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Why You Shouldn’t Have A Checklist For Your Wedding Clients

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Are you a wedding photographer? Do you use a checklist to let your clients tell you what images they want?

Stop handing them out and let your creativity soar. While checklists may seem like a great way to communicate with your client, they actually turn you into a subpar photographer. Here’s why.

It Is Unprofessional

You are a professional photographer. Do you really need a client to check a box telling you she wants a photograph of her and her new husband? As a professional, if you don’t understand the basic images that are needed to fulfill a wedding package, you shouldn’t be shooting weddings.

It Sets The Stage For Failure

Imagine you have a checklist with 200 photographs on it. The bride goes through and starts checking them – check, check, check – before she knows it every boxed is checked. It’s her wedding, she wants it all. Now you have the task of having to fulfill every check. Did you get this image? Yes. Oops, I forgot one, now what? Pretty soon you’re missing a lot of the wedding because you’re so worried about getting all the check marks. And if you miss one, the bride will pull out her checklist and ask you about it. Then she won’t be happy with the images you took; instead she’ll be disappointed in the one’s you missed.

It Limits Creativity

Every wedding is different. Every bride and groom is different. If you’re working from a list that says “close up of the bride”, “profile of the bride”, and on and on, you’re not paying attention to what is happening around you. You move from checklist, to pose, to shot, to check, and to the next image on the list. You’re not watching the groom sneak in to make the bride laugh. You don’t notice the bridesmaids off on the side dancing and twirling. You miss everything that will cause this wedding to be unique.

Why You Shouldnt Have A Checklist For Your Wedding Clients

Instead of working with a checklist, use what we call a wedding worksheet instead. [Read more...]

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20 Things You Should Be Doing Now To Improve As A Wedding Photographer

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1. Redo your samples. If you have a studio, frame some new images for your walls. If you meet with prospects regularly, create some new sample albums to showcase your best work. Remember to create samples based on what you want people to buy. We sold multi-album sets because we presented our prospects with multi-album samples. You will get what you show. So make it good!

2. Find a new album company that improves the look of your final product. You can check out my list of resources, or do a search for professional wedding albums. There are many beautiful options that consumers can’t purchase on your own – which gives them more reason to book you.

3. Get out of the office and meet people. Don’t just hit a Chamber meeting or a local networking group; work to find a wedding group. With places like ISES and ABC in many cities, you should easily be able to find a place where you can talk about weddings with peer vendors.

20 Things You Should Be Doing Now To Improve As A Wedding Photographer

4. Sign up for a bridal expo. From large, nationally organized events, to small expos put on by a few vendors, there is always an opportunity to set up a bridal fair and reach out to potential customers. Check out things like the Great Bridal Expo, or Google your area to find something near you.

5. Attend a photography conference. One of the biggest tradeshows for photographers is coming up in March in Las Vegas. WPPI has been helping thousands of photographers for years. From print competitions, to classes with the best photographers in the world, to a tradeshow that’s miles long and showcases hundreds of vendors, you’ll come away inspired. [Read more...]

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Why Great Wedding Vendors Should Be Your Best Friends

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If you photograph weddings, chances are you can quickly think of other wedding vendors you love to work with … and a few you hope you never see again.

We worked at one wedding where the videographer completely monopolized the bride and groom. He would follow us around to use all of our ideas, or jump in and start videoing as we were photographing intimate portraits with the worlds largest and most obnoxious light source. After a couple hours of this at the wedding location, the bride and groom had had enough. So we found ways to “sneak” off at the reception to allow the bride and groom some time alone, while capturing images the way they are meant to be captured.Why Great Wedding Vendors Should Be Your Best Friends

Likewise we have worked with many great vendors that we would gladly work with again and again. We referred each other because we knew what to expect from each other. The quality was always top notch. The service was always extraordinary. And we knew the bride and groom would be happy from beginning to end. They have been friends for many years and remain friends to this day.

If you are new to the wedding industry, building a relationship with your client may seem like the most important thing to do. And it is. Yet the relationships you build with vendors is what will build your business over time. You will only see a bride and groom once – at their wedding. Okay, maybe several times if you do other family members and friends. But if you become friends with other wedding vendors, you may work with each other a dozen times or more each year.

