Bridal Show Techniques for Wedding Photographers

Bridal Shows won't make you rich but they will give you exposure
Go there and look for your brides, not all of the brides. You're probably looking for 4-5 weddings not all the weddings. You're looking for a needle in a haystack. Spend time with the needles, not the haystack.

Remember you're not just a pricelist, you're an artist.

Engage with your brides and get them excited about you, your ideas, and their day.

Maximise your exposure by thinking big
Albums, images, everything should be big.
The smallest prints he takes are 20"s
Avoid detail shots, nobody cares about them, they're looking for the formal photos.
They book you because of the romantic images

Dress Professionally
People make snap decisions about who people are based on the way that they present themselves. You only get one shot at a first impression.
What message are you sending your clients? How old are your clients? How would they want you to dress?

Be Warm and Friendly
This should be obvious.

Consider Running a Show Special
This acts as a call to action. Without this potential clients have no incentive to book you then and there. Without this they can head off to other photographers.

Run a giveaway
This will get you names and e-mails for further contact. It also provides an opportunity to extend the show special.

Network
This can increase sales etc. through referrals and co-operation.

Exceeding Client Expectations - Wedding Photographers

In the video above Sal Cincotta runs through some ways that you can exceed client expectations and differentiate yourself from the rest of the wedding photography pack through improving your service rather than (or in addition to) your images.

His key messages are:
- Hand written thank you notes
You can do this immediately after the wedding. That way your memory is fresh and you won't forget to do it.

- Thank you gifts for clients
If someone is spending a lot of money with you send them a gift that says something about who you are. That way you can start building a genuine relationship. He uses wine because he and his wife love wine.

- Turnaround times
Avoid being a 12 month horror story. Aim for weeks or days, not months. If you aim for months the excitement will be gone.

- Saying goodbye to EVERYONE at the end of a wedding
While the Bride and Groom are important so are the people who are liekly to have paid you (the parents) and any future clients (the bridal party). Even if they don't need a wedding photographer in the future they are likely to become your cheerleaders with future potential clients.

- Return e-mails and phonecalls promptly
Even if you can't give a full answer let people know that you have received their message.

Some extra ideas that I do:
- Extra copies of discs for family and friends
Everyone wants to share their photos. Why not make it easy? This also allows you to control the presentation.

- A few prints with packages that don't include prints
Added extras are always nice

- Stay for a bit longer than your booking
Once again added extras are always nice

- Asking for their opinion on your work as a whole
Let them know that their thoughts matter. Asking for their help often makes your clients feel like they can return part of your hard work.

Some things that I'm looking at doing once I'm more established:
-Thank you gifts for referrals
Something like a canvas or a discount on an album

- Discounts on prints when buying large packages
Thankn clients for spending large amounts of money and give yourself a chance to earn a bit more as well.

Pixelpaint.co.nz A3 Photobook Review

UPDATED - Click here to see the review of the final product

A while back I did a review on a pixelpaint.co.nz canvas print. I was happy with the canvas and the service they provided so when they introduced their photobooks I thought I'd give them a crack as well. Today we got a book in the mail. While it looks great the Pixelpaint team weren't 100% happy with it yet as they thought they could do better. As a result the official review will be coming soon. Until we receive their final copy this will act as a fill in for anyone thinking about making a purchase before we get our final copy.

Overall:

So far it looks promising. While I noticed a few minor imperfections in the first book they sent through they did tell us that they were fixing them up (See the note in the picture above - click it to enlarge it). I look forward to receiving a book that is up to their standards in the days ahead.

Materials:

Cover:
The cover material is very nice and differentiates itself from the book's interior. The cover seems to be printed on a light fabric or canvas. The texture is nice to the touch and also to the eye.

Construction:
The book feels secure when vieiwing it on the table but a little wobbly when carrying it open. The glue in our book has spilt out a bit on the last page - I suspect this is an imperfection that they are looking to rectify in a subsequent copy.

Pages:
The pages have a nice feel to them. They are 170gsm with a slight glossiness to them. The whites are also nice and clean.

