Updates & Random Notes

I've been such a bad blogger! I was slammed with portrait sessions in the fall, then the holidays, then working on new marketing pieces. I just realized how long it has been since my last post!

I recently attended another After Dark Education experience in Dallas, Texas. It was, amazing. The mentors are so great and extremely accessible during the event. I highly suggest the AD to photographers of any level. I will say, it's pretty much information overload with 3 days, 12 or more hours a day and the chance to touch on pretty much all types and aspects of photography.

I spent the beginning of January working on updating my website and blog. About this time last year I had ditched the Flash site and went with a Photocrati theme for my wordpress site. Wanting to spice up my site a little more, I decided to take a look at the themes on ThemeForest.com. With so many templates to choose from, I carefully read reviews and comments by users. I ended up selecting a theme who's author ran a support forum. While it took me a little longer than I was planning, I love the look of my new site. And since I was updating, I took a look at the newest version of the ProPhoto blog theme. The new features are fantastic, so I caved (again) and upgraded (again). If you're looking at the ProPhoto theme and are purchasing for the first time, use the code DANNE232B for a $10 discount.

I've made some new purchases recently and as I try out these new products, I'll be sure to post reviews!

After Dark Education

After Dark Charlotte was an amazing experience. I highly recommend it to any level of photographer that is looking to improve their skill sets! Of all the seminars, workshops or conventions I’ve attending, this one is by far the best experience to date. After Dark happens four times a year in various locations across the U.S. and I will be, without a doubt, attending at least one (hopefully two) in 2012.

If you’ve never heard of After Dark, it’s quite the experience. It’s 72-hours of non-stop learning (they do let you sleep a little). With over 30 different photography mentors and 300 attendees, it’s a great teacher to student ratio for hands-on learning. There were about 10 “pods” set up for presentations, critiques and roundtables. In another area of the hotel there were 10 “bays” for studio lighting. You can stop by any pod or bay for each class, deciding which mentor you want to learn from. I went with a game plan of learning more about working with off-camera flash. Once I got to Charlotte and reviewed the class schedule, I changed my mind. My focus became more about business, posing and on-location photography. That’s the great thing about After Dark is that if you change your mind before or during a class, you don’t have to stick around, you can move freely though the various mentors’ presentations. I attended so many classes that my brain was in overload. Marketing, on-location natural light portraits, high school senior posing, creative children’s portraits and working with families and children to name just a few. Beyond the “scheduled” classes, there were also impromptu classes. A mentor would grab a model, a bay, or head outside and just start teaching! We typically were out photographing from midnight till 2 a.m., hence the name After Dark. I know other photographers were out till 4 a.m. some mornings. Not only did I learn a lot, I also got the opportunity to meet many great new friends, who are also photographers from across the U.S.

Free Education — Lots of Learning & No Strings Attached

I love free education! I can't believe I haven't blogged about creativeLive yet! Chase Jarvis has created an online learning resource for photographers, artists and other creative types. If you tune into the website during the live classes, you can view them for free, no strings attached. If you're schedule is full on the day(s) of the live classes, you can always purchase the class and have access to it after the fact.

I'm on my second creativeLive class this weekend with Tamara Lackey's Children's Portraiture Photography class. It's been great to be able to see Tamara work with clients and share her thought process of how she coordinates a session.

There's a wide range of subject matter for the creativeLive classes beyond photography. You can look at their calendar to find the classes and topics that interest you most. Definitely check out this great resource!

PhotoVision - Learning from Home

I've been feeling somewhat under the weather lately and have been spending a lot of time camped out on the couch. In hopes to be somewhat productive, I've finally had a chance to watch (and re-watch) a bunch of my PhotoVision DVDs that had been piling up. I think in the last few weeks I've watched every episide from 2010 that I have so far. It's been a great mix of shooting techniques, marketing ideas and inspiration in general. I'm totally in love with Julie Klassmeyer's natural light studio and her giant, revolving set display which was beyond cool! And I also enjoyed watching Gary Box pose his seniors with my senior season to be in full swing shortly. I raved about PhotoVision about this time last year while watching the 2009 series that you can read about here.

PhotoVision is offering a nice promo code for the 2010 series: $39 instead of $149 using the promo code: PFAN. So if you're not watching photovision yet, you might just watned to check out this great deal to find some inspiration!

