“Most have lists for their groceries. Few have lists for their lives” – Robin Sharma

In our hectic world, goals are often overlooked. Our goals – the things we want and work hard for every day of our lives. We all have them in some way shape or form, but are we really utilizing the power of goals?

Having done this when I transitioned into photography fulltime, I am a firm believer that successful goal-setting moves your life forward in ways you might find hard to believe.

So what’s the secret to successful goal setting?

First, you have to divide your goals into all the categories of your life, not just one broad “life” category.  Next, you have to actually write them down! Putting them in writing is an essential part of this process.

Here’s how I break mine down:

1. Personal goals: What are my fitness goals this year?  How about the guitar lessons I’ve always wanted to take? Or learning Spanish?
2. People goals: How can I improve my relationships with people overall? Who do I wish to improve my communication with? Who do I want to meet and why?
3. Photo goals: How many shoots do I ideally want this year; which kinds; where? What’s my “dream shoot” this year? Photo goals can be broken down further into more categories and goals.
4. Play goals: In my time off, what do I want to do? Where do I want to travel this year, whether it’s related to a shoot or not? What play goals have I been putting off year after year?
5. Prosperity goals: What are my financial goals? What will it really take to make me feel “comfortable,” and how will I achieve that?  What do I need to save each month in order to get that ___?

Here’s what each goal must have:

1. Specificity
2. Timeframe
3. Action steps
4. Benefit(s)

Lets run through a few simple examples:

Play goal: Vacation.

Specificity: Kaua’i, Hawaii.

Timeframe: Dec 2012.

Action steps: save $2500 or more, earmarked just for vacation; block out a week no later than May 2012; book by end of June 2012.

Benefit: Time off to relax and reflect on a year of hard work. Vacation soothes the soul and gives me something to look forward to.

Photo goal: Make more vendor contacts.

Specificity: 6 new strong vendor contacts.

Timeframe: wedding season 2012.

Action steps: Meet a new vendor on every job and contact them the week following the wedding. Try to maintain some kind of relationship with all of these contacts from a season of shooting. My hope is that 6 stick and benefit me in future wedding seasons.

Benefit: More work out there, more leads, more brides, more revenue!

The great thing about these goals is that they feed into one another. For example, consider the goal above, “Make more vendor contacts.” As you can imagine, more vendors yields more brides, which yields more revenue, which increases the likeliness of saving $2500 for vacation.

Something important to note: the whole idea of goal setting is to work toward something specific and not give up until you’ve achieved it, regardless of how long it takes! This isn’t a race. Go at your own pace; you aren’t competing with anyone else.

Things to remember when setting and achieving goals:

1. It’s an ongoing process. It’s not “set it and forget it!”
2. Goals must be updated and reviewed constantly.
3. Achieving one goal means you set a new goal, leading you to greater successes.
4. Once you realize that you are achieving your goals, the process of goal setting will impact your entire life.

When I first started setting goals, I worked with a life coach. This helped me maintain accountability for the things I set out to accomplish.  Ultimately, it was up to me to accomplish them, but having someone monitoring and teaching me was a great benefit. You don’t necessarily need a professional coach. Consider pairing up with a friend or meeting with a small group to review your collective goals. This helps you stay on track and accountable.

As a freelance artist, it’s easy to feel and say we want to do things in our career and in our lives. But speaking about them or thinking about them only gets us so far. We must name them in writing in order to truly bring them to life. At the very least, the sheer exercise of identifying these goals will draw us closer to achieving them.

About Brian Friedman

New York-based photographer Brian Friedman started out as a road manager for the legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes. But it was during Haynes’ 20-city tour, that Brian began photographing Roy and discovered his passion for image making that put him on a road to a new career.  Since then, he has sharpened his skills and his eye to become recognized as a photographer of choice by noted entertainment personalities, politicians, corporate leaders, event planners and of course, brides and grooms from all over the world.

There’s a lot expertise within the Pictage community, and it’s itching to be shared. We’re kicking off a series of how-to posts written by seasoned photographers. The intention is to provide tips to those of you who’d like to develop a particular skill, or refresh some rusty, long-forgotten one. Some of the topics may seem basic. Some may seem very advanced. Everyone’s had a different journey! This conversation is also happening on the Pictage Forums, where you can review and discuss everyone’s work!”

The first How-To post was shared by Frank Simon. Frank has been shooting professionally for over 37 years and taught commercial photography for eight years at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona. Although Frank recognizes that, in his words, “quite a few of you can shoot circles around me,” he humbly (and bravely) agreed to share the first article in this series. Complete with homework at the end!

Lighting Techniques for Romantic Portraits

I chose this image because it’s a cross between commercial shooting and the romantic portraiture that wedding and portrait clients may want. The image was originally shot for a make-up campaign, but I think you’ll agree it could just as easily be a portrait of a bride.

Before I explain the shot, take a moment and study it. Look at the shadows, the highlights and the mid-tones. As I’m sure a lot of the long-time shooters here will agree, you can learn a lot about an image just from taking the time to see it rather than just looking at it. Ask yourself some key questions: How many light sources were used? What can you tell about the source(s)? Were they soft sources such as soft boxes? Or, were they a hard source, like a bare head? Was it shot in studio, or on location? Sounds obvious, but you would be surprised sometimes.

