Power of No
This year has been surprisingly successful. Despite less bookings, I’m actually generating more revenue.

How do you do that you may ask?

Saying no.

Last year i was inspired by a book simply titled “no”. If i could sum it up in a sentence or two the book described the following idea:

The power of negotiation and arbitration is focused on the power of no.

How does this apply to business?

Learn when to say no to offers. This has always been akin to my life philosophy. Use less effort but produce maximum results; become more effective with your business transactions.

It’s very simple. Start looking at your business. Start breaking down your profit and loss. Your most valuable asset is your time. You need to break down what activities are profitable activities. Track your hours accordingly.

The Chinatown Special: The Best DIY Beauty Dish from The Browyoungs on Vimeo.

Lifehacker provided a great tip today: Create vintage photos in seconds with two things.

A filter and vaseline. Place the vaseline liberally on the edges of your filter.

I would also recommend buying two filters. Another that would go on top of the filter that contains the vaseline so that your camera bag doesn’t get super greasy.

Photo of how they did it:

Source: Lifehacker

Canon releases the new Mid-Level DSLR the Canon 60D today.

Source: Dpreview.com

Key Features:

• 18MP APS-C CMOS sensor
• ISO 100-3200 (expandable to 12,800)
• 5.3 fps continuous shooting
• 1080p HD video recording with manual controls
• SD / SDHC / SDXC storage
• In-camera raw development
• Subject modes with ‘Ambience Selection’ (Standard, Vivid, Soft, Warm, Intense, Cool, Brighter, Darker and Monochrome)
• In-camera Creative Filters (special effects)
• Fully articulated 3.0″ screen (3:2)

Differences between 60D and 50D

60D possesses the following features:

• Smaller
• Plastic Body (50D is metal)
• SD card over CF
• No Flash Sync

Source dpreview.com: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos60d/

You own a blog yourself. You want to add some fun functionality. We’ve provided a great list of wordpress (only) plugins.

Just a quick cursory lists of some must have plugins for your wedding photography blog:

1. The Events Calendar – Let your clients know when you’re booked or let them know when your next event is! This is especially great if you’re teaching seminars or speaking as well!  It easily integrates into your theme. It may require some technical know how.
   Features: 8/10  Ease of use: 9/10 Installation: 6/10
2. All in one SEO: The king of SEO plugins. This plugin allows you to keep your content well organized so google will know to rank your posts/pages highly.
   Features: 7/10 Ease of Use: 9/10 Installation: 8/10
3. Twitter tools: Integrates really well with your twitter handle. Now that twitter is all the rage it makes sense to keep up with photography!  Integration with your account is a bit tricky here too but the plugin provides some follow along instructions on how to obtain an API key.
   Features: 9/10 Ease of Use: 8/10 Installation: 7/10
4. Image Widget: You’d like to add some photos to your sidebar ? This widget allows you the flexibility to add photos easily!
   Features: 7/10 Ease of Use: 9/10 Installation: 9/10
5. Next Gen Gallery: You need a gallery but you’re not that internet savvy? This is the perfect plugin for you. It’s the best plugin for managing photos and displaying your latest photos for your clients to find them. The plugin has a wealth of features and display options! The instructions for installing the plugin and customizing it for your needs makes it slightly difficult. Some time investment is involved if you’d like to integrate it into your plugin.
   Features: 9/10 Ease of Use: 8/10 Installation: 6/10
6. Backup : You’ve probably seen zounds of plugins for backing up your blog. This one is excellent. This one not only backsup your database (but also backsup your other important files like the upload file etc. The only tricky part of this plugin is that you’ll need the right requirements for the plugin. Some requirements are the following: Correct permissions for the folder, and an email to send the backup to.
   Features: 7/10 Ease of Use: 9/10 Installation: 9/10

I encountered a really great article on how to create your own NAS server to help with digital asset management.

The article provides an insight on how to cheaply create a NAS server to store, backup files and it’ll allow you to access them anywhere in the world; As long as your server is connected to an internet connection.

The server uses a FreeBSD flavor of linux to serve files. I’m not sure exactly.

I definately recommend checking this out if you’re an uber geek or somewhat computer savvy: NAS Server

Canon officially releases a new camera:  Canon 7D.  With the release of the Nikon D300s, Canon has seen a drop of market share in the semi-pro/pro area. The new release positions itself directly against APS-C cameras like the Nikon D300s. In fact it’s going to be priced $100 less than the Nikon D300s.

The 7D provides some new ground breaking features:

• Boasts 18 Megapixels
• Full Manual 1080p 24fps HD video
• Continuous 8 Frames Per Second of shooting with up to 126 Large/JPEGs and 15 RAW
• A new magnesium body that is durable, weather and dust resistant
  
• Up To 150,000 Frame Shutter Life
• Full Speed CF UDMA Abilities
  
• Dual DIGIC Image 4 Processors
• Amazing 19 point autofocus system.
• ISO 100 – ISO 6400/12,800 (Expanded)

The 7D will retail at $1699 (Canon Website).

Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/canon-eos-7d-now-official-is-exactly-what-you-expected/

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09090105canoneos7d.asp

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10322059-1.html

In the era of the internet and boundless choices society has devolved to depend on primitive forms of communications (Brafman & Brafman, Ori & Rom 2008).

