Headshot photography – for actors, business executives or even people with social media channels – is simply a must these days. If you have a photograph of yourself online or offline where you have used an iPhone to create a selfie or cropped yourself out of a party photograph and think that's good enough, think again.

In a hyper visual world where you have nanoseconds to make an impression, why lean on the easy, almost lazy options that only produce photographs that are good enough, when you can easily get to great?

In a previous blog post, I introduced you to Dylan Patrick and his Cinematic Headshots. Today, however, I want to talk about Peter Hurley, a New York and Los Angeles based headshot portrait photographer who has stormed into the world and created a very unique niche for himself.

Much like Mark Seliger, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton have defined a genre of photography, so has Peter Hurley. His name is synonymous with headshot portrait photography.

Spend any time online and whether it is on Twitter or Facebook, you'll hear about him and his videos – It's all about the Jaw, It's all about the Squinch and Hold Your Sub.

Peter is responsible for leading nearly 9000 headshot photographers around the world through his forum, Headshot Crew. At only about $20 a month, it is a gold mine of information and networking possibilities. Indeed, one of the reasons I was able to so quickly get personally introduced to Peter was because I connected with Bruno Kongawoin first. Bruno is a magnificent photographer based in Perth, Australia.

Peter is also an author, speaker and teacher. His book, The Headshot, is a must-have for all headshot photographers.

Peter Hurley is one very busy guy. He has multiple projects going on. One of most interesting projects is called PsyPhotology. If you believe the interaction between a photographer and a subject is a psychological one, you must check this website out. Peter told me that there is much more coming in 2016 from this project and I am very excited by these new tools that are going to be available for photographers to make even better headshot portraits.

Lastly, if you can't make it to Peter Hurley's Headshot Intensive workshops in either New York or Los Angeles, you can study with him through his DVD's, downloaded from FStoppers. You can buy them here though my links as well – The Art Of The Headshot and Illuminating The Face.

For a limited time you can buy Peter's Pro Board for 30% off using the code – PROBOARD30 and you can buy his book at 15% off the retail price by using the code BOOK15. But given today is Christmas, I am going to wish that I could receive three of these H2PRO Water Ballasts for my light stands.

Now, for the ultimate teaching / learning experience, how would you like to be on the Headshot Crew Cruise? April 24th through May 1st, you can sail from New York to Bermuda, have a great time on board the cruise ship but also learn everything Peter has to teach you about headshot portrait photography.

SHABANG!

Bryan Caporicci is clear about who he is. Yes, he is a wedding and portrait photographer. But he is also a businessman. And with that comes the clarity that to run an efficient business, one must have streamlined workflows that gets the job done, using the least amount of resources while the output remains consistently high.

Not only does Bryan run an active and successful business, he is also the brains behind Sprouting Photographer (a blog, I worship) and Sprout Studio, a newly launched web application for photographers to run their businesses more efficiently and productively.

Teaming up with ShootDotEdit, Bryan is offering a free webinar on December 16th on this very topic. Register for “10 Must-Know Business Workflow Hacks Webinar” now.

I spoke with Bryan a couple of weeks back about this webinar and teased out of him one or two of these hacks for you. Take a listen and if you have any questions, list them out in the comments section.

If you have a hack or two you would recommend, mention those too below! Join Bryan and I as we collectively redefine “busy” and run photography businesses like pros.

Tyler Wirken, a documentary wedding photographer based in Kansas City, Missouri is presenting at Inspire Photo Retreats this coming February, in Newport, Rhode Island.

Tyler is a highly regarded teacher and mentor to many photographers. His workshops, or “Wirkshops”, are always sold out. The CreativeLive class he taught, “Documentary Wedding Photography: Capturing Reality,” was one of the most popular courses on the site.

Given that Tyler was one of the first speakers announced by the Inspire Photo Retreats crews, I snagged the chance at interviewing him about documentary wedding photography, his role in promoting that genre of photography and finally about his presentation at the annual conference.

I asked Tyler to share some of his documentary wedding photography with us and so here you go:

Inspire is a retreat-style conference for professional wedding and portrait photographers. The conference is comprised of sessions on a variety of subjects, from business practices to shooting techniques, to artistry and personal vision. Inspire retreats are structured to enhance opportunities to foster deep relationships with other attendees, build community, and create a culture of ongoing peer-to-peer mentoring and support in our industry.

Learn more about Inspire Photo Retreats and sign up for the conference. Among photography gatherings, it is on my top 5 list! Full disclosure, Tiffinbox is partnered with Inspire Photo Retreats.

