At a press conference a few days ago Facebook announced their new Graph Search which will provide a brand new search experience for it’s over one billion users when it eventually rolls out to everyone. As business owners it is in our best interest to learn about how the tool works, how we can optimize our own pages to show up in the results and how we can even use it to mine new business in the future. [more]
This is a first for this style of indoor photography. Usually you see nice clean HDR shots of rooms or office space for real estate agents. Menno Aden takes a whole different approach on this genre, one many people never really see. [more]
Earlier this week Mass. Attorney General, Martha Coakley, filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against a Millbury, Massachusetts videography studio for allegedly scamming several newlyweds out nearly $75,000 worth of wedding videography services and precious memories. The company, Sure Shot Videography is accused of taking newlyweds’ deposits and either not showing up to the wedding or for never delivering the final product videos. [more]
Starting tomorrow January 12 at 9am creativeLIVE will host Adobe certified expert, Jason Hoppe as he teaches everything you need to know to make an interactive PDF. In this 2-day workshop, Jason will show you how to create forms, use calculations and JavaScript, distribute PDFs, create hyperlinks and bookmarks, and how to embed files in your PDF. As a photographer, this is a very helpful tool to have in your back pocket and you’ll impress your clients at the same time. [more]
If you keep up with the photography community in the slightest, you have probably heard about Gulf Photo Plus. GPP is the largest international gathering of professional photographers in one of the most interesting cities in the world: Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This year will be the first year Fstoppers will be attending and Lee and I are beyond excited. Continue reading to see how you [more]
Starting tomorrow January 9th, wedding photographer, Jasmine Star will be doing a different type of workshop. Hosted by our friends over at creativeLIVE, Jasmine is doing a 3 part series over 3 months on how to completely start your photography business from scratch. Be sure to tune in on January 9, February 13, and March 6 to learn how to rebrand and recreate your photography business. [more]
My Facebook news feed is being littered with photographers today announcing from their soap box that they won the 2012 Bride’s Choice Award thereby putting them in the Top 5% of their industry. Some may call it an award, I call it a deceptive marketing scheme. [more]
UPDATE: CONTEST ENDS TOMORROW! After 2 full years, it is finally done! Our digital download, How To Become a Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer “DVD” tutorial is ready to be released. Lee and I have spent countless hours in filming, editing, and producing this 14+ hour tutorial, and we want to give three lucky Fstoppers readers a free, pre-release copy in its entirety. And to top it off, we are giving each of those 3 winners one of our secret light modifiers currently in preproduction. [more]
I’m driving a beautiful triple-black Aston Martin DB9 V12 down a florida highway. Its nose so long that the sun striking it practically blinds me. AC/DC is blasting on the radio and the car’s 12 cylinders roar at the slightest touch to the throttle. One client has loaned me his beautiful British exotic so I could drive 90 minutes away to briefly meet another private client about photographing his multi-million dollar Bugatti supercar collection. Surreal, right? This sort of experience has become sort of commonplace for me recently, but it never becomes any less mind-blowing. Sometimes I just sit and wonder: how did I even get here? This is just crazy.
Let’s be honest, writing for a photography website, you notice that a lot of us photographers like to gripe at each other. Hey, you’re more than welcome to express yourself as you wish since this is the internet and all. Although, I wanted to do a short positive post about how and why we should be a little nicer to each other. Sometimes it equals more resources and more money. Reason enough for you?
How many photographer websites do you visit that have an endless list of subjects they claim to photograph? Many photographers think it will help with their Search Engine Optimization, but what is really happening is that they are grouping themselves with all the hundreds of thousands of other photographers that also shoot ALL that stuff. The secret is to be different. To pick something and specialize in that one thing. One perfect example that I came across is talented Mike Allebach of Allebach Photography, also known as the “Tattooed Bride Photographer Guy.” [more]
I did this post for my personal photography blog, but I figured this is an important subject that I hope the Fstoppers community will benefit from. By all means add to this list in the comments below if you have any suggestions!
I get this email all the time: “I’m a new/aspiring/struggling/young photographer and I want to know what advice you have for me?” I literally get this email or tweet or facebook message daily. [more]
Sometimes if opportunity doesn’t come knocking you just have to build the door yourself, or in Judson Collier‘s case an epic website as an intern proposal letter. The website/fancy letter was written to famed photographer Jeremy Cowart. I was blown away at the sheer creativity, not to mention ballsy approach to asking someone for a job. Judson goes into great detail on why he would like to intern, his strengths and why he believes he would be great at the job, including making a mean cup of coffee. [more]
Instragram just updated their new terms of service today, and the fine print, while not shocking, certainly is concerning especially if you use the service to show off your work. Instagram has stated that starting on Jan. 16 the service will be able to use and sell your images for advertising without your knowledge and without offering compensation leaving users with the short end of the stick. [more]
As I said in a previous article, I believe successful people are “do’ers.” As creatives, sometimes getting things accomplished can seem like an impossible task, especially when we have so many things that need to get done. As a world class procrastinator myself, I found this quick, 3 minute video to be packed full of useful tips on productivity. [more]
