Just going to slide this in here since they allegedly serve as a "luxury" photographer. I think this goes to show that planners and couples need to dig a little bit, and if something is ever like what was allegedly in their contracts, RUN.
I know busy season for booking is December to February but inquires have pretty much stopped since about mid March. Is this normal? Instagram ads no longer have much traction, no google inquires.
Is it worth transitioning to Google Ads or should I just prepare to not receive any bookings until the fall?
I guess to some extent we all expected to start seeing allegations like this at some point. Thoughts?
honestly I think I'm officially done putting effort into beautifully branded inquiry responses.
It just hit me yesterday when a planner i work with told me a bride thought I completely ignored her. turns out my gorgeous, carefully crafted pricing guide went straight into her gmail promotions tab. again.
it feels like email is just a black hole of spam right now. couples are filling out contact forms on our sites, the knot, wherever, and their inboxes are getting absolutely nuked by vendor algorithms. they just physically don't see our replies.
i kinda swallowed my pride this month and just set up dropcowboy to handle some basic SMS marketing triggers. so now when someone submits a form, they just get a plain text immediately like "hey received your inquiry, sending pricing to your email now!"
it feels so un-aesthetic compared to my curated pdfs, but the response rate is literally night and day. they text back "thanks!" and actually go dig through their spam folder to find the quote
are you guys still relying 100% on email follow-ups or have you shifted to texting? feels weird to invade their phone space but it honestly feels like the only way to actually get seen through all the inbox noise anymore.
What settings are you guys using for uploading your photos on instagram? I export my photos in 300 ppi in Lightroom, but I find that when they’re uploaded on instagram the quality is terrible. I already have the “upload in high quality setting” turned on on the instagram app, idk what else to do. Any tips ?
I really love this style of editing but I do not know what it is called.
Could this be achieved with any type of professional grade camera and colour grading? Or is it acquired by let say something such as a leica camera or a Fujifilm and their simulations?
Thank you and good day.
Hey fellow
Do you send moodboards to your couples before the wedding to give them a sense of the style and overall vibe of the shoot?
I’m currently refining my approach and thinking of sharing a moodboard with them in advance - just to help them understand the direction we’re going in and feel more relaxed and prepared on the day.
The only downside is that I don’t yet have my own work in this new style, so I’d be building the moodboard using Pinterest references (with proper credits, of course).
I’m wondering if that’s a good way to communicate the visual direction to clients, or if it might come across the wrong way.
Tnx
Hello All!
I'm looking for recommendations for new flashes or strobes to use at wedding receptions. I shoot with Sony mirrorless cameras and I like a flash or strobe that I can shoot with burst mode. I need them to be able to be off camera or have one on camera and I would prefer a system that I could control the power of each light from on top of my camera.
My current light system is 3x Newwer Vision 5. I like them, they fire pretty much no matter what, but they are a bit bulky. One of them has stopped working even though I replaced the bulb and they are so old that Newwer no longer sells them. Newwer has offered me a discount on an updated model that can be controlled with the trigger on top of my camera, but I'm curious about what else is out there. I'm particularly curious about traditional flashes that I can put on top of my camera as well, since I have to pack a seperate flash (and my flash that I put on my camera is very old & worn- the batteries are held in by duck tape!) I think traditional flashes would also be nice because they take up less space and are lighter than the strobes. Strobes can be bulky and scary when they tip over (we have all seen some drunk dancer back into them or a random kid walk up to our flashes/strobes and just push them over, right?!)
Okay so I'm a big birder and I recently got the cotton harness. Its amazing! Super functional and easy to use with my big lens.
I also do small city hall ceremonies and like engagement sessions. It would be absolutely ridiculous to wear my cotton harness, right? It feels pretty dorky wearing it for birding already.. But it is very functional!
I'm thinking about getting the spider holster but it feels a little silly to have two expensive holsters. Right now I'm using a harness I got from Amazon - I spent a bit on it but it gave me a scare last week and it's not the most functional so I'm thinking about upgrading.
I usually shoot weddings but was asked to do a charity event in town. They want to offer free family portraits to anyone that wants one. I'm totally down, I like the cause, and think this will be a fun event.
However, I'm not sure how to deliver digital photos to dozens of people. I know it's not exactly a wedding photography question, but has anyone done anything similar? Is there a good app or way to deliver digital photos to a bunch of different individuals?
My first thought was having folks fill out a card with their name and email. Take a photo of the card before the portrait, and just email people. But, is there a more modern streamlined way? Maybe a QR code for an app with a unique instance? I dunno, I feel super lost, lol.
I'm also going to have polaroids available for some instant gratification and for anyone uncomfortable giving out their email.
