Lessons

Lesson Info

Marketing

So marketing during my first year, so what did this look like if I was marketing my services as well as my taste, what we just spoke about, I needed to play to those traits, so my perspective at the time was that I wasn't shooting what I had I was shooting to showcase what I wanted to shoot in the future, using what I currently had to redefine my photography. So a lot of a lot of the times I had to think if my wedding didn't have details, so a lot of times people will ask me one of my weddings don't have details. How can I shoot it in a way that makes it look like it's a complete story or makes it push my portfolio forward? My first suggestion would be to start to shoot the environmental details as part of the story line, so I think that the challenge would be so I would walk into a wedding, and you have a good idea of how that wedding is going to be based on venue based on the creative team that they brought along based on the details. If your bride send you imitations I love when my ...

brights and the invitations it's just so cool, I love seeing their style, and you could kind of see how much time and investment they made on their invitations. Really kind of sets the tone for what? The west the rest of the wedding day well, kind of look look back so if you're gonna shoot corresponding details to the day I shot my seconds, my third wedding in two thousand six so I shot three weddings in two thousand six and I shot thirty eight weddings in two thousand seven and that was all on word of mouth, so my third wedding, my last wedding for the year in two thousand six I shot move meek and steve and we shot them in rosarito beach, mexico. No, I knew going down now if you're from ok, so if you're not from california, you might hear rosarito beach and might think, oh, first destination wedding that's right? My first year business I was an international wedding photographer. The mexican american border is probably two hours from where from like it's like two and a half to three hours from los angeles about q out, you know, two hours from where I live, so getting wedding in wars or the beach sounds glamorous, but it was a three hour drive, so obviously keep it rial and rosarito beach is not like the glory speeches of cancun or the mine revere, you know, it's very simple and that's my piece, so I'm not going to say anything but will the states it's simple so I knew that them by going down there and munich had said we're going to go down there and all we wanted to his party she's like I found this great package to where you get your wedding and they do everything for you just show up as a wedding photographer I heard that and I thought ok chances are they're not going to be the details from christina and danny's wedding so my first wedding I shot with christine and you saw that the second wedding I shot was vip and jody and they had an indian and american wedding ceremony so there was a ton of details maybe not traditional wedding details but a ton of details of the less and I was really excited about it now I got to my third wedding and there was no details so how then can I showcase that shoot the wedding day and showcase in a way that I wanted so I thought ok the challenge is for me to showcase the environment as part of the wedding story finding color themes with any order shooting the environment as part of what it wass so I'm going to show a few of those photos that I got this is for my third wedding I started choosing the colors that sell the most of it was fuchsia and blue so whenever I saw official blue and it actually corresponded with what monique scullers workers she had fuchsia red and white as her colors which is very difficult as we're talking about, you know, white dress and bright red like bridal party dresses so I was trying to find photos that would offset like this really right dichotomy of color um so this is the blue and the red this is from the actual location and just like cruz right on through these again if anything religious she was super she was super religious and this is part of the reason was that they had their on site like um yes, I know it's like mother mary I mean it's married the mother of christ but in mexico it's guadalupe so they had the chance. Teo quite okay, so all of those things I wanted to make sure it got details of it felt like it was like a test of my brown is right there so like, oh, god, what a great okay, so this is a detail of money and mike and I tried to include the color palette as well as what was going on in there. So that's the story of how I shot those particular details given that wedding and yes, I did shoot the wedding details that were available very simple centerpieces, very simple cake nothing else to that so for me it was important to style is the day according to color so we already established to shoot what you want, not necessarily what you have, and we address that by shooting the environmental details on the day that you're given. Now the second question that I get asked by photographers early on is, should I post every wedding? Now, I know that this is a personal prerogative, but I personally feel like you should. I absolutely feel that you should and why I feel so ardently about this is because it gets people talking and people talking is how you grow your business that is just as important is actually honing your skills, and I think that on the wedding day or on an engagement shooter on a family session, it forces you to produce images that you're proud of. If you have the option of not posting those pictures, you could just say, this is not a good session, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just going to do it, get her done on the client will be happy, but I'm not gonna put them online. You just gave yourself the option to sit the bench when you're trying to hustle. When you're at the point of just like I gotta hustle, you cannot sit the bench