How do you build those relationships?

1. Start with your clients

What vendors will your current clients be using at their upcoming events? This is a great starting point for building relationships. A month or so before a client’s wedding, ask them for their list of top vendors: coordinators, videographers, caterers, florists, musicians, etc. Get points of contacts, and find out who you will be working with at the event itself. For instance, you may be working with a DJ service who employees 6 different DJs. Its great to know the owner of the company, just as its equally important to know who the DJ will be at your event. [Read more...]

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Ethics And The Never Ending Pursuit Of Wedding Photography

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Things always seem to work in trends. When one person has a question, comment or rant on a a particular subject or niche, I get the in multiples within that same niche.

That’s the way its worked lately with the niche of wedding photography, and in today’s post I thought I would share a couple of comments I’ve received in the past week on wedding photography that really opened my eyes.  Take a look:

“This past weekend we shot a wedding in Seattle, and had a girl there with a Rebel shooting. I didn’t mind, in fact, I got her involved instead of her stuffing herself in a corner and avoiding eye contact with me at all costs (because she knew what she was doing was incredibly disrespectful.) But that all changed when I jumped on to facebook to upload some sneak peeks for the bride and groom, only to find pictures already up…..and logo’d…..with the name of her photography business.

And the bride and groom signed a contract stating we would be the only photographers at the wedding.

Half of me wants to send a legalistic letter saying take em down right now, or die a legal death. The other half wants to take this poor, misguided stay-at-home part-time photographer with a kit lens to the side and explain having a Rebel doesn’t make you a business. Snapping someone’s wedding doesn’t make you a photographer. And if you’re willing to put a shot that you snuck of the first look up on facebook that you took through a window with glare and reflections….then….well….I feel bad for you.
*rant ended*” ~Stephanie

Stephanie has every reason to rant. This completely gets into a legal issue of what’s right and wrong, and how far some people are willing to go. [Read more...]

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3 Reasons Most Wedding Photographers Fail

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We’re one of the few photography companies that actually created a lucrative business out of catering to the wedding industry. In less than two years, we went from a general photography company to one that specialized in wedding photography, making well into the Six Figure level. Then we doubled our business. And again.

But it wasn’t always like that.

In the beginning, we did what every other wedding photographer does.

We decided to offer wedding related services. We created our first wedding brochure. And we charged and shot pretty much like every other wedding photographer out there.

Dig Deeper: Doubt To Confidence: What Was Your Magical Moment?

But very quickly something started to change.

We studied what the top names in the industry were doing. We learned from the best. And we quickly changed and grew. And we discovered 3 things that most wedding photographers did that were actually holding them back. [Read more...]

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3 Mistakes Photographers Make When Selling Wedding Albums

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If you photograph weddings, you probably have a package or two in which you offer an album. And in many cases, your package probably looks something like this:

  • Up to 5 hours of photography
  • Over 200 images on copyright-free CD
  • 20 page bridal album
  • 11×14 Portrait Print
  • Online gallery of your wedding photos to share with friends and family worldwide

The bride knows she will receive a CD full of images, and be able to view the images online, and share them with her family and friends from around the world.

She also knows she can take weeks or even months to select a few of her favorites, and have them put into a bridal album.

But it doesn’t matter what photos she selects, how they fit together, or how the will look side by side. She simply selects her favorites, and you as the photographer will force them into some type of order, and create an album from the final selection.

I’ve seen books like this.

An image of the bride walking down the aisle is set next to a formal of the bride outside at the reception. The first dance is placed along side of the couple kissing by the limo.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to the way the album is put together; it’s simply a hodgepodge of images thrown together to form a book of pictures.

Wedding albums aren’t meant to be a book of pictures. They are meant to be the story of the wedding day.

First Mistake: The Photographer Lets The Bride Make The Selection

If you allow a bride to choose her favorite images, she thinks from an individual level, not from a cumulative factor. She can’t see an album because it hasn’t happened yet. She doesn’t imagine how they will look together side by side; she simply chooses based on her best expressions, and her favorite moments.

