10 Questions you should be asking your Wedding Photographer
So what have you asked your potential wedding photographer today?
Here are some guidelines to help you make your choice.
The Tyranny of Low Price by Seth Godin (Man, thats good!)
“Cheapest price is the refuge for the marketer with no ideas left or no guts to implement the ideas he has.” – Seth Godin
From his recent article here
Who is Seth Godin? Well if you have to ask you may have a problem. If you work for yourself and you have not heard of him, you definitely have a problem. here is what his website says
“SETH GODIN has written thirteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything.
American Way Magazine calls him, “America’s Greatest Marketer,” and his blog is perhaps the most popular in the world written by a single individual. His latest book, Poke The Box is a call to action about the initiative you’re taking – in your job or in your life, and Seth once again breaks the traditional publishing model by releasing it through The Domino Project.
As an entrepreneur, he has founded dozens of companies, most of which failed. Yoyodyne, his first internet company, was funded by Flatiron and Softbank and acquired by Yahoo! in 1998. It pioneered the use of ethical direct mail online, something Seth calls Permission Marketing. He was VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo! for a year.
His latest company, Squidoo.com, is ranked among the top 125 sites in the US (by traffic) by Quantcast. It allows anyone (even you) to build a page about any topic you’re passionate about. The site raises money for charity and pays royalties to its million plus members.”
You need to be reading what he is writing, listening to what he is saying and implementing ideas he may give you. He is a marketeer for the information age. You’d be well advised to pick up a couple of his books too. Here is his Amazon Page.
Just my thoughts. Hope it helps.
Later
C
Marcus Bell, Rockstar Photographer and “All ‘Round Nice Guy” (No,really he is!)
I had the great pleasure of sitting in on a seminar hosted by Seamless by Australian photographer Marcus Bell in the Guinness StoreHouse all day today. If the truth be known, I was considering not attending because, of all things, the weather! Twenty degrees and sunny with blue skies all day. I forced myself to go and I am really glad I did.
I suppose the first question for some might be:
Who is Marcus Bell?
Marcus Bell is a Triple Master of Photography (Awarded by Australian Institute of Professional Photography, AIPP. ) and Creative Director and Principal Photographer of Australia’s number one photography studio “Studio Impressions”. Marcus has been named in the top 10 Wedding photographers in the world by BBC Television, is the author of “Master’s Guide to Wedding Photography” published by Amherst Media NY in 2006 and is currently in the top ten photography best seller list. Marcus’ images have been published in more than 30 books in 50 countries, and he has been featured in three photography documentaries, as well as many magazine front covers. (Extract from Photo.Net – “Interview with Marcus Bell, Wedding Photographer“)Phew!
And now, having met him, I have to say a really down-to-earth guy too. Marcus is based in Brisbane, Australia but shoots weddings and gives keynote addresses all over the world. In fact, for this particular seminar, he had flown from Hong Kong were he had been shooting a wedding at the weekend and was on his way to Tuscany, Italy to shoot another! A phrase that is often loosely used is “Rockstar Photographer” but I think it is safe to say that Marcus Bell really is one of those rare breed – A Rockstar Photographer.
The keynote touched on many topics and I have tried to cover some of them below. He spoke about branding, personal growth as a photographer, his influences and photographers he thinks are great. His key ingredients for a successful business, some Photoshop and Lightroom techniques he uses, how important all of his clients are to him even years after. And lots more….
“Too many photographers don’t have anything to say….”
Marcus Bell, Wedding Photographer
Marcus covered a number of topics including
- Technique & Tools – Developing your style.
- Business & Marketing – Developing your brand.
- Future Proofing – You & your income.
He also eluded to, what he termed, “Old School Marketing” and “New Skool (his spelling, not mine!) Marketing“, the content of which I totally agreed with. He described Old School Marketing as the following:
- Client Referrals
- Industry Relationship Referrals
- Advertising in Magazines
- Editorial Images in Magazines
- Bridal Fairs
He described New Skool Marketing as the following:
- Your Client Network
- Online Slideshows
- A Blog
- REAL Wedding features in Magazines and Blogs
- Editorial Articles in Magazines and Blogs
- Industry Venue Open Nights (Something I’m pretty sure is not happening here!)
- Blog Listings
- Website Listings
- SEO
- Google Advertising
- And if I could add one of my own Facebook Advertising!
The question you must ask yourself at this juncture is what school are you in?
