This guest post is by Josh Solar, a wedding and family photographer based in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to running their own business, he and his wife, Jenny, help other photographers run their businesses. Read also about their Happy Family Movement. For even more positive energy follow Josh on Twitter. Good vibes all around!

Workshops, conferences, trade shows … being a photographer, you've got many options when it comes to choosing where you go to learