melissa_howlett

The absolute best thing that I have done for my business is to become friends with other photographers in my area. We get together socially once every few months. Not only have I made great friends with people that share my interest, but I have learned new techniques and tips. We all share a Google Calendar and can send each other referrals when we are already booked for a specific date. This has been very rewarding personally and professionally.

I bought mine from Itty Bitty Actions. I quite like them!

 

http://www.ittybittyactions.com/borders.htm

Maybe Itty Bitty Actions?

 

http://www.ittybittyactions.com/

Hi Jamie,

 

Here is an inexpensive logo designer that you could try: http://www.hmcquigg.etsy.com.

 

I really can't vouch for her quality, but she was recommended by a photographer on another forum I frequent.

 

Warmly,

Melissa

I have a free listing with them. I have booked a number of weddings through it. I am photographing six weddings this year for out of town bride's, and I think five of them have found me on Marketing Tool. I don't know if location makes a difference with this sort of thing, but I am in South-Eastern Ontario.

I emailed them a week and a half ago with two fairly basic questions. Still waiting for a response. Needless to say, I am not impressed and will not be using their services.

Hi Holly,

 

I am a photographer in the Kingston/Ottawa area. Summer 2007 will be my second season photographing on my own. Besides purchasing a templated website that I can update myself, I have spent absolutely no money on marketing myself. I have twelve weddings booked between May and October 2007, and I have raised my prices considerably. The ways in which I have booked these weddings are:

 

1. Word of mouth from previous clients.

2. I am friends with two other wedding photographers in my city, so I get a lot of their spill over. If they can't take a job, they plug me. Only once have I not booked the referal they have sent me.

3. I talk to everyone I meet about my photography venture. I am not annoying about it or anything, but people generally are interested. For example, when you are getting your haircut talk to your stylist about what you are doing. I booked a wedding last year doing just that.

4. I signed up for any free photography listing that I could. I signed up for Marketing Tool and World Wide Web. They come very close to the top when googling Kingston wedding photographers or Ottawa photographers. This is how I have booked about 2/3's of my weddings.

 

I just visited your website and your blog. I would reconsider the order and amount of pictures that you have in your wedding gallery. The first image a prospective bride sees is of someone holding a water bottle. Thats not going to keep her looking. I would start with one of your strongest, most emotional images. Think like a bride. I also think you have way too many images that don't have enough impact on your first page.

 

I found your blog very unprofessional. The images were too small and really grainy looking. The captions you chose to put a long with the wedding pictures were very immature (i.e. "So into each other"). And there were a lot of spelling mistakes (i.e. "Congradulations you too"). I think you should lose the blog all together. It becomes evident that you are not very busy based on your blog activity. I also really think it is a bad idea to offer free portrait sessions to absolutely anyone. I understand that you are trying to build up your portfolio and entice people to book you, but I think you end up just looking desparate. You should offer free stuff to people who have contacted you about doing their wedding to sweaten the deal (i.e. a free engagement session with wedding package). I have made the mistake of doing exactly this and it got me absolutely no where.

 

I think the most important thing for you to do is work on your website and blog. Nine times out of ten my clients see my website before they contact me, so that has to be suitable or they won't give me the time of day. Even if you spend thousands of dollars marketing yourself and getting you name out there, you will not do well because you do not come off as professional. I don't want my remarks/suggestions to come off as harsh, but rather blunt so that there is no confusion.

 

I hope this helps or at least gets you thinking. If you have any questions feel free to email me at shutterbug482@yahoo.ca

Rue St. Vincent by Yves Montand (Rushmore soundtrack).

Red is much, much better!

I am a soon to be bride, likely in the demographic you are marketing to. I can tell you that image #1 is the only one that would sell me your services or make me contact you. She is beautiful, happy and excited. The image gets me excited about and imaging my own wedding day. It also gives me the confidence that you will be able to capture such emotion and memories during my wedding. I could tell that right away that the girl in image #2 was not a bride. It is a lovely photograph, but it isn't right (in my opinion) for your ad. It lacks the excitement, I think.

I know that Deb Stagg does hand-tinting for hire.

I have known how to hand tint photographs for years (although I don't do a lot of it anymore). In fact, I am aware of a few people in my area that still practice this.

Marshall's oils can be purchased at craft stores like Michael's (at least that is the case in Canada). Fibre based paper is need to adhere the paint to the photograph. However, if you cannot use fibre based photographic paper, you can spray resin coated paper with a chemical spray (Marshall's Matte Finish Spray) that makes paint stick to the paper. I am able to purchase the spray in my smaller sized city's main photography store.

The next step is to smooth, with tissue, a light coating of "extender" (comes with the oils) or Vaseline onto the photograph. After that you are ready to paint. Using Q-tips is the best way to add and blend the paint. You can also use certain types of pencil crayons for more control and finer areas. The ones I use are by a company called Bristol. Once you are finished you have to re-spray with the Matte Finish and you are good to go!

If you are really interested you could contact a photographer by the name of Deb Stagg at Studio 133 in Ontario, Canada. She does wonderful work and I am sure she would be happy to help you. I don't know if she has a website, but you can just Google her.

Hand tinting really isn't that difficult, in my opinion. Kind of like colouring in a colouring book, so I bet you could do it with the help of someone who isn't colour blind!

I hope that helps and sorry for the length!

 

-Melissa