Most of you probably already know who David Hobby is. He is a photographer, teacher and founder of the Strobist Movement, which encourages photographers to use their flashes off-of their cameras. His website Strobist is the go-to place to learn about off-camera flash techniques. His new project is HOCO360 – A Visual Journal of Howard County, Maryland, where he lives.

When David and Joe McNally decided to embark on The Flash Bus tour through the United States, I had to go. Boston was the closest of locations for me and so on April 9, I drove up to listen and watch two masters at work at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf.

Both David and Joe graciously allowed me to speak with them for a few minutes. In this post, we hear from David. He talks about creating a community and his new project.

All of this was arranged by Jeffrey Snyder of Adorama. So I am very grateful to him and the company that is truly there for photographers worldwide. Adorama is where I buy all my camera gear. Customer service is great and the price is right.

Watch the video and post your comments!

The Flash Bus tour wraps up soon, with most of the cities already sold out. The presentation in Boston was house-full. These guys not only know their stuff, they also know how to entertain. The repartees between them kept us all laughing out loud often. Now, if you can't make it any of their last remaining presentations, please consider buying David's Lighting In Layers DVD and Joe's The Language of Light. You will get a sense of what it is like to be in the audience from these excellent resources. I bought them and will have a full on review here soon. [Both are affiliate links. Support this site, buy through the links please!]

This is a guest blog by Blair Phillips, a national award winning high school senior photographer and educator located just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina in the economically deprived “Mill Town” of Landis. With over 40 weddings and 600 studio session a year, Blair Phillips Photography has taken little and turned it into a lot because of determination and unique marketing. You can find them on Facebook and Twitter.

The internet is a wonderful thing. It brought us the ability to educate ourselves further than we could imagine, immediately connect with the rest of the world’s population and keep up to date with global trends. What it also did is change how photographers connect with potential high school senior clients almost overnight.

The “Net Generation” have grown up with the internet so they’ve never had to write a letter or even read a newspaper. Instead, they communicate with the world through email, instant messaging and numerous social media outlets. The fact of the matter is that this is here to stay and it’s our job as professionals to use it to our advantage.

A couple of years ago, we decided to send out about 10,000 mailers to all the seniors in our area letting them know that they didn’t have to get boring photos made at the high school. The entire send out cost us about $5,000, which was easily our largest advertising cost in the history of our studio. Now, I’m sure your wondering, “How many Seniors did you book with that mail out?”

Five.

That’s right, five seniors. Needless to say, we threw away a lot of money for nothing. Now, several years later, we average around 300-400 high school seniors a year and the best thing is that we don’t spend a dime on getting them here!

Facebook, of course, is one of our main avenues for reaching and contacting our high school seniors because it’s free and there are over 500 millions users. Now, we don’t simply update our status every other day in hopes seniors will “Like” our fan page. We always try to be a little more creative so, we have been utilizing our HD video capable DSLR to produce short, to the point videos that visually share information to our seniors rather than using text posts. When we recently launched our 2012 Senior Ambassador program, not only did we post a teaser video to our wall for all of our high school senior fans to see but we also sent prospect Ambassadors a link to our Vimeo account where they could watch a password protected video giving them details about being a Senior Ambassador, what we have to offer and what’s in it for them. The “Exclusive” password protected video helped reiterate the fact that our Ambassador program is very selective and it helps make the senior feel even more “chosen.”

Creating the video is simple but there are some things to keep in mind when producing it. You can’t just sit a camera up on a tripod, say a couple of lines and expect 300 seniors to come pouring in the doors. A video, especially geared toward a high school senior, must have plenty of movement and stay around 2 minutes long, if not shorter. The attention span of a high school senior is rather short these days so anything longer than 2 minutes is usually never finished, especially if it’s just a talking head. Incorporate some filler shots and footage to help fill in the gaps and to help maintain their attentions.

Another tip when creating videos where seniors are targeted is be very specific. Don’t try to cover 3 or 4 different programs in one video. Create 3 or 4 separate videos that highlight each program separately. By having different videos for different purposes, we’ve been able to target a more specific audience much more effectively, without throwing too much at them all at once.

Also, if you direct your video toward seniors, make sure that in the video you tell them to let mom and dad watch the video as well. You want to be completely transparent to the parents because after all, they’re paying for the photos. The last thing you want to happen is to come off as a creep and loose a potential senior client.

