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I surf online a lot. So I thought I’d share with you some of the things I look through - things you might find interesting too.

10. Film … or digital? I posted on this just a few days ago, and found this another interesting read on the same topic. Read Brian Auer’s Is Film Dead? I especially found his poll interesting - 57 percent (at the time I looked at the results) found using film to be a steady or growing trend. Wow.

9. As a photographer you have to put your photos online, right? Why not on a social site.  (I’ll be there soon.) In the mean time, check out this photo of Dubai in the fog.

8. Do you worry about theft of your photos if you put them online? Start with this great post on How Every Flickr Photo Ended Up on Sale This Weekend.

7. If you haven’t had enough on  the theft of photos topic, follow this continuing discussion by Photrade.

6. For an endless list of everything photography, head over to Alltop. Alltop helps you learn all you can about individual topics - like photography.

5. What do you do with all of your digital images while you’re on the road?  Read Peter Carey’s advice for Digital Photo Storage On the Road. I’ll add one other tip. When we traveled for weddings, we would carry plenty of memory cards with us. But if we were going to travel for awhile, we would also burn a set of CD/DVD’s and mail them back to our office. You can also upload them to your backup system, via your laptop.

4. I know everyone has an opinion on Flickr, but you  can’t deny you can find some incredible images there. Take a look at these photos of the Tour de France.

3. So you wanna be a studio photographer? Why not make your own backgrounds. We’ve made a few ourselves in the past, and still use them today for certain shoots. Take a look at How To Make a Background for Studio Photography.

2. If you haven’t seen the Red One, take a look. I’ve been talking about it with a few local photographers lately. (Check out their service policy at the bottom - I love it!)

1. A photo site used to help bring awareness to important issues around the world - how cool. Photography can be so powerful. Take a look at The Homeless Photographer. Then plan on some time browsing through the other images.

Last week I ran a photography survey to find out what your biggest concerns were for building your business this year. Thanks for your answers.

I thought I’d let you in on the answers so far - so you can find out if other’s are facing the same issues as you.

1. What is the biggest thing you need help with right now?

Your biggest challenge is to find more clients - this is the definite clear winner. Next in line is to learn more about running the business.

2. If you were to invest in training during 2008, where would you most likely spend your money?

The big winner here is to learn more about marketing a photography business, leading almost 50 percent over the next highest task of learning more about photo manipulation.

3. What’s your biggest challenge in 2008?

Again the clear winner here is learning how to create a steady stream of income.

Thanks so much - I see a trend here. Though I know from talking with many of you that  marketing your business and building up a strong clientele base is your toughest challenge, I really enjoy hearing directly from you how you’re currently feeling about your business. Your answers to my 4th question - What question would you ask a successful business coach right now? - has also provided me with a lot of insight.

Watch my future posts to answer some of your most pressing issues. Thanks!

With the push to hand over digital media to clients becoming common practice there is a huge need for quality packaging for DVD cases.

Create Professional-Grade DVD and CD Packages with the Jewelboxing System.

Check out this site that has professional designers who were unsatisfied with the materials available for packaging our DVDs and CDs. They created Jewelboxing  to allow individuals to produce a short-run of high-end packages and to give them the freedom to concentrate on the most important part of the job, the creative. Selecting the Super Jewel Box™ King and Standard cases, created complementary components of the highest quality and made precise design templates for virtually all major design and publishing software programs.

Check out their site for more information - Jewelboxing

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Multiple Image Editing Splashup, formerly Fauxto, is a powerful editing tool and photo manager. With all the features professionals use and novices want, it’s easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. Splashup runs in all browsers, integrates seamlessly with top photosharing sites, and even has its own file format so you can save your work in progress. Photo sharing services all work the same in Splashup, including Splashup itself. Edit your images easily, from anywhere. 

Quickly add a water effect to any digital photography image through an online resource. This water effect generator allows you to quickly add a water effect to pictures and images online. Quick and simple. First select and upload the picture from your computer, wait until the water effect is created, download and save the newly generated image to your computer. www.watereffect.net

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Found a really cool site that might save you a few bucks on your next online purchase. FreeShipping is a great resource for free shipping codes. It helps you save money by showing you what stores offer free shipping codes. There are currently over 650 stores and 1000 free shipping deals on the website. So if you ever need to find a department store with free shipping, or get a list of available free shipping coupons for a particular website then FreeShipping.org is the first place you should look at.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

phixr.com - Online Photo Editor Phixr is a web-based images editor that you can access from any computer. You simply need to upload your pictures and make all the changes you want. After editing your images, Phixr enables you to upload them to Flickr, Fotopic, Livejournal, Photobucket,

phoja.com - Social Photo Discussion Phoja is a free “social photo discussion” service, where users can share photos and discuss about them with the rest of the community. You may post photos on Phoja from the web site or your mobile phone. The photos can be about something interesting you saw, something you need advice on, and even something amusing. You can also post photos taken from your mobile phone camera or a digital camera, along with a relevant question, and seek advice from other like-minded Phoja users.