It is thus essential to get wedding photographers who want to survive this recession as well as expand your wedding photography business to provide the utmost sterling service. With this goal in mind; prices are no longer arguable or negotiable; your reputation for sterling service and excellent quality photographs will give you greater chances of justifying higher prices for less effort.

Here are some easy ideas to provide buzz and give the impression of branding your company as the company of high end quality service.

1. Communicate through Branding – This is usually the first step of any photographer. They create a brand in mind. Make sure it’s true to you and conveys what you intend to do. This will be your foundation of communication to your clients. Your brand must clearly represent yourself in 3 seconds why you’re worth spending all that money for. Make sure your brand conveys the 3 C’s:  Cohesiveness, Clarity, Comprehensiveness.
2. Packaging - Good packaging and attention to the small details are key to creating buzz. Find packaging that is unique from other companies or regions. This may hire a good graphic/packaging designer. It will pay off in the long run.
3. Personality - Be personal and intimate. If this is not your style; that’s quite alright. Give your work a personal flair. Put your soul, empathy, and emotion into your work. Go over your portfolio and pick out those pieces of work that really convey that emotional impact. That’s what will more often than not sell. Just make sure you make it a point to try to find interest in your clients life or interest. It doesn’t mean that you should go out and hang out with them; but just keep in touch with them. Almost be their professional friend.
4. Be generous and kind if it comes up; send them small gifts  if the occasion comes up. Say a birthday, graduation, anniversary, etc. You worry about costs? You’re a photographer; photos don’t really cost so much.  Offer a quick couple shot and print them out a couple 8×10′s or 4×6′s. They’re cheap but can go a long way. Sometimes if you’ve already shot them why not send them a quick post card with their photo. Canon has a printer that allows you to print on postcard paper. Write a personal message. If you do decide to purchase a gift ask your accountant what the gift limits are (as i don’t really know. I’m not an accountant). You may be able to deduct the full cost of the gift.
5. Show up in person when you can I don’t recommend meeting clients in person all that much if you don’t have an agenda. This may cause a lot of lost time. However, make it an effort to show up or meet with them to deliver their final photos for their wedding when you can. This can make a big difference.
6. Underpromise / Overdeliver When you can push the bar lower; but crash those expectations. You may be able to deliver an album in 10 weeks but you actually were able to deliver it in half that time.  This will provide you the buzz you need.
7. Details – Make sure you record notes and store them in a good place. If you can remember the details of your conversations and recall them your authority and position make a lasting impact on your clients
8. Be Consistent Make sure you are consistent and follow through with your actions.

This is a presentation that i’ve discovered. It’s highly inspiring and interesting. It may be more relevant for wedding photographers or commercial photographers who have a larger team.

Regardless of if you have many employees; it’s rather fascinating and groundbreaking insight on how to to manage teams many multidisciplinary teams.

The title sums it all. I’ve discovered some small things will make a big difference in your working day.

Being at the right place and the right time is crucial if you’re a wedding photojournalist. Tangent:  I’m more of a fauxtojournalist (Coined by Jerry Ghionis). I like to create moments as well as capture the moment.

The Truth: We’re not perfect. You can’t get every shot Mister/Madam Wedding Photographer

Nonetheless, you can’t always be in the right place in the right time. It’s a part of life: You cannot optimally capture 100% of the shots. Even if you do you might have to throw away a lot of the shots you took. We’re all not robots and we’re not perfect. It’s why the photo gods created photoshop (I wasn’t referring to erasers silly!).  Leaving the joking aside, you shouldn’t rely on photoshop and that’s a total different subject.

We may convey this to our brides to the utmost certainty; the harsh reality is that you cannot capture all the shots. Even voodoo won’t be able to save you this time. On the positive note, if you’re prepared and the photography gods are on your side your odds of getting more perfect shots will increase.

I’ll cover the duh’s and the do’s on getting optimal shots.

Part I: Getting to your bride

Ok so the following are pretty obvious sometimes and even funny. But it’s the damn truth. Make sure you get these down. You can’t shoot great pictures if you’re not on time or even near your bride.

1. Ask your bride some good questions for the wedding. In the next blog post I will provide a templated list or form you can print out that’ll provide you a worksheet where you can write in some standard questions for wedding logistics.
2. Make sure you know where the wedding occuring – Make sure that you have all the information that will allow you to get there on time. This is an obvious duh; but sometimes it might cross your mind because you’ve waited till the last minute to write down where her wedding is.
3. Confirmation – Have the bride confirm the venues a couple days before the wedding. Wedding cancellations are common in a recession like this.  Make sure everything is still on.
4. Check traffic the day of the wedding – I know some of you might live in areas where traffic may not exist; but for me (I live in Detroit) and traffic and construction are a major headache sometimes. Make sure you get your self a good gps as well. This is one of the good habits of wedding photographers i’ve mentioned previously. You may also want to use google maps to consult the
5. Use monuments to visualize your route - Use google street view – I’m a visual guy. I need to see thing where the wedding church may look like.
6. Location scouting – This is a add on to the previous point. Do location scouting through google street view. If you live near a metropolis where most weddings may be held; most likely google has the street level view of how buildings may look. This may allow you to know where to position your bride near the venues where the wedding maybe held: reception hall, church/place of worship, parks for in between shots.
7. Own the town you live in: Keep a log of some great places around town that you know are great shots.

Part II  to be continued later…