Ink:
The colours are vibrant and strong. In our current book some of the balck and white shots appear to have a minor green tinge to them. While most people wouldn't notice this it could be what they were talking about when they mentioned the imperfections.

Print Resolution:
The print resolution is solid. Some of our shots came up with a resolution warning, we suspected that these warnings were on the conservative side - aimed more at printing from point-and-shoot cameras than cameras and lenses with a higher image quality (dSLRs and the like) - and it looks like we were right. All of our images look great resolution wise but it should be noted that the quality of their printers will not make up for poor quality images, cameras, or lenses.

Service:

Pros
Their Zealous service came through in their detection of imperfections in our photobook. As a result they took the initiative and reprinted our book before we asked them to. As an added bonus they sent through the imperfect book so we had something to look at in the meantime.


Cons
When the books were first listed the turnaround time was listed as 15 days. In fact the turnaround time is 15 working days. This lead to a bit of dissappointment in that the book didn't arrive when we expected it to. That being said I have been in touch with the pixelpaint team and this error should be fixed soon.

The information in the my orders section still leaves a lot to be desired. While it does indicate whether your photobook order has been placed or is printing these labels don't seem to mean much. In fact your book will be in the printing phase from the moment your order is officially processed. As such it can be 'printing' for 15 working days. Furthermore our book needed to be reprinted - this was not indicated in the my orders section.

Above Advertisement and Photo Shop - Potential Job Offer

Today I received an e-mail from Jeffrey Peterson of Above Advertisement and Photo Shop.

Jeffrey's message was vague and smelt a bit like a scam. Indeed the NZIPP warn that it could be just that.

Reasons to believe it could be a scam are:
- A representative of the company he eventually claims to be working on behalf of have contacted me to say it's a scam

- Limited details about the job itself, the advertising company, and the way they found me

- The advertising agency doesn't seem to exist or is not ranking well on google

- The supplied e-mail address comes from a g-mail account (you would expect @aboveadvert.com rather than @gmail.com)

- Poor grammar etc. (a instead of an, lack of capitalisation...)
- Failure to address you by name
- Follow up e-mail requests you to provide your name, company etc (they should already know this)
- A fundamental misunderstanding of what a client would mean when they request an 'international photographer'. International photographers have an international reputation, they aren't simply from another country

Now I'm not saying that this is definitely a scam as I don't know for sure. What I am saying is proceed with extreme caution if you proceed at all.

The NZIPP advise:
Don't be surprised if they "booked" a job, prepay for it and then contact you to say that they made an error and gave you too much, you refund some money and then find out that the original money was stolen

For those who are interested in the message here it is below.

Hello,


I am Jeffery Peterson. I work for a advertisement agency called above advertisement and photo shop.


We at above advertisement and photo shop have a few campaigns and we are currently looking for an international photographer who will take coverage of this campaign and photo shooting.


I saw your profile in one of the photographers site  and I think you would fit in for this campaign which I have on my books.


If you are interested, feel free to send me a message and ask me any questions regarding the potential job.


Regards,

Jeffery Peterson


Second E-mail:


Hello,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply and willingness to take up this project which upon i contacted you. I am also happy to answer your questions in

other to put you through on the follow up of this project.

1 . We are small scale company located here in UK though affiliated to other bigger scale ventures.

2.  We have this contract from our client Lebara UK to provide them with models and photographers. The models, their photo will be used for the new face of

 Lebara top up card and bill boards advertisement which will be published soon then the work of the photographer is to take charge of the shoot which will

take a little period of time which is a temporal employment with us and that is the reason why we have contacted you to take charge of the photo shooting

because actually we want to create relationship with international models and photographers for expansion.

3.The location for the shoot is here in London and the duration for the shoot is 10days which is from January 24th to February 4th 2012. My client will take

 care of all bills so u do not need to worry.

All you need to do now is to get back with me as soon as possible with the details below for proper registration with us to enable us commence and we will

keep you updated in no time.