photoblog.com - A Way to Share and Preserve Memories of Daily Life Organizing photographs and thoughts neatly by date, users can save special moments in their life to share or look back on years down the road.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Found a great site for adding a story to your photography - Tell your Story Comeeko lets you take your photos and put them into nice photo strips. Create your own photo strips and share them online. Photo strips are your photos made into comic strips. Photography into comic strips

Are you overwhelmed and  lost with what digital photography is or what digital photography can do, we found a really cool resource that can help. I know that not everyone knows what “firmware” is or how “lag time” affects your image but you can find out lots of valuable information with this digital photography resource

Here are just  a few items that the site offers:

• Over 4,000 full-color interactive pages organized into 153 topics.
• Highly illustrative with thousands of images and animations.
• Easy to follow step-by-step animated image editing tutorials.
• Easy to understand basic and advanced practical theory.
• Selectable learning levels:
  Beginner, Advanced Amateur, Professional.

I was amazed to see and learn more than I thought possible from a digital photography resource.

Have you ever visited a web site and found an image next to the web site address? This little graphic is called a favorite icon and is very easy to add to any web site. All you need is a graphic that represents your studio and then visit this site to create your favicon. Square graphics work best for this type of application.

What’s the best way to recharge your photography business? Take a vacation.

As photography business owners, we often get stuck in the same old routines of running our businesses. We move from position to position, working non-stop making sure things get done. After all, most business owners have to wear a lot of hats to get all of the work done.

But after a while things begin to get monotonous. And the best way to get back on track is by taking a vacation.

Here are 10 things you should do on your next vacation.

10. Relax. Don’t check email twice a day and carry that cell phone with you at all times. The only way to rejuvenate is to completely get away from it all.

9. Try something new. Wherever you go these days you’ll find the standard shops, stores and restaurants. Why not take a chance and try out that small restaurant on the beach? You may be in for a pleasant surprise. While you’re there, get some tips to use in your own business.

8. Find something motivating to bring home. I always find one thing that I can bring back and put on my desk that will allow me to relive my vacation experience anytime I need a quick escape. It may be a special frame for a photograph, or a vase for my favorite flowers. It’s nice to bring that feeling to life at any time.  Read the remaining>>

Found a really cool resource site for your photography called snapmania.com This site is more than a hosting site for you images, it allows you to modify your images (ie change the hue, gamma, blur and sharpen, charcoal and many others) work them into a slides show, send an ecard and even add frames. Check out the site.

Have you ever wanted to take a website and get a decent print from it? Found a really cool tool that lets you add the html and it will spit out a pdf version of the website. Check it out - html to pdf

I was doing a little research this morning to find out how many photographers are still using film, and how many have made the switch to digital.

In one survey, they found 82 percent of those surveyed were using digital cameras. And more than 72 percent own two or more cameras. (Sound familiar )

This really wasn’t a surprise to me. I still run into the occasional photographer that prefers film, so 82 percent is probably an accurate figure.

But the thing I found most amazing is 23 percent of the respondents said both digital and film produced the same quality results, while the remainder of respondents were evenly split at 38 percent between digital and film.

When we switched completely to digital in 2001, we’ve never looked back. Digital allows so much more flexibility with the images. You can sell your images better, retouch easier, get better images because you can immediately see your work. We’re definitely in the 38 percent that prefers digital.

How about you?

While out surfing today I found a wonderful tool to give your website some character. It’s called Touchpoint Gallery, and allows you to showcase your photographs in several unique ways.   You can create albums, showcase your images on walls, or just give your photos a 3D look. Any way you do it, it may be something fun to give your business its own unique look.

Listing your digital photography studios’ website in a directory will help you get noticed. We have a directory that lists thousands of photography studio across the world.  Here a few samples:

Photography Studios in Alabama
Photographers in Alaska
Photography Studios in Arizona
Arkansas Wedding Photography
California Digital Photography
Colorado Wedding Photography
Photographers in Connecticut
Photographers in Florida
Georgia Wedding Photography
Hawaii Wedding Photography
Illinois Digital Wedding Photography
Photographers in Indiana

Add yours to the list here (its provided at no charge):

 

With the advent of digital photography, some of the fun films have be shoved aside. Remember when you could create some stunning photography images using infrared light spectrum film.