Okay, time’s up! Let’s tear it down and see how this shot was created.

If you decided it was shot with a single light source, you’re right. The specular highlight (i.e. the bright pinpoint) in the eye is a good way to determine this. If you decided that the light source was on the hard side, and not a soft box, you’re right. The shadows are too harsh for a soft box, and the gradation between the mid-tones and the shadows is a bit too hard for the light to have come from a soft box. Notice the clean line of the shadow of her chin on her neck and the hard shadow by her nose and under her lip. The light source was an eight inch, silver reflector with a grid attached. The silver gives the light a look that is harder than a white reflector would. The grid focuses the light, keeping it more linear than it would be if the reflector was used alone.

Now, here’s something that makes a huge difference in my opinion. There’s a huge difference between the quality of light and the quantity of light. Let me explain…

The Sweet Spot

When I was teaching students, one thing that made me crazy was watching them move lights back and forth to adjust exposure. There’s a “sweet spot” when placing lights. Place them too close to the subject and the mid-tones and highlights lose depth. Place them too far away and the light gets muddy and you lose contrast. There’s a spot for every image where the light “works.”  The highlights pop, the transition between mid-tones and shadows is exactly what you want, and the shadows aren’t lost.

I move my light back and forth, in and out, until I see the light doing exactly what I want it to do. And that’s where my light stays. I adjust exposure by turning the power up or down – so I am adjusting the quantity of light, not the quality (or position) of the light.

Seeing the Edge of the Light

For this particular shot I also paid close attention to where the edge of the light fell. Notice the light doesn’t cover her entire forehead, only part of it. Notice her face is, perhaps, a half stop brighter than her body. It’s all intentional. Once I had the light in place, we fired off a few dozen frames with her head in this exact position. If she had turned her head, my lighting would have fallen apart.

Depth of Field

What else about this shot was intentional? The depth of field. I wanted her face sharp and the focus to fall off by the time it reached her ear. The lighting on the background; I put a gobo just out of the shot to block part of the light falling on the background, making the shadow that darkens the top left corner of the shot.

A Shot that’s Created, not Captured

The fallen hair on the left was intentional, I didn’t want the shot to look too perfectly styled. The model is wearing a tube top so clothing didn’t interfere with her face. All of these little things add up to a shot that’s created instead of captured. There’s a great difference between creating an image and capturing one. Having been a commercial shooter most of my career, I’m more comfortable creating images. I can capture an image, when I’m lucky. But it’s not something I do that well. I think capturing is an entirely different side of the art and I really admire shooters who can think that quickly.

Post production

Obviously, I converted it to B&W and warmed it up with a bit of yellow and magenta. I also softened it with a technique I’ll get into in another one of these adventures.

Your Two Challenges

1) Find a striking romantic portrait shot, and post the link in the comments section below and tell us everything you can about the light sources. How many? Where were they? What kind of lighting were they?

2) Using what you’ve determined about the lighting set-up, recreate it and post your interpretation *HERE.*

*If you aren’t already a Pictage member and want to connect with thousands of other smart photographers on our community forums, just click HERE for a free trial.*

Frank Simon

Planning our wedding has been intense, fun, and quite a learning lesson. The experience gave me a much different perspective on what new clients see while searching for photographers and other professionals who make their wedding day special.

The First Impression

At the beginning of our planning process we met with the general manager of the venue where we wanted to host our wedding. We looked through their display albums out of curiosity and for decor ideas. There was strong work by local photographers, but surprisingly none of the albums had contact information for the photographers printed inside! The albums had the photographer’s name, but no phone number, email address or website.

The ‘A List’ and the ‘Black List’

After settling on the venue, we asked the general manager for recommendations for bands and florists. She presented us with an extensive list of people she had a positive experience working with. It was golden! Because we highly valued her opinion and our venue’s expertise, we contacted many of the vendors on her list to inquire about our special day. My fiancé and I are also new to the city we’re getting married in, so having a list of preferred vendors was extremely important to us.

When inquiring about certain bands that were not on the list she would simply reply “no comment,” which we found out later meant she had a bad experience with them. Most of the complaints were about the particular vendor putting their interests before the client’s interests. They could have been very talented and capable but they were now on the “black list”.

Price vs. Value

When considering venues and services, we usually checked out at least three options at various price points and found that cheaper wasn’t necessarily better. We wanted affordable exclusivity and the cheaper options felt less special. We definitely learned to do research, decide how much to allocate to certain services and be willing to spend extra time in certain places to gain affordable exclusivity.

Simple and Inclusive Pricing

The first venue we looked at was at the top end of our budget. When we priced it out per person we thought we could afford it, but we soon realized that it didn’t include tax 10% and a 23% gratuity. That was a third of the total cost left out!

The pricing plan for the venue we ultimately chose was very simple and all-inclusive. They offered three options, each offering a bit more. Then, adding an extra hour to the reception was simple and affordable. We went with the middle package of the three. Jared Bauman would be proud!

