Get Connected: Wedding vendor features my photos on their website!

I got a great call yesterday! Elisabeth Montoya, owner of the Bella Sera Event Center in Brighton, will feature several of my shots from Patience and Jack's wedding on its newly designed website! Three photographer assistants and I shot the couple's wedding at the center in January. I blogged about how fantastic the Bella Sera was, virtually overflowing with great shot opportunities to showcase a wedding and reception. The wedding was amazing and was very easy to shoot because of its wealth of unforgettable characters and special moments. From traditional African dances to adorable flower girls, this wedding had it all!









Elisabeth would like to feature a collage of her favorite images from the wedding on her site, which is in the process of being redeveloped. She chose 58 photos, including her personal favs as well as others she believed best represented the couples story and showcased the event center. Several of her favs are shown here in this blog post. It's not clear how many of those will appear on the website once her developer gets ahold of them, but my photos coupled with my business logo, links and contact information will be a great marketing tool to hopefully help me secure more weddings at Bella Sera.











Even though the center only has two preferred photography vendors, Elisabeth's referrals of other photographers she's worked well with is exactly the kind of reassurances taxed brides- and husbands-to-be rely on when they need help choosing vendors. Elisabeth's knows what photographic styles will fit with her clients' needs. Plus, her large photo album showcasing 12x12 prints of different photographers' work from various events held at the center helps get even more business for the vendors she partners with. Referrals continue to be my studio's best source of advertising and securing new clients. Elisabeth's willingness to help my studio as well as other wedding vendors' businesses grow is amazing and truly sincere. It's connections like these that help businesses thrive. Thank you Elisabeth for this wonderful opportunity for my studio and thank you Heather, Susan and Jamie for your fantastic work! Couldn't have done it with out you fabulous ladies!

Get Out There: Hosting my first vendor booth for my photography

My client from Auraria campus emailed me yesterday about a great opportunity: A local Walmart in my neighbohrood is hosting the 1st Annual Diversity and Outreach Fair, and fair participants can set up a booth or table for FREE!

My contact is going to refer my event coverage services to Walmart, which could be an amazing resource in itself if I can could connected with such a large company. But I have often considered hosting a booth during one of the many festivals that are held in Denver to market my photography services, and it would be nice to have my first experience with something like this in my own neighborhood where I can meet people who shop at the same Walmart I shop at! Plus, I might not be facing nearly as much competition nor will I have to worry about paying the exhorberent exhibitor fees that are common with other festivals in the city.

I've been toying with an idea: What if I get an assistant to help me set up for a quick portrait, shoot people who want their photos taken and print them out on the spot for immediate payment? Do you think something like that would work or am I aiming too high?

Business Briefs: Help Me Choose My New LOGO!

Yippee! After several failed attempts to try to create my own business logo (have I mentioned how terrible I am at graphic design?), I think I finally got a winner!

Paul Martin, the "PM" of the AM/PM Photography duo, my photo colleague and graphic extraordinaire, has created two fabulous designs for me to choose as my official logo. Both of the logos play up the name of my company and my skills extremely well, I think. I love how Paul took the globe and used some of my favorite photos as the continents. I think it pops, grabs attention and will be memorable...everything a good logo should be.



But I need your help in making the decision. Here's the conundrum: "Skin or No Skin," that's the question. The first (shown above) is more general-use friendly in the sense that it doesn't showcase any of my boudoir and artistic nude photography. However, the second version features "Teri's Rose" as South America. I think the difference is very subtle.



I and Paul both worry that the image might offend some. I didn't used to worry about that kind of thing before until I got an email from a friend who said he was afraid to look through my site at work because of several artistic nude shots that appear on my website slide show. Since so many people make purchase decisions while they are at work, my friend worried that I might be hurting my business. I wasn't willing to remove the images that have produced my largest profit in individual artistic print sales, but I did move one several pages further into the slide show, making it less likely that casual viewers will come upon it.

