Networking
February 27, 2008 | Filed Under abryanphoto, networking, weddings | Leave a Comment
About a week ago I started reading [b]ecker’s blog via the A Bryan Photo Blog. [b]ecker is a wedding photographer from Orange County, CA. He started posting a daily video blog about 50 days ago. Each day he discusses a different topic dealing with photography (specifically weddings). His topics range from gear to customer service, and his advice is simple yet extremely useful and valuable. If you are a photographer or any other type of wedding vendor, you need to check this out. I subscribe to his podcast to get the videos; I usually watch them on my iPhone when I’m out running errands and I have downtime. You can search iTunes for “the [b] school.”
One of the key ideas I have taken from [b]ecker is the idea of networking with other photographers and vendors in the area. His philosophy is “a rising tide raises all ships” and he encourages building community amongst wedding vendors. He tries to have lunch with one vendor each week and talk through ideas and get to know more about the person and their business. This leads to referrals on both ends and helps to improve both quantity and quality of business for everyone.
This is something that I am going to try to be more intentional about. I am not an extroverted person and networking does not come naturally to me. I’m still not sure exactly how I will go about networking, but I presume I will simply seek out people and businesses in the area and try to set up times to hang out with them. I have no ulterior motives for this, I just want to meet more people in the industry. I love working for myself and I do not mind working alone, however I would love to be able to have a “working relationship” with other people. If you are a photographer or you are in a related business, I would love to get to know you and your business. Give me a call or shoot me an email.
Thanks [b]ecker for all of your advice and teaching myself and other photographers valuable tools to help raise the bar in the wedding industry!
The Apple Store is Down…
February 26, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
So Apple seems to be following their latest trend of releasing new awesomeness on Tuesdays. The store has been down 2 hours and 14 minutes as of this moment (this info courtesy of pingdom.com, I haven’t been stalking the store for over 2 hours). Pingdom created a widget for your web site that lets you know the status of the Apple store. Myself along with the rest of the Apple freaks are hoping for an updated Macbook Pro.
Apple is the poster child of the thoughts that are currently consuming my days and nights…Gear and Branding. I believe Apple is a genius in both of these categories. As a photographer who is still in the process of developing the business, I find myself thinking, researching, and ultimately investing in both new gear and branding my business. I’ve found myself investing more time and $$$ in the latter, which is the opposite of my personality and not what I thought I would be spending time and resources on. Years ago when dreaming of being a pro photographer, I looked forward to buying new cameras and lenses and other goodies. Now that I am a pro, I find myself focusing on branding myself in a cool new way instead of getting Canon‘s newest contribution to the photo world. Don’t get me wrong, I still need/want new gear, but it seems to have taken a bit of a back seat to the whole branding of my business.
I plan to post more on this later this week. I didn’t want to keep you long, so I will end with a simple question…Is branding your business more important than updating outdated equipment? And a bonus question…Can purchasing new gear enhance your overall brand?
I would love to hear your thoughts…
THIS JUST IN…NEW MACBOOKS!!!!
The Week Ends, The Week Begins
February 25, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Happy Monday everyone!
I had a good week last week, and that definitely carried over into the weekend. Here are some highlights…
- Got my iMac in last week! It is so refreshing to edit on a huge screen (actually 40″ of
workspace) Also the new machine allows me to use Lightroom, which is still in the process of changing my life/business.
- Booked a wedding from the Wedding Festival, which is a huge relief to get such a quick return
on my investment.
- Saw U2.3D with the Community Group, which was a blast! You need to go see it if you haven’t
already, it is truly amazing.
- Shot 2 hours of a wedding for a photographer friend of mine; somewhat awkward mainly
because I had never met the bride, but good experience nonetheless.
- Played bass @ Catalyst Church with Josh Bayne. You can read/hear/see more about this on
his blog.
These are but few highlights of the last 7 days. I’m excited about this week; should be fairly relaxing. Less than 2 more weeks until “wedding season” in my life officially begins and continues into the fall. I know it will be time consuming and hard work, but I cannot wait to get going.
Subscribe to my feed and check back this week for updates. I plan to talk through some decisions I am trying to make, mostly relating to gear and branding.
Have a great Monday and an even better week. I’m going to try to do something to change the world, or “my world” at least…seriously! I encourage you to do the same.