Paul and Sara

Searching for Ideas

My fiancé, Sara, has looked through countless wedding photo galleries and blogs to get ideas for flowers and wedding decor. Occasionally she would ask for my opinion by showing me blogs. There were a few shots that caught my attention but sadly very few images showed the unique moments from the weddings and many lacked any sort of branding.

I posed a question to her, “Would you hire a photographer based on shots of flowers and table settings?” To paraphrase her response, she said that these images rarely moved her beyond a “that looks pretty” comment about flower colors and centerpiece arrangements. What she did notice were the silly shots of bouquets posed in an old oven!

Who’s Going to Shoot my Wedding?

This has been the number one question others have asked me since Sara and I got engaged. My closest photographer friends and a few really talented photographers in the wedding business have volunteered their services. Some have suggested I should set up remotes and shoot it myself!

Rather than accepting their gracious offers, we decided to hire a photographer whom we trust and respect for several reasons. First, our goal is to make our wedding a celebration of the people we love and we want our closest friends to celebrate with us rather than shoot! Having someone volunteer to shoot is gracious, but we feel like it fundamentally changes the client/photographer relationship. I also want to support a photographer whose vision I admire and thus pay for him for his services just as any other couple would. After all, we are relying on him to tell the story of our wedding and put together a collection of images we will cherish forever!

About Paul Morse

Paul’s skill and style have earned the trust of the President and world leaders as a White House documentary photographer. The consummate visual story teller, Paul’s ability to capture emotions with power and beauty propelled him to become the wedding photographer of choice in Washington DC and across the US.

Don’t miss Doug’s presentation“Killer Reception Light” at Inspire Photo Seminars’ upcoming conference March 26-28, 2012.

When I shot my first wedding in 2007, I was lucky! The reception was pretty bright (and my camera was worthless above about ISO 400, so that was a good thing!) Since then, I’ve learned – sometimes the hard way – that not every wedding reception is inundated with light, and you know what? I love that.

Bright is great, but dark is full of endless possibilities. Consider a wedding reception outside at 2 p.m. under a clear sky (I know, not common, but play along). There’s not much you can do with that light, right? Your hands are pretty much tied; you’re not competing with a cloudless sky with the speedlights that most wedding shooters have in their bag!

Now take a pitch black 9 p.m. reception. Much more common, right? “Oh crap, the bride’s making her grand entrance in 5 minutes and it’s ISO, 12,800 at 1/2 a second in here!” That’s just awesome. Here’s the thing – you can mold that darkness, you can shape it, it can be whatever you want it to be. You can’t say that about a bright afternoon, can you?

Now, I know dark receptions can be intimidating, so here are five tips to help you conquer the dark:

1) Know your focus modes.

For Nikon shooters this means shooting in AF-S, for Canon users “One Shot” in order to activate your flash’s red autofocus assist beam. In AF-C (continuous) and AI-Servo modes, your camera will attempt to track moving subjects, but won’t put out that AF assist beam, which is key to focusing in the dark.

2) Use back button to focus.

After your camera has hunted for and finally found focus (the 5DII shooters out there know what I mean), and you’re ready to take a photo, there’s nothing worse than your camera starting to hunt for focus again when you press the shutter. So, disable your shutter button from activating focus. It takes some practice, but this way, once the camera has acquired focus, you won’t risk it hunting again when you’re ready to take the photo. This works great for static images (toasts, posed shots), and takes a lot more practice for moving subjects.

Another perk here is when you’re shooting in bright light and using a continuous focus mode, you can just keep your thumb on the focus button all day and your focus will always be active.

3) Don’t use off-camera flash as your key light.

I love off-camera flash, and it’s how I shoot most of my portraits, but for wedding receptions when I’m moving and my subjects are dancing, I can’t adjust my exposures fast enough to keep up with manual flash. What’s my solution? On-camera bounce flash with off-camera accent lights (usually 1-2) on the edges of the dance floor at low power, usually 1/64 or 1/128.

The great thing about setting your accent lights at such low power is that if a bride dances over close to a light, 1/128 isn’t enough power to overexpose her, and if she dances far away from it, I’ll just get less of it! If you were using a higher power, say 1/4 or 1/8, you’d get great light spreading across a greater distance, but you’d have to constantly adjust as your subjects approached the lights.

Another perk of low power shooting…I’ve never changed the batteries in my off-camera lights at a reception. Ever!

Here’s another reason to avoid TTL off-camera. Most TTL systems only have a six stop range. That means +3 to -3. Minus three stops from full power could be as much as 1/8 power, and that’s still a TON of power, especially at 1600-2000 ISO at 2.8 where I like to hang out.

4) You can bounce flash off of almost anything.

Here’s the trick though. If you find yourself in a dark reception hall, with dark wood walls and dark ceilings (like the downtown Harvard Club in Boston, or Mechanics Hall in Worcester), in addition to increasing your flash power, zoom the flash head. That enables more light to reach the ceiling, which enables more light return to reach your subjects.

5) If you’re really stuck, mount a flash on a monopod and have your assistant follow you around.

