Archive for Tips & Techniques
The Importance Of Wedding Preparation Photography Part 1
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So often in wedding photography we tend to overlook some of the smaller events of the day. Whether it be the grooms preparation because we only have one photographer or maybe the departing shots of the couple because of contract time limitations. All of the events of the day are important and for a bride and groom trying to remember specific moments of the day later in life can be difficult. There is so much emotion, so many family and friends to meet and talk to, so many places to be and schedules to follow that they tend to lose focus of the minor moments and they become erased from memory. I myself think back now and have a very vague recollection of preparing for my own wedding, what I was doing immediately before the wedding, and a lot of the reception is fuzzy and not because of any alcohol. There is just so much to focus on that you tend to just remember the big ticket items of the day.
This is where you as a wedding photographer get to play the superhero. It is your job to capture these fleeting moments in time so that you clients can relive these nearly forgotten memories in a way maybe they didn’t recall. Read More→
A Photographer’s Diary; The Circles of Life
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This week has all been about becoming more aware of things going on around me and how I’m the one responsible for drawing them in. When you really start to become aware of synchronicity in your life, and you see things lining up this is all good. Synchronicity is what some people call coincidences. When maybe a film we have thought about suddenly appears in the television schedules or someone mentions in passing something that we have been thinking about finding out more about; these are all examples of synchronicity.
Millpool of life
Also it’s been a case of people being in the right place to deliver a message, that I was ready to hear, that I knew all about yet I had never bothered to take action on and implement into my life.
I’ve been studying the book ‘The Success Principles’ by business coach Jack Canfield’ and I’ve had it with me as I’ve been away for a few days this week. Another book I had with me is one that a self-help coach had recommended, in one of her newsletters, by Florence Scovel Shinn. It’s very much about the law of attraction; she was perhaps one of the first people in America in the early 1900’s to start writing about how life works. For me she is quite an obscure author, not at all mainstream. Read More→
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Facebook Timeline Cover
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A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting a social media Masterclass at The Societies annual photographic convention here in London. I shared a few social media marketing ideas, many of which I have published here. One idea that I’ll be using in the very near future (and that I shared in my talk) fits in nicely with Facebook’s announcement on Tuesday that Timeline will be rolled out to everyone in the next few weeks.
If you have been using timeline already you’ll no doubt have played around with different cover photos.
You’ll also might have come to the same realisation as I did that it’s not easy to find an image which fits neatly into the 850 x315 space.
Now imagine what Joe Public is trying to fit into that awkward space.
As photographers we have the wonderful advantage that not only can we shoot an image for that particular size but we can easily crop an image ready to fit.
However your share your clients images on Facebook try and include one that is cropped for the Timeline cover.
What next?
Scenic Outlook – Monochrome
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Landscape photography in colour is a truly beautiful thing, the pink and purple hues of dawn, a red sunset or a blue sky above a golden sandy beach, colour can really make an image pop. However, sometimes colour can become a bit of a distraction or perhaps it may be that there isn’t enough colour in the scene to make it exciting for the viewer. For example, red is a very strong colour and say you’re taking a shot of a nice blue car but there is a person in the background wearing a red coat, your eye is naturally drawn to the red coat thus taking away from the car of which you were trying to make the main feature.
Not every scene will benefit from being presented in monochrome and in a lot of cases a picture can become too cluttered with the viewer not being a clear indication of where to look. So it’s time to train your brain into seeing in black and white even though we see in colour. The key to achieving a more successful mono image is to simply view the scene in terms of shape and contrast. It’s the same compositional idea that drives all photography and knowledge of basic composition ideas will give you a big head start. Look for bold objects such as a large boulder in the countryside or a fence that you can use to lead the viewer through the scene, or look for things that are in contrast to their surroundings. Lets take the image above as an example; the wood posts are virtually in silhouette against the overcast sky and bright water, so by placing the camera where I could see them arranged in a line I produced a simple yet striking composition, and with the sky being mostly overcast there was very little in terms of colour so the obvious thing was to remove it. Read More→
A Photographer’s Diary, The Silent Attractor
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As we wander around with our cameras round our necks or you’re your shoulders or in a bag, though most prominently when it’s on display, we find, or certainly I do; that just by simply carrying a camera, it’s like you’ve got a magnet to other photographers with cameras who will smile and strike up a conversation. We carry with us this silent attractor which allows us to start conversations with anyone and more particularly with people who have an interest in photography or our fellow photographers’.
A Long Walk
I think it’s a lovely thing that we carry this symbol around with us that attracts other people in to have conversations that leads who knows where. Just last week I was doing a photography shoot in a coastal town for overlays for the meditations on Healing with Photography video courses. It was a beautiful sunny cold day, those lovely winter days that you get. I was busy taking pictures and wherever I looked in this pretty and very much deserted town of tourists, people on the pier turned smiled and looked to speak, say hello and pass the time of day. Read More→
Planning and Developing Your Marketing Campaigns
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As its convention and trade show season I’m sure that you’ll be overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration for marketing campaigns. The biggest problem is that you might have come across a golden nugget that at this point in time isn’t quite the right fit for your business. The last thing you’ll want to do is to leave those ideas in a notebook which you’ll slide into a draw and ever read again.