At the end of the video, we ask that they talk to mom and dad, then call the studio to set up a time for a consultation. The consultation is the deal maker because it then becomes real. They see the studio, meet the staff and begin to visualize their photos months before we actually do the shoot. We’ve never had someone watch the video, come in for a consultation and not book their session!

Most likely, you have some sort of video camera and editing software like Final Cut Express or even iMovie so why not take a stab at it. All it costs is your time.

Check out our Senior Ambassador video. Use the following password: radio

Do you already use video in your marketing? What have you found works best for you? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. One lucky commenter will win Blair Phillips's Workflow DVD, a $129 value! Winner announced on April 22, 2011. GO!

This is the second guest post by Leon Sandoval, Colorati's CEO. You may recall his first blog post here was about digital file naming conventions. Based in Carlsbad, CA Leon and his team provide the very best post production services in the business for photographers.

In this post Leon has two short video tutorials on how to keyword your image files using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Bridge.

Using Lightroom to keyword your files:

Using Bridge to keyword your files:

So, tell us, how do you keyword your digital images? Do you keyword them at all? By watching the video tutorials above, do you see the benefit of using keywords? Do you use Apple's Aperture or any other program to keyword your digital files? Please comment below!

Buy Adobe Lightroom or buy Adobe Photoshop and get Adobe Bridge for free! [aff]

This guest blog post is by Robert Norman, a wedding photographer based in Trumbull Connecticut. He has 21+ years experience as a professional photographer and has photographed models, actors, President Obama, celebrities and, a zillion weddings. He does a fair amount of travel photography in an effort to keep his sanity. He has photographed events throughout Connecticut, New England, New York as well as Ireland, London and Italy.

I recently returned from Inspire Boston – a really cool 3 day conference in Concord, Massachusetts filled with learning and networking.

It also filled my pockets with a ton of business cards.

I’ve been researching a way for quite some time now to digitize all of my collected business cards. For years I kept them in an ever-expanding card binder; handy but not practical to reference on the fly. Last year I looked into Evernote, one of my favorite apps ever, which you should definitely have on your phone or use at home online!) But while I could scan cards, get them in there and access anywhere – there was no database per se where all the info would go into. It was just a bunch of scanned cards. (not to mention that their free service limits your monthly uploads, which I blew through by mistakenly scanning the cards at WAY too high a resolution! OOPS!! I have since upgraded to the $50 a year plan, which substantially increases your monthly storage space.)

Then I looked into Shoeboxed, but found their system of paying and mailing in cards so they could scan them kinda clunky and didn’t allow me to easily add a card or to. They also kept calling me which while potentially helpful, I felt quickly became too much a sales call for an upgrade or something of that nature.

I also kept seeing the NeatDesk scanner advertised, and almost hit the ‘buy now’ button on Amazon on many a late night shopping frenzy. But after reading the reviews, a lot of folks seemed unhappy with the NeatWorks software for the database. The unit is also $200-$400 which was expensive enough to give me pause.

So I think that I MAY have finally found the solution with CardMunch, an iPhone app that lets you photograph business cards and then adds it to both it’s own database as well as your contacts, automatically! They CLAIM that ‘real people’ (as opposed to Fake People) are on the other end checking that all the info is correct, which may be true but hard to believe as the app is free (maybe they hire prisoners?)

Still, it’s easy to use and actually pretty darn accurate. Only a few cards did not read properly – generally where something is REALLY small, or the contrast between the ink and paper are low. Also since you use 4 brackets to ‘frame’ your card before it automatically shoots it, certain oddly shaped or proportioned cards would not read (including my own card!). CardMunch is unhappy if the object doesn’t neatly fit in the specified area. If the card does a partial read, the contact comes up as ‘unknown contact’, which you can then go in and manually correct. Since the ‘real people’ are overseeing this sometimes it can take a couple of hours for the contact to be added to your phone. It also is suggested you use it only with an iPhone 4 as the camera focuses at the distance needed which the previous iPhones will not.

StillI gotta say – for a FREE app, CardMunch works pretty great, and I’ve even venture to say that I’d pay for it (did I say that out loud?)