Would this be my preferred choice? Heck no. Is it better than no light? Absolutely. If you find yourself with a reception under the stars (nothing to bounce off there!), mount a bare speedlight on a monopod and have your assistant hold it like a boom overhead 4-5 feet and angled down at your subjects. The look will be similar to bounce flash (the light is coming from the same direction after all), but with a bit more contrast as your light source will be significantly smaller.

Bonus tip: Use PowerEx 2700 batteries in your flashes and Imedion 2400′s in your Pocketwizards (my trigger of choice). The PowerEx batteries have the highest capacity of any rechargeable AA on the market, and the Imedion’s are “slow drain,” which means they won’t die unused sitting in your bag!

About Doug Levy

A wedding and portrait photographer living outside of Boston, Doug Levy spent six years pursuing a career as a professional baseball umpire before deciding a lifetime of road trips and 7:05 starts wasn’t for him. A professional photographer since 2007, Doug’s clients have included Harper Collins Publishers, Starwood Hotels and the Golf Course Superintendents of America. He’ll be teaching “Killer Reception Light” at the upcoming Inspire Photo Seminar in Boston, and offers customized lighting workshops for professional photographers as well. For more on Doug, visit his website, or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

For more from Doug check out his workshops or his “Killer Reception Light” presentation at the upcoming Inspire Photo Seminar in March.

Continuing the social media theme this month, The Photo Life team is sharing another helpful article about how photographers can use Pinterest to market their business and engage with their clients. Many photographers have asked us to keep sharing info about this new social network that’s spreading like wildfire! Special thanks to Wendy Roe and Matt Herron for their contributions to social media mega month!

The social media to-do list gets longer every day. Between Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging it seems like there are a lot of platforms on the modern wedding photographer’s daily list. Well, get ready, because there is one more to add – Pinterest.

Since Pinterest hit the social media scene it has become hugely popular with home decorators, exercise and beauty buffs, and above all, brides. It’s the new “place to go” for wedding inspiration, so wedding photographers in a moving marketplace should get familiar with the platform quickly if they want to stay ahead of the game.

What is Pinterest?

Currently invite only (don’t worry, it’s easy to get on board upon request), Pinterest in the internet’s take on inspiration boards. Tons of content is added to Pinterest on a daily basis, and it’s almost all photographic ideas. Here’s a little visual depicting how it works:

1. Your clients can use a “Pin It” button while on your website. This will bring up a visual list of all photos on your website (think…your blog), and clients can “pin” an image to send it directly to their own Pinterest account.
2. Once they send it to Pinterest, it will show up on their selected board (i.e. “Wedding Photo Ideas”), and it will be searchable by other Pinterest users. The photos from your site will link back to your site. This is the KEY benefit of Pinterest.
3. The pin will then be viewable in the client’s feed, so their friends who follow their pins will see it too. This may cause them to like, comment, or re-pin the pin.

As you can see, Pinterest is a potentially huge source of website traffic, and allowswedding photographers to share their work easily. This may lead to increased referrals, oh-ing and ahh-ing over your photos, and potential destination weddings!

How Photographers can Creatively Use Pinterest

• Encourage your website viewers to Pin: Pinterest offers free code for pinning, and you can easily add it into your blog post footer or website code. Place it on your website and encourage visitors to share your images on their boards!

• Create your “favorite photos” boards: Pin your own work, and create boards of some of your favorite photos. Share why you love them. Keyword them and hope they spread!

• Create inspiration boards for your clients: Have you photographed lots of pink weddings? Modern weddings? Rustic-chic? Create boards based on the style of your previous weddings.

• Hold a contest: Ask your blog readers to search through all of your photos and find their favorite photo of all time, pin it, and comment on why they love it the most!

Caveats

• You can view all of the images that have been pinned from your website at: http://www.pinterest.com/source/leeannmariephotography.com (change it out for your URL)

• Make sure clients and users are pinning and crediting your source! It’s more important than ever to make sure that the images are coming from you directly, or that they are being credited in an updated link source.

• Watermark your images! If you don’t, and there is an incorrect source link, your image is as good as gone. If you at least watermark your images, they can be shared on Pinterest and a potential client can still find you.

• Don’t be a jerk – Pinterest states in their user etiquette listing to “avoid self-promotion.” Don’t post every single image you ever shot onto Pinterest. It can be annoying, and look like you don’t care about anything else. Participate. Be creative. Contribute and offer ideas.

Happy Pinning!

About Leeann Marie

Leeann is a Pittsburgh-based wedding, engagement, and boudoir photographer. An avid blogger, she loves connecting with her clients, friends, and other photographers around the world. She holds an engineering background from the University of Pittsburgh, which has led to a love of technology and teaching.

She loves Lady Gaga, champagne, and kettle-cooked chips. She has traveled the world to places such as Russia, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and Panama, and believes in living the life you have dreamed.

You say your work speaks for itself.

But does it?

In an age where every website that matters is connected in some way to social media, is your work strong enough to speak for itself? On an internet saturated with photographs, how do your photos get attention?

Do you want the truth? Even if you win the National Geographic Photo Contest, there’s a good chance that announcement will be drowned out by social media noise. People would rather look at ‘LOLCats’ or tweet about Justin Bieber. Guess what was trending on Twitter when I wrote this? #OnlyGhettoPeople and “Happy Chocolate Day!”

