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!

Always Great Customer Service at Portfoliositez!

I love, love, love the gang at Portfoliositez.com! I just upgraded to their new Jackson template and it's so cool!! There are so many advanced settings I haven't even gotten into half of them! I have to admit, I was getting pretty bored with my previous template, Dorthea. It worked, did it's job but I needed some freshening up on my site. I have been following Portfoliositez on Twitter and saw before the holidays that they were planning on a few new templates after the first of the year. The day Jackson was released, I signed up!

These guys are great. I purchased the upgrade on Friday and they had it posted to my site by Tuesday. I hit a few snags, probably more user error than anything else, and my support tickets were answered within 24 hrs (even on the weekend I got answers!). Every problem I had they had a solution or they checked and made the back-end fix for me. So in just over a week I was able to go live with the new site. It would have been quicker, but I was dragging my feet on re-sizing images for the galleries.

Some things I love about this new template - bigger photos!!! My last template the photos were what seemed like half the size of the new template. Plus this template re sizes based on the width of the viewer's monitor. So if they've got a giant screen - it fits, if they have a tiny laptop, it fits! You can directly link to each page in the flash website - which is fantastic if I'm blogging about something and what to direct my readers directly to that gallery! There is also a video option which I haven't had the chance to use yet. They also include a shopping cart, but since I already use PhotoCart and I'm happy with it, I can't give you details on the cart. With all the updated features and options I'm also hoping that the Jackson template will improve my SEO as well.

I HIGHLY suggest Portfoliositez for website templates. In the over two years I've been with them and the three template changes I've never had any problems and their CS is top notch! Be sure to check them out, they will be releasing more new templates in the next few weeks. Best part, when you become a customer, it's very inexpensive to change templates if a new one comes out that you love more than your current!!


Full Disclosure: commission on sale via my link.

Follow-up on SEO School

I really didn't expect to see any results so quickly from using the tips in the SEO School, but I have already in just a few weeks! If you didn't read my initial post about the ebook, check it out here. I redesigned my splash page using her suggestions for keywords, did some minor tweaking on my blog and splash page and I'm seeing a difference already!

I use WebsiteGrader.com as a very rough estimate of where my website ranks. I do not believe the Grader is 100% accurate but I do think it does help to show when you've made changes that are effective. I was in the low 60's prior to making the changes suggested in the SEO School, I'm now at an 84! But there are tons of ways to see how your page ranks, and while mine is still pretty low on the list. I have seen an improvement using the various free SEO checker programs out there. I'm still not ranking on the first three pages of Google for Columbus Ohio Photographer, but when I Google some of the suburbs that I work with I'm on page two and three, so I'm getting closer.

I'll continue to track the changes on my website over the next few months. There's a lot that I have changed that has yet to show results, but I have a feeling they are coming. I just ordered a template change of my current website. The new version from the girls over at Portfoliositez has improved SEO features, along with a few other cool upgrades. I can't wait to see the difference that will make as well. Once I get my new site up and running, I'll be sure to let everyone know about that as well.

Images For A Cure 2010

If you're not familiar with Images For A Cure, it's a great program! On October 11, 2009 – a collection of photographers donated their time and session fees to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I found out about the program from a mutual friend of mine and the founder, Orlando Photographer Kristen Weaver. When I contacted Kristen about participating in the '09 event, we realized we went to the same high school, such a small world! Kristen had a great turnout for the event in 2009 and I can only expect bigger and better things this year!

If you're interested in learning more about the program, registration for the 2010 Images For A Cure is coming soon. Use this link http://www.imagesforacure.com/participate/ to sign up for the email list and you'll be notified when registration starts. And if you're on Twitter, follow Kristen at @KristenWeaver.

ProPhoto Blog Theme - Version 3 Is Here!

I'm currently on version 2 of the ProPhoto Blog theme, but version 3 has been released! I'm holding out for a bit till I get a little more money in, but I'm pretty sure I'll be upgrading soon.

There's a huge list of new features available in this upgrade. The biggest new feature is the gallery slideshows. A huge feature is also the watermark overlay, you can add your custom watermark over any posted photograph with one click. They've also included new features with sidebars, widgets, social media icons and RSS feed image protection. There are tons of other great new additions and changes, too many to list here.

If you're new to ProPhoto, the Do It Yourself Package is $199 (this is the option I picked when I purchased) and the Handheld Installation is $279. If you're upgrading from version 2 of ProPhoto it's $89. Looking for a discount code for the theme? Use at DANNE232B checkout for an additional $10 off your purchase!


Full Disclosure: commission on ProPhoto Themes sold via coupon code.

Full Disclosure

Starting December 1st, 2009 the FTC requires bloggers to provide disclosure when there could be hidden interest or bias when talking about product recommendations. First of all I'm a photographer and this blog is far from my income in life (that's why I still work a day job too!).

Yes, sometimes I get freebies from people when I want to try out their products. Joyce Smith has been a peach and lets me try out her Wordsmith guides for free. But Joyce never has asked that I give her a good review, I do because her products rock my socks off! Alicia Caine gave me nothing for free and I spent full price on her products from the Easy As Pie series, but she's another one that rocks my socks off so I asked her to share a coupon code with my readers. Not really a benefit to me, but it sure is for my readers.

So I've decided to make it easy for everyone and note at the bottom of each review if there is a possibility of me receiving money or if I've received a free sample from someone. If there's nothing in the post, then I don't receive anything from that I don't want the FTC coming after me!

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.

2010 Your Best Year Ever

Going through my emails from the last few days and I came across this one from Sarah Petty's Joy of Marketing and thought I would share. Great advice as usual from Sarah!!

Here are 5 Resolutions to Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever....