NAPP Sponsored Adobe Photoshop Seminar

I had the opportunity yesterday to attend the NAPP/Kelby Training Maximum Photoshop Seminar with Dave Cross. This was my 4th Photoshop seminar I attended since joining NAPP in 2004 early in my career as a graphic designer. In one day, they Dave crammed in enough information to make my head spin. I have a strong background in Photoshop, I've been using it professionally as a designer since 2000 and as a photographer for the last 3 years. But the one thing about Photoshop is that no matter how you get to the end result, there are at least 3 if not 10 ways to do it and typically my way isn't the quickest, fastest or easiest!!

I attended the seminar with two fellow graphic designers and we all walked away with some new ideas and ways to accomplish things. We all agreeded that no matter if you're a photographer, graphic designer or web designer there was something in this class for everyone. And for $99 ($79 for NAPP members) it is a great deal. Currently I'm working on CS3 and the class was aimed towards CS4 users, but a lot of what Dave covered also works in CS3, which is nice that Adobe typically builds each newer version based on the previous. One of the great things is that they give you a workbook and disk with all the info that was covered that day, so if 2 months later you want to try something you learned it's easy to just reference the materials from the seminar.

Yesterday was Adobe's "official" release of CS5, so as a great bonus, Dave shared some of the new features of CS5 after the lunch break. I am completely in awe and without a doubt will be upgrading!

Of the 4 seminars I've attended I have to say that only one of them didn't do it for me. And not because the seminar was bad, it was just targeted more towards people who paint with Photoshop and that personally isn't something that I do. If you have the chance to check out one of these one day seminars, I highly suggest it. And if you're not a NAPP member yet, I also highly suggest joining! If you want to learn more about NAPP, check out my blog post here. Although in my original post, I believe there was a bonus for joining that isn't currently avilable since the post is from '08. But no matter what the offer is, it's $99 well spent for the membership or a seminar!

The OneLight Workshop

I had the chance to attend the OneLight workshop with Zack Arias's this past Thursday. It was a great learning experience. I typically am a natural light photographer and while I learned lighting in college, I rarely use it. Zack explains everything as simple as possible and shows you how it's done.

On Wednesday night there was a mixer open to the local photography community that I attended. It was great to me some other local photographers who were not participating in the workshop. We got the chance to talk with Zack and also learn a little more about his background.

Thursday's workshop started at 9:30 am and went past midnight! But, we all knew we were looking at a long day before we even started. The first half of the day Zack shared his knowledge, reviewed the basics of lighting with off camera flash and gave us suggestions for the gear to get the job done. The best part, Zack is totally into staying out of debt and has come up with extremely inexpensive options for working with off camera flash. Later in the afternoon we broke into 3 small groups and worked with our models to see what different types of looks we could achieve with our one light setup. God bless our models, we made our way outside into the Ohio cold as the sun was setting to work more with the one light setup. Once back inside, Zack reviewed any problems we were having and broke it down even further for us.

If you've thought about using off camera flash or working with one light and you haven't in the past, this class is a must. If you're like me and you know about lighting, but you just aren't sure how to use it when you're photographing on location, it's a must for you too. There was a variety of photographers at this workshop - about half wedding and the other half portrait. The skill levels and knowledge varied a bit from photographer to photographer. I think most of the class was extremely pleased with what they learned. The class was $800 and I thought it was worth every penny I paid. Just keep in mind that this isn't going to answer all your lighting questions and I know I have to continue to work on my off camera flash lighting to make it work best for my clients and their needs. But OneLight has been a great springboard for me to push myself into a different aspect of working with light and continuing my education!

Best and Worst Purchase of '09

As I've been getting 2009 paperwork in order I realized that I've made some great and some horrible purchases over the last year. Now, I try not to do bad reviews because, well some things just don't work for some people! So what I might not like, you might fall in love with. And of course, what I love you may hate. But I thought this was a good time to go through my best and worst. I now try to find reviews and ask other photographers about any big purchases, because who wants to keep throwing money out the window. So lately, most of my purchases have been on the good end. Grab a cup of coffee, there's a bit of info in this post! Let's start with the best:

Best Purchases of '09
• Wacom Tablet - You would think that being a graphic designer for 10 years I would have already owned one, but I didn't. I picked this up in '08 but didn't take it out of the box for months, so we'll call it a '09 purchase. After forcing myself to use it for a few weeks now I can't live without it! I currently have the Intuos3 4x6" Tablet. I figure smaller was better when I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it. I'll be upgrading to a larger model hopefully this year.