Your work can’t speak for itself anymore. Not on the Internet, anyway. Too many people are talking, and you can only “Like” yourself on Facebook once.

So how can you make social media as useful for your photography business as it is for asinine trends? Get your fans to speak for your work, too!

1. Connect Your Website

The first step is adding social media links to your photography portfolio. Depending how you organize your portfolio, this could be a pain. But it’s worth it because it increases your chances of exposure through social media.

Mashable has an excellent step-by-step article, complete with code snippets, to add social sharing buttons to your website.

I recommend adding share buttons to your homepage as well as to every photograph in your portfolio. Someone might fall in love with a photo and want to add it to their Facebook page, while another user would prefer to ‘Like’ your homepage on their StumbleUpon account. It’s basic usability rules. You want both options to be available.

If you use Nimbus, you’re lucky. Nimbus comes fully equipped with connections to social media moguls like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

2. Use Social Sharing

The second step is to use social media. If you don’t have a Facebook Page for your photography business, make one. If you don’t have a Twitter account, create one and start consistently tweeting.

Believe me, I understand how much time investment this is going to cost. There are not enough hours in the day for me, either. Challenge your business brain to think like this: signing up for social media sites is free exposure. The Return on Investment is enormous, and the initial cost is only time. Nothing out of your pocket.

Troll Twitter when you’re winding down at the end of the day. Make some (funny) jokes. Add your old clients as Facebook friends and ask them to “Like” your Photography Business Page. Leverage your existing social network to build an even bigger, broader, better network through social sharing!

Here’s article from the PhotoShelter blog detailing how three professional photographers – Ian Sitren, Jurgen Ban-Hansmann, and Tyson V. Rininger – use social media as an extra arm of their photography business. These guys actually get results, so pay attention to their tactics.

3. Make Friends

The last step – drum roll – is to make friends! There’s no magic formula, no simple solution, no instructions or rules of engagement for this one.

Even if the pros of social media, the ones who garner hundreds of thousands of followers from scratch, were giving you step-by-step instructions, the process couldn’t be repeated. It’s organic and still in experimental stages.

The important thing is to try to connect with people. It’s as simple as a comment here, a piece of advice there, a small kernel of encouragement to the right person at the right time. Any of these things could bring in business through referrals. Maybe one of your fans followed you because she wants full-size prints for the new apartment she’s moving into? Six months later, you make the sale. Anything is possible!

4. From Social Media to Business Strategy

With a little luck, you’ll be well on your way to building a solid customer base via social media. Try not to be put off at first, sometimes it takes a while to notice the ripples of social media affecting your business. Whatever happens, don’t stop interacting with people, and don’t just let your photographs speak for themselves. Speak up for them and involve other people as much as you can!

About Matt Herron

Matt is a copywriter on The Phuse team. You can find him on Twitter or read more of his work at http://mgherron.contently.com. The Phuse has been hard at work creating Nimbus themes for over a year.

What if Photographers Stopped Trying to Combat Change and Embraced it Instead?

It’s a question worth asking again and again. And again! That’s why this Dispatch seems familiar to you. It is. Re-releasing “The Mashable Movement” is a challenge to you to consider this inescapable question and find your unique answer.

What if YOU stopped combatting change and embraced it instead? What would that look like in your unique business?

Let’s take a look together.

What’s Inside:

A challenge to look at your photography business in a different way, to see your clients as collaborators rather than consumers. Inside you’ll also find practical tools for identifying the collaboration methods that work for your business.

Take a Look:

Collaboration can’t be formulaic, which is a good thing because neither can your business! In this Dispatch we aren’t offering quick-fix solutions for collaborative success. Instead we’re offering a road map to find the right direction for your unique business.

In this worksheet we’ll identify specific avenues of collaboration for your business, both through products and creative processes.

PART 1: CREATIVE COLLABORATION
Curious about how to utilize collaborative techniques throughout the client experience without committing to unfamiliar mashable products? Reflect on these questions. You might be surprised by the ideas you come up with!

Continue to Connect:

Continue to connect with Volume 7 of The Photo Life Dispatch by sharing your thoughts here on The Photo Life Blog, and on the Pictage Facebook and Twitter,#ThePhotoLife.

If you haven’t been introduced to Pinterest, you’re in for a treat!

It’s the newest, hip social network that cracked the top 10 of popularity…while still being INVITE only!  Inspiration boards of styles you like, goals for your future, books you want to read, cute DIY wedding ideas have always been around but up until Pinterest, they were created with paper, scissors, tape and poster board – I know, we’ve all been there!

Pinterest is a gold mine for photographers, especially wedding photographers, because brides-to-be are there, pinning images from their favorite websites to showcase ideas while categorizing their favorite wedding cakes, details, dress and even their ‘something blue’ for crying out loud!  As photographers, we supply images that they pin (you can pin ANY web image and brides are scouring wedding websites and blogs for new images). Then, their followers and friends see our work...and boom…in comes a job lead!