Found a great resource for infrared photography - http://lifepixel.com/

Everyday at our photography studios and each weekend during a wedding event we take thousands of photographic digital images. These digital files are conveniently stored on a memory device, usually a flash card for later download to a computer. This workflow is a daily job for most photography businesses and is essential for studios to process the captured images. For the most part, this procedure works every time, without fail and we move on. What do you do if you find that your card data is corrupt.   For a portrait, you could re-shoot the family, child or high school senior but what would happen if this was a wedding. What if this was a card loaded with 200 or more bride and groom images? Found a cool solution to this problem that could become your best friend if your card stops working - http://www.photorescue.com 

We are always looking on the Internet for new products or solutions to issues faced at photography studios. Let us know if you found any tools that we can place on this site.

Providing new ideas to your photography business and information on how to start a photography business. Stay up to date with our photography newsletter which provides tips on your photography studio.

Found a very cool tool for locating images. Want some inspiration?

Check this creative image view. Just add your own search word and it will do the rest. It will also surround your search with subjects related to your word. Image Interactive Search

Is technology missing in your photography sales? Do you have a way to create photographic print sales 24/7? Time to take a look at ways that increase your print sales from each portrait or wedding your studio photographs.

Online sales are not new, they have been around for many years, but the ease of using photography print systems have changed. With a quick upload of your prints files, you could have your clients, family members and friends purchasing prints and enlargements today.

Several systems are in place today for great photographic print and enlargement sales experiences. Pictage and Collages.net are easy to understand and simple for your clients to navigate. Some systems even send out reminder emails about prints and specials. Some labs like Millers and Burrell offer systems that enhance your current photography studio business. Take a few moments and see if adding online photography print sales could increase profit to your bottom line quickly.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Wedding photography is a wonderful service that we offer our clients. Providing this once in a lifetime memory of a blissful event. I know many photographers face the same issue when photographing weddings, loud receptions. Seems that the party needs to be loud and ground thumping to be enjoyable. Sounds like a great time if you only attend one event every few years. What if you capture events every weekend or multiple events during a weekend? The extreme sound can take its toll on your hearing. Do you know how well your hearing is? Found a very cool site that has exact frequency to show your hearing ability.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

This video is an amazing and eye opening presentation of how the world is changing because of technology that should be watched.

I just read an interesting case study put out by MarketingSherpa about Zappos.com, an online shoe retailer. In 2007, this company made $1.6 million in sales. This year, they expect $800 million, and hope to top the $1 billion mark in 2008. How did they do it? By concentrating on customer retention.

Most small businesses put their entire marketing focus on customer acquisition.   They  search high and low for new prospects, and spend most of their budget trying to bring in new sales.  Zappos.com did it a different way. They chose to make their existing clients happy - who in turn refer their friends because of the great customer service they come to expect from this online giant.

It definitely shows in their bottom line.

What can you do to improve your own customer retention?

Higher quality customer service
Overnight shipping
No questions return policy
24/7 fulfillment

Listen to your portrait and wedding photoraphy customers - chances are they are telling you what they want. You just have to listen.

What an incredible past week this nation and world has seen! For the United States, the celebration of our independence on July 4th and Earth Day on 07/07/07.

We were out of the country during the July 4th celebration but still enjoyed it. This holiday is one of my favorite holidays.

On July 7, 07, many photographers were crazy busy photographing what was one of the most popular days for weddings. I don’t think that there were many photographers out of work on this special day.

Another item that was celebrated around the world was live earth day. Artists spanned the globe hosting concerts in a 24 hour marathon event that has never been seen. For more information on live earth and what you can do to help protect our environment, we have included a link - Live Earth

 I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration on safe holiday.

I received an interesting question the other day - do you have any solutions? Comment on this blog, and let us know!

 

Hi Lori.  How are you?
 
Can you help me with finding info on working with Adobe Creative Suite 7.0 Professional? 
 
I think I may have bit off more that I can chew with this program! 
 
I can take an awsome picture,  but I can not seem to work with this program easily.
 
What would you suggest that I need to do?  I updated my ram to 1.5 gb,  whatever that means,  and I want to be able to edit pictures easily.
 
Any info you and your peers can suggest,  would be very much appreciated.
 
Thank you very much for all the work you put into your site,   and all the great information you have given me.  I tell everyone in Canada about you and your site.
 
Thank You
SH

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