Typically, I would just make a gallery, but I want to avoid creating 50 different galleries on my website to host a single photo. That sounds like a tedious nightmare.
Worst case scenario I just do the email cards, but I wasn't sure if there was some other way of doing this that I wasn't thinking of.
Any help or ideas would be amazing!
We just got our full gallery back and it’s… a LOT (like thousands 😅)
Curious what people actually did after:
I’m realizing most people probably only care about photos they’re in, but I have no idea how to realistically find and send those without it taking forever…
Would love to hear what people actually did (and what you wish you had done differently)
Hi everyone,
I’m starting as a second shooter for a wedding photographer and I’ll be using the Nikon Z5 II (with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 G2 and the Nikon 35 1.8S).
Since the Z5 II has three custom user modes (U1, U2, U3) on the dial, I want to set them up to be as efficient as possible for a wedding day workflow. I want to avoid digging into menus while things are happening.
My current plan is:
My questions for the community:
I'm also bringing a styling kit (beige fabric, museum wax, etc.) to help the main shooter with detail shots.
Would love to hear your logic on how you organize your camera dial!
I came across a few photography websites recently that looked really well done, and it made me curious about how much photographers are spending on their websites these days.
If you have a photography website, roughly how much did it cost you to design and develop?
Was it custom built, made with a template, or done through something like WordPress or Squarespace?
Also, do you still think having a good website is important for your photography business today? Has it helped you get more clients, build trust, increase bookings, or do most leads come from social media now?
any insights would be really helpful.
I’m posting this here instead of messaging the venue to laugh in their face.
Long story short, I never do styled shoots but a new venue reached out to me to get some branding content for their property. I actually knew the owners and his parents who built it so I was on board.
Did the styled shoot, they used it for all their branding, I got paid. All was well.
Fast forward two years later and they have yet to book a wedding (last time I checked they were asking 35k and you get to use just the pool house to get ready and can’t stay there. Nothing included besides the property/view).
They have done, and I kid you not, probably 30 styled shoots at this point. I can’t imagine how much they have spent because they are beautiful with some amazing designers/florals/etc. during these shoots they have periodically sold tickets so there is a huge range of photos out there from amazing to not great.
I was curious who was on there vendors list after the past few years (part of our agreement was being on their list) so I checked their website.
Not me, not any local photographers (and we are in an amazing market so there are tons of options).
Their vendors list goes as follows -
Joel and Justyna
José Villa
Nirav Patel
Corbin Gurkin
The list goes on. I Audibly laughed when I read this. I get the whole “fake it till you make it”, but shit, they are really shooting to the stars. Clients that can pay $150k for Jose Villa aren’t getting ready in a pool house, and sure as shit aren’t staying at the closest hotel which is a holiday inn express.
Not to mention, none of these photographers even know this venue exists, or have ever been to the property.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did, and have a wonderful and prosperous wedding season. And if you don’t, just lie on the internet so everyone thinks you did.
Hey everyone! I'm wondering if any of you have experience hiring a company to manage your Google / Meta ad campaigns, and if you had a positive experience if you wouldn't mind sharing the company you used. Understanding the cost would also be a big help. I have ads on those platforms up and running but I'm not familiar with a bunch of the jargon they use and I'm not confident I'm getting the most out of my ads or running them efficiently cost-wise.
TIA!
I'm a wedding photographer branching into a more diverse community and I'm looking for help with studying the work of others with more experience. I've been searching this community for portfolios of edited wedding photos from photographers proud enough to post links to their sites, but all the links I see are either no longer functioning or of at least 90% white couples and maybe one mixed race couple. The few mixed race couple porfolios I've seen have been either underwhelming or frankly bad enough that I would have given them their money back. Is this just how the wedding photography industry is or are there any photographers on this community who have more black weddings than white, know what you're doing, and comfortable sharing a link to your wedding portfolio? Any help in this subject is appreciated.
I’m located in the Midwest. 18 years experience photographing several hundred weddings as lead under my own business and several other businesses as an associate. I’m no longer taking many weddings as lead, but have had inquiries for seconding.
For context - I was making $50/hour to second in 2010 with 2 years of experience. Inflation alone converts that to $76/hour (plus adding years of experience). So, I’m curious what the current market rate is?
Hi everyone! I’m new here and honestly, transitioning to weddings is giving me so much anxiety. I’m used to the total control of studio lighting and perfect sunset sessions, so the 'uncontrolled' light of a wedding (and my lack of flash skills) makes me feel very insecure.
I recently shot an intimate wedding but I didn’t feel good about it at all. To be honest, I’m scared to try again because I’m terrified of not being good enough or failing my clients.
Does this feeling ever go away? how did you overcome this fear and get comfortable with the chaos of wedding lighting? Please share your 'I survived' stories with me! or tips...