*Edit* Since writing this article I have since moved from PASS to Pixieset as my online gallery of choice for my clients. You can read more about why I feel Pixieset is the best solution here, "Top 10 Reasons Pixieset Makes Sense for Professional Photographers."
A few minutes ago I received an email that contained some big red flags and alerted me of a dangerous situation that all photographers and models should be aware is happening. Recently here on Fstoppers we reported on models that went missing after accepting jobs on these modeling sites.
NO is a tough word to use when a client contacts you requesting a bid on a photo project. Learning to use the word can be a powerful tool that will help improve your photography business.
Over the years I have gotten to know many photographers that can take great photos but who suffer staying motivated in their business. Many of us try to do it on our own with no one to really believe in us. Our family and friends watch us from the sidelines waiting for us to throw in the towel.
Beginning bright and early tomorrow March 6th, wedding photographer, Jasmine Star will be doing a different type of workshop. hosted by our friends over at creativeLIVE, This is the finale of the 3 part series on how to completely start your photography business from scratch. Be sure to tune in on to learn how to rebrand and recreate your photography business.
Having ambition, creativity, and passion are not enough to make an independent documentary or photo project a reality. To see the movie play or hang the photo project in a gallery you will need money. It is a cruel reality for creatives, but money is needed to make large and ambitious projects happen. So what does one do?
Its that time of year, the dreaded tax season. During this time, we all either hire someone to do this work for us, or we spend hours on websites trying to decoded the complicated tax laws that apply for us all. This can be a painful process, especially for us self employed photographers.
It's that time again, Fstoppers is having a birthday! In typical fashion we are hosting a little get together but this time we are sending out an open invitation to anyone in the middle east. Today is Photo Friday at Gulf Photo Plus (which is practically free to attend) so if you are near the Dubai area definitely check it out.
Often, we’re talking about the latest and greatest camera body or lenses to help our photography business flourish. However running a photography business requires many more tools than just a fancy camera, lens or even lights. We are all using other tech tools to help us manage our lives easier, and run our business more effectively.
Previously only available on tablets, Adobe just announced that their mobile fully-loaded editing software is now available on both Android and iOS smartphones. Though there are a number of mobile photo editing choices like Snapseed, Camera Awesome or Instagram, the paid Photoshop App has many of the functions you've grown to love about Photoshop, but in the palm of your hand.
Guest Writer's and Dale and Jill Lempa of Lempa Creative are a husband and wife team of photographers from Cary, NC who specialize in wedding and engagement photography. If you're a wedding photographer, then you can understand how stressful or hectic weddings are. Sometimes it might not occur that the bride is just as, if not more stressed out than we are.
Photoshelter recently released Pricing Your Work: Magazine Photography, with insights from Wonderful Machine's CEO Bill Cramer. The free guide provides photographers with tips on how to handle fees and expenses, terms and conditions photographers should have in their agreements and examples of contracts used in real situations.
Right now on creativeLIVE you can catch 23 year old Ryan Holiday giving away his secrets on how to be smart when it comes to getting free media attention for your business. You might think taking advice from a 23 year old is absurd, but since he landed a job as the marketing director of American Apparel he most have done something right.
At Fstoppers, we do our best to stay away from topics that are strictly political in nature. Generally speaking, it's not our place. We are a blog for creative professionals, not any number of sites that poke at hot button issues for the sake of sensationalism. However, once in a while, a situation arises that directly affects photographers and their decisions.
The Verge and Gizmodo have featured a video found on Youtube that shows Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen, masterfully avoiding answering a very direct question: "How can Adobe justify selling the Creative Suite for $1400 more in Australia than in the United States?" Rather than talking about the pricing of the Creative Suite, Narayen continually deflects to the Creative Cloud.
When dealing with a client’s project I will bend over backwards, even do summersaults and cartwheels if they ask. I will give 100% before, during and after the photo shoot to take their ideas or concepts and do what I can to knock it out of the park for a client. Sometimes the photographs end up in the portfolio, other times the photographs do not make the cut.
A website is one of the most important tools for any professional photographer. A website allows your work to be found through searches, can be used as a great digital portfolio in a pinch, and is an excellent way to interact with your potential clients and fans of your work. However, when I look through others photographers websites, I find a long list of ‘No-No’s’ on a design level.
I've been out of college for just 8 years now and in my mind I am far from being "successful." I'm not going to pretend that I know what it takes to become successful, obviously I'm still trying to figure that out, but I've made enough mistakes to know what not to do. This is my list of the top 5 ways to never become successful.
