Author Archive for Guest – Page 6

Welcome to the Friday Business Challenge

By Guest
Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Hi everyone, I’m Robyn Mayne. I am a photographer  and workshop facilitator in Sydney, Australia with a passion for working with other photographers to make their businesses the best they can be.

Welcome to the very first Business Challenge bought to you by CurrentPhotographer.com and Today is Different (that’s me). And can I just take this opportunity to say woohoo! I am super excited to be joining Trevor in bringing you The Challenge!

What is it?

Every Friday* for the next 7 weeks (yes 7! good things take time and work) we will provide you with 7 quick, easy (OK not always easy!) and practical steps on a topic relevant to your photography business.

Each Business Challenge is designed so it can be done 1 task per for 7 days, one a week or all at once.

*Note to Aussie readers: that’s Saturday for those of us “down under”.

The Challenge & the Reward

We want to see you succeed in your photography business. Participating in the 7 weeks of challenges will help you focus on taking action towards making your business the best it can be.

Sharing your experiences with others is also a great benefit to the community, so we want to hear from you. Tell us how you did with the weeks challenge in the comments below. In return we want to give you a little promotion (and who doesn’t want that?) Be sure to include links to your website, blog, Twitter profile, Facebook Page, LinkedIn and any other profile you’d like to share with the community.

We’ll select the best, most thought out comments to be featured in next weeks challenge along with a post on the Today Is Different blog. Just think of all those wonderful links you’ll get to help your SEO!

As an additional incentive we are offering you a chance to get one of your favorite photographs featured at the top of CurrentPhotographer.com. We’ll include your image, your name or company name along with your website url. When the graphic is clicked the viewer will be taken directly to your website. Nice way to get a little extra attention huh?

So how do you get your image featured you ask? It’s simple, just click the “Tweet & Get It” button below. You’ll automatically tweet the special phrase and get immediate access to a free e-book that Trevor has put together titled “How to Pimp Out Your Twitter Profile in 4 Easy Steps”.

We’ll pick 4 random Twitter followers who tweet the special phrase and send them a Direct Message with details on how to submit their photo and information.

At the end of the 7 weeks we’ll have a special gift for all those who participated and commented. Trevor and I have put together a couple of great e-books that we’d like to give to you for FREE just to say thanks.

So keep participating in the challenges, keep the comments coming and share your accomplishments with your friends on Twitter and Facebook to let them know “you’re in it to win it!”

This Week: Social Media Planning

This week, the first challenge, will look at how to take control of your social media. And how to get your life back if it’s taken control of you!

Photographers take control of your social media

View more presentations from Today is Different

See you next Friday for How to be Remarkable in Your Photography Business…

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I am a portrait photographer and a workshop facilitator. I am passionate about what I do and thrive amongst people who are innovative and love what they do. I am in my element in the midst of conversations where ideas are spread and opportunities are discovered.

Today is Different provides workshops, retreats and consulting for professional photographers in Sydney, Australia.

We help you to:

  • Find your uniqueness and your fantabulousness
  • Stop selling products and services and start providing
    an experience
  • Find clients that you love and that love you right back
  • Simplify by focusing on what is truly important

Today is Different

Company: Today is Different
Phone: +61 403 500 801
Email: robyn@todayisdifferent.net
Website: http://www.todayisdifferent.com.au/
Blog: http://www.todayisdifferent.com.au/blog
Twitter: @RobynMayne
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TodayIsDifferent

© 2017 Robyn Mayne

Here’s how you can share your tips, techniques and tutorials on CurrentPhotographer.com

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Categories : Friday Business Challenge, Grow Your Business, Guest Bloggers, Social Media Marketing
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Think More, Shoot Less: by William Petruzzo

By Guest
Friday, July 1st, 2011

I think that photography as an art has taken a pretty big hit since the widespread acceptance of digital cameras. Hipstematic takes an arbitrary picture of a coffee cup taken with an iPhone and turns it into “art”. Bigger memory cards mean there is less and less risk in pressing that shutter button. Like never before, “art” in photography is largely an accident. But is it art at all? I think not.

I define art, not by what is produced, but by what the artist’s mind was doing when it was produced. By that definition, art must be intentional. You cannot simply fire off 10,000 pictures to find those 2 works of “art”. What you found wouldn’t be art at all, it would be a series interesting coincidences. Think about it this way—imagine that you could record everything your eye sees in brilliant high definition and at any point, pull out a single frame and publish it to Flickr. You probably wouldn’t consider that art. Yet this is often what digital photographers do. They point their camera in a thousand directions and find a few images that are interesting enough to share. Anyone can do that.

So, as digital photographers, how do we find our status as an artist? I submit that we find that status by learning to be intentional; by making calculated decisions about the things we photograph; by refusing to press the shutter down before we’re sure that what we’re about it capture is what we intend to capture.

Now, before I move on, let me interject briefly. Photography has a great history of accidentally capturing incredible moments. In fact, some of history’s iconic photos were total accidents.  And that’s okay. Because at that time in history, skilled photographers routinely and intentionally captured beautiful images. And sometimes, they caught beautiful accidents. But it was the exception, not the rule. And that’s part of what made those photos so remarkable. Today, it’s often the other way around. So, while there is a place for incredible coincidences in photography, as photographers we should once again aim to make them the exception, not the rule.

