my wedding for the 2nd week in September, will you be available then? I hope to hear from you soon… Best Regards Charles Depp
The funny thing is I don’t even offer DJ services. Obviously, this guy didn’t even read my ad. I replied to him that I did photography, not DJing.
Thanks so much for your mail.. I`m looking forward to having the best wedding for my fiancee so am looking at a varieties of events to spice up the day.
I will like to know the kind of photography that you offer….
We will be using a place in Albany.
So i`ll like to know how much you will be charging for these event. You will be probably be on for not more than two hours..The event will start by 1 pm
The date will be 8th of July. So i will be hoping to know the details and booking your services now.
Get back to me as soon as possible.
Regards
Charles
So the end of this story is that this guy sent me a check for $4000. Obviously a fake since I didn’t quote him that much. We didn’t cash it and he never asked me about it, obviously a fake.
If I did cash it though, the bank would cash it because it is a rule with the bank that they need to cash it on that day even if it doesn’t clear yet. After a week or so when the check clears and the bank discovers it’s a fake, the bank will charge that amount to YOU.
What the scammers often do is have you cash it, then send them back some of the money. Don’t do it because after a few days, YOU will be the one charged with that amount.