Have you ever be interested seeing just how much information Facebook has on you? What if there was a tool that could take that information and turn it into an easy to read visual display? How about finding out what words you use most in your posts? (Mine happened to be "one" "shoot" and "wedding") Find out who you share the most friends with? And lots more data that is quite intriguing.
If you've seen the promotional videos for Lee and Patrick's new DVD, How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer, several different wedding photographers are interviewed about how they run their wedding business. Being able to have insight into their workflow, their way of thinking when they're shooting is such an amazing opportunity.
The commitment to do anything every day for a whole year is a difficult one. So difficult in fact that the very concept of a New Year's resolution is a joke to most. It's no surprise then that for a photographer to commit to a 365 project takes some serious dedication. Doing so means that you will create and publish something new, every single day.
One thing that I believe is so important for the creative health of a photographer is listening to what other photographers have to say about their craft. I just got word that David Alan Harvey is going to be teaching at Gulf Photo Plus, and somehow David had not yet crossed my radar.
When I need to send a contract out to a bride or other photography client I never have a stamp. Which makes the document sit on my desk till I finally force myself to swing by the post office (which is never a happy place). Well now there is a website that can help you bypass the mail and hopefully speed up the contract signing process.
If you are like me, the acronym SEO brings a shudder to your bones. If you are a photographer with a website, you have no doubt received countless emails from sites offering to optimize your site for a fee. In this post, I will tell you the things I did for free or next to nothing that helped push my photography website to page one of organic Google searches.
One of my favorite books is Love Is A Killer App by Tim Sanders. In it we read that business love is “the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles (knowledge, network, and compassion) with your bizpartners.” One person who exemplifies this concept perfectly is Jasmine Star and her series of videos called Shooting Star.
PhotoShelter released their results from a 2012 survey that was sent out to over 5,000 professional and aspiring photographers worldwide. The survey asked photographers about the various ways in which they were planning on marketing their photography business in 2013 and the results they were hoping to achieve from their efforts.
Stock photography has always seemed to go one of two ways. Either you make a great living, or you memorize McDonald's value menu; however, no matter if stock income is your main source, or a small residual you need to know about Getty's current partnership with Google.
Websites such as Twitter and Facebook can be extremely powerful tools for our businesses however most of us are using them all wrong. Over the years we have continued to pile on layer after layer of distractions that in the end leave us feeling guilty of even trying to use social media. We walk away feeling like we wasted our time.
When smart phones first started gaining in popularity I was one of those who insisted I didn't need one.
A few weeks ago I got a Facebook message from someone saying I should check out a particular website. The message simply said "I think this guy is stealing your pictures." We'll call "this guy" "John," and yes, John was using my pictures as well as other photographers' images and claiming that they were his own.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
UPDATE: CONTEST ENDS TOMORROW! After 2 full years, it is finally done!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
How do you turn the mobile email inbox into a to-do list, but in a non-obtrusive way? Cloud to-do list company Orchestra today announced Mailbox, an email client for the iPhone it's been building for the last year which will launch soon — a beautifully designed messaging client meshed with a swipe-able productivity app.
Today (make sure you watch this CreateNow event that you could register for last week) Adobe is unveiling a host of changes to Photoshop and the Creative Cloud. There is a good amount of new stuff, but I'm going to highlight the things I think you guys will find most useful and stuff that I found to be the most interesting as far as a a lot of power and flexibility in a program.
This past November while on a trip to Colorado, I had the chance to meet up with Celin Serbo, an outdoor lifestyle photographer whose client list includes the likes of Nikon, Backpacker Magazine, Nat Geo Adventure, and First Ascent, among many others.
According to Bloomberg, famous tech rivals Apple and Google have teamed up to offer $500 million for Kodak's roughly 1,100 photo-related patents.
If you suffer from self-diagnosed A.D.D like most creative professionals, then you need to tune into this free workshop with Jared Platt. From the moment you book the job to the final delivery of the images, Jared will show you efficient techniques that will help improve your workflow. This 3-day workshop starts tomorrow December 6th - December 8th at 9AM.
If you've always wanted to get into wedding cinematography then this is your jump start. Starting at 9AM tomorrow, Monday December 3 creativeLIVE will be hosting a FREE Wedding Cinematography workshop With Vanessa & Rob. Together, they've got a career's worth of film-making knowledge and will be packing it into this three day course.
Let's face it, learning new software can be a pain in the ass sometimes. As photographers we have to juggle between Photoshop, Lightroom, our camera's proprietary software, and countless other editing software tools. Most of us learn just enough to get the job done but in the process we probably fail to get the most out of each program.