When she receives the album, it will simply go on the shelf because it’s a book of pictures. It has no meaning – its just 20+ large images from her event.

As a photographer, you should be photographing a wedding to tell the story of the day. With wedding photography, photos work together in order to bring you back to the memories of the event itself. A formal out in the gardens is great, but it’s “just” a photo of the bride and groom. But when you have a series of images of the bride and groom walking through the gardens, talking with their flower girl, sneaking kisses along the way, it becomes a story – and a memory.

As a photographer, you need to think in story format. You need to take one photograph, and then another, and another – all to work together and provide an intimate look into the event itself. Its up to you to tell the story, and present the images in such a way that the bride and groom relive the wedding again and again. [Read more...]

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How wedding photographers can maximize on Twitter

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A Guest Article By Andrew Funderburg

 

1. Your Target Audience The main people a wedding photographer will want to target on Twitter is other wedding industry vendors. Since it’s damn-near impossible to know which Twitter users are brides-to-be, target vendors. Use Twitter to know who is doing what. Offer help if you see someone starting a project. Some suggestions:

  • Magazine Editors
  • Wedding Planners
  • Gown Shops
  • Florists
  • Venues

You get the picture. Twitter is an AWESOME way to break the ice with new vendors and other industry professionals you have yet to meet. Then when you do finally get some face time, you’ll have some familiarity to start with.

2. Look for people who talk back OK, so now you’ve found vendors with Twitter accounts. How do you know if they’re worth pursuing? Look at their stream. If they send out plenty of @replies, then this is who you want to talk to. If on the other hand, their stream is just one-way announcements and links to their Web site, chances are you won’t get much out of them. (They haven’t figured out how to use Twitter yet!)

3. Reach Out Twitter is not an “if you build it, they will come” type medium. In fact, it’s the opposite. You have to REACH OUT to people. You do this on Twitter by first following the people you’re targeting and then replying to their tweets. They’ll follow back after awhile. You have to jump-start it.

4. Be Interesting This should be a no-brainer, but have something to say. If you’re not witty yourself, provide resources, tips and info. You also can have good taste in retweets. @PicSeshu is someone who does this very well and has become a great photography resource on Twitter. Keep in mind your target audience and provide relevant info.

5. Have Fun The simplest law of the social universe, if you’re having fun people will be attracted to you. People want to do business with and be around other positive, upbeat people.

There you have it. That’s how a wedding photographer can use Twitter for business.

 

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10 Tips For Creating A Trash The Dress Package

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The funny thing about buying a wedding dress is you wear it once, and it hangs in the closet forever more. I know – that’s where mine is at the moment.

Mine got a bit more use than most, as I pulled it out on more than one occasion when we were first getting started to practice and build up our portfolio doing the crazy things we dreamt up. But for most brides, it goes into the closet, and rarely is seen again.

Which is why Trash The Dress sessions have become so popular, and can enhance the images a bride and groom have from their special day. The day of the event, the bride would never risk getting her gown dirty or wet. But the day after – all bets are off. For many, Trash The Dress is part of the fun of the entire wedding process.

Not only is it fun for the bride and groom, its also a great way to enhance your portfolio, and let all of your crazy ideas come to light. What have you always wanted to do? What photograph would you love to have in your portfolio? Dream away, and pitch it to your next bride to be.

If you’ve always wanted to add a Trash The Dress package to your services, now is the time. Use these 10 tips to help build your own package, and start selling it today.

1. Don’t Include Trash The Dress Sessions in Your Packages

Wedding packages should be just that, photography the day of the wedding. You shouldn’t include engagement images in your wedding packages. And you shouldn’t include Trash The Dress sessions in your packages. Trash The Dress sessions are extra – above and beyond the norm. Not everyone wants it, and if you include it in your packages, you’ll start the bargaining process with certain clientele.

Dig Deeper: 8 Keys To A Great Engagement Portrait

2. Start With A Small Plan And Grow From There

If you are new to the Trash The Dress concept, don’t start out by having your bride do something completely over the top. Start small and build your portfolio from there. Your creativity will grow as you see the potential. [Read more...]