need to be on the court and score every possible point that's how I that's a school of thought that I believe, and lastly, I really do this I do believe that clients feel proud to see themselves on your on your work as a division of who you are I think that it hurts I think it runs a potential of hurting their feelings of not being scene when they see other couples and then they don't see themselves because it leads them to question did I not do anything right? And if you shut their engagement session and then you didn't post it and it comes to the wedding all listen in they're probably in the back of their mind thinking what we didn't get posted because we didn't thing wrong or we don't look a certain way bump that I'm having a tough session because not every session is like cookies and punch their sessions around like, oh my god, I'm stuck like I'm really stuck right now I've got to do something because I know that I absolutely, positively have to post images on my block that I'm proud of that I feel like our fun fresh for editorial and I need to post a slide show online that I'm proud of. If I can get images to go in a slide show that I'm proud of, I'm doing something wrong and I'm not challenging myself so that's how ardently I believe about that should I post everything from the wedding? No way all know why, right? Because you can do you don't want to if you don't want to attract the cake stand bride, don't post the case and pictures if you don't want to post that I didn't I didn't want to shoot the shop, all right, right? I didn't monique went in, she bought a wedding, those were not big, perhaps of weddings that I wanted to shoot, so I needed to showcase it in a way that didn't look like it was a bio wedding I needed to showcase it to look like it was a destination wedding in rosarito beach, california. So all the photographers would think international baby international thirty year third wedding international, so because I had this belief that every wedding should be posted online, I know I knew at that particular moment that they need to shoot the wedding and then I need to cure rate the wedding in a way that would not showcase what I had but what I wanted to shoot. And in light of that, I'm going to talk about a wedding that he shot that I still that is still near and dear to my heart in my first creative life course, I spoke about a wedding and they now refer to it as the tea bowl wedding nico, if you could if you could cue up the tebow wedding and we're going to show that video right now, that would be great when you're talking about a very big anyone talk about slide shows and emotional effect and how much even since two thousand six first slide show right now it's something I'm feeling like there's a lot of clutter like guests are bringing their iphones and their cameras and everything's toe weddings and I want to create something special for a bride win two days after her wedding she can see the pictures from the wedding and really feel that connection but um I'm seeing people are doing that on their own that her professional photographer how do you distinguish your slide show from uh from guests that are putting up there? I mean obviously there's a difference in perception guess john you beat the guests midnight that night? No, I show it at the reception that's why that's true, I do same days wedding slide show okay, I didn't mean to make a joke of it but I show the same day winning sideshow so well the guests are eating dinner I download the images and they put together thirty five image slideshow um at the wedding day and during my first year I was going through and photo shop and like trying to fix the thirty five photos that would be like so stressed out and I slowly started doing less and less photoshopped because better that you get in camera if you can shoot your if you could shoot them good and they can put them out as the guests you put them on a three second rotation the guests or drinking the music's loud we've already got the one hour of cocktail hour and a one hour dinner usually of liquor photos look awesome, I guess what I mean? Well, nothing is your point my photos look awesome after like three or four years, you know, like what I'm saying is your photos on re touched her far better than what people are getting from their android from their iphone, so if you take solace in that, knowing that that create the the thing that you were, the experience that you are creating is far better than what those clients is showing. You know, I got tagged in a photo on facebook before I left the wedding reception, so we know that it's happening, so how then do we control that way? What do you sit here and look? Power would be like why? I know you just got to get better, you get that are faster. So I show this light show same day at the wedding reception and then I usually have that wedding blogged by tuesday or wednesday, so in that slide show that's not that is like put on an ipad, those air, the images that you're confident and that you've shot, you're not doing much to prepare that slide show on the wedding day on the wedding on the wedding day yes, they're actually shown on this plateau cool I take my laptop with me we take it in her bag and then as guests are eating I should rot in jail take on the wedding day just quickly look cj pegs grab a few that they need drop him into I photo keep it on three second rotation take out the ken burns effect I like ken burns yeah, and then that's how I do it usually about the bar why perfect that's whatthe please I hope that it was not on me I totally his death I was like so this's really? Why have it by the bar is because the photos looked better there is a line that's forming around the bar far be it for anything else and access a conversation piece for people who are socially awkward because it happens the wedding gathers every person that different avenues of life and put them into a room