The Pro Photo Business Forum

Honeymoon photography. The last frontier for wedding photographers. Listen to this teleseminar an learn how to get started as I disclose the language and tactics I used to get started with this new product. By the end of the teleseminar, you’ll be able to add language to your blog and web ads to offer this product line to your clients tomorrow.

Follow this link to see some Honeymoon Photography examples.

Would you like to listen to this and other episodes as a Podcast on your iPhone, iPod or on iTunes?

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Many fledgling photographers out there often ask if they really need to have a blog, so I can only imagine what they would say to having a monthly newsletter. But the fact is, if you want to convert your past clients into repeat clients, then a newsletter is your first step.

Start your photography business out on the right foot. Add every client you have to your mailing list.

Here are some ideas of things you can put in your newslettert.

1. Offer a free family portrait session to the first ten people who contact you.
2. Show examples of an executive portrait you just completed.
3. Make a special on wedding album sales for people who did not purchase a wedding album.  Do you think you can sell a wedding album with a single email?  If you have a large mailing list, you may be able to sell more than one if you use the right language in your newsletter.
4. Create three annual family portrait specials, each in a different quarter.  Portraits in the park, beach, Mother’s Day.
5. Announce efforts you have done with a local charity.
6. Post an image from your last bridal, engagement, or family portrait session.  Talk about them in detail and educate people as to why it is a good image.
7. Create a photographic tour of your studio.
8. Have you acquired any new photographic equipment?

A newsletter reminds past clients that you are still out there.  While you may be extremely passionate about your photography and craft, the truth is they have already forgotten about you.  Your past clients are just as passionate about their own craft and have little time for anything else.  More than likely, they are not thinking about you.

Start a newsletter today.  Right now! I use Mail Chimp, and it’s FREE.

By the end of the day today, create a newsletter and contact your old clients and let them know you are thriving.  Provide links for them to refer you to their friends.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised what you can accomplish with a well constructed news letter.

You might even want to start a separate newsletter just to communicate with the other wedding vendors in your area.  Tell them about the continuing education you are doing.  Share vendor shots that you have recently taken.  Share links to entries in your blog that feature a certain vendor.

A newsletter can be a powerful tool, or, you can just go about your business trying to generate all new clients each and every month and forget about your past happy clients.

Your call.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

This post contains a link to be used in conjunction with the teleseminar held on 7/28/2010 discussing how to get started with Honeymoon Photography.

http://solarisstudios.com/category/image-blog/honeymoon/

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Kristen Bourdon Photography!

Judging by PPBF Print Competition Chairman, John Tucker:
This week’s winner was submitted by Kristin Bourdon of Kristin Bourdon Photography.

The slightly out-of-focus, shirtless boy with sunburned cheeks, sunglasses, standing in the harsh sunlight against a blue sky while holding a sharply-focused crab with a wet hand, speaks boldly of summer fun at the beach. Without a doubt, I knew immediately this was a beach image. Nicely done, Kristin!

Runner-up, Leanne Wildermuth!

The sharply-focused bone with the dog staring intently and in anticipation makes me think this could be an ad for a particular dog treat. Well executed shot, Leanne!

Thanks to all who participated,
John Tucker
PPBF Image Competition Chairman
John Tucker Photography

This Week’s Assignment:

Create a portrait with two or more light sources!

I think it’s safe to assume that the participants in the PPBF Weekly Challenge are all professional photographers, or are striving hard to become one. This weeks challenge is gong to help push you on your way if you are striving to become a professional.

The truth is, if I worked as fast as I could, I could complete a very nice bridal portrait session in less than ten minutes, but this will leave my client feeling as if she has received no value from me. So, with each shot I take, I really examine how the light is striking my subject. Do you know the names of the different types of portrait lighting?

Broad lighting: The main light completely illuminates the side of the face turned toward the
camera.
Short lighting: The main light completelyilluminates the side of the face turned away from the camera.
Butterfly lighting: The main light is placeddirectly in front of the face and casts a shadow directly under the nose.
Rembrandt lighting: This is a combination ofshort and butterfly lighting. The main light is placed high and to the side of the face turned away from thecamera and produces a triangle of light on the side of the face in shadow.
Split lighting: The modeling light is placed tolight completely one side of the face while placing the other side of the face in shadow.
Rim lighting:The modeling light is placedbehind the subject and places the entire face in shadow.

Really think about lighting your subject as you are doing it. Let your client see you are thinking about the lighting, and you will instantly add value to your finished portrait before it is even created. Is the light bringing out the natural features in this subject’s face? Are you making sure to remove possible unflattering features by keeping them in the shadows?

I want you to use two or more light sources while taking a portrait. I want you to direct my eye using light. Don’t just make your portrait all about the expression of the subject as so many amateurs can only do. You know the portraits I am talking about? The ones where the entire frame is filled with the subject’s face, and the face is all smiles. Show yourself and your clients that you are a professional photographer, and that you know the secret to great professional portraiture is more than just expression…. it’s great light!

First Place Prize:  To Be Announced.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Professional Photographer Michael Bromley has completed the challenge!

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

This is really more of a production tip than a photography tip.

I have so many ways for people to chat or contact me. I can do one simple thing to help make sure I get the things done that I need to get done.

A few days a week, turn the chat off on Facebook, or anywhere else for that matter, and relieve yourself of one more distraction. You’ll be amazed how much more post editing you can get done.