And even more recently, I watched numerous attendees (namely female) at an exhibit shy away from one of my boudoir images as if they were ashamed to even been seen looking at it. Others (namely males) spoke about it as if it were some kind of guilty pleasure to be secretly enjoyed. It's hard for me to separate the fact that people's reactions to nudity or sensuality, especially in America, might have nothing to do with whether or not my images are good. Sex in this country is taboo. That's just the way it is. As long as that's the case, it's clear these type of photos are not going to be appropriate in every setting.



It probably sounds like I've already made up my mind NOT to use the logo with "the skin," but if that's the case, then why does it still bother me so much? I LOVE that photo of "Teri's Rose," and boudoir photography is definitely one of the things I want to continue to develop. I am torn, and I love the way Paul was able to place it inside the continent focusing on the rose. This is probably one of those kind of decisions where I might have to forgo my own personal tastes in lieu of what is more beneficial for my business, but if it's MY business and my choice, then any decision I make is right, right? RIGHT? Oh crap....someone please help me out!

Get the Job Done: Facebook fosters sales

Yesterday while on Facebook, I posted up all 10 of the links to galleries showcasing my edited photos from the National Black Skiers 2009 Summit in Snowmass/Aspen last month. Turns out the organization has a Facebook page regularly visited by 440 members!

Just a few hours after posting up the links on the page, I got my first print sales from the event! In this instance, Facebook was definitely a great free resource for marketing my services and generating sales. I am hoping they will be the first of many more in the coming weeks as more members view the photos.

SmugMug, which hosts my business site, allows their professional users to view their sales. While reviewing the order a client placed yesterday, I noticed that she accidently chopped off several heads in the photos when she tried to crop the images to a 5x7. Once I realized her mistake, I emailed her, explained the situation and then sent her the correctly cropped images in the size she wanted. Excellent customer service is a given at Picture Your World Photography!

Wanna check out the images? Here are the links:

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009superbowl

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009welcomeparty

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009concert

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009openingceremonies

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009annualmeeting

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009comedyshow

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009presidentsdinner

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009picniconthehill

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009skiraces

http://tinyurl.com/nbs2009lectures

Growing Pains: New Business Slogan?

I have watched "I am Legend" at least six times (especially since it's been playing on HBO!), and every time I get something new out of it that I didn't catch before. Now, I wonder if I may finally have a slogan for my business:

"Light Up the Darkness." What do you think???? I like the dual meanings of bringing life and goodness to the world as well as using lights creatively to enhance photographic composition.....hmmm.



I've been doing a ton of research on developing my business plan, a logo and a brand in general. An article by photographer Sarah Petty in Professional Photographer Magazine talked about "owning your brand;" marketing to distinguish yourself and creating tag lines like:

"have a Coke and a smile"
"we bring good things to life"
"because you are worth it"

Petty shared a list of ways to help entrepreneurs brainstorm a business slogan:
1. Carry a creative journal at all times to sketch images and jot down ideas and words as they pop into your mind. They become a stockpile of prompts when you sit down to brainstorm.

2. Keep a running list of words that evoke emotion. If your wedding client says something warm and fuzzy during your presentation, write it down.

3. Subscribe to magazines (tax-deductible business expenses!). You never know when you can spark an idea from Rachael Ray’s Everyday or Real Simple. As you go through them, write down words, phrases, advertising and article headlines in your creative journal. You can’t steal someone else’s line, but you can farm the inspiration.

4. Read the copy in catalogs and awaken your inner copywriter. The Land of Nod and Sundance catalogs are two of my favorites. Get on mailing lists of companies who market beautiful and expensive products.



5. Ask friends, family, clients and prospects what they think makes you different. Ask new clients to put into words what brought them to you. Write it down immediately.

6. Reading kids’ books puts me in the playful place I need to be when I’m writing emotional copy.

7. Find the time of day or place where you feel the most creative. If you do your best thinking at a computer, transfer your journal notes daily.

8. Most truly creative people need to find inspiration, too, so they become sponges of the world around them— flowers, buildings, clothing tags, in-store signage, store windows, fonts, color combinations, textures.

9. Travel. Observe, even the pretzel packaging on the airline’s snack. You never know what little element will inspire you.