One of the seminars I attended over the last week at The Societies Convention here in London was hosted by the hardest working photographer in the portrait business; Sandy Puc. Sandy shared her ‘salsa box’ concept which is basically three sets of colour coded folders filled with notes and ideas.
You have a folder for ideas you need to get onto right now, another for some time in the near future and another for the not too distant but not near future…..or something like that but you get the idea.
As part of my own business plan for 2012 I have started my own marketing planner. Being a bit of a geek and always one for dipping in and out of ideas I needed something that was cloud based and I could get to at any point. Evernote has proved to be the perfect tool as not only I can access and edit it from my office computer but I can also work on ideas from my iPad and phone. Using an online resource means I can also reference suppliers, products, blog articles, pinterest boards and even online storage where I might keep artwork. Read More→
Every Once In A While We Need A Reminder
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I was reminded recently why I became a wedding photographer. Not long ago I was visiting one of my wedding clients, dropping off an album from their wedding, when they invited me in to view a wall they had decorated in the house they recently bought just before their wedding. I walked in, turned the corner, and was amazed at what I saw. They had decorated the entire wall with photos from their wedding, engagement, and bridal sessions. All of the photos on the wall were photos that I had taken for them.
It touched me in a way I hadn’t realized before. Seeing how they placed the images I captured in such a prominent way in their home, it made me realize that wedding photography involves much more than just photographing the couples day. What we do lasts their lifetime. To know that the art I create is cherished so much by the people that hire me humbled me. The gift we have as photographers to create art or to “paint with our lens” (like I like to say) touches our client’s emotions. We capture their memories, their most precious moments, on film for them to cherish and enjoy for years to come. As wedding photographers we are able to touch people’s lives in a way that few others can and it is a great responsibility that we should not take lightly. Read More→
A Photographer’s Diary, A Rollercoaster Ride
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After the Majesty
So then, after writing last week about having lots of new things planned for 2012 how is January going for me so far? Well these last seven days have seen a rollercoaster of emotions. At the end of last week I discovered a new centre where I can run the Healing with Photography courses through.
The exciting part is that instead of trekking the miles each week, if I convince them to undertake a 3 day course, I can stay at local hotel that is doing a stay one night get another one for the price of breakfast. Fee wise it would be cheaper than putting the petrol on for a 6 week course and it spreads my reach quite dramatically across the region.
Then what goes up must come down, there was a real low in my personal life, and instead of pushing ahead with all my plans, I’ve just taken some time this week to start the healing process and find an easier way to move forward. I resisted the temptation to bury myself in work and rush ahead making probably lots of dodgy decisions based on the need to be busy and stop feeling. So a massage to move sad energies out of my chakras started the week and that has been combined with a lot of work with different healers that I work with and have mentioned in my previous incarnation, ‘Starting a Photography Business.’ I’ve taken some of my own medicine and I feel so much better and stronger for it. Read More→
Scenic Outlook – Brief Moments
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What with one thing and another I’ve not had as much time over recent weeks to get out with the camera, but on this particular December weekend I have an empty slot on a Sunday morning. Friday’s weather report says that Saturday will be rainy all day but that Sunday will be cloudy with sunny intervals. Right then, decision made my cousin Steve and I make arrangements Friday afternoon to meet up early Sunday morning at Winchelsea beach. Saturday comes and goes with not a drop of rain all day, I look at the weather report on my HTC…Sunday=rain. Oh well, I decide that I’ll go out anyway however the weather should turn out. I text Steve to see if he’s still up for a meet and a moment later he replies to say that he too is up for getting out whatever the weather. Sunrise is about 7.40am so I decide to set my alarm for 6am.
5.35am my phone rings. ” Are you up Dave” says an all too alert sounding Steve. “I am now” I reply, trying to open my eyes. “I woke up early so I got up and now I’m about to head out the door” Steve said, “OK, I’ll meet you there” I say, fumbling about trying to find my things. Right, I’d better get a move on.
6 seconds iso200 @f22, ND4 filter, Grey Grad
A Photographer’s Diary, In with a Flurry
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Mirror Image
This last week saw the end of the holidays and now it’s time to start in earnest with my business plans for this coming year. So I’m having a look over the ideas I had for the business going forward at the AGM in December in extending the main healing with Photography course to three hours for each session. So that needs writing.
And I’m also looking at how best to set these courses out, whether to do them in three and half days or to keep to the format that worked well with the MIND centre of half a day every week. When the idea of HWP first came to me, I realised that what I was developing will work particularly well in a professional area of which I have personal knowledge of from previous jobs. People in this industry can be unable to work through injury and illness for long periods of time from many months to a year or more. Depression and anxiety during their treatment and recovery kicks in pretty quickly, particularly if time is the only healer of bones or tissue.
It’s because I have knowledge and I the contacts here, I’m seriously thinking of going back to this area and offering my expertise in a field that is slowly opening up to the advantages of more holistic approaches. From experiencing them to understanding them to gradually accepting that there are other ways forward other than purely medical treatment when looking after a person’s well-being. This field could lead on to a much wider area of similar jobs and similar problems and hopefully through word of mouth, I will be able to help more people. Read More→