and says be friends in thirty minutes so what happens in the way? And they said the photos like oh doesn't jennifer look so lovely? Yes, jennifer doesn't really where you from? Great conversation starter and they bonded over the connection of wedding photos win win win for him by the photo booth that they have one is already in line photo booths. They like photos great good. Okay, so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to show case we have sound right celeste great when a show is the tebow wedding clip so that we're all on the same page I went to zacarias one light workshop my very first year business because I was so intimidated my flash and I had no idea how to use it so I'm like, I want to go to this flash the roof well, the problem was he knew so much about flash I knew nothing it was a little bit of my head I think I went prematurely, I will say though I walked away with the most powerful piece of I have business knowledge or whatever he can call it and he said he told the story and I'm probably gonna kill its exact please forgive me he told the class about this story this photographer who really wanted to shoot the world series now this photographer was really good and he believed in his ability should the world series but nobody would hire him for larger gigs. So he finally landed the gig in like podunk yusa and they haven't shooting t ball games well he's so frustrated because he clearly knows of his ability to succeed but he shooting t ball games and he's shooting the table games like he was shooting a t ball game it didn't hit him until one day when he realized if I shoot this table game like I'm shooting the world series, I will eventually shoot the world siri's lo and behold, a few years later, he shoots the world series and garnish is a tons of awards for his work. That story which has nothing to do with flash or the one like workshop revolutionized my life because I was shooting the proverbial tebow wedding I was shooting the tebow wedding like it was a t ball wedding I was shooting in church basements where they had like streamers hanging from the basketball court and I was shooting it like it was a streamer filled basketball court wedding the minute I change my perspective and shot these weddings like I was shooting it for grace our mind or martha stewart weddings was when I started really moving towards what I wanted to dio and ideally I'm not even I'm not even not even exactly nine making this up but next wedding that he shot after going to zack's workshop I shot in this church and my daddy is a pastor I've said this before and I shouldn't say things about god's house but this church was just I mean the church might charge mice are scared to go into his surge on so I was like, this is where we have to shoot this wedding and I was so scared because the church lady comes up to me and she says there's no flash photography and I'm just like your silhouetted it's so dark in here I can't see you how can I know you splash on the search and she says those are just the rules so I have a minor panic attack and then I just have to think ok this situation is going to be really really bad so I tell judy to stand in the hallway where he has like awful lighting but still lighting and then I run up on the stage and I hide behind planters at the church and I shot the entire wedding from behind because they were up on the stage and they entire ceremony was pitch black but had been lighting on the bride and groom I couldn't shoot up on that because the stage was literally like six feet off the ground and then they were saying on top of it it was like I was shooting a twelve person twelfth person I'm talking so fast it can you breathe ok so I'm hiding behind the planters and I'm shooting the writing room and then we go across the street to their church jim where they have streamers and they have a korean style potluck and I set up this computer and I do a same day wedding slideshow edit and as people are standing around the computer with the paper plates in there kimchi I booked five weddings from that singular church you that I thought would be awful what happened was the girls were watching this, so if they thought and felt that if jazz and can make that church look like what we're seeing, imagine what she could see with our church that revolutionized business, so if you feel like you're shooting kind of ghetto fabulous weddings, take the ghetto out and just shoot them fabulously and that's one thing that I walked away with from zacks workshops okay, so way talked about actually when I saw that clip it really parlayed well to what we talked about it as if you plan to that question for me thank you, john c interject all you want, so he talked about doing the same these light shows in that particular clip we talked about doing the same day slide show because what happened was I did the same decide show based on the images that I got on that day and is able to book five weddings as a byproduct of it, but what I want to focus on is not necessary, that component of it but with the curator that's how I cure rated that wedding to showcase it in a very different light because one thing to talk about that wedding I talked about how I shot it, you know, the korean church with the kimchi potluck in the whole night, right I'm going to show you what I was given and then I'm going to show you how I curated it we're on the same page so I was hired in the beginning I most my collections were ten hours I now have eight our collections but in the beginning I really wanted to shoot the day the entirety of day or as much as possible of it so ten hours now this particular bride how full day wedding so she's getting ready early in the morning she was going to have a traditional korean ceremony church ceremony and then she's gonna go across the street to her church gym and they're going to have a a reception there and then they're going to take a break in the