Beginnings Of A Headshot Portraits Business

I am indebted to four people when it comes to jump starting my business, Connecticut Headshots.

In the past, I have written about Zack Arias, Dylan Patrick and Peter Hurley. But the guy who really instilled a love for business portraits in me, was Eric Laurits.

Talking About Headshots

I sat riveted to my seat the first time Eric presented at Inspire Photo Retreats, some two or three years ago. A few weeks back, I had the opportunity and pleasure to speak with him in advance of his presentation at this year's Inspire conference in Newport, Rhode Island.

Portfolio Of Portraits

Eric's topic at Inspire Photo Retreats is “Headshot A Lot.” Take a look at a sample of his work below. You'll quickly see that he is a master of his art. Like he influenced me, he has helped scores of other photographers to embark on careers in headshot portrait photography as well.

Learn Headshots At Inspire

Catch Eric this year at Inspire Photo Retreats. Whether his presentation skills are due to his acting experience or one that comes deep within him, you are in for a treat. Will headshot portraits be a part of your repertoire?

Register for Inspire Photo Retreats now.

Why Are You In Business?

If you are in business, you should be making money at some point, right?

Jamie Swanson of The Moderntog has it dialed in when it comes to teaching photographers how to market their business – to move from mere passion into the sphere of profit.

If you are dedicated to your craft, you would have noticed how you have progressed due to your discipline and focus. The business side of the equation is no different. It too needs your constant attention. Ignore it at your peril and in a short time you will have nothing more than a hobby to call your own.

That might just be the ticket for a lot of people currently in the industry. Nothing wrong with being a hobbyist or a weekend photographer, while you still have your day job. For some photographers, the grass is always greener on the other side anyway and you living that life might mean a more comfortable and stress-free existence.

That said, if you are going all in, and you are going to spend the next 20+ years as a professional photographer, you are going to need to market your photography business and do so really well.

The Marketog Course

Back in 2014, I spoke with Jamie about Marketog and since then she has made a few additions to her tried-and-tested course.

Here are the six steps she covers in Marketog:

How to get more of the right kinds of clients
How to turn inquiries into clients: 6 game-changing strategies
How to turn your website into an inquiry-generating machine
How to get repeat clients and more word-of-mouth advertising
How to get other business owners to send you their best clients
Your marketing toolkit for effective marketing

Open Enrollment … Now!

Jamie is about to open enrollment for the course again, for a limited time (today through January 24th). Despite her busy schedule (look, she has five kids and home-schools them all), I managed to convince her to spend a little time with me being interviewed about the six-week commitment you are about to make for yourself.

The Free Sample

Grab this FREE sample lesson to get a sense of what you will learn from the Marketog course.

Follow Along At Your Pace

One other thing, while the course runs for six weeks, you have access to all the course materials for life. So, if you don't get to it as the course starts on January 25th, relax! Just log in when your schedule permits it, and walk through the modules step-by-step at your own pace. Jamie makes it super easy to follow along, but there is a good deal amount of work to be done. If you are spinning your wheels, pop into the Facebook group Jamie has set up for you to ask questions or share your successes.

Ready To Sign Up?

Are you ready to jump-start your photography business with a solid plan for marketing it? Will you enroll for Marketog now that you a little bit more about the course? Do you still have questions? What would get you off the fence? Tell me below in the comments section and I will do my best to help you out. You see, like you, I am enrolled in this course as well and honestly, I am lingering on module 3 right now. Come join and inspire me to complete all six modules of Marketog with you!

Robert Norman, a wedding photographer based in Trumbull, Connecticut, will teach other photographers the encaustic process at this year's Inspire Photo Retreats conference.

So, what is the encaustic process?

The Encaustic Art Institute says this:

Encaustic is a Greek word meaning “to heat or burn in” (enkaustikos). Heat is used throughout the process, from melting the beeswax and varnish to fusing the layers of wax.

Robert and I sat down to talk in some detail about the encaustic process, how he approaches it and finally whether there is any commercial applications with the final piece of artwork.

As I said, at Inspire Photo Retreats this year, Robert will guide a small group of photographers step-by-step through the encaustic process. By the end of the day everyone will have one or two finished pieces to take home with them.

If you haven't yet, register now for the Inspire Photo Retreats conference. It's a terrific event, bolstered by charming photographers like Robert, Cig Harvey and Tyler Wirken.

Below are some examples that Robert has shared of the encaustic process:

If the interview piqued your interest and you want to learn this fun photographic process, there is only one way to learn from Robert Norman and that's by being at Inspire Photo Retreats this year.

Cig Harvey, a photographer and author based in Maine will be presenting at the Inspire Photo Retreats conference again.

Cig is known for creating exploratory images that capture both the magic and the realism found in daily moments.

The slow passing of time and the natural surroundings of her rural home has made her alert to the magic in the mundane.

We sat down recently to talk about her work, her books, and her presentation at Inspire Photo Retreats this year:

Cig credits a welcoming community for her return to the Inspire Photo Retreats conference. She will be walking people through her process of creating photographs that are part of a larger personal story.

Her two books – You Look At Me Like An Emergency and Gardening At Night – are collector's items and are out of print. Meanwhile, here is a small sample of her work:

If visual storytelling is your thing, you won't want to miss this presentation at Inspire Photo Retreats.

Yup, you can register now.

It's about a week into the new year. How is your photography project coming along? Some people start out with grand ideas of a “365” project – one that would allow them to photograph and publish one photograph each day of the year. Most fall off that wagon pretty quickly, including myself. Have you tried your hand at something like that? How about a “52” project; one photograph a week for the entire year? Again, people rarely stick to it.

Want to know why? There is no accountability. There is usually no one to hold you responsible if you start to slip. And when you do start to slide, you go down pretty quickly until that point where you don't want to have anything to do with the project.

The muse exits the building and you go back to spinning your wheels and feeling frustrated.

Yes, ideas we have aplenty, but executing on them is the toughest part. So, there is an easy solution to all this – one where you are guided to photograph weekly and get feedback on your work. If you are a parent or a photographer who happens to have kids, I want to tell you about a community online called ShootAlong.

Over the course of a year, you can learn (or re-learn) the fundamentals of photography with other photographers who are also documenting their families. It's a wonderful, low-pressure online forum that allows you to flex your creative muscles and get constructive feedback from other photographers. Last year, while I didn't participate on a weekly basis, I received their emails and really enjoyed how lucidly everything was presented.

I spoke with Heidi Peters, one of the co-founders of ShootAlong about this new forum. Like her business partner, Amy Tripple, Heidi runs a busy portrait photography business in the suburbs of Chicago. If lack of time (more like, a lack of focus) is an issue you are encountering, just see how these two ladies are rocking it with their businesses and running ShootAlong.

The first thing you will see when you log into ShootAlong is the “pinterest-style” Member Board (see above graphic). Your posts will show up here based on when you published it. You are able to tag the post under the week's category (see below for “rule of thirds”) or share your image(s) just for fun. If you are really in need of a critique, you can also tag your post with “critique requested” and the community members chime in.

Want more in-depth discussions? ShootAlong has those too, like a traditional forum you can post a question or an observation and get feedback that way too. One of the things that is new to ShootAlong this year are short inspirational tips via videos.

It's January 8th today, but don't feel like you can't join ShootAlong. At only $79 a year, it's an incredibly valuable resource especially if you are feeling unmotivated and need to get going in the new year. Start with ShootAlong, stick with it and watch your craft shift gears. Once you start seeing results, everything else magically starts to fall into place.

Happy New Year to you all!