STUDIO COMPANY NAME:

FIRST NAME:

LAST NAME:

ADDRESS:

CITY

COUNTRY

POSTAL CODE

PHONE NUMBER

EMAIL ADDRESS

Thank you very much and hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

Regards

Jeffery Peterson

If Jeffrey Peterson is out there anywhere and would like to counter these claims please feel free to contact me. Once you do this I will be happy to remove this post.

Comments are open to anyone so please feel free to add your voice below :)

He Who Guards the Fire - A Song By Dennis Liu

This song, or perhaps my interpretation of it, made me cry. It did this by making me think of the relationship between a father and a son as they and their relationship developed and aged to the point that one of them, the father, passes on. It is full of metaphors - many of which I'm sure I don't entirely follow but all of which I enjoy because of the possible interpretations they raise - I am particularly fond of the reference to an evergreen forest which, to me, suggests a desire to preserve the relationship or some golden aspect of it in a way that it never changes.

Gripes:

The lyrics feel a bit thesaurus-y at times and the odd line feels a bit out of place or unnecessary. While I really like the idea of echoes being more frightening than the sound of any beast I'm not convinced that the clarification of the reason that they are frightening is necessary, this explanatory line also lengthens the verse to the point where it becomes out of step with the others. Personally I feel that the echoes here are the sound of silence/the absence of the father. The explanation of why they are frightening runs counter to this though suggesting that it is what the echoes tell or have the potential to tell our narrator something about himself that is frightening, the echoes serve as a mirror.

In writing this I am talking myself round a bit. This is something I am always wary of when talking about something that is feeling based rather than fact based as it means I've pushing myself away from thinking with feelings and towards thinking with thoughts. That move feels dangerous. That being said that additional line could suggest to us that our narrator has not lived up to the expectations he has set for himself through his time with his father. This is very different from simply being alone in that it also reflects some sense of failure and/or disappointment.

How Could We Be? - A song by Dennis Liu

Dennis has been a friend for a while now.When I first met him I got the impression that he was something of a force to be reckoned with in the university's film group. Later I learnt that his talents extended to music as well.

Photo by Aaron Goodwin

While I know very little about music (I have actually said things like "I don't know what to call them, so I'm going to say... notes?") as a general rule I like his work. In fact my wife and I were lucky enough to have him play at our wedding during the bridal entrance and the signing of the register and we have a few of his EPs from a few years back. These days he has taken to releasing tracks online via bandcamp.

Like all of us he's continuing to develop his skills and talent - currently he's doing this by writing songs and recording them onto cassette tapes.

What follows are my impressions of 'How Could We Be'. I write them in the belief that providing or receiving honest opinions can be a great way to develop skills in yourself or others any area. As always though, when considering opinions, its important to consider the source and this source is not very well informed. Feel free to join me as I stab wildly in the dark.

Initial Impressions:

The song is soft and gentle, more suited to an intimate performance with people sitting and listening than dancing and singing along. If anyone is dancing in this fantasy land of mine they're damn good at it and their movements are slow and formal with the occasional step filling in a blank spot in the music. That being said it does seem to have an underlying - and slightly unusually paced - driving beat to it. It stops and starts in a fashion that draws you in while preventing any easy exaggerated seated rocking movements or lighter waving (thankfully). At points, such as the beginning and near the midpoint, the drawing-in highlights the lyrics. This in interesting in the sense that without these pauses, once the song had gotten under way, I found my attention wandering from the words of the lyrics to the tone of the lyrics. While I still heard the words the voice became less of a voice and more of an instrument - it accompanied the guitar rather than the other way around.

Grumps:

Personally I'm not a fan of the cassette recording. I'm not sure if it's intended as an aesthetic thing (akin to the vinyl is better argument), an authenticity thing (the need to get things right in one hit), a convenience factor (reduced post work), some kind of limitation to encourage enhanced creativity, or something else entirely but it doesn't work for me. The crackle in the silence is more distracting than charming. Chances are that doesn't matter though, chances are the recording medium isn't designed to impress me, chances are it's something that works for him for one of the earlier reasons or an entirely different one and, at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Natural reflectors - a quick example from Jasmine Star