I love watching movies, and I can draw insight from great ones. Since I'm a reporter, I don't go far without having a pen and paper near by. So when I heard that phrase uttered in the movie "I am Legend," it resonated with me differently than it had all the other times. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just at this point in my life when I think the world needs more light in this time of financial and hence emotional darkness. I wrote the phrase down and started to think about how it could correlate to my photography.

In my photography, I've noticed that I often center subjects in front of a dark background. Common portrait techniques explain that a photographer should use a hair light or a light shining on the background to separate the subject from the background. But I don't do it, choosing instead to have the subject appear as if he or she is stepping forward out of the darkness. I think it makes the subject seem more mysterious. I like the idea that I have just thrown a light on them, capturing who they are in that one moment. Oh well, maybe I'm just being overly sentimental this morning. If I still think this way by this time tomorrow, then maybe I am on to something. :)

Growing Pains: Free Marketing For Your Photography Business

A great thread on the Digital Photography School forum tipped me off about a free marketing services we can use for our businesses.

In the thread, people talked about whether or not networking organizations such as Facebook or Myspace helped their online business presence. One poster mentioned creating a free ad with Google Maps Local Business Center; so I decided to give it a try.

It was incredibly easy to create a listing for my business. I love that it allows you to upload samples of images as well. Plus, I got to create coupons to run with my listing, which will be especially helpful in my efforts to secure new clients during the upcoming holiday season. Be sure to check it out!

As far as Facebook and Myspace goes...well, I prefer Facebook for social networking because I don't get spammed as bad as I did when I frequented Myspace. But I'm not sure yet how helpful this application will be for my business. I was able to create a group specifically for my business. Hopefully, I will be able to gain some "fans" and see if those contacts lead to some booked sessions.

Get the Job Done: Auraria Campus Gear and Logos Shoot

Whew...talk about a busy weekend! I shot three photo sessions with Auraria Higher Education Center students modeling university gear and logos for Metropolitan State College of Denver, Community College of Denver and University of Colorado Denver. Marketing directors plan to use the images to advertise the clothing line. And several of my photos will be displayed in large 20x30 poster size prints around the Tivoli Student Center as part of that marketing effort!



I have only touched the surface of the 400 or so images I need to sort through, but my contact at the campus is already requesting a CD today of the first 25 images I've processed. I've included some of my favorites from the shoots held Saturday, Sunday and Monday.



Seems they are in a hurry to get some newer images up as soon as possible, which is understandable given the fact that many of the ads they have up now were shots taken in the 1970s and 1980s. The original images lack the diversity in student population that exists on campus now. So it was important that we showcased the fact that a large percentage of the student body consists of ethnic minorities, including a growing Latino population and nontraditional students, such as seniors and the mother featured below with her daughter.






One of my main jobs will be to gradually update those images with some fresh perspective of how the campus buildings and students look now. I've got to get a shot of someone pounding away on their laptop since nearly every student has one. And I think this photo I took on Monday showing a group of students all texting or talking on their cell phones portrays the current environment of the Auraria Campus.

Tips of the Trade: The Importance of Marketing with Jim Turley

I got an email today from my friend and business management instructor Jim Turley that I thought would be helpful for my blog readers. Turley tipped me and several of his students off about The Wedding Report, a site that features statistics and market research for the wedding industry. I quickly joined the site and receive regular updates and news such as this report on Colorado wedding statistics. You need to join and login if you want similar access.

Turley says wedding photographers have to consider the fact that all of us will be working harder to attract the attention of a shrinking number of brides while the numbers of new photogs entering the field keep growing.

"Not quite as bad as GM selling SUV's to a shrinking market, but the
same factors are involved," says Jim. "Good marketing will be even more important
in the coming years so you get more than your share of the market because the market size will decrease."

Jim pinpointed this report on wedding trends completed in September prior to the start of the economic crunch.

"The contents are not encouraging; less being spent on photographers,
increasingly popular to have friend/family shoot the wedding, etc."

The Wedding Report just released the results from their most recent online report, which can be purchased for $129. Competition is frightening in the $60 billion wedding industry, so this report might be worth the cost of having a leg up.

