jack_cassidy

On another note, one recommendation about the website. I would either fix the blog up

a bit or just get rid of it. Right now it looks like a poorly made website for a drug

company : )

I am also not a big fan of the ads. Wordpress offers a lot of nice looking free templates

and is ad free.

I saw your website and you have some very nice work, and the blog just doesn't represent

you well.

Best of luck,

- Jack

Hiring some models isn't a bad idea. It accomplishes diversifying your portfolio, but I find

most of my weddings are booked by referral. So if you just get some models your

portfolio will look different but your clients may continue to look the same.

I would recommend taking the owner of a locally owned bridal shop out to lunch. Tell him

or her your situation and ask if they would pick out a couple of nice looking brides who

would be interested in doing some free bridal portraits, or engagement too. This way you

are building your portfolio, making good connections with a local vendor, and building

relationships with brides. Brides who will tell their friends about this great photographer.

To me it is a win, win, win.

As mentioned before it did not take much to find the website in question. It looks to me as if

they ripped text off of your blog word for word. It is pretty evident she is trying to get traffic

to her site by using your name. Why not just give her a call and ask her nicely to take it

down, I am not sure who has the legal rights here, but I definitely would not hesitate to call

and ask her. I think it would scare/embarrass her enough to take it down.

-Jack

When I was first getting started I took the owner of a local bridal shop out to lunch. I talk to

her about doing some bridal and engagement portraits for some of her clients for free.

Through that I was able to build my portfolio and meet some young couples who have lots of

other young friends who are getting married. Through those friends I began to book

weddings. Another great thing about doing this was I made a great contact with the owner of

the shop who meets new brides every day (I also made sure to let her know if she ever needs

any promotional photos done I would love to do them for her for free).

I am familiar with the strobist, and I am familiar with the types of modifiers I can use for off

camera flash.

The question is what do you use (not what are all of the possible options I can use)?

Yes, bright overcast is great. What I am talking about was not bright it was very dim and

dull. As Ian said consistent light is good, but NO shadows, NO contrast, in my opinion is

NO fun.

Greg, wide shots are a smart idea.

Ok so flash is good - What types of diffusors do you carry around to events?

Any other inventive ideas that haven't been mentioned?

Thanks for all who gave input, Please keep it coming.

- jack

I had a shoot the other day, and it was very overcast boring, dull lighting.

I guess there are many ways to approach this and I have a few ideas of my own, but how do you deal with

this?

Thanks for the advice!

I wish I would have read this before I met with my clients today. I think if I had a contract for

them to sign today they would have.

Keep the tips coming,

- jack

I am marketing myself to young trendy professional couples. NONE of the people I am

marketing to are going to not be able to get to my site because it is flash. So I do not worry

about it.

There is not a single wedding photographer who I respect who does not use flash.

Flash is where it is at.

Hey Angelica,

You have a solid start for your first year at photography!

The size of most of your images is rather small so it makes it more difficult to go into

great detail.

The thing that sticks out the most to me is your black and white photos. They lack a

certain pop about them. If you are using photoshop instead of just desaturating the image

you can use the channel mixer and make it monochrome then mess with the sliders there.

Also you could lighten it up using curves. Either way the skin needs to be a bit brighter

and have a little more of a life like quality about it.

Hope that helps!

-jack

I know this question has been addressed here multiple times but I still cannot figure out what I am doing

wrong.

<br /><br />

When I upload pictures to my flickr account the look great in Safari but washed out in Firefox.

<br /><br />

I shoot RAW then use Lightroom as for my RAW processing, when I export it I convert it to sRBG (I think

this might be where things start to go wrong) as a PSD. Then I process it in Photoshop and then save as a

JPEG sRBG ice61966-2.1.

<br /><br />

Then I post it on Flickr: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/timgosnell/2232192303/"

rel="self">example.</a>

<br /><br />

What am I doing wrong?

<br /><br />

and When I am processing to print them should I be handling the color profiles differently?

<br /><br />

The help is much appreciated!

<br /><br />

- Jack

Hey Ellen,

Simple photo is the best deal out there I have found for someone starting out on a budget.

You can sign up for a free trial to see if you like it, and it also comes with a free

customizable web site (you cant actually sell any photos while using the free trial). It is a

minimum of $10 a month, or 12% of your sales whichever is greater.

It is a far cry cheaper than Pictage, but you don't get you pictures printed by them like

pictage does (I just use WHCC for printing). And I think it is a bit cheaper than smugmug.

Hope that helps,

-Jack

Justin,

You have some awesome photos on you site, just all around great work!

Obviously design is subjective so here are some of my thoughts thoughts to consider:

I love the idea of keeping it simple and I think you could even simplify the front page a bit

more with maybe only one paragraph of text and one strong image.

I also think you logo at the top left could be a bit larger to help it stand out a bit.

When I look at the gallery on your site although all of the images are stellar they all have

very similar composition. But when I go to the "your photo's" portion you mix it up a lot

more. I think it would be prudent to show that you are more versatile.

Also think the images in your gallery would have much more of an impact if you could

view them larger.

Great work, Keep it up!

-Jack

I looked around at your blog and your photo's look very nice. :-)

My pick would be #3, but I do have to agree with Ryan that they are all a little clip art like.

I know you didn't ask for any other input but here it is anyway: I would recommend

getting rid of the "artistic photography" altogether or replace it with "Fine Art

Photography" which sounds a little more refined.

Keep up the good work!

<<<Day or two later, I send a tickler e-mail to hopefully jostle them into action.>>>

<<<They simply don't respond, and it's rude.>>>

<<<There's nothing pushy about what I SAY in my e-mails.>>>

Steve,

From the information you have provided it doesn't sound like you are being pushy. But

you are breathing down their neck, being too eager,and overbearing. Give your

perspective clients some space. Only giving them a "day or two" does not give the normal

person with a somewhat busy life time to respond.

If the client gets your first email and decided not to go with you and does not want to send

you an email give them a break. Not everyone feels the need to respond to someone to

tell them that they are not interested in their services.

<<<When I inquire something from someone else, I give them a fair chance, and get back

with them on my decision.>>>

If I go into bestbuy and ask a sales associate about a product they are selling and then

leave to go see what circuit city and walmart have, and decide to buy the product at

walmart I am not going to go back into bestbuy and let them know I am not going to be

getting it from them.

Thanks everybody! That is more like it, information that really helps!

Please keep the responses coming

Thanks to those who actually answered the question!

I understand that the best idea is to get the contract written by a professional. But I am for this very first wedding going to write something up myself.

So please resist the urge to say thing like: "Drafting a contract on your own will NOT be "covering" yourself." and actually look at the rest of the

question.

Even with an attorney writing your contract I am sure you have realized there was a thing here or there you needed to add or change. It is those sort of

things I am looking for.

After being a second shooter and assistant for a while I have finally decided to take a shot at my first

wedding on my own. I am pretty confident in my skills but need some help with the business end of

things. So my question is two fold:

1. I need advice on forming my contract. Do's, don'ts, resources, samples, or just advice (I know some

are going to say get a lawyer to write it, but at this point I would just like to write up a basic one to cover

myself)

and

2. How do most of you work the whole money thing. Do you require a deposit? If so how much, and

when do you require the rest of the payment.

Thanks in advance!

-Jack