Tell us, what do you use to corral your business cards? How do you keep track of all your contacts?

Blogs began as personal journals – ones that were kept private or open to the world. Now they are so much more than diaries. They are a way of communicating with your clients. Call it “marketing” if you will, but it works. If you are in need of learning something specific, there is likely a blog that covers that niche.

Photography is no different, though there are tons of photography blogs out there, including this one. What I've envisioned, of course, is to make this site truly community driven. That means hosting guest bloggers, entertaining opposing viewpoints in the comments section and being open to suggestions on making this site better for everyone.

To an extent, I have to be careful about what I publish and even promote. I am contacted virtually every week by a vendor looking to have her or his products and services mentioned here. And I am happy to promote them if (and it's a big IF) the products and services are truly helpful for other photographers.

There are times when I am sent review copies of magazines, books, scripts and Photoshop actions. Obviously, once these are sent to me, I get to keep them. If I am sent camera equipment to test, I do have to return those of course. While I am open to receiving these gifts and opportunities to review items, I am clear on one thing – if the items do not meet my standards or aren't going to be very helpful for other photographers – I reserve the right to not mention it here. Does that sound fair to you? There is little or no point in berating a product or service in public when we all know that we are all just trying to make a go of it. I do and have in the past emailed the vendor privately with my thoughts. So, please be sure that I do act as a filter, for your benefit.

The blog post about creating blog montages was clearly helpful to Richard Esposito, a Connecticut-based wedding photographer. Read his testimonial below:

“Thank you for the suggestion with using Storyboard! I used to do these collage type blogs in the past and it was way too time consuming. I just gave up. I write actions like this all the time, but I didn't have the time to even think this up. The Storyboard script for Photoshop is beyond just an action with all it's options. I purchased it and it will now be a big part of my blogging workflow. As you know, I'm a bit of a workflow junkie. Thank you Seshu and Storyboard! I'm loving the Tiffinbox blog.”

Or, this one by Stacey Doyle on Twitter just today:

I am loving @brandcampblog's Circus Circus to help me with my writing! Thank you @PicSeshu for your review! http://bit.ly/ewlClz

So, here is my question to you – Do you love the products and services mentioned here on Tiffinbox?

Was it an e-book like Ed Verosky's series on Taking Portraiture To The Next Level or Stuart Little's recent tutorial on creating rounded corners in Lightroom 3?

Tell me which blog posts you have found useful. Would you like to see more reviews, tutorials, or both? Email me at seshu at tiffinbox dot org. I look forward to hearing from you all. If you have suggestions on products and services that you feel photographers would find useful, please contact me as well. I am always open to learning about what is out there.

As an Adobe Community Professional, A.J. has been an enthusiastic representative in the creative community for several years. It's not surprising he's been ranked the #1 Adobe Instructor WORLDWIDE more than once. Students enjoy his straightforward teaching style, and the ability to communicate ideas in the simplest of terms. An active NAPP Evangelist, A.J. posts Adobe tutorial videos each week on YouTube. Follow A.J. on Twitter, post your questions to his Facebook page, and catch the latest insights on his blog.

Catchy huh? Yeah, I'm not once to mince words although, I generally like to spin a tale or two. It's my pleasure to join you today, and I appreciate the invitation Seshu extended to me quite some time ago. He is a gracious & patient host, and I hope my thoughts leave you wanting… Wanting more like Charlie Sheen's 2nd performance in Chicago, not wanting to leave like the angry mob that caught him in Detroit. Where was I?

Oh yes, harnessing your talent, your desire, that passion which many of us find in photography. It's rather difficult to focus on that passion when you're bogged down with the day-to-day running your photography business isn't it? There's the marketing, the office paperwork, the website, dealing with clients, to Facebook or Twitter, the list goes on, and yet many of today's photographers seemingly do it all. Maybe you're just starting out, and you haven't thought about your business plan or the logistics of making money from photography. Perhaps you're a seasoned pro, and you're wondering how you'll stay on top of all the changing technology, and the wolves scratching at your door. It's a wonder you get to take any pictures at all. That's okay, I'm here to tell you:

To discover your talents you have to recognize & acknowledge when you suck.