It covers:

What the future online wedding market holds for your business
What tools brides want to see on your website
How social plays a role and what it means for you
What future web trends you should plan for now
How important your web presence is
When you should spend your online marketing dollars
What key SEO trends you should focus your content on
Who the top Internet players are and why

It's food for thought definitely, and I'm starting to considering more options for marketing my company as well. I finally have enough money to get pay for having someone create my business logo. That's an important step I should have taken a long time ago, but I never saw the importance of it until now. I have to start making my business stand out from the hundreds of other photographers working in Colorado now.

Get the Job Done: Client Pleased With Event Photos

I just sent Cheryl Carter, the marketing director at Auraria, an email linking to the final edited shots I took for the campus during the Denver Food and Wine Classic. She said I definitely had an eye for this type of photography, and that she was very pleased with the images.

I find it very hard to decide which photos I like the best, and I am very proud of these images. I think focusing my business on people and events was a good choice for me as I progress in my photography.

I will be giving Cheryl a CD with all the images as well as an invoice for payment tomorrow. I also asked Cheryl to share with me what her favorite images were so I would have a better idea of the kind of shots she needs to be able to promote the Auraria Higher Education Center as a new venue for hosting events such as the Denver Food and Wine Festival.

The shot above is one of my favorites because I think it nails the fun and decadence of this ultra swag event were attendees paid $55 for a lavish all-you-can-eat buffet of fine wines, food and alcoholic beverages. I just love seeing the excitement on the ladies' faces as they reach for the sweets. I captured one woman with licking her lips in anticipation. It will be interesting to see what Cheryl picks as her favorites, and I will be sure to share them with you so you can get a better understanding about what marketers are looking for photography.

Breaking News: Blog Leads to a Photo Sale!

My blog helped me sell one of my photos to a wildlife organization today!

I got an email Monday from the photo coordinator of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation requesting usage of one of the waterfall shots I took during my birthday photo road trip. The organization wants to use it as a FULL PAGE feature photo in its magazine, BUGLE!



Negotiating the price was simple and easy. The photo coordinator, Randi Mysse, was so helpful, and she restored my faith that there are people who not only will recognize your talents but be willing to pay for it too! When I asked how she found my photo, she said. "The power of the internet--we "Googled" Rifle Falls photos and eventually found you!" The Bugle issue will start printing Aug. 7.

I have had news articles (and now photos) printed in the Denver Post for the past 14 years. But knowing that one of my pictures will be appearing in a magazine makes me feel like an intern seeing her first byline in the paper again.

So what's the lesson here?
1) Realize that your blog is a strong marketing tool. Utilize it to it's fullest, recognizing that the blog is a representation of you and how potential clients view you. Make it easy for them to access you by taking the time to create userfriendly keywords and tags.

Thank you so much RMEF for this opportunity, and I hope this leads to more great partnerships in the future. Think you've got some great photos this organization could use? Check out its "photo wish lists". The organization also produces an annual calendar with breathtaking landscapes and photography of elks.

Get the Goods: Marketing Your Photography Business Seminar

Bruce Hudson's "New Directions/Reality Check" Tour will be stopping in Denver and Colorado Springs this month. Check to see if the marketing your business tour will be heading to your city here.


This year marks Bruce Hudson's 25th year in the photography business. Through all the ups and downs (including the advancements of digital technology) Hudson has discovered the 4 major areas he says we MUST focus our time, energy, and money on to guarantee our studio's success!

They are:

1) Innovative Marketing Methods
2) Consistent Image Creation
3) Selling with Projection
4) Studio Management Techniques

Hudson says that attending his tour will help you:
Be able to Separate Yourself from the Ever Growing Competition
Learn the Hottest Marketing Strategies that not only Attracts the Affluent but affluent clients that will invest in photography
Produce High Impact Images Capable of Commanding Top Dollar!
Create the images in the camera avoiding countless hours in front of your computer
Have a Step By Step Plan for Pre Portrait Consultations- Resulting In Non-Speculation Sales!
Start Projecting your Images & Doubling, Tripling, Even Quadrupling you’re Sales!

At $47 for registration for 5 hours, it seems like it could be money well spent. My marketing and advertising efforts for my business haven't been a priority for me, so any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. If you go, let me know what you think about the information presented.