1. Live your dream. To live your dream and do what you want, you need to have a plan. When you wake up 12 months from now, will you be living the lifestyle you want? To be able to live your dream, you must have a good map. Would you head to Florida on a vacation without a map? Not if you want to get there the most efficient way as possible. Sure, you'd start by heading South, but you may get disoriented with road construction and begin traveling West. If you don't have a map or even worse, don't look at it, there's a good chance you'll end 2010 in Montana. A plan keeps you focused on your end goal.

2. Be good to others. My favorite saying from Zig Ziglar is that by helping others get what they want, you will get what you want. So figure out how you can work with another business to grow their business and in return, you will prosper.

3. Set limits. Do you ever feel like you are working ALL THE TIME? Brian Tracy, internationally acclaimed speaker and educator says to give yourself time to heal, like you would a wound. If you are hopping on your computer all weekend working a little here and there, it is like picking at a wound. He recommends having a 36 hour timeframe EACH WEEK where you don't work. That is how your engine recharges. I'm just as guilty at this, but am going to work on this in 2010.

4. Invest in yourself. The smartest way out of most difficult situations is education. Find a way to constantly educate yourself on the areas you need help. Because many of us are artists, the business side is scary and can be overwhelming. The way to take the fear away is to learn the answers. They are out there. Trust me!

5. Eliminate obstacles. Make a list of the things standing in your way of succeeding in small business ownership. Is it lack of funds? Lack of equipment? Lack of time? Lack of knowledge? By identifying the issues standing in your way, you are on your way to conquering your objectives!

Whether 2009 was a good, bad or an indifferent year for your business, resolve to make 2010 even better.

Off Site Storage & Backups for Your Files

After seeing the people's house behind mine catch on fire one evening, I started thinking, what would ever happen if I lost my house. Or even just my computer or my backup drive? Then I realized I didn't have my files stored off site. I know a lot of folks burn two copies of their disks and store one on-site and one off. But I didn't have an off-site location to store mine. I decided to created backups of everything to date and when I went to visit my family over the holidays, I left my duplicate DVDs with my mom, 3 hours away. Good plan to start, but what if my system went down and I needed something sooner rather than later? So I began the search for an online backup to use as well. I'm on a Mac and needed something that would work well with Mac, welcome to problem number one. Most of the online backups that were reasonably priced were made to work with Windows. I stumbled across MobileMe from Mac, easily syncs to my computer and I can back-up up to 20GB of files.

I've stored all of my client's purchased jpeg files, proofs and current working files on there. Clients know that there files are on record for one year, so the plan is every 4 months to clear out any files that are more than a year old. I will still have a DVD copy of any files over a year old at both my home and my mother's home, so no need to keep older files on MobileMe for more than a year. For $99 a year, you you get 20GB, not a bad deal at all. For an extra $49 a year you can store 40GB and 60GB for an additional $99. So if I get to the point where I know I'll be storing more than 20GB, I'll have additional options.

Hopefully I'll my system won't crash or my house destroyed by natural disaster, but just in case, it's nice to know that all my current client files, as well as my forms, actions and other purchased files are backed-up online as well.While MobileMe might not be the type of storage you're looking for, I highly suggest if you don't have a backup plan in process, get one now! You never know what could happen to your home or studio and of course computers and backup drives aren't perfect and may fail!

SEO for Photographers - Totally Over My Head!

I've been on a mission for the last year to improve my Google rankings. Currently when I Google Columbus Ohio Photographer - there are 1,860,000 results. Yep, that's a lot of pages to be clicking though for clients to even come close to finding me!! I've done tons of research on SEO from better blogging to getting my splash page right. While I've learned a lot of information from my free (aka internet) research I knew I still missing out.

I was really, really tempted to pick up some new DVDs that are out there specifically for photographers. Till, *gasp* I realized they were over $1,000. What? I don't have that kind of money to improve my SEO! So, I passed on those. I'm sure they're great, but I'm also sure I don't want to spend that kind of money to find out!

So, I keep seeing this crazy Ninja SEO School icon when I'm on various blogs. Honestly, at first, I thought that it was just some lame paid for ad and who knows what silly ebook they were offering. Then I read a few reviews about it and thought what the heck, it's only $39. I can spend $39 way easier than $1,000+. So I ordered SEO School by Naomi Dinford of Itty Biz. This ebook is not for everyone! If you're offended by some profanity mixed in, then it's not for you. Naomi is pretty funny about it, but I wanted to make sure I warned you off the bat! Is this the be all end all of SEO? No. Will it help you to figure out what the heck to do. Yes.

Naomi does not say go to your wordpress or blogger blog go to xyz and do abc. So if you want a quick fix, keep on searching and if you find it, please call me asap and let me know! If it was that easy, we'd all be doing it! What she does do is explain how search engines work, Google in particular. There were some things that she talks about that I already knew, but there were other things I had no idea about. As I read the ebook I started making changes on my blog and website. Do I have results for you? Not yet, it's been too soon to see if the changes I made have worked. BUT from what I previously knew about SEO and how she explained everything, I'm pretty darn sure that it will help.

The SEO School - How to Become an SEO Ninja covers a few things: What search engines are looking for; how to find the right keywords for your business; the do's and don'ts of both optimizing your site and also optimizing links coming into your site; and a section for bloggers.

You do need to know how to do some minor tweaking to your site. If you're too scared to go into the back end of your blog or website or cannot update your own web template, then do not get this book. If you're fine with changing a few little things here and there (no major code writing involved) then I say go for it. This ebook is for any sort of business, so unlike a lot of other SEO tips and pointers for photographers, this is for anyone with a blog or website.

I've marked down where my blog and website were before I started making changes. I'll be tracking any improvements over the next few weeks and months and keeping everyone posted on how the SEO optimization is going for me!