It's a common philosophy I share with my students, and many interpret it as a direct statement about their passion. Like Simon Cowell, I'm somehow there to obliterate their dreams. Let me clarify the statement with some editorial tweaks:

To maximize your talents you have to recognize & acknowledge where you suck.

I know plenty of folks who at some point were caught in company downsizing, and ended up being one of the lucky ones who had more job responsibility for the same or less pay. Oddly enough, I see the same types of folks launch their businesses with DIY zeal only to suffer from burnout or stagnant growth after a year. Yes, you have grand ambitions, some talents, maybe a kickass plan or two, but you're just one person. What you need are minions … I mean a support group … umm … network –- You need to develop your network. Just like that lone crusader Batman had a sidekick, and spent some time with other superheroes in the Justice League of America. (Wait … what do you mean a comic book reference kills my credibility?) Focus–a network.

Leverage your strengths, outsource your weaknesses.

When I talk to photographers about networking events many of them mention social mixers based around getting clients or connecting with peers. Generating leads is a must, and mentoring other photographers or finding a mentor is a wonderful thing. However, those connections do not address the immediate issues of office management, marketing or managing your website. I highly recommend finding those people at the networking events they attend. Where do you start? Your local Chamber of Commerce is a good place. Another good place is Meetup.com. Any hobby, popular fad or obscure interest can be found listed at Meetup.com. The best part is meetup groups are specifically designed to get people together live and in-person. Now I know what you're thinking, “That's a good way to generate client leads!” Point to you dear reader, that's a takeaway bonus for hangin' out with me this long.

But let's stay focused. I don't want you networking without purpose. What you should be doing is building your network. Your team of professionals. The people that you can call to handle the portions of your business that are really best suited to be handled by someone other than you. If you suck at website design, then by all means hire someone to do your website. And if you're great at website design, why in the world are you spending your time as a photographer? My point is by building your network, you can focus your energy at the really important tasks. My good friend Glyn Dewis is a fine example. He had a hand in building his first website, and it wasn't bad. It got the job done. See for yourself. However, Glyn's passion for photography literally oozes into everything else he does, so a good website wasn't good enough. Now he probably could have spent the man-hours himself building & retooling his website, but he found someone better suited to the task. Scott Kublin is another fine example. You don't know Scott? He enjoys HDR photography. He's friends with another HDR guy–Trey Ratcliff. *heart pounding from sheer awesomeness* You can read the backstory on Scott's About Me page, but the summary is Scott wanted to learn HDR and Trey needed some top-notch SEO for his website.

Leverage your strengths, outsource your weaknesses.

Thank you for taking a moment to read this post. As a fellow-overachiever-one-man-band-DIY-caffeine-infused-control-freak, I know it's tough sharing some of the parental responsibility for your growing business. However, it's the best way to ensure your business does grow. I want to thank my partner in creative shenanigans, J Schuh for illustrating my thoughts in the opening cartoon. Feel free to buy a t-shirt if we've tickled your funny bone. Oh, and where are my manners?

Here's a quickie Photoshop tutorial for you:

When it comes to business, Kristen Kalp doesn't clown around.

She is the author behind the outrageously astute BrandCamp Blog and also a photographer based in Philadelphia.

Circus Circus, her new offering in the form of a PDF, tackles the sometimes difficult task of communicating with one's potential business clients. It's more a workshop than an e-book, so come prepared to roll up your sleeves and get some elbow grease.

Circus Circus isn't just a bunch of copy that I've written so you can paste it into your website and hope for the best. That's like buying brownies from the bakery and eating 'em right up – eating brownies doesn't get you any closer to creating brownies.

In the 52-page book, Kalp, takes several irreverent swipes at conventional business writing books by presenting her material in both a concise and witty manner. She is comfortable engaging her audience from the get go. Just take a look at the table of contents:

Now, I don't know of anyone looking at that table of contents who will not want to read right through in one sitting. I did that, knowing full well that there might be parts where I would be asked to stop, write things down and then reflect.

The first challenging part of the book was coming up with a manifesto. To be honest, I am still not done with mine. Kalp says she took nearly five hours to complete her manifesto. What's so important about a manifesto? Well, it “establishes the sound of YOUR voice on your website or in your brochures.” That, in my opinion, is reason enough to keep chipping at it. I promise to share my manifesto when I feel it is ready for public consumption. What helps is Kalp's five-step process to craft that manifesto, each with vivid examples and a worksheet to practice on your own.

