keithdunlop

<p>WordPress with a commercially designed template that I branded. It's not hard.</p>

<p>Do a Google search for "wordpress theme" and pursue the thousand of options.</p>

<p>What sets you apart from your competition; what makes you unique; what service(s) do you offer that others don't; is there a unique market segment that your brand attracts; how does a wedding planner benefit from doing business with you; do your target market demographics compare to that of the wedding planner?</p>

<p>It's all about market research, then selling yourself as a valuable person to do business with.</p>

<p>Your marketing premise for the wedding photography business is unfortunately incorrect. Websites that market themselves to wedding vendors as lead services such as WW and The Knot are nothing more than advertising revenue generators -- they do nothing to actually help vendors book business. Most photographers who have gotten suckered into buying advertising with these entities will tell you that the leads were minimal.</p>

<p>Quality wedding photography leads are best obtained through personal relationships and networking with wedding ceremony/reception sites and planners in the local market. Along with that is thoughtful branding that reaches your intended market, and a targeted SEO campaign that generates quality back-links to your website for search engine placement.</p>

<p>So, to answer your question about how much I would pay a lead service -- exactly zero.</p>

<p>Paid ads with online entities like WW and The Knot are a colossal waste of money. The best and most reliable way of generating business is networking with wedding ceremony/reception sites, and planners in your area. It's hard work and time-consuming if you haven't already been networking in your local market, but personal relationships are the key to referrals.</p>

<p>There is nothing on your current site that would be compelling to a wedding client. Aside from the handful of random shots in your "event" gallery, there is nothing that shows you have any actual wedding experience. You need to ask yourself, would you hire you?</p>

<p>If your intent is to market wedding photography, you will need to reconsider your branding and overall marketing strategy. Running a business is more than just a "link" on a website. It's understanding your market position, your competition, and your brand. And, of course, you will need to be able to show some actual wedding work.</p>

<p>Register your copyright immediately.</p>

<p>I have never heard of an album company requiring credit card information in order to register and obtain pricing. I would be interested to know which company asked you this. The higher end companies do, however, limit pricing information to professional photographers only. Therefore you have to provide some evidence that you are a pro. A website usually suffices.</p>

<p>As far as specific album company recommendations; I do flush mount albums with Leather Craftsman (using prints I supply from ProDPI), and press books from Asuka Book and ProDPI. Others will have other recommendations -- there are lots of options.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Instead of paying for a contract template that hasn't been vetted for your jurisdiction, your money is better spent on a local transactional attorney. Of course, most photographers don't do this, but if you're a professional, it's how it needs to be done.</p>

<p>You're going to have a very hard time finding an established professional photographer mentor you and give you the experience you desire in order to start your own business that ultimately competes with that photographer.</p>

<p>The Zeiss is a terrific first lens. Don't worry about speed at this point -- it's better to concern yourself with learning how to work with a rangefinder system first. You can get better faster lenses later.</p>

<p>Steve Huff provides really good hands-on reviews of the Zeiss ZM lenses on his site.</p>

<p>I like and unlike Facebook pages all the time -- I wouldn't worry about it.</p>

<p>Bridal clients are unique, in that, once the wedding and post-wedding up-selling is over, most folks move and are not heard from again. Unless they come back to you for family/baby photos, a continued relationship is unique. I've had a couple of client remain friends and continue to follow my Facebook wall and blog, but it's the exception to the rule.</p>

 

<p>@Matthew - very sensible expectations. I'm sure you'll find the right photographer!</p>

<p>No offense, but based on your proclamation that you could be a "professional photographer", and that your main concern is your hired pro not meeting your "expectations", you come across as a potential nightmare client.</p>

<p>My advice?</p>

<p>1. Don't show this post to any photographers you are considering hiring.<br>

2. Find a photographer whose work matches the style you are looking for, and who you (and your bride) click with personality-wise.<br>

3. Ask to see a complete wedding set.<br>

4. The right photographer to hire will come naturally.<br>

5. Stop worrying so much about the technical stuff and just enjoy your wedding day.</p>

 

<p>Are you equipped to handle this job? You're going to be photographing a large vehicle for a catalog and the plan is to do the shooting in an airplane hanger with no supplemental lighting? Longer exposures on a tripod is not a lighting solution. Commercial vehicle photography requires pretty sophisticated lighting set-ups to be accomplished professionally.</p>