Things to remember when using Pinterest:

1. You must use a watermark or a logo border on all of your images so that no matter which image they choose, your brand goes with them (as well as a link from the source URL).
2. Pinterest frowns on being solely a self-promotion tool. It’s inherently about authentic social sharing! Sure, you can share your own images on your boards, but think outside the box and pin into categories your style, stuff you love and even posing ideas from others to spread the love. Clients are looking for ideas, from cute clothes to wear to their session to adorable save-the-date concepts.  Include images that you want your clients to pin for a specific reason, not just because you think it’s a great image.
3. Market your boards to your audience and fan base to follow you. Why? Because when clients choose you, it’s because of your personality and style! Pinterest shares both the style of your images and the uniqueness of your personality by visually displaying things you love. Consider adding ‘Pin it’ plug-ins to your blog and a link to your Pinterest page from your website.
4. Optimize your description and include a link to your website and Facebook URL.  That shows on the left side of your page.
5. Check out what images of yours have already been pinned by others using this link:http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com/  (Change yourdomain.com to your website URL).

Pinterest is THE hottest new online marketing tool and there are endless possibilities of vision boarding. When you jump on the Pinterest bandwagon, showcase your personality and style by pinning things your clients will LOVE. Being a genuinely helpful resource for your clients catalyzes dialogue about their planning, showcases new ideas for their wedding or portrait session, and builds trust.

Happy Pinning! This is part of the new e-book “55 Smart Web Ideas for Photographers.” For information on the e-book, check out: http://bit.ly/webmarketing-ebook-55smartideas

About Wendy Roe

Wendy Roe has spent the last 10 years ingrained in all things web marketing – from design/development to search/social media. In May 2010, she decided to quit the corporate life and join forces with her husband, Byron Roe, to shoot full-time one of life’s ultimate highs – weddings. She now focuses on business development and being a second shooter for Bend, Oregon based wedding photographers, Byron Roe Photography.

She is the co-author of “55 Smart Web Ideas for Photographers” e-book, a 2-time speaker at WPPI Photographer’s Ignite and traveled through west coast PUG groups consulting photographers on web marketing. She’s known as an interpreter, changing technical language into easy information. Above all, she’s an educator at heart and believes: “Web marketing and wedding photography are two passions that drive bringing the best out of beauty and brands.”

Real life is beautiful.

We established that in Part One of this series. But although this philosophy sounds wonderful, it can be hard to follow through with, particularly when it’s personal. In my last installment in this series, I explained that I believe there are two major barriers to overcome in Lifestyle Photography – ignorance and insecurity. I outlined ways that I work to combat ignorance by cultivating true relationships with my clients. Once the barrier of ignorance has been removed, and people become aware of Lifestyle Baby Photography, we are still left with their insecurities. Even if my potential clients embrace the concept that Real Life is beautiful, in a global sense, they have probably not truly grasped that their Real Life is beautiful. My job is to prove this to them. I have to help them see beauty in their own everyday experiences.

My clients are amazing customer evangelists. (Side note: If you haven’t yet read the book Creating Customer Evangelists, pause your reading of this post and go buy that book. It’s that important.) When I photograph a session, I try to share that session with my clients as quickly as I can via Facebook and my blog. I want them to have the images while they are still feeling emotional about the experience. I am always amazed to watch what happens after I share the images. My clients immediately begin the evangelization process. They share with their networks on a large scale. They single out the mostly likely potential candidates for me, and then they push those people to connect with me. They transform from my clients/friends into my personal sales representatives. It’s a foolproof technique, because they are sincere in their pursuits. They have no reason to push their friends towards me, because I offer no incentives for their doing so. They do it because they believe in me, and because they believe in Lifestyle Photography.

Even with all of this encouragement, many of these potential clients remain resistant to Lifestyle Photography for one simple reason. They fear that their Real Life isn’t beautiful. This insecurity remains as the greatest barrier to my ability to gain new clients, even though I am surrounded by amazing customer evangelists.

There are two points at which I have the ability to combat this insecurity. The first situation is one in which the potential clients are intrigued by their friends’ images and excitement, and they contact me. I hear various excuses for why their life isn’t currently beautiful enough to be photographed.

“I have to lose this baby weight first.”

“We need to finish decorating/unpacking/renovating our home.”

“Newborns don’t really do anything interesting. Maybe when he’s older”

They never come out and say “No,” but rather, they inevitably say “Let’s do this later.” They are waiting for that day when suddenly their Real Life seems worthy of being photographed. (Just in case you are wondering, that day will never come for these people. If you let them fall prey to the ‘Later disease,’ they’ll always find reasons to wait. Their Real Life will never be perfect enough unless someone intervenes.)

I love the challenge of these opportunities. Whenever I am met with “maybe later” responses, I try to bring the focus back to the real point of these sessions. I assure them (often in a sweetly sarcastic manner) that I am not going to be taking closeups of their dirt or their clutter. I ask them to look at session after session on my blog, and then ask if they really noticed any baby weight. I ask them if they really think that their newborn is uninteresting, or if they are, in truth, fascinated by the smallness and perfectness of them as they sleep. I tell them that the point of these sessions is not to document their inadequacies, but that the point is to document their love.

