mark_t5

<p>good god..thats just freaky....its like they are floating</p>

<p>just write a comment into the album saying something like.. it was nice shooting your wedding or something.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>since you mentioned that you can't afford anything else due to lack of money, i can only suggest that you get one more thing...</p>

<p>a good contract that cover your butt if things go downhill.</p>

<p>Wish em the best.</p>

<p>If a couple has to resort to their friends to shoot their wedding, chances are that they simply do not have a budget big enough to afford a professional photographer, so why bother trying to convince them otherwise... they are simply not the type of customers that I aim for.</p>

<p>At this point telling them how bad it may be is just counter productive. You are not going to get anything out of them, and they just going to feel bad by your horror stories, and may even feel that you just suck for telling them what to do.</p>

<p>wish them the best and walk away. If things explode, they won't think it is your fault.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>this may not apply to your target audience, but not maintaining a blog may costs you business..</p>

<p>most of my clients talk about how they like the images from my blog.... not my website..my blog... go figure..</p>

 

<p>nope....its a wedding.. not a bridal show..</p>

<p>i'll give my cards to those that ask me for one, but i'm not at my client's wedding trying to sell things to people.</p>

<p> </p>

<p><strong> </strong><br /> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/298cgtk"><strong><br /></strong></a>it depends on how you shoot.... what style..whats the distance you usually stay from the subject... etc....</p>

<p>go back to your old pics, look and see what mm you usually shoot at, then you would know which lens might suit u better.</p>

<p>microsoft photo story is free...and it makes it into 1 avi file that's easily transportable.... a lot of those commercial slideshow programs create a whole directory worth of files, not the best if you want to give it to clients, especially if they are computer illerate.</p>

<p>Unless you got a good portfolio to show, paying for ad space on those major websites will do you no good.</p>

<p>You will be competing vs other vendors with really good portfolios, so if you want to pay, just make sure your portfolio is comparable to theirs, otherwise you will simply be telling the brides to go to your competition.</p>

<p>other websites are like weddingwire and projectwedding. they sell vendor listings i believe.</p>

<p>Everyone is a "photographer" these days.</p>

<p>As long as you are not in the pro's way constantly, I don't see a problem. Just remember your place in the wedding. Some people becomes consumed by it and suddenly they are in the way of every shot.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I only lost someof the ceremony photos..............and have over 1000 in all.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This comment has nothing to do with your original problem, but if you have 1k images for the ceremony alone, i would say you are shooting way too much.</p>

 

<p>unless you don't know about manual focus, not sure why this would have been such a big deal.</p>

<p>I have plenty of times where my lenses would not just focus since it was just too dark. i just flipped the switch to MF and off i go shooting focusing by hand.</p>

<p>the speedlight red thingie that "helps in focusing" doesn't really help much in extreme dim conditions, and there is no lens that'll focus in low light.</p>

<p>as for losing almost all of the ceremony pics, i'm not sure why this would happen either. Wouldn't you have noticed there is a problem after a couple missed shots and do something to fix the problem? or did you just kept on shooting without checking on the results?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>well, if its bludomain that should be easy to take down, i doubt bludomain want to alienate their core customer by helping a photo thief.</p>

<p>i guess time to move to another domain name since his old "studio" reputation is now trashed...</p>

<p>i think unless someone takes this guy to court and make him learn a lesson he'll just keep on changing names.</p>

<p>You know you can learn without shooting right?</p>

<p>Go to the wedding without a camera, just follow the professional and see what he does. Learn how he directs the shots and the people. That is something you can't learn by yourself.</p>

<p>You can always learn about shooting in different lighting conditions with a stuffed animal, but learning what a professional does during a wedding? that is something you can only learn by watching one.</p>

<p> </p>

sounds like a trainwreck waiting to happen

<p>i've seen good photographers that swears by insurance and others than don't care for it.</p>

<p>a big part is whether the venues that you are working at requires it or not. if they do, you either get it or forget about doing gigs there.</p>

<p>the other part is how comfortable are you regarding losing your equipment. some people are afraid and hence get the insurance, others think their equipment are always with them so they don't really need the insurance.</p>

<p>it's a personal preference thing.</p>

<p>how about going there and check out the location beforehand?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>noticing a few photogs are starting to use the same editing style</p>

</blockquote>

<p>and you want to join the crowd? If you do, why would a client hire you vs the other guys? Wouldn't it be better if you explore your own style to stand out?</p>

<p>10 images is not going to book you weddings..unless you are doing them for free.</p>

<p>brides these days will want to see a complete wedding coverage, so if you show them all 500 images from a wedding, and only a handful are good, chances are that you will not book the wedding. You will have to be consistent in your shots.</p>

<p>packages/albums and all those nonsense are only relevant if your images are good. i see a lot of new photographers going ahead of themselves creating all these fancy/complex packages and stuff but have mediocre images to back them up. packages don't sell weddings, images do.</p>

 

<p>investment page...</p>

<p>background of dark brown + black text = empty page.... how your customers suppose to read what they can't see</p>

<p>i think its just best to find a local.</p>

<p>if you have a small budget, you won't be able to afford a top photographer no matter whether he's already there or not.</p>

<p>is there like a india equivalent of craigslist?</p>

<p>the best don't need to advertise cuz the advertisers comes to them because they shoot fancy weddings with nice venues, which the publications want to show in their magazines. they already have enough clients that the word of mouth works enough to book them new clients, as well as random people just know their name and want their service.</p>

<p>when you are new and have nothing, no one cares about you and hence you need to pay to advertise yourself. no magazine cares about showcasing a wedding in the local YMCA..ok..maybe once in a blue moon.</p>

<p>i took a quick look at the knot's photographer section in NYC.. 5 pages...i think unless you willing to shell out the big bucks to place you on the 1st page, you are simply just going to get lost in the crowd.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>to be frank, unless you are really really good/famous or friend, few brides hire an out of towner since it is cheaper to hire a local for reasons that you already stated.</p>

<p>NY is full of good photographers, unless there is something in your style that stands out that no one else in NY has, no one will hire you.</p>

<p>instead of trying to advertise in NY, why not try to advertise in your local area...sounds like a better use of your budget.</p>

<p>hm... 2 hour is nothing at least in my book. i routinely shoot weddings that are 2 hours away and i don't charge anything extra for it. but that's just me. after alll..we are talking maybe 10% extra money..i rather simply just make the deal and not make the extra 10% as oppose to loose the deal and make 0</p>

<p>you can do whatever combination you want. you don't have to disclose how you came to the number to the customer..just say the total will be X and leave it at that... but if you charge too much for the travel, chances are someone else's pricing might start looking more enticing to the couple.</p>

<p>and no..typically you don't count travel time as part of your time if you are charging by the hour.... the couple could care less about paying you to drive and get hit by that in addition to mileage charges. after all, let's say you hit traffic and the time is even longer....is it fair for the couple to pay you to sit in traffic when she already is paying you by the mile?</p>