• Blackberry Curve - Not sure why I waited so long to pick one of these up! Now, I really wanted an iPhone, but since I'm on the Verizon network that was not an option. I finally caved an got the Blackberry Curve. If you're dealing with clients I think you really should have a Smart Phone. I love that no matter where I am I can receive client emails and get back to them as soon as possible. I also love that I no longer have to carry around a paper calendar for scheduling session or life for that matter. I've got everything sync'ed to my Mac, so if something happens to either, I have it in another place.

• Insurance - After reading tons of stories on the twitter and blogs about all the bad things that have happened this year to other photographers, insurance is a must!! If you don't have your gear insured, do it immediately!! So many people have lost gear due to fires, water damage and theft and they didn't have any insurance. If you charge people for your services, please, please, please make sure you have liability and equipment coverage!

• MobileMe - I recently wrote about MobileMe here, check it out for details on how I backup my client files.

• Joyce Smith's WordSmith Guides - I'm not a write, nor do I even pretend that I'm a writer. That's why I love all of Joyce's guides. I've talked a lot about her products in the past you can find out about the Senior Pricing Menu template and {what to wear} seniors guide here, how to sell guide here, and the {what to wear} guide here.

• Easy As Pie - Thanks to Alicia Caine, I've got a clue now. I talk more about Easy As Pie here, so take a look. I just finished my 2010 pricing and I love how simple it now is. My clients actually understand my pricing now! If you're struggling with pricing yourself correctly, this is a must! Be sure you read the entire post, Alicia just gave me a $20 coupon code to offer to my readers, it's at the end of my review here.

• Education - I think education is a must! No matter what level photographer you are, you can always learn more! I talk more about the Unleashed Pet Photography Workshop that I attended in 2009 here. I'm currently kicking myself for not attending this year's Imaging USA from PPA. After seeing all the rave reviews and great time that everyone is having on Twitter and Facebook, it's going to be a must for me in 2011. I also think forums can be extremely helpful in building your knowledge base. I also believe sometimes they can be time wasters as well. As long as you don't get sucked into hanging out all day long on the forums, you should be fine!

The not so hot purchases of '09:
• Props - I was a bit out of control this year with props for session. I was on a newborn kick and bought tons of hats, blankets and other items. Guess what, I decided that newborns aren't my thing and don't plan on photographing them again! Luckily, I found other photographers who were more than happy to take those props off my hands. The bad news, I lost a bit of money on them when I re-sold the props. From now on I'm going to give myself a yearly prop budget and stick with it. It needs to be a must have instead of just because it's cute!

• Random Forms - When you're starting out you just aren't sure what you need, believe me, I totally overspend in this area. I purchased form after form from other photographers. Portrait contracts, other contracts and lots of forms. Too many forms in my option! Guess what, Business and Legal Forms for Photographers has pretty much everything you need in it. Go figure there's a book out there with all the forms you need AND it comes with a CD of the forms so you don't have to re-create them. So much for me spending over $100 on forms from other photographers, I got the Business and Legal Forms book for under $25.

• Samples - Last year I wanted to do it all and sell it all. My bank account took a huge hit with samples. Now granted, you need to have samples to show clients for them to want to buy, but keep what you offer simple. I spent upwards of a thousand dollars on various album, canvas and boutique item samples. This year, with my revised pricing, I'm not even planning on offering half the items I have samples for. And those items that I'm not offering, didn't even sell last year. Make sure when you're getting samples of products you plan on offering them to your clients! Be sure to check out various trade shows and conventions to see the items in person before you consider ordering them!

• Softboxes - With being on-location and not having a studio, I really plan on focusing on learning more about Off Camera Flash (OFC) this year. And, I wanted a great softbox to use for my OFC work. I'm currently on softbox number 3! The first one was inexpensive, but it did the job. I decided to upgrade to a softbox that other photographers rave about. It was close to $300 ... and I hated it. It was cumbersome and a total pain while I was out at sessions. I parted with softbox #2 and have moved on to #3. The current softbox was less expensive than #2, and since it's a newer purchase, I haven't used it enough to say if I love it or hate it. I can tell you that it's much lighter and easier to assemble while out in the field, so that's definitely a bonus! Looking back, I wish I would have just gone down to the local camera store and checked some of these out in person before I continued to make purchase after purchase. I'll be trying it out over the next few weeks and let you guys know if #3 stays or goes!

So, some great purchases and some real money burners this year. Live and learn, right? I'm going to be overly cautious about my spending this year. It needs to be an absolute must have before I make the purchase.

Make sure to post in the comments below the best and worst that you've spent money on this year!

