Blogging for your photography business can seem like a tricky and time-consuming task, but there are important benefits. Here are just some ways blogging can help your business grow.  01. Help people get to know you Your blog is a chance for clients to get to know you and your personality in a conversational and casual way. Talk about the things you love. That may be strictly personal, like how much you love travel (although everyone seems to say that!). If you shoot weddings maybe it's how you love hearing how couples met, and what they love about each To View More >>

What is "aspect ratio", and why can it be a problem? The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. Unless the aspect ratio of a print or frame matches that of the camera image from which it is made, the original image will need to be cropped. What to do When shooting, bear in mind the finished print that you want to sell. If you frame the subject tightly (with important content out to the edges of the image) you won't be able to crop — you'll need to order prints with the same aspect ratio as the camera. Since most digital camerals have an To View More >>

Here are twenty questions to think about, to help make your business better. It's thought-provoking and worth reviewing regularly, so get a pen and a piece of paper! 1. Are there too many photographers? Do you think it’s different now to 10-20 years ago? If so, why? Does it impact your business, and can you do anything about it? 2. What is it that enables people to earn a living cooking, writing or taking pictures when almost everyone can do those things? What’s special about them? 3. How many jobs do you need, and how much does each one need to pay you? (ie to cover you, your equipment, To View More >>

Time is a valuable resource in any business, but especially photography. With that in mind, it makes sense to make the most of it, and to ask yourself, can I do things more efficiently? If I could outsource something, should I? Is what I'm doing even necessary? Here are four ways to optimise your time and make the most of every shoot. 1. Outsource Ask photographers why they got into portrait and wedding photography and they'll say how they love photography … or telling love stories … or connecting with clients on their special days. Not many say To View More >>

Ever since digital replaced film as the photographers’ tool of choice, there’s been a rapid rise in reported cases of Photographer’s Herd Instinct Disease (PHID). Like other herd behaviors (buffalo grazing, people drinking Kool-Aid®, etc.) the symptoms of PHID include needing to hang out with the rest of the herd, think the same thoughts and do the same things. PHID is viral and highly contagious, and affects wedding and portrait photographers in particular. Although often transmitted through direct photographer-to-photographer contact, recent studies suggest that software To View More >>

Continuing on from Katherine’s first post, 'Why Albums?', Katherine has a few more tips about how she educates her clients about printing, and some advice for photographers who might just be starting to offer albums in their packages. How do you educate your clients about the importance of printing, rather than leaving photographs on a USB? An album really is a personal preference, so I try not to push them on my clients, but now I have over 50% of my couples order albums, I love to know they will treasure these for 30, 40 maybe even 50 years! I talk about and share my albums as To View More >>

Apart from the fact that Katherine adores Queensberry albums, she personally feels you can’t beat printed images. In this day and age everyone (herself included) has thousands of photos on their phones, computers and social media accounts, but they rarely get round to printing the images. And yet when you hire a professional photographer the images are of such beautiful quality, it's such a shame to confine them to a ‘screen’, as they take on a whole new dimension when printed. Katherine gives us some sound album advice to ponder, interspersed with beautiful wedding To View More >>

I originally posted this on a private Facebook forum, where it got a lot of discussion — so what do you think? I've been watching people asking for feedback on their price lists — asking if their pricing should be online, asking if everything should be shown upfront, and these discussions make me think about the real problem with price lists. The way I see it is, most price lists make it sound like photographers sell USBs full of images, or pieces of paper — even boxes full of pieces of paper — and the problem with that is that To View More >>

I believe that to succeed in this “industry" we need to fully engage our heads and our hearts, and Sonya's post demonstrates how truly engaged she is. It was about the albums she’s been keeping of her two daughters since they were born, and it reminded me of another album that Heather made years ago. So here am I, hand on heart too… Twenty-one years ago we hired a professional photographer. It was our daughter Adrienne’s birthday. Stephen was coming home from Australia with his fiancée Sonya to meet the family. Heather's Mum and Dad had long passed To View More >>

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I've never read a business book. Not really. I've skirted around them … flicked through them … put them back on the shelf. Stephen on the other hand has shelves of them. He reads them and fills me in on the concepts. It's worked for many years :-) So a friend comes for the weekend and hands me this book … tells me I MUST read it: The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth by Chris Brogan, one of Stephen’s favourites. I think it's the title that grabbed me. I’ve always felt we've bordered on the right side of being freaks. To View More >>