2009 January | Virtual Photography Studio - Resources for photographers

Putting Your Eggs Into One Basket

So you have a photography business. And you decide to do weddings.

So you find one reception site and work there a time or two. You start building relationships with the planner, and they begin referring you again and again.

So you begin relying on them to fill up your summers. They send 15 clients over your way every year. Your goal is 20 weddings per year, so you’re happy with the 15 from a strong referral.

Now let me ask you a question.

What happens the day that reception site goes out of business?

If you have a strong relationship with the on site planner, its easy to get the 15 wedding clients with very little selling. The event planner has already talked you up, and has possibly let the prospect see some of your work. Why wouldn’t they book you?

Your Photography Business – Recession Proof It

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What are you doing to your photography business to guarantee yourself an income … no matter what?

I’m out on social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn a lot. So I see a ton of conversations all related to the economy. People are worried about their jobs, wondering if they’ll still be employed six months from now, and trying their hand at building up a hobby to a reasonable income, so that it won’t hurt quite as bad if their job does disappear.

But what if you could build up your hobby to a full time income – a Six Figure income – and never had to worry about the J.O.B. every again?

8 Ways To Cover Up Your Mistakes

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Have you ever been working with a clients files, and had a sinking feeling in your stomach? Maybe you were having a bad day, and the quality just isn’t there. Or maybe you had the wrong settings, and there’s no way you can recover the image and make it acceptable.

Whatever happened, what do you do? How can you make it up to the client? Consider these 8 strategies.

1. Admit your mistake. Sometimes hiding it is the worst thing you can do. Instead admit it up front, and continue on from there.

2. Ask what the client wants in return. I’ll admit it, once we made a pretty major mistake on a wedding early on. We messed up the entire cake/toast section, and didn’t have one image to place in the album. I was ready to give the client a ton. But instead we asked what she wanted. She simply chose a few pictures her guests had taken and we placed them in the album. She was happy. I was happy. And I learned to ask what they want before I impose my thoughts.

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Filed Under: Blog, Business Tagged With: customer service, photography mistakes, photography tips

Using the Polaroid PoGo Digital Camera In Your Studio

by Virtual Photography 2 Comments

Polaroid announced today its introduction back into the world of instant cameras with the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera. It’s the first digital camera and instant printer combination available.

polaroid pogo

Simply point it and shoot it, then crop or edit them. Add fun borders or keep it full frame. Images can be printed in under 60 seconds.

The PoGo uses Zink Printing Technology, which makes printing pictures instantly possible without using messy inks. Instead, Zink Photo Paper is a durable material with embedded yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals, activated with 200 million heat pulses in 30 seconds with a single pass. With 100 billion crystals in each 2×3 inch print, the paper is 100 percent inkless, and has the benefit of also being eco-friendly.

polaroid pogo 2

So how can you use the Polaroid PoGo in your photography business?

7 Easy Ways To Bring More Money To Your Bottom Line

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

As a photographer, you ultimately have three ways to make money.

1. Bring in new clients

2. Sell more to each client

3. Bring in the client again and again

Bringing in new clients is your most difficult way of selling. Because they have no experience with you, they’re less likely to trust you. It takes awhile to build that trust.

Once a client is happy, it’s easier to bring them in again and again for more shoots. They know you, trust you, and understand the entire process. Yet in this economy, even bringing in existing client may be a little more difficult to do.

Instead, make 2009 the year you sell more product to each of your clients. If they are in your studio, like what they see, it’s your job to sell them what they truly need. Let’s look at 7 ways you can increase the bottom line of each and every client.

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Filed Under: Blog, Sales Tagged With: photography sales, selling to clients, tips for increasing business

Photographing For Inspiration, For Fun, and For Promotion

by Virtual Photography Leave a Comment

Many of you know I started a Photo 365 blog just a few days ago. I thought it would be fun to document the year through photographs. With my blog, I’ve chosen to see the world through snapshots – just quick photos of something that happened during my day.

Of course once you set up to accomplish something, you seem to find inspiration from all around you. Today I found Hamilton365, a photo blog dedicated to portraits of people in and around his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.

Some of his portraits are simply amazing. It’s definitely worth checking out for fun and inspiration.

Okay, now on to how you can promote yourself through a photo 365 blog. Imagine someone coming across a site like Hamilton365. After spending time looking through the photographs, you can easily get a feel for Larry’s style. And once you fall in love with his work, of course you have to find out more about him. And possibly hire him.

The key to all forms of marketing is to have fun with what you’re doing, show off your talents, and be just a bit different than the average photographer.

Something Larry is doing well.

Filed Under: Blog, Get Inspired Photography, Just For Fun Tagged With: a picture a day, photo 365 blog, photographing for fun

Photo 365 – Documenting 2009 in Photographs

by Virtual Photography 3 Comments

This year I’ve really fallen in love with blogging, and have made my blogs top priority for 2009. Throughout 2008, I learned of many sites that participate in photo 365 – taking one photo every day for a year.

Well, it sounded like an exciting experiment to me, so as of today, we’re off and running with our own photo 365.

I won’t be posting each of these posts directly to this blog. Instead, I’ve created a separate photo blog just for our images.

Virtual Photography Studio’s Photo 365 – Seeing The Year of 2009 Through Photographs

If you decided to start one yourself, let us know! I love looking through photographs – and I may just feature you here on my blog.

Happy New Year.

Filed Under: Blog, Just For Fun Tagged With: photo 365