Thanksgiving is a week out and we have a lot to be thankful for as we gather around with our families for the holidays. Still, there are thousands of children who are waiting to be adopted into loving homes. Ever wonder what their lives are like as they wait to be adopted?

Tamara Lackey did. She is a photographer, speaker, teacher and author based in North Carolina.

As she went through the process of adopting her children, she saw first hand how challenging their lives were; lack of electricity, running water, working bathrooms etc. So she decided to do something about it. She launched Beautiful Together, to give these children better opportunities towards education and health, as they waited to be adopted by families around the world.

But running a non-profit takes money. In addition to raising funds through innovative auctions and local fundraisers, Tamara who just published the Family Posing Playbook, is giving 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the book to Beautiful Together.

We sat down to talk about the book, how it will help photographers like you and how the book's sale will help Beautiful Together:

So, if you are a portrait photographer who struggles to quickly create beautiful, loving portraits of families, you are going to want to buy the Family Posing Playbook. It's chalk-full of great advice and tips for family photographers like me who can sometimes find ourselves in front of clients who either feel awkward at the sight of a camera or simply don't know how to gather together as a family for portraits.

When you buy the Family Posing Playbook, you also receive a quick reference guide that you can presumably print and carry with you in your camera bag. Tamara walks you through 24 different options and the reference guide gives you easy to read bullet points for each pose that you may choose for your clients.

Tamara, I can tell, is natural teacher. As a Nikon ambassador she often speaks at conferences and trade shows, inspiring thousands of photographers along the way. She also hosts reDefine, an inspirational web series where she speaks with a wide variety of creative and interesting people about their passionate pursuits. Her courses on CreativeLive are also wildly popular (I think I own every one of them!). Also, are you looking for animal-friendly and environmentally responsible album company for your family portrait clients? Check out Tamara Lackey's Lush Albums by Finao now.

You can connect with Tamara on Twitter and Facebook.

How many of you don't offer portrait or wedding albums because you either don't know how to design them or you believe they are too cumbersome to lay out?

This is what I believe: You aren't truly serving your clients if you simply photograph their event and hand them their digital files (don't do that, do this instead)

You can easily overcome your fear of designing and printing your album because there are new tools today, like Fundy Album Designer, that make it super simple to do so. Yes, design and send the files to your favorite album manufacturer.

Look, years ago, I stumbled upon a free option. I was new. I like the sound of free like the next guy and so I dove in. I created a 56 page wedding album from scratch. The software was buggy, the support was spotty at best and my client was PISSED.

To top it off, some alignment had shifted and a bunch of images were somehow sent off-kilter on a bunch of pages. Yikes! Green behind my years, I was panicked and frustrated of course. I didn't want to lose the confidence of the client even though the emails back from the groom (the bride had given up on me) sounded angrier and angrier.

So, the album arrived and yes, it was full of errors and mistakes – some caused by me but some also caused by software that simply did not work. As I held the errant album in hand, I learned a lesson that day. Trusting a free app to do your work is extremely dangerous. While the buck stops with you, the photographer, seeking out an album design company that will stand by its product was paramount.

This was about the time that I heard Andrew Funderburg was going to launch a new product that would solve the very problem I was having. That product was of course version 1.0 of Fundy Album Designer. Since then, the app has morphed into something truly fantastic. In addition to designing albums, it is now closely integrated with a bunch of labs and album manufacturing companies. Anytime something is “off” and I am notified right there on the screen.

For a portrait or wedding photographer, this is truly a wonderful time to get into quickly designing and printing your client's family heirloom. Let that sink in a bit. You are responsible for creating a piece of art that will remain with your clients for ages and will likely get passed on from generation to generation. Wow! Doesn't that create the warm and fuzzies inside of you? I think of my clients as grandparents showing off their albums to their grandchildren. An awesome responsibility but the work it takes to put those albums together should not stress you out.

I spoke with Fundy (as he is known to his friends) about this and other topics dear to our hearts:

Now, I didn't speak with Fundy about stress-free album designing because our connections run deep or because I am being compensated (I am not, except for receiving a copy of his program to review).

I spoke with him because I believe Fundy Designer can radically change your business, giving you more free time to spend with your family and making your clients genuinely happy with your service.

Want to learn more about easy-as-apple-pie album designing? Check out this free webinar on November 4th, thanks to ShootDotEdit. Register for it now. Even if you can't make the live call, the recording will be made available to you.

Be sure to bookmark ShootDotEdit‘s free content page where you can find guides, webinars and case-studies that are extremely useful for photographers just like you.