Just for reference, he uses a few from both, combining old and new. You could call it the “Marcus Bell School”
- Client Referrals
- Industry Relationship Referrals
- Advertising in Magazines
- Your Client Network
- REAL Wedding features in Magazines and Blogs
- Online Slideshows
- A Blog
…. And the first two make up about 80% of his business! He touched on a very interesting topic regarding SEO vs Social Strategy, talking about how we all want the maximum number of Twitter followers and thousands of ‘Likes’ on our Facebook page and how pointless this really is. Your business should be all about the client and not about other photographers following you to see what you are doing. All too true! That your social strategy is not just about using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn but also (and more importantly) human contact. That we all should be meeting clients face to face, making phone calls to them, writing notes, sending emails and perhaps even a gift or two. There is no point in creating a fanbase of photographers.
Your goals should be to:
- Enrich the experience the couple receive.
- Enrich the experience of the couples family and friends.
- Introduce your work and services to your couples network.
I have left the best until last. Marcus outlined his 10 Key Ingredients for a successful business:
- Passion
- Trust & Respect – Client Relationships must be built.
- Powerful images with an emotional connection
- The Art of communicating a story
- Efficient and premium quality workflow
- Exceptional Products
- Flexible Pricing Structure
- Exceptional Service
- Support
- Be Remarkable in every way!
Finally one phrase mentioned during the day that resonated with me was:“If you don’t enjoy shooting weddings then you are doing yourself, as well as your clients, as disservice”.
Marcus Bell
I’m glad I still enjoy every wedding I shoot. When I don’t I’ll stop and do something else…
Later
C
The Wedding of Linda & Alan at the Village at Lyons
I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Linda and Alan at the Village at Lyons Estate . The weather was fine, the bride was stunning and the day just rocked! Alan and Linda had the novel idea of having a small ceremony of just 40 close friends and family at noon and then an early meal at 3.30pm for those guests. Then the party really got going when all their friends arrived at 6.00pm for a huge barbeque and they got the day for it. A great idea.
Here are some of the pictures from the day of Linda and Alan.
Thanks guys for having me shoot your day!
Later
C
The most expensive photographs ever sold.
The three pictures above are the three most expensive photographs ever sold.
A fake war photograph by Canadian artist Jeff Wall was sold at Christie’s in NYC for a staggering $3.6 million — a new record for Canadian photographers and the third highest price ever paid for a picture. The 1992 photo, titled Dead Troops Talk, was captured inside a suburban Vancouver studio using models, borrowed military outfits, and fake blood. It shows a group of dead Soviet soldiers chatting with one another during the Soviet-Afghan war of 1986. The sold image is one of two copies that exist, and considered Wall’s most important creation. Interestingly enough, Andreas Gurksy (who holds the record for most expensive photo) cites Wall as an influence.
Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled #96″ from 1981 became the world’s most valuable photograph after selling for a staggering $3.89 million at a Christie’s auction (it was estimated to be worth up to $2 million). The winning bidder was Philippe Segalot, a private advisor to some of the world’s wealthiest art collectors. The photo takes the top spot away from “99 Cent II Diptychon” by Andreas Gursky, which enjoyed five years as the world’s most valuable photoafter selling for $3.35 million back in 2006.
Despite what you might think, this isn’t some random snapshot we found online — it’s actually the world’s most expensive photograph. Titled “Rhein II”, it’s a 1999 photograph by Andreas Gursky showing the Rhine river. It sold for a whopping $4,338,500 at Christie’s.
Gursky has become quite the Midas of photographers: this is his second photo to claim the title of “world’s most expensive”, with the first being 99 Cent II Diptychon ($3.89M and now the 4th most expensive).
So what do you think? Worth it or not? Art or not?
Post a comment and let us know what you think.
Later
C
The Wedding of Aisling and Gerard at Cabra Castle, Co Cavan
In a previous life I worked for a very large multinational. Six years ago, I left that all behind me and went after something I really enjoyed, namely photography. Some thought me crazy to leave the ‘permanent and pensionable’ job with the salary, company car, pension, health insurance, share options (Jeez, maybe I was crazy to leave it!!!) and become self employed as a professional photographer.
Anyway thats history now and I am running my own business. I’m still in touch with a lot of the old crew in the company and that is how it came about that I shot the wedding of Gerard Lee and Aisling Mulhall. The wedding took place in Cabra Castle in Kingscourt, County Cavan. Gerard and I crossed paths as I entered my last 6 months of employ and he was starting out with the company. He remembered me, liked my style of wedding photography and subsequently booked me to shoot their wedding day – and what a day. The sun was shining and temperatures were heading for the high teens’. Both Aisling and Ger left from the castle and the ceremony took place in a beautiful church in Kilmainham Wood about a ten minute drive away.
It was a great day and I was delighted to be a part of it. Here is some pictures from the wedding.
Hope you like them.
Later
C