On The Third Day of Christmas, My Photographer Gave To Me …

I was out reading through a bunch of my RSS feeds from the blogs I love, and I came across several great things for that hard-to-buy-for photographer in your life.

Bottle Cap Tripods

Have you ever been on vacation, and had the opportunity for a perfect shot – but you couldn’t get it without a tripod? Now you’ll never be without a tripod again, with Bottle Cap Tripods.

These little jewels fit on any standard water or soda bottle, and pivots up to 15 degrees in any direction.

LensBaby

Tired of looking through the same old lens? Give LensBaby a try. These amazing lenses give you more options, more possibilities, and a whole lot of fun.

It’s always fun to be out shooting and have someone say, “wow”. You’ll definitely get that a lot with these lenses. Use one – or all three – to create something new in the way you shoot.

PhotoOpoly

Do you love playing Monopoly? Do you have several editions (I have the Denver edition). Why not make your own with PhotoOpoly. Dig out your old photos, place them on the board, and create a fantastic game perfect for the holidays.

I’m thinking this will be the perfect gift for the gift exchange this year! And I’m willing to bet it’ll be the one gift everyone fights over.

Twitter – 50 Ways To Use it

1. Use your real name. (Twitter.com/AndrewOsterberg) This is a way to build your expertise.

2. Use a photograph that shows who you are.

3. Change your photograph out, but make sure it always represents your business image.

4. Change out the free Twitter background to include more about you or your business.

5. Start using some of the different applications for Twitter

6. Automatically feed your blog posts into your Twitter account.

7. Automatically feed you Twitter posts into your WordPress blog.

Wedding Album Design – Is It Up To You Or Your Customer?

Most wedding photographers concentrate on the photographs. They design their packages to provide a certain number of photographs. And the client can choose what images to place into the album.

A typical package may be:
·    Up to 8 (eight) hours of time
·    Unlimited 4×6 images (Average 550 – 900 images) All yours to keep!
·    Wedding Album (To hold your unlimited 4×6 images)
·    Enlarged Images:  8 – 8×10 prints + 4 – 5×7 prints + 20 – 4×6 prints

The problem with this type of package is you put the emphasis on the wrong thing. Instead of focusing on your presentation, you’re focusing on a stack full of pictures.

And this is where true professionals are separated from the amateurs.

As a wedding photographer, your art comes in the form of being able to tell the story of your clients wedding.

What if you take photographs of the wine glasses sitting next to the cake, photographs of the bride and groom’s hands holding the wine glasses, close ups of the toast, and photographs of the guests toasting the bride and groom.

Digital Photography Image modifier

Found a really nice resource for digital photographers.

RGBmachine is a fast and easy photo editor based on original researches in the field of digital image processing technologies.
It allows the user to rotate, resize, crop, correct color and remove red-eye problems in the fastest possible way. RGBmachine is focused on performing the most frequent and common actions. Due to this emphasis on simplicity, it is naturally faster and easier than any other complex and expensive photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. This means that RGBmachine is the best solution for the users who have a mountain of photos to process. The site offers a free trial version to test the software out

Five advantages of RGBmachine:

1. It uses a folder-to-folder batch framework. RGBmachine orders all photos from the input folder as a chain, avoiding the laborious task of editing photos one-by-one. This obviously

Photographers – Linking Your Photography Website With Other Sites

Have you ever heard the term link strategy?

Link strategy simply means connecting your website up with other like-minded websites. Over the years, there have been many thoughts on this strategy. Link farms were built to add a ton of links to your site in a very quick time frame. Resource pages were added to sites to give reciprocal links. Trading links with community sites was used to boost up your rankings.

But today, links are used to connect you up with other sites that can drive your visibility

Photo Albums; How To Make A Professional Presentation

What makes a professional photographer stand above an amateur? It’s the way they present their products and their services to prospects and clients.

Whether you photograph weddings, families, children or babies, adding a professional album to your list of services can showcase your photography in an elegant and impactful way.

With each of our weddings, it wasn’t just the photographs that made us special. It was the way we presented them. We would design multiple volume sets, and show a client an album design (via software) along with the digital proofs. We assumed they would buy albums – that was our service – and it was a strategy that never failed.

Imagine selling a four volume set to your client – each with 60-70 pages. What would that do to your bottom line?

Let’s look at 5 different album companies.

Art Leather
It’s all about options. Art Leather can offer you a variety of different styles and looks. I’ve always been a fan of the flush mount albums. You create digital image collages in one size, and have them flush mounted in an album. With their high quality pages, you get a look that screams “professional”. I also like that they have a variety of add-on products, from gift albums, to folios, to image boxes. Image boxes were always a big hit. Place a selection of matted images in the image box. Your clients can display them, use them as signature frames, and have an elegant way of displaying them as well.  They are great for bringing along to coffee houses when you’re showing your clients your work.

Zookbinders
Zookbinders does a fantastic job with both their albums, design and customer service. We worked with the staff at Zookbinders for years, and loved everything about this company. They have a variety of products and styles to ensure you have something for every taste. Instead of offering your clients one item, why not give bonuses along the way? A two volume album earns you a discount on The PhotoBook. With a variety of lines, you can find many ways to create special offers for your clients.

Queensberry
Queensberry offers you a variety of options in album format, and a wide array of sizing options. How about a 20×16 album – imagine the look on a prospects face just looking at these large images. We used a variety of sizes throughout our business, and size does matter when it comes to album design. If you give something out of the ordinary – something your customers’ friends won’t have – you’re sure to be a hit.