<p>That said, Matt's advice is spot on.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>In order to price the usage accurately, you need to know the nature of the publication, the market, the distribution, etc. All of these factors contribute to the proper usages rates.</p>

<p>Once you have that info, download a copy of FotoQuote Pro and get some rates ranges. Off the top of my head, you're definitely getting low-balled, especially given the copyright violation issue.</p>

<p>InDesign is the best for this type of thing because it is page layout software. Photoshop, while good at working on individual images, isn't the best tool for a multi-page document like an album.</p>

<p>If all you're doing is album work, the learning curve with InDesign is actually very manageable. All you really need to know is how to set up your document, how to work with object frames. I would start here for a exceptionally good tutorial: http://www.casttv.com/video/7a9jak/kiss-with-kevin-swan-designing-albums-in-indesign-cs4-video</p>

<p>Designing a wedding album is really a page layout task, which isn't Photoshop's strong suit. I would recommend learning InDesign. It's far better suited for album design, and once you get past the learning curve (only a few things you need for album layout), you'll find it's far quicker than using PS.</p>

<p>I'm in SLO - http://www.frame37studio.com</p>

<p>Keith Dunlop</p>

<p>The book from the recent MOMA retrospective:</p>

<p>Henri Cartier-Bresson "The Modern Century"</p>

<p>I've noticed the M prices have crept up a bit. Film has seen a resurgence lately which has led to greater demand. They're still pretty reasonable though. A new M7 costs $5,000, but a mint condition M6 TTL can be had for less than $2,000 if you shop around.</p>

<p>Your best source of information regarding marketing will not be internet forums, but rather your local wedding business community. No amount of reading internet posts suggesting how to best market your business replaces doing extensive local research into the business climate you desire to operate in. Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce, seek out other wedding vendors that can refer you business such as ceremony and reception venues, as well as wedding coordinators.</p>

<p>Also educate yourself about the people you seek to do business with. Find out where brides in your area get their information, what is the best strategy for reaching that audience, does your branding attract the customers you seek? </p>

<p>If you're going to be successful, you gotta do your own homework.</p>

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<p>I didn't mean to offend any of my local pros or imply that they were poor photographers.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Really? Because that's exactly what you did. These are <em>your</em> words:</p>

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<p>The bonus is, these photographers are all <em>bad</em>. Embarassingly, amateurishly bad.</p>

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<p>Not to beat a dead horse, but regardless of what you think about the quality of wedding photography offered in your market, it's extremely poor taste to publicly deride your competition, and horribly unprofessional.</p>

<p>That being said, if there is an under-served market of mid-to-high end weddings in your area, there is no need to devalue your services as a way of breaking in. Providing that your work supports what you feel you should be charging, I think it's a mistake to try to build market share by devaluating your product. Coupons and pricing gimmicks are OK for pizza's and car washes, but not for the higher end professional services you are contemplating offering.</p>

<p>The key to wedding work in most small markets is in building relationships and working collaboratively with other wedding vendors (which is why your public photographer critiques may end up being harmful to you). Reach out to site vendors, wedding coordinators, etc. If you are correct that there is a segment of the market not being served, they will be in the best position to concur and possibly refer you business. But, you must stand out and must be able to provide something that's not already being offered. It's all about carving out a unique market position for yourself, and networking.</p>

<p>You need to know the exact usage requirements (i.e., website placement, size, nature of printed materials, distribution, size of market, etc.)</p>

<p>Take that information and get a copy of fotoQuote Pro for a pricing range. If you email me offline with the usage information I can give you a few numbers as well.</p>

<p><em>"The last one, the D700, is my main camera when not traveling by air."</em></p>

<p>Is your D700 afraid to fly for some reason?</p>

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<p>However, if shooting a wedding, the VR seems important.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Since the D3/D700 came out, I've actually never found VR to be that important for weddings, in general. The only time I have benefited from VR is when shooting very dark churches. In those limited circumstances, the VR in the 70-200 v.II has proven invaluable. Otherwise, the high ISO abilities of the D3s, D700, and D7000 make VR a non-essential feature, IMHO.</p>

<p>The Nikon 17-55 AF-S f/2.8 is still a great lens, and paired with the 70-200 VR II it's all you really need. I shoot primes, and use the 17-55 along with a 35 f/1.8 and an 85 f/1.4, and that trio (on a DX body), covers 95% of what I need. On FX bodies, I use 24/35/50/85 with the 35 and 85 getting most of the action.</p>