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What A Pro Captures versus What An Amateur Shoots

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There is one sentence in the Seattle Bride Magazine’s article Pros Of Hiring A Pro that says it all.

“I now disagree more than ever with the digital-age adage that “now everyone is a photographer.”

This coming from an amateur photographer that is doing pretty well as a travel photographer – he has had a few cover images, so he knows a thing or two about photography.

The assumption right now is if you have a camera, love taking pictures, you can photograph anything any time. And I don’t just hear this from the consumers; I hear it from seasoned professionals as well. So many people have bought into the theory that if you have a camera, you can be a professional.

Isn’t that just like saying if you have a plunger, you can be a professional plumber? Or if you have a toothbrush you can be a dentist?

Having the love, desire and passion for photography is your starting point. Then it moves up from there.

You have to know your camera inside and out, be able to shoot in any condition without thinking about it – you just know how to set your camera/flash to get the best image possible.

You have to have the best equipment possible for your circumstances. Multiple professional grade bodies, multiple lenses, flash units – whatever you need to do the best job possible.

You have to know the business side of photography. You have to be good at everything – photography, production, sales, marketing, planning. It all makes you a better photographer, and presents you that way to your potential customers.

And you have to be willing to keep learning along the way. I talk to photographers all the time that swore they would retire before they ever had to use new technology (i.e. digital, social networking, website marketing, etc) and now they are some of the best in the industry. Things change. And you have to change with it. That’s just the way it is.

And finally, you have to be willing to pay for the best, and know when to call in an expert to help you get exactly what you want. Just like you would never have a friend put in a crown over a broken tooth, you should never call in a friend to photograph one of the most important days of your life.

As the amateur photographer in the Seattle Bridal Magazine said:

“My fiancé and I are on a tight budget and had planned to take a gamble and hire an amateur photographer friend. Now? We’re determined to find a way to get a pro.”

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Wedding Photography – There Are No Second Chances

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The wedding season is just gearing up here in the states, so I’ve been seeing a lot of commentary about wedding photographers. One being this video put out by PPA.

In the video was this quote:

“An amateur photographer may get the shot right sometimes. A professional photographer is paid to get it right every time.” Mark Campbell, Professional Photographer

How true. As a wedding photographer myself, I’ve written about the importance of using a professional wedding photographer again and again.

You get one shot at getting it right. The guests will only be together one day. The formalities and details will only be available one time. Get it wrong and its disaster.

If you are a wedding photographer, two things should be at the top of the list of priorities.

1. Being the best wedding photographer you can be.

2. Marketing your wedding services to your prospects, and educating them on what is truly important.

Being The Best

The first task is the easiest. You have to educate yourself not just on photography, but also on every aspect of wedding photography. There is a big difference. Learning how to shoot is straightforward. If you’re standing in front of a waterfall, you can keep adjusting until you get it right – the waterfall isn’t going anywhere.

But that changes with a wedding. You have dozens of subjects moving and changing every second. You have a variety of shooting experiences – bright sunlight for formal images, and dark reception halls with mere candlelight as your light source.

Study with other photographers. Be an assistant to some of the top names in your community. Take their classes and week long training courses. By their books and posing guides. Do everything you can to become a little better every day.

Marketing and Educating

The second task is a lifelong challenge. Once you’ve achieved a professional status with your wedding photography, you have to prove it to the world.

This video is a great help. Why not incorporate videos like this into your own marketing – YouTube embed feature means you can easily put it onto your blog. And if you’ve joined organizations like PPA, you can also use that as a motivator that you are taking the next step to prove your experience and commitment to the photographic industry.

Not everyone will “get it”. Some people only care about price. And if that’s the case, let them go to another photographer, and take the chance of not getting the best results.

But in many cases it only takes a little education. Don’t stop with one liners and showcasing your gallery of images.

Tell people what they need to look for, and watch out for. Most people have never thought about the dangers of hiring a friend until its too late. Fear works in marketing – if you hear a horror story, you’re more likely going to try and avoid the same situation.

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