So, in the interest of learning to become true artists, here are six techniques to stretch our intentionality in the creation of our images and heighten the artistic integrity of our work. It’s all about thinking more, and shooting less. Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Shooting Tips
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How to Build Your Senior Market With Facebook and Referrals: by Danielle Neil

By Guest
Friday, June 24th, 2011

When I started my business, I knew that I wanted to photograph high school seniors. My biggest hurdle was finding seniors when I started. Being a transplant to my town, I did not know many parents of high school students. Where to start? My website was not ranking high enough on Google for clients to find me. My senior portfolio was slim since I was just starting out. I decided that print or yearbook advertising may not be the right avenue. I decided my best bet was a two month Facebook ad looking for senior models from four local high schools. I created my ad to target a specific segment from those schools: 16-17 year-old girls. I opted to try this as a test and only spend $100 to see if it was a success. After I hit my $100 limit, I had a few inquiries and one student that was ready to model for me.

I offered my senior model two sessions, one in the spring and one in the fall. Being a “model” included some bonuses. A discounted session fee, referral cards and a discount for every student she referred. I also made it a point to have her post watermarked images on her Facebook page. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Guest Bloggers, Social Media Marketing
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Top 5 Social Media Sites To Promote Your Photography: by Mike Barbre

By Guest
Friday, June 17th, 2011

Are you a young photographer trying to promote your name? Or perhaps you are a veteran professional looking to expand your marketing base. Either way there are several social media sites that can be used to promote your photography

Facebook
Facebook is more than a site for you to connect with long-lost friends. It is also a powerful marketing tool. Set up a page specifically to promote your photos, not your personal profile page. People can become a ‘Fan’ of your page by ‘Liking’ it and can interact with you through the Wall feature. Whenever you post a comment or new photos anyone who is a fan will see these updates.

Post your photos individually and on thematic albums. Always be consistent in updating your page but don’t overload it on a daily basis, you want to keep your fans interested and surprised. Ask them for feedback to increase the interaction between you, your photos and your ‘Fans’.

Twitter
Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to post 140 character updates, called tweets. With a Twitter profile you choose which user tweets to follow. You can tell people about new projects, upcoming exhibitions or simply share a photography tip of the day, making you an online expert source.

You can add your photos to Twitter through its companion site, TwitPic. As the URLs of TwitPic are short they are readily usable on Twitter. Recently there have been discussions on the Terms of Use of TwitPic who may be able to sell your pictures to a third-party without any credit to you, so make sure you read the Terms and Conditions carefully before sharing your images. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Guest Bloggers, Social Media Marketing
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Scenic Outlook – How to Reinvent Your Vision

By Guest
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

It’s easy to get into a routine and stay there. While this usually means you are becoming good at something it also has its consequences. Doing the same thing over and over tends to lose its luster, excitement, and opportunity for growth. We are all about growth, right? Nod your head. Yes, yes we are. The best way to force yourself to grow as a photographer is by giving yourself no choice but to step outside of your comfort zone. This is not entirely about growing and learning new things. It’s also about diversifying your work and opening your and your audience’s eyes to a new take on images.

Photography is heavily gear related. You can only be as creative as your gear allows sometimes and it is especially true in the lens department. If you spend a lot of time reading photography related blogs, I’m sure you have heard people screaming (or typing) from the rooftops proclaiming it’s about your vision, not your gear. To an extent this is true but there comes a point where guess what? Gear matters a whole lot. The biggest game changer to your images is glass. Sweet, sweet glass. Due to varying focal lengths and compression, two images from the same exact location can and will look completely different.

Leave it at home – Are you a heavy wide angle shooter like me? Leave that lens at home next time you go out shooting. Enjoy the telephoto brand of glass? Keep it in the bag and strap on the wide angle. This is hands down the best way to force you to expand your vision and skill. For the remainder of this article, I will pretend everyone out there loves their ultra wide angle lens as much as me. When using a niche lens like an UWA, you tend to compose and frame most shots in a similar fashion. Foregrounds stretch, apparent distances expand, and the sun appears very small. Read More→

Categories : City and Landscape Photography, Guest Bloggers, Make Better Photographs
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The Secret to SEO Conversion: by Zach Prez

By Guest
Friday, May 20th, 2011

Many of my photography marketing posts talk about SEO – the simplest form of affordable advertising where the only cost is your time spent. This post talks about the importance of titles and meta descriptions, and why the keywords in the meta description don’t matter!

Titles First

A webpage title appear at the very top of the browser window, above the URL bar. Keywords here accurately describe the topic of the page. You’re not going to find Charlie Sheen content on a page titled “Best Atlanta Wedding Photo Albums”. You know what you can find on that page I just mentioned without even looking at it. So does Google and so do your potential clients. Keywords in the title not only match your page to search queries, but more importantly show on the search results page. That’s right, the list of links you see in the top 10 of Google are all page titles, and are the deciding factor for whether a searcher clicks to your site, or chooses someone else’s.

Below is a sample search result for “Best Atlanta Wedding Photo Albums”. The title of the page appears as a blue link. Notice that the words in my search (best, Atlanta, wedding) become bolded. It even bolds “photography” which is not what I searched, but closely related.

These factors align searchers to your page and act as cues for them to click you.

The meta description for a page or post appears as the black text below the blue link on a search result. This is the only place it appears, thus is often forgotten, but has a tremendous impact on how many people click on your link. The keywords in a meta description don’t necessarily help a page/post rank better, but will stand out as bold to help convert users to click. As a user, I’m likely to choose the above website because the photographer is the best, award-winning photographer in my area (or so the claim goes). Does your homepage description speak to your strengths and encourage users to choose you over someone else? Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Guest Bloggers, Search Engine Optimization
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