Hey Girl, Nice Shot

PhotoCamp Houston

Photocamp Houston is coming January 24th so mark you calendars.

What is Photocamp?  Photocamp is an unconference where the seminars are presented by the attendees.   It is an open environment for sharing and learning from each other.   The Houston Technology Center has offered their facility for the event (THANK YOU!!!).

I'm part of a team of local photographers that are organizing this event and I hope that if you are local you can attend.  Any level of photographer is welcome from the most experienced pros to the student photographer.

Check out the Photocamp Houston wiki to learn more about the event and to sign up to attend.

SPONSORS: we are looking for sponsors for the event.  Please feel free to contact me (jessicagrieves@ecorrouge.com) directly if you are interested in donating cash, items for giveaways, discount codes, or other materials that can be handed out to attendees.  We are expecting at least 200 attendees so this is a great way to access a wide range of photographers!

I got the keys on Thursday

To my new loft.  This will be my studio, gallery, and workspace.  It is NOT the same space I had been working on moving into but rather a new fab space that I just couldn't turn down.  20 foot ceilings, a huge glass block wall, a skylight, more windows, two elevated platforms (which will be "offices"), a full kitchen and bath, and our own courtyard.  More about this to come but I'm too excited not to share at least one picture of the new space.

When You Don't Have a Backup

So a couple of weeks ago I was setting up for a newborn session in a family home.  I took out my camera and took a couple of test shots.  I noticed that on my second or third shot the shutter seemed to be slow.  Then, all went black.  And there was a little noise of something jingling in my camera.

It was not Santa.

"OH CRAP"

The mirror in my 5D was just floating around in the camera - not attached to anything.

Luckily I knew the mom well enough to just fess up and say "I can come back in two days and get a rental for the newborn pictures."

I've always considered my Digital Rebel my backup.  But since it is not full framed it would actually force me to take pictures DIFFERENTLY than I normally do. And, yes, I recognize it is not a good backup for a 5D but I've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the new 5D to come out so I could use my OLD 5D as a backup.

So I immediately went to the LensProToGo website and found that to my absolute JOY they had a 5D body in stock.   A few clicks later and I requested it with overnight shipping.  I called the three other clients I had over the next two days to reschedule since I would probably not get the camera in time for either of my sessions the next day.

A short time later I got a call from Paul at LensProToGo verifying that he was ready to ship the camera and to make sure I was ok with the extra fee for the overnight shipping.  YES, YES, YES!

He was nice as can be and I felt good knowing the camera was on its way.

The camera arrived the next day as planned.  I opened the box and found the return shipping label all ready to go, and the pelican case holding the camera.  Inside was the camera body with the battery grip, the two batteries, and a charger.  I was very happy.

Since I'm still waiting for my camera to get back from Canon, I still have the rental and it has been working out great.  Since it is the same camera body I'm used to it was super easy for me to go in and set it up with my custom settings.  And knowing that I just put it back in the case, tape the box backup, and slap a label on it helps me to not feel like I have ONE MORE THING to do when it is time to send it back.

So check them out.  I'm totally happy with them.  And if you are a NAPP member you get a discount (yeah, love to work my member discounts).

A Gown Give-a-way

So, I came across a post to this Grosgrain website (thanks CL) and couldn't believe my eyes.

This woman made a Marie Antoinette style gown that is sized to fit 3T-5T and is giving it away.    Her inspiration was the daughter of Marie Antoinette from the movie.  Imagine the pictures!!!!

I cannot imagine making this dress then giving it away. 

You can see the dress and how to enter to win it at her website: Grosgrain: Marie-Therese Gown Giveaway

I know lots of other photographers would love to have that dress for their own little one or perhaps to use as a prop so I thought I would include it.  Not for you...feel free to ignore this post.  I have another one coming soon.  :)

Just a Quickie

Just like you I'm crazy busy with the holiday rush.  But I just saw an awesome inspire post at the Design Aglow website so I wanted to direct you to GO CHECK IT OUT!

I've been thinking a lot about what materials to put togeher for clients to prepare them for review sessions and the inspire post has it all.  I love the "blog on" card idea too! 

So, go to the Design Algow blog to check out the inspire post.

Are You Blogging?

Are you a portrait photographer?  Are you blogging?

Yes and No?

Um, what are you waiting for!???

If you are a portrait photographer and you are not currently blogging and posting sneak peeks to your customers you are losing out on a major marketing opportunity.  This is probably doubly true if you are a children's portrait photographer.  Parents LOVE to share pictures of their kids and you get the credit - what could be better?!

I'll give you an example.  Earlier this week I had a great session with an adorable little 1 year old girl.  We had fun, she was cute, and the light was nice.  I posted her sneak peek on my blog and sent the link to mom.

Mom posted the link on an online community that she is a member of and here's the resulting traffic spike:

So while I normally have about 50 visitors a day to my photography blog I had almost 200 that day!  This is 100 extra people looking at my work and because it is a local community they are possible customers.  I also had a spike in new members signing up for my mailing list on that day so I'm sure it is not a coincidence.  And, this particular mom found me through another mom that posted on the same community board HER daughter's pictures.

There is nothing as valuable as word of mouth advertising.  Think about what it would cost you to market to 100 new people through traditional means.  And not just 100 new people, but 100 targeted people that are similar to others in your client base?  Blogging is so inexpensive and yes, there is the time factor but you are going to proof those pictures anyway so why not take a few of them while they are fresh in your mind and jot down a few thoughts about the session on a blog post.  ADVERTISING!  And, it will wet your clients appetite to see the rest of their pictures.

Not sure how to get started?  Here are some of my previous posts to lead you on:

• Blogger vs Typepad (for your blogging platform)
• Setting up Feedburner (for subscriber stats on your blog)
• Setting up Google Analytics (for traffic stats on your blog)
• Creating Your Blog: Step 1
• Creating Your Blog: Step 2

My business blog is actually due for a MAJOR overhaul.  I'd like to go to a blogsite where I just have one website instead of a website and a blog.  And, I'm looking for a fresh look and a blog designed for the wider pictures.  So that is something on my plate for the new year. 

There are some companies out there that are offering custom blog designs too if you are not a do-it-yourself kind of person (or don't have the time):

• Flosites (they created Lena Hyde's blog)
• Into the Darkroom (which, by the way, did the awesome blog design for Chenin Boutwell)
• Infinet Design (who did Audrey Woulard, Laura Novak, and Tamara Lackey's blogs)

And in case you are wondering how it compares....I get about 200-300 visitors a day to THIS blog and I also have 1200 subscribers that read it through an RSS feed.  So, I get WAY more traffic but that makes sense to me since I'm not a big name photographer, just a big name sharer. LOL