The part of Kalp's e-book that I found most fascinating was the “Fire-Breathing Show,” where words are used to convey features and benefits to clients. I know I struggle with this in my own copy, but this guide book shows you how to arrive at these personal and business characteristics, to help sell YOU to your clients.

Kalp also talks about offering your clients incentives (she calls them cotton-candy to stick to the circus metaphor), creating a one-line bio, how to respond to e-mails, crafting an elegant e-mail signature, writing a FAQ email, negotiating price objections and expressing yourself in blog posts.

And you can see that Kalp practices what she preaches. Take a look at her own photography website – Essential Imagery. Just about every part of it is eager to connect with the visitor. “Let's Have An Adventure! What kind?,” is an invitation to join her in something mysterious, yet cool. Her website exudes her down-to-earth, yet fun personality.

If you are a photographer, you can no longer just post great images on your site and expect your potential clients to be able to connect with you. You do have to write and express yourself. If you struggle with the written word, Kristen Kalp's Circus Circus is must-buy. She'll take you step by step (and it isn't in the least bit easy mind you) through the various parts of your site where you may want to tighten up your writing and engage your reader.

It's priced at $149 (and I bought my copy, by the way) so it isn't inexpensive. If you are looking to persuade your clients that you are worth what you charge for your services, then the value this e-book/guidebook/workbook is truly immense. Full disclosure, I get no financial commission for suggesting this book to you. If Kristen reads this review and feels like sharing a special promo code with us, I'll update this post so you can order the book within a specific time frame. Does that sound good to you?

Sound off below if you have already bought Circus Circus. What did you think of it? How far along are you on your manifesto? What portions of it have you already put into play for your business? Start the dialogue here. Let's talk!

Well, Kristen did respond to my request for a special promotional code to be used towards Circus Circus. At check out use “SESHU” and get $50 off. This is good only through April 5, 2011, so bust a move. Your final price will be $99. Nice!

Andrew Funderburg is the founder of Fundy SOS, a software company that creates remarkable tools for wedding and portrait photographers. His Fundy Album Builder [affiliate link] recently won the Hot One Award by the Professional Photographers of America.

Most couples seek photographers who can deliver beautiful wedding albums. Most often, though, photographers find themselves hitting the breaks when trying to sell those wedding albums. What prevents them from making the sale?

“Fundy” as he is known has some advice for wedding photographers looking for ways to increase their profit margins. Check out this video that I created when I met up with him at the Mystic Seminars event in early January.

Please note that Fundy's is one approach to selling wedding albums to clients. How do you approach it? Would you be open to sharing your thoughts with us? Please comment below!

I've loved Utah-based Jonathan Canlas‘ wedding photography for quite some time. I must have come across his website quite randomly about four or five years ago. His images continue to inspire me. The moments are real and the processing is just right.

Little did I know back then that he was a wholly film-based photographer. Yes, film. Some of us may remember that medium. With digital being all the rage – I mean who isn't addicted to chimping, right? – why would a photographer eschew Photoshop actions (that can make your digital images look like they were shot on film) and other “bells and whistles.” The answer is simple. Because he can, he wants to be different and his clients love him for it.

So, take a moment to look at his work again.

Now that you are back, do you see anything different? Do the images just appear more tactile, or have more depth to them? Or, is it my imagination? I believe it is the former.

Whichever way your answer sways, if you are curious about how Jonathan Canlas photographs weddings or portrait sessions using film, you have three options to learn from him.

You see, in addition to being a successful photographer, Canlas is a wonderful teacher. For several years, Canlas has offered the Film Is Not Dead workshops for those photographers looking for a solid foundation in film photography.

Canlas has also very patiently answered questions via Formspring. You should follow him on Twitter where most of these responses show up.

The last option, is a resourceful guidebook called FIND (Film Is Not Dead). There is a dedicated website where you can order this truly comprehensive offering. Jonathan generously offered me a review copy and I just got done reading it. As a photographer who cut his teeth on Tri-X and TMAX 3200, a lot of what he had to say in the book was not new to me. As a mostly 35-mm film photographer, though, I learned a great deal about medium-format cameras. So much so that I am now actively looking for a used Yashica-Mat 124-G.