White Glove Books
What attracted me immediately to White Glove is their take on albums – they don’t just produce albums, they produce First Editions. It’s not just what you create, it’s how you present it. White Glove allows you to present your images in a variety of ways, and choose from different layouts and cover designs. Each book is uniquely your own.

Albums Australia
Another thing that makes a professional photographer stand above the crowd is offering something a consumer can’t get anywhere else. Change the size to something out of the ordinary – maybe an 11×14 album. Or give them the newest magazine style album. In either case, make a sample that shows your client what to expect, and what you can do that’s different from traditional and more available options. Albums Australia has great products for the professional, and gives you access to software to make your job of album design easy.

These are five of the great companies available to you as professional photographers. Get on their websites and take a look for yourself. I would recommend that you offer a variety of album companies in your product line. Different clients like different things. We had some clients who were vegan, and wanted a quality album that adhered to their vegan beliefs. Some love an artistic look, while others like a more traditional look. By offering several choices, you can develop a package that is perfect for your client.

Part Time Photography

A week or so ago I was introduced to Dan Eitreim with Part Time Photography. He has a great ebook available for anyone that is trying to use their camera to bring in a part time income. Its a book filled with tips and strategies from a variety of different professional photographers. And that is really what makes this book so valuable.

You’ll find 16 chapters, each by a different photographer, filled with ideas to help you get your business up and running. I finally had a chance to read it cover to cover, and was impressed with the ideas. These ideas go hand in hand with my Six Figure philosophy, and are sure to spark your interests with a few new ideas.

Each chapter brings a distinct idea to you, and provides you with enough detail to put it into action. If you want to make money with portraits, family and children portraiture, this could be a great investment for you. You don’t need to come up with new ideas; take ideas that are already tried and profitable, and incorporate those into your business.

On top of that, the price couldn’t be better. In these trying times, if you’re great with a camera, its time to use your skills to bring in some extra income. And with the upcoming holiday season, and more people sticking close to home, family photographs will make perfect gifts.  Go to Part Time Photography and get your own copy now.

Photography – Choosing An Album Company

Professional means not doing what the amateur can do.

I visited a “professional” photographer’s website today. She specializes in babies and children.

She photographs and provides the digital files for up to 50 images. Yours to keep.

If you choose, you have the option of purchasing a memory book that she produces from iPhoto – for an additional fee.

I doubt she sells very many of these. Why would she?

The person has already received a digital file with every image on it. She can very easily head over to iPhoto and design her own album.

I love the iPhoto concept. It’s fun and easy to throw together a quick album for a single event. Many other companies offer a similar product – Shutterfly has something similar, and also sells the kits out of Borders book stores.

Consumers love it. And retailers love it – it’s a way of increasing their profits.

But as a professional, you need to be supplying your customers with things they can’t get anywhere else. Even if they find it online, the company will only work with professionals.

When they see something magical that they can’t get anywhere else, it adds a sense of desire to your product line. And it sets you apart from your competition.

Professional album companies are also in business to help you grow your business. And because of it, many of their websites are designed to help send future clients your way. Many have special sections educating the bride on a professional album, and provide a way to connect the bride with you.

One of my favorite album companies, Zookbinders, has a special section just for brides. They educate them on the quality of professional albums, why hiring a professional is so important, and how to find a professional photographer.

Many companies will also work to get you your sample line. For half off, you can order sample albums to show your client. Clients buy what they see. This is a great way to show them your level of professionalism.

If you want to profit like a professional, you must build your business like a professional.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Photography Contract

When we first started our business, we kept everything simple. Not because we chose to do it that way – we simply didn’t know.

Over the years you learn. A client holds you to a clause in your contract, you learn and change it.

When we first started with weddings, we had nothing in our contract about multiple photographers. After one wedding where there were dozens of family members trying to take pictures, we made a change. Because we couldn’t get one family photograph without someone staring at another photographer, and what usually took 30 minutes ended up well over 60 minutes, we added a posing fee if we were continually interrupted during posed images. We explained it to our bride’s and groom’s, and never had an issue from that point on.

Another addition – an Internet option. Having a model release that also includes the option of placing a clients images online was a big necessity – especially because we would put up to 100 images from every wedding into our gallery. In all our years of wedding photography, we only had one couple opt out of putting their images online. We never had an issue because we covered it during the contract.

Other things to include:

• Clients information, names, addresses, phone numbers, email
• Description of service, inclusions, time
• Place for signature and date – if it’s a multi page document, sign/initial all pages
• Payment policies, including how long prices will remain the same. If you book a wedding a year in advance, you don’t want to have to hold your prices steady for several years. 90 days after the first viewing of the images is sufficient.
• Copyrights and usage rights. What do you release to your client? What do they have rights to do with your images? Make it clear. 

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Photography – Flickr Account; What Can You Do With It?

Maybe you’ve been adding your photos to Flickr for awhile now, and you’re wondering what else you can do. Check out these Flickr tools – and have fun adding them to your blog, website, or just using it to make your Flickr experience better.

Travelr A tool that allows you to display your Flickr photos geographically on a world map. Perfect for the destination photographer.

Flickr Slideshow Generator Choose your favorite photos, put them into the slideshow generator, and copy the HTML into your blog or on your website.

Big Huge Labs An amazing resource area giving you a ton of things to do with your photographs.

Bubblr Turn your photos into comic strips, and then publish them.

flickr and webimager Allows you to screen capture images and upload them easily to your flickr

PicMarkr Allows you to create a custom watermark and place it on your Flickr images

Want to know what’s the most popular camera on Flickr?

Looks like by a fairly wide margin it’s the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.