I ask, “Do you love your family, regardless of their imperfectness? Sometimes because of their imperfectness?” The answer to this is invariably, “Yes, of course!”

I respond, “Then let me capture that. Trust me to capture that. I promise that your Real Life is beautiful. Just give me one chance to prove that to you.” If this conversation doesn’t completely seal the deal (and sometimes it doesn’t. Why would they trust me? They don’t know me yet.), I ask them to go back to that referring friend and discuss their doubts. This strategy almost always brings me to the second scenario in which I need to work to combat this insecurity.

My clients amaze me with their persuasiveness. Often, they’re so persistent with their friends that they convince them to book a trial session with me. They don’t try to sell them on a full baby’s first year collection, they just convince them of the importance of booking a simple newborn session. I’ve even had clients pool resources and purchase a newborn session as a gift for a particularly insecure mom. (This has actually happened more than once. Seriously, my clients are amazing!) When this happens, I am entrusted with a true gift. My clients are trusting me to take care of their friend. They believe that Real Life is beautiful, and they are giving me the opportunity to share that belief with someone they care about.

If I fail to follow through, I am not only losing the opportunity to create a new and amazing client relationship, I am causing damage to current client relationships. I have to show them that I truly mean it when I say that Real Life is beautiful. They must see that I’m not talking about other people, but that this philosophy also applies to their Real Life. In these situations, I have to prove myself. I have to listen to my new clients. I have to learn about their insecurities and doubts prior to our session. I have to work to instill a sense of trust and relaxation during our session. I have to deliver images of their Real Life captured beautifully soon after our session. I have to do everything in my power to prove that their perception of their life as inadequate is wrong.

My first task is to learn what they are afraid of. Most clients aren’t going to offer up this information. It’s not easy to talk about fears and insecurities, particularly with a stranger. I have to ask them questions. I have to get them talking. Most importantly, I have to listen not just to what they say, but also to what they don’t say. If their referring friend has any information to share, I make sure to listen to that as well. If I know this mom is concerned about her weight, I need to make sure I never share any images with her in which she looks even slightly heavy. I need to be sure to shoot her from flattering angles and to compose my shots in ways that hide her trouble areas. If I know she’s worried about clutter and disarray in her post-baby home, I need to make sure to stay focused on her and her new family. Many times I shoot a few pull back shots that showcase the clutter and craziness, but with a mom who’s already paranoid about that part of her life, I make sure not to include these in the blog or on Facebook. Instead, I’ll save them for a Pictage gallery. By the time she sees them there, she’ll already have embraced the fact that her life really is beautiful, and those images will just be amusing reminders of how crazy (wonderful) everything really is. (This works, I promise. I’ve seen it a million times.) I have to really really listen to what she does and does not say, and I have to make sure that the photographs I take work to combat those fears and insecurities. I can’t assume that I know how she feels. I have to listen. (By the way, sometimes just giving this potential client/new mom the opportunity to talk about herself is the key to gaining her trust.)

After I feel I have some sort of grasp on what my new client’s fears and insecurities are, I then have to show up at the session prepared to fight them. When I show up at her house (newborn gift in hand, as explained in my last article), I always greet her with a giant hug and some sort of compliment. I have driven to their house with the client’s insecurities rolling around in my head, and I’m prepared for the worst. Because of this, I don’t have to work to create some sort of compliment. Without fail, my thoughts go something like this: “Are you kidding me? You were worried about being in front of the camera? You’re adorable! This will be a piece of cake!”, and since I struggle with my verbal filter, those thoughts are usually exactly what comes out of my mouth.

New moms, in general, are exhausted and overwhelmed and need encouragement. (I also try to bring my new moms some sort of a physical pick me up, usually in the form of Starbucks.) Hearing me say, enthusiastically, that I think her session will be a piece of cake, is usually just what she needs to relax and enjoy herself. I encourage her throughout the session. I compliment specific aspects about her home, I ooh and aah over her baby, I heckle and joke with the dad, and I lavish the mom with compliments relating to things happening during our session. I make sure they never feel like they’re taking up too much of my time. I assure them that if the baby needs to nap/eat/scream/etc, all of that is beautiful and all of that is photo worthy. I never stop photographing, unless it is to offer a hand. I try to never leave the session during a stressful time, even if we were basically done with the session when the stress begins. I work to make sure our sessions end on a peaceful note, but there are times when that isn’t possible. Sometimes the baby really is having a terrible horrible day, and sometimes it feels like she cries for the entire session. I know that when it feels like that to me, that feeling is magnified intensely for my client. When this happens, no words from me are going to assuage her fears. I will promise her, as I leave, that we captured beautiful images, but she will not believe me. It’s understandable. She just experienced the same stressful time that I experienced, and for her it is personal. She will not be able to see anything beautiful about it. In these situations, she doesn’t need words. She needs proof. From this point on, the images have to be that proof. The images have to prove that her Real Life (even the horrible part that she just experienced) really is beautiful.