While this seems really simple, it was about a year ago that I read this tip out there somewhere on the web and I followed the tip, and I am so glad that I did.

There is no such thing as time management. No one can manage time. There is only activity management.

Here is a great, but simple tip, on how to sort out all the things you have to do. It’s how I get so much done.

I have multiple to-do-lists, and each one has a ton of things on them. One list is for my studio, the other is for things I need to do for the community. I am on the board of the PPGH, so that most certainly gets a to-do-list. I have a to-do-list for my family needs (here’s my boy). And I even have a to-do-list for my intern. But there is one to-do-list that I like the most. This is my 24 hour to-do-list. This list only contains three items on it, and these items are taken from the other lists. Once an item goes on my 24 hour list it stays there until I have completed that item.

I start an item on that list, and I continue with that item until I have finished it, giving that item as much of my energy as I can. If I don’t finish it, it carries over until the next day. I don’t think about the things I have completed, and I don’t think about the other things I need to do. I focus on the activity at hand until it is done, and I give it my best energy.

To be great, just do single actions in a great way every day. Keep your 24 hour to-do-list small and manageable. Keep moving forward.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

My eBook, Actions You Can Take To Promote and Protect Your Studio,  normally sells for $9.95. Receive it free by joining our mailing list to the right.  Please feel free to immediately unsubscribe from the list once you receive your eBook.  Seriously.  We understand that you don’t want to be bothered.  Our goal here on the PPBF is to educate amateur portrait photographers.  However, if you would like additional free photographic education, then you might want to consider staying on the list for a week, just to test out the waters.

For a limited time, as soon as you join our mailing list, we are going to send you a discount code good for 50% off a membership to our forum.

Once you fill our out form, you will be asked to confirm your subscription, and once you do you will be sent an auto responder with a link to download your free eBook.  Once you have your book, simply unsubscribe from our list.  Simple.

Just fill out our subscription form to the right to get started.

We hope you enjoy your free eBook.  Here are a few things people are saying about it.

“I‘ve been a professional wedding photographer for 14 years, and I can honestly say we have generated thousands upon thousands of dollars for my studio by using just one of the calls to action described in this eBook, and we continue to use this business technique today. The information is worth so much more than the price of the eBook!”
David Jones, CPP

“Aric quickly takes you to the next level in your profession as he shares his secrets of success.”
Alvin Gee
Master of Photography PPA
Photographic Craftsman PPA
Camera Craftsmen of America

“If you are even considering entering the Wedding Photography World, this is a must “hands on primer”. Read the book, study the book, then DO the book.
Aric has such great practical ideas to save you such headaches and heartaches, and well as the all important Money matters…..You should know this book like you know your camera manual!
Best wishes and blessings to all who strive to create such precious memories and stories for others.”
Carol Andrews
Master Photographic Craftsman,
Approved Business Instructor
SMS photographic Consultant and Instructor
PPA Board Of Directors

“These no nonsense tips aren’t just for beginning wedding photographers. Everyone can benefit from Aric’s insight. I wish someone had told me some of these when I was first starting out – it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.”
Brad Barton
A major contributor of The Texas Photo Forum with over 10,000 posts.

Do you feel like you are a business owner standing in a 50′ hole?

Today’s photography tip is about marketing, and helping your site go just a bit more viral in the world of Facebook. After all, we are a community about the business of photography.

Would you like to know how to add a Like button to your site as we have done on the top of this page? It’s really very simple. Follow this link, fill in the form, copy and paste the code onto your site.

Leave a comment on this post with a link back to your like button!

If you’re like me, you want to advance everything about your photographic life. To do this you need to come up with new and fresh ideas that will cause you and your business to grow. New ideas can be a hard thing to come by. However, part of what it means to be an entrepreneur is the ability to convert ideas into money in the bank account.

I have plenty of individual ideas of how to move my business forward, but what is more important is how I come up with these ideas.

Ready? This works for me, but please take it with a grain of salt.

First, I imagine something that I want. Something that will change my lifestyle. A new camera is nice, but not large enough a goal for this exercise. I try to think of something that is out of my current capabilities of obtaining. To make this example easy, lets think of a larger home than you currently have.

Imagine your dream home. Don’t covet someone else’s home. Imagine your dream home. Imagine it in every detail.

Next…. put a monetary value on that home. Something truly obtainable for you personally. This value will of course change depending on where you live, but the point is that this dream home should be outside your current means, but also feel obtainable for you personally.

Now… Imagine you are living in the home now. You have somehow made it there! Now… to get new ideas on how to increase your business, think of how are you going to continue living in this home as a professional photographer. Will you just shoot more images? How will you maintain this level of income and new lifestyle with your photography?

I am not asking how you are going to achieve this home, but how are you going to change your current photographic business to continue living there? What actions are you gong to take? You don’t want to lose your dream home do you?

Have any ideas? Are you going to open a second location? Are you going to have more photographers working for you?

If you’re a member of the Pro Photo Business Forum, you are gong to be happy, as we have opened up a new section today called “Taking It To The Next Level!” This section is a place for new ideas on how to set your studio apart from the pack. Over time, I think this section of the forum will become very valuable for the PPBF membership as it gets filled with valuable ideas.

Join the Pro Photo Business Forum now.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers