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.

Networking with other Wedding Professionals

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.

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

Photography Packaging and Marketing

Image is everything.  That is why branding yourself and your work is so important.

Branding and packaging increases the perceived value of a product.  Compare a stack of 4×6’s to a beautiful album of 4×6’s.  Compare an 8×10 print to the same 8×10 print, matted and framed. 

Your brand has to be consistent across all your products and packaging for it to be effective.  This means everything from your business cards, your letterheads, your photo folders, photo boxes, mailing postcards, brochures, envelopes, etc. have to have your branding.  Use a consistent font and color scheme to reinforce your brand to your clients.

Branding also reinforces to the client your professionalism and your commitment to your work as opposed to some fly-by-night operation.

Check out this great blog about how to market and package the photographs that you give out to clients.

Photo Packaging Blog

You can also view a PDF file about photo packaging.

Presentation Brochure

Photography Packaging

It is very important when giving your product to your client, whether it be photographs or albums or frames, that you package it in the most appealing way possible.  It might cost you a couple of extra dollars and a little bit more time, but it does add more value to your product.  It also adds to the customer experience and to the wow factor (remember on Christmas how exciting it is to unwrap presents?).  I mean, they went to a professional photographer!  The way they get their photographs should be different from the if they get their photographs from a family member.  The photo packaging also makes it seem like you care a lot more about the product and about the client.

It is also a great way for them to store and protect their photos and preserve their memories in an archival way.  And because the box that you are using to hold the photos are so beautiful, they will not throw it away and that makes it a great place to put your branding and your studio’s contact information.  Business cards do get thrown away or misplaced, but they will always know where they kept their wedding photos and the box where the studio’s name is. 

This is the exact photo presentation box that I use.  They are 4 1/2  x 6 1/2 x 1 1/2″ presentation boxes.  (If you need to put more photos in, there is also 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 3″ sizes )

http://www.perfectiondistributing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PDI&Product_Code=46Box&Category_Code=BAGPB

It’s very economical, it’s a great way to present 4×6’s (they also come in various sizes such as 5×7, 8×10, 11×14 and 16×20).   I have my studio name and contact information engraved on it so that everytime they show their pictures to their family and friends, my branding is there and they can see who took the photos.  I also tape my business card inside the box and put some loose business cards inside so that they can give it away to their friends. 

Then I put some gold or silver stretch bands on it or some ribbons and then put it into a black paper bag with some black tissue paper. 

The way the presentation of the photos is that I engage most of their senses:  the packaging is beautiful to the eyes, there’s a tactile contact with the experience of opening up and holding these precious photos, there’s an auditory sense to listening to the tissue paper, you can even add a scent to it like vanilla or a light perfume to give your clients an olfactory experience.   

You can purchase boxes, tissues, paper bags and gold or silver stretch bands from various suppliers but these are the ones I use.

Perfection Distributing
Michel Company
DNL photo

These companies also sell a lot of photo related products such as albums, frames, folders and folios.  If you are a photographer, you might want to request their free catalog that you can peruse over. 

They allow you to engrave your studio name into a lot of their products.

Welcome to my photography BLOG!

Hi, y’all!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  My blog is all about photography, mostly wedding photography and portrait photography.  This blog documents stuff that I’ve learned throughout the years of being a photographer, although I’m still learning SO much everyday.

I’m gonna be writing a lot about photography techniques, marketing and other photo-related stuff.

Feel free to leave a comment, a question or violent reactions.

Visit my website at SilvasPhoto.com to view my work.