Here is a breakdown of the table of contents:

This is a 95-page e-book that is sprinkled with great wisdom and some jaw-dropping images. If you are clueless about working with film, because you simply never had the opportunity or were too intimidated, then you need to run out and get this hefty PDF. Unlike other PDFs that may discuss a particular type of digital technology that is sure to change over time, I feel what Jonathan Canlas has produced for us will be as timeless as his own work. Indeed, its his generous spirit that allows us to share his vast knowledge about a medium long thought of as “old,” or worse, “dead.”

Thanks to companies like Kodak and Ilford, who continue manufacturing film, Canlas feels strongly that he will be working in that medium for a very long time and now so can you.

Buy the Film Is Not Dead guidebook by using the code “SESHU” and receive $45 off the final price. All I ask in return is that you subscribe to the Tiffinbox newsletter. Goodies like this will only be available in the future for my newsletter subscribers so you may want to get a headstart.

Full disclosure – I received a review copy of this PDF, but I don't make a dime for mentioning it here on Tiffinbox. If you liked this review and bought the PDF, please come back here and post your comments. I'll try and have Jonathan swing by and answer any questions you may have.

This is guest blog post by Michelle Loretta who loves to talk shop and discuss business strategy. So, in 2009 she started a blog: Sage Wedding Pros. This blog would evolve to cover all things business in the wedding and event industry. She has a background in finance, having armed herself with a BS in Accounting from University of Southern California and having spent her early career working for Deloitte LLP. She spent 5 years in the fashion industry as a sales manager for DDLA, and a visual merchandiser for Coach, Inc. In 2008, Michelle co-founded the wedding industry not-for-profit Get Hitched Give Hope.

Oh … the agony! Writing a business plan! It takes blood, sweat, tears… weeks turn into months turn into years. What a grueling process!

OR – that’s what people think.

Listen, I teach people how to write business plans daily. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s get some things straight here …

A Business Plan Is A Set Of Goals

Yep – that’s all it is. And, goal-setting challenges us to be better business owners. Goal-setting gives us a target to aim for. If you don’t have a target, how can you ever hit the bulls-eye?

Cover All Your Bases

The beauty of the business plan is that it forces you to look at four areas of your business: your company vision, your marketing, your operations, and your finances. So often we set goals with only a couple of these in mind. But a strong business needs to build on all four areas.

– What do you want your business to be known for?
– How are you going to sell that?
– How are you going to run your business to provide that?
– How are you going to make money doing it?

Make It Your Own

Unless you are seeking investors or financing, the business plan should be for you. If it’s 3 pages or 30 pages – just get some thing down on paper. It can be paragraphs or lists. Make it your own. And make it easy for you to write. Better yet: make it easy for you to USE.

Find a Buddy

Things are always more fun with friends. Find a coach, a friend, or a mentor to help you with this. Whether you meet monthly with an industry colleague to work ON your business plans – or whether you attend a workshop. This accountability makes it easier to get it done if you can have a little social interaction along the way.

USE IT!

What good is a plan if you don’t use it? (This is the real importance of making it your OWN.) Goals change and evolve over time. This plan isn’t set in stone. Refer to it daily. Make it a part of your business life. And, make the business plan a continuously evolving, living, breathing document.

About The Simple Plan

The Simple Plan is a no-sweat, no-fuss, piece-of-cake, easy-peasy approach to writing a business plan. We've taken out the dirty work and made this fun and collaborative. It is open to all wedding industry professionals: from start-ups just getting their feet wet to experienced pros who are looking to take their business to the next level.

Read all about The Simple Plan for event and wedding professionals

New York Workshop:
The Simple Plan – May 10-11, 2011 – 9:30am-4:30pm
At Jason Groupp Studio
Register now for the New York workshop!

Dallas Workshop:
The Simple Plan – March 22-23, 2011 – 9:30am-4:30pm
At Holiday Inn Express – Galleria
Register now for the Dallas workshop!

UPDATE: Michelle Loretta is offering Tiffinbox newsletter subscribers $50 off towards the NYC workshop. 1) Sign up for the Tiffinbox newsletter, 2) Send me an email to seshu at tiffinbox dot org so that I can confirm your email matches and 3) I'll email you back with the special code. Deal?