Full Disclosure: Samples received from WordSmith.

Unleashed Workshop

I just got back from the Unleashed | Fine Art Pet Photography Workshop and it was SO much fun! I met a ton of great photographers and learned a lot about pet photography. If you have the chance to attend the Dallas (April 2010) or the D.C./Virginia (September 2010) workshops I highly suggest it! Bev, Barbara and Teresa have a wealth of information to share and love sharing it with the attendees. They send you off with tons of information to help you get the pet side of your photography business up and running. Not only did we have time to learn about how they each run their businesses (all very differently) but we also had the chance to work both in-studio and on-location with adorable, furry, four-legged models!

Definitely check out the Unleashed website to learn more about taking your business to the next level with custom pet photography! And for those of you who are PPA members - Bev, Barabara and Teresa are featured in the current issue of the magazine!

16 Hours of FREE Education for Photographers

Yep - I said FREE. I love that word! On September 28-29, Sarah Petty's Joy of Marketing is offering a two day free telesummit! Be sure to register soon as September 28th is right around the corner. If you are like me and have a day job or sessions schedule for those two days, for $99 you can download recordings of the events and PDF notes to follow. But if you have the time open, you can listen to it all for FREE!!!

There will be SO much going on - you can see the entire list of presenters on the website but a few include. Rod Evans - Facebook Marketing Not Just for Seniors, Kevin Kubota - The Year of the Relationship, Jen Hillenga - Essential Elements of Design, Dane Sanders - The big Picture of marketing Your Photography Business, and much, much more! Be sure to register for this FREE event soon! And even if you can't participate in all of it, some is better than nothing.

Full Disclosure: Commission earned on Joy of Marketing sales via my link.

Unleashed Follow-Up

I just wanted to follow-up on the Unleashed workshop I talked about the other week. They are sold-out for the Chicago workshop that I am attending!

If you missed out on getting in on the Chicago workshop, be sure to check out their website about the workshop in Dallas April 18-20, 2010! There is also a third workshop planned for the DC area in 2010, but no dates have been posted yet.

PhotoVision

I absolutely LOVE PhotoVision Video Seminars. I'm not even sure how I found out about these DVDs, but they rock! The annual subscription fee is $149 (but if you're a PPA member is much, much less and there might be other discounts out there too) and well worth the money.

DVDs are sent bi-monthy to you for a year. Each DVD has six two-hour videos with various photographers giving you tips and showing you how they work. Everything from workflow to lighting to sales is covered in these DVDs. I've found that the senior and portrait work have been the biggest asset to me. Just being able to watch these fabulous photographers work on location with clients will give all kinds of new ideas. And a great thing about them is that the target all aspects of professional photography including portrait, commercial and event photography. I signed up late in 2008 and have been so busy that I'm not even through the entire year yet! The 2009 cd includes lessons from Sarah Petty, Lori Nordstrom, Parker Pfister and a ton more!

These are great DVDs for those just starting out and seasoned professions!

Unleashed | fine art pet photography workshop

I'm SO excited about Unleashed | fine art pet photography workshop! I just signed up for the September workshop in Chicago. Unleashed is a 2 1/2 day workshop put together by 3 wonderful photographers - Barbara Breitsameter, Teresa Berg and Bev Hollis.

Sit, Stay & Learn is the motto for this great weekend. This workshop is hands on and we'll actually have four legged friends to modeling for us! The number of attendees is limited so the gals can do personalized learning in break out sessions, talk about marketing and business practices and a lot more. For anyone even thinking about adding pet photography to their services, this workshop is a must!!

The cost is only $695 OR if you register before August 1st, you save $100 and it's only $595. Be sure to check out the Unleashed site for more information at unleashed2009.wordpress.com and hopefully I'll get to see a few of you there!

Tots 2 Teens Seminar

Wanted to share a quick post about the seminar I went to last night - Tots 2 Teens by Sandy Puc'. I attended last year's Babies and Bellies tour and couldn't wait for this year's Tots 2 Teens. It was great! I actually found it a lot more informative than last year's seminar. Sandy reviewed posing, sales, marketing and working with children in general. I found it extremely useful and can't wait to get out and use some of the new ideas Sandy shared on my next child session. I believe the tour is down to its last month, ending the begining of May. But if it's coming to your town be sure to check it out! It's only $79 for 5+ hours of education - and I bet if you do a google search you'll be able to find a few discount codes hanging out on the internet!

2010 will be the Family tour - and I can't wait!! I'm sure each year these seminars will continue to get better and better.