day and then later on that evening they would have a much smaller ceremony for close friends and family at a hotel. Well, the ten hours didn't go all the way to her evening reception, so I started the day early with her at her salon. Then we went to the church and I shot the reception at the church and then we went to the city and then I didn't then it did not I did I did not I did not shoot that evening reception that's the load of the day after we shot prep for her at the salon we went to her church and this is where misa got dressed in the church bathroom. This is what we're given. This is how we should it. Okay, um, this is the bridal room at the church. I told you that the charge mice were scared. I told you I was really not exaggerating, but this is what we were given. This is how I will shoot it. This is the memories of her day, remember? Shoot every wedding show every wedding do not show every photo from every wedding. We're talking about a second. Okay, way went. They did a first look they were supposed to do with outside. It was blazing hot. She don't want to be outside the location that I chose no longer worked. He was waiting in a pastor's office that was bright yellow with twigs in the background that was literally like four feet by four feet. G e and andy were waiting in that room. Niece and I walked across the street to the pastor's office. We walked in the office that had a couch. Those four people in a four by four room I shot the first look how I knew how within a foreign football in space and then I try getting creative. What can you do when two people are on one side of the room and two people on the other side of room and there's one angle to be shot you shoot it the best way you know how that is it remember highs and there's something certain things you cannot control then you just have to let it go walked across the street to the church ceremony this is the church, their money and we walked in and we shot it the best we could this is a darkly illuminate hallway and I will show you just how dark it is no dramatics watch this look at this guy is he not situated? The guy in the back room is silhouetted I wasn't lying when that church lady was saying you can't shoot here like I can't see you how can I dodge in here? So I want to walk you through a couple other photos this is the wedding ceremony this is the church. Like I said, god's house is always beautiful, some houses and prettier than others. Why I did not want to shoot it from this perspective was because we couldn't shoot it down the aisle we could introduce down the the side aisles the church lady had told us last person in the row is where you have to stand and you can't use flash, so I instructed judy to use the seventy two, two hundred at sixteen hundred s o which is the highest s o that we had at the time he was shooting with it twenty we had rented him a twenty at the time he was shooting it with the twenty with a cross sensor, seventy two hundred sixteen hundred s o two point eight and part of the reason why I wanted to see what this is because you have this dangling microphones from up top, you have the vents up top, you have the stage that did it move their instruments on the side of the stage, and then you had very, very, very like these details that I said, I don't want to showcase those particular details, so you want to I was when they walk down, that was behind the planter, and during the ceremony I would hire we here on this side, so if you're not seeing if they're showcasing the photo at this particular moment, what was happening is I was hiding just behind the church pianist and the for certain photos I would creep out and shoot, and because of what he already started, the church lady couldn't come and get me. I might have been banned from that korean church in los angeles forever, indeed, but at that point I had no other option. So now, after the ceremony way walked dia, we walked across the street to the church jim, and shot in the church, jim, and this is the background that I was given now I did take photographs that did crop out the upper part see how the draping is like pinned up top probably not the best showcase of my work but I took this photo for the bride in case she wanted a full outline of what her love table looked like and then I shot it much tighter that omitted that that little pipe and drink that went wrong so this right here is a gold mine photo. Okay, this is like a photo that I'm just like really jazzy what were you thinking? I have no doubt although I have no doubt that this was taken with the sixteen uh sixteen to thirty five so I use issue really wide why did not remove the chili paste from the table looking glass that's also left on the table and if you look at the very edge of the picture what do you see? My shoes of course of course okay, so much stock in a terrible photos either way and what you see also the bottom is the basketball court. So you all know what I'm shooting at this particular moment I shot it and it was as I was shooting this wedding when I had that epiphany I need to shoot this wedding like I'm shooting for martha stewart or grace armand and I'm given nothing of that source, so what then can I do now this wedding was beautiful. I just had to see it beautifully. If that makes sense, I needed to find beauty, I had to work a little bit harder to find beauty, and sometimes people will look at it and be like, well, it is what it is, and it is to a certain extent, but how hard do you want to work? It boils down to really going out, and the hustle goes back to not being benched. So what I want to show case right now is how I curated this wedding. Someone has to show this line show, not because I think the site shows that the bomb this is still from two thousand seven, but I want to show you now. You guys know from beginning to end what I was working with and how I created it. So nico, now I would like to show like, ah wei.