Once the shoot has ended, the hard work is done. If I’ve done my job, I’ve listened to my clients fears, and I’ve worked to combat those fears during the shoot. All that’s left is to process images and share them with as quickly as possible. I choose as many amazing images as I can, focusing on the happiest moments, but not avoiding the difficult ones. I’m not going to convince my client that her Real Life is beautiful by only showing her the traditionally beautiful parts. I have to show her all of it, and I have to showcase it beautifully.  When the images are culled and edited, I am left with a story. The story these images tell might have messy moments and stressful moments and sad moments, but the overwhelming theme of the story will be love. In every image, love should resonate. That’s what makes Real Life beautiful, after all. If I have done my job correctly, this story will change things a little for my new client. It will be impossible for my client to walk away from this experience without thinking, “Wow. My Real Life is beautiful.”

Written by Amber Holritz the lifestyle baby photographer

Amber is a wife, mom, and photographer based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. You can see more posts by Amber in the coming weeks here on the Pictage blog as well as at www.amberholritz.com.

I began my photography career while working in corporate America. Eventually, I transitioned to teaching high school history (a job I loved) and worked concurrently as an educator and photographer for six years. Despite my best attempts, working two jobs was not sustainable. Here’s a few lessons I learned along my journey:

Believe it or not, your “day” job is an asset: use it.

Now, don’t get me wrong…working two jobs was one of the most stressful and difficult times of my life, but one thing I always understood clearly was that my “day job” was a powerful asset that allowed me to build my photography business exactly how I wanted. In other words, because the bulk of my income came from my teaching career, I was able to establish my wedding pricing at the level I wanted rather than setting the bar lower in fear of not booking enough.

Having other income doesn’t mean you should shoot weddings for free just to build your portfolio. On the contrary – your time is even more valuable because you have NO free time. The safety net of your other income allows you to charge a higher rate and invest more money back into your business. This approach absolutely requires more patience, but you’ll see a gradual increase in business that stands the test of time and grows with your abilities.

Getting Ready to Make the Switch

Be realistic about what you can accomplish. So you can book 30 weddings at a rate you’re proud of? Fantastic! Can you shoot them, deliver them, keep those clients happy, keep your day job happy and maintain your personal relationships? Doubtful. If your business continues to grow, you’ll need to make the jump at some point. As a teacher, I had the freedom to shoot weddings in the summer, however to build enough income to make the switch I had to take more and more jobs. Eventually after a few years of shooting 20 weddings while maintaining my full-time teaching and coaching jobs (and having a son), the levee eventually broke. It was time for me to leave my comfortable teaching gig.

Do your math. Figure out what you need to survive and pay your bills. How many weddings at what rate? Eventually your momentum builds to the point where you can have the confidence that you’re going to book X amount of weddings. This confidence for me came because I did build my business over time, rather than overnight. When it’s time for you to make the jump, book everything you can and give your day job plenty of notice. The first lesson you’ll learn running your own business is to NEVER burn a bridge. Giving your day job plenty of notice allows both of you to make a smooth transition.

Start to build your network. When I was teaching, I didn’t really have time to get out and meet other photographers, planners, or venue managers. I didn’t really realize how important they’d be to my business (AND my happiness…I’ll touch on that next). Developing a strong network of colleagues is one of the best investments you can make in your business. Like it or not, this is a people business. The more people you know, the more jobs you’ll get – regardless of how good your work is! The more sincere you are in your desire to connect and collaborate, the more fruitful these relationships will be.

You’re the boss…now what?

Know that feeling of going to work and catching up with your colleagues about the last episode of Bachelor Pad? That’s gone. Prepare to have that conversation on Facebook or Twitter. No one tells you that the life of the photographer is a solitary one. Maybe this is fantastic for you. Me? Did you ever see The Shining? Then you’ll know where I’m coming from. In my first year away from my teaching job, I missed my colleagues horribly – the ones who made me laugh, challenged me intellectually AND especially called me on my BS.

As a result, I’ve made it a point to develop and foster friendships with new colleagues. Yes it’s cheaper to eat at home, but the mental health you’ll gain from developing a few new friendships (thus preserving your sanity) far exceeds the cost to your wallet. Not to mention, these new friends become your advocates – passing leads along when they’re booked. The isolation also played a major role in my decision to hire an employee rather than to outsource some of my post production.

Remember why you left the day job. Of course you love photography and couldn’t dream of doing anything else. But let’s be real, you especially left because you were sick of ALWAYS working. Working during the day on “day” job stuff, and working at night and the weekends on your photography career. DON’T continue this course. Unless you have a dedicated studio away from your home, It’s way too easy to keep these habits because you never leave your work. Set boundaries for yourself. If photography is your only job, treat it like that. Do you want to work 5 days a week like normal people? Take Sundays and Mondays off, or Fridays off. Whatever works for you. Resist the temptation to always be drawn back to your computer. Create a schedule for yourself and stick to it.

Ned Jackson is a Boston based photographer who has been photographing weddings in New England since 2003, building his business organically by focusing on strong client relationships and creating classic, clean and timeless imagery.  Originally a teacher, Ned enjoys connecting with the photography community and sharing ideas with peers around the country.  Ned is a featured photographer of Pinhole Pro, a member of The Best of Wedding Photography and has been a speaker at the Pictage PartnerCon and InspireBoston.  He lives North of Boston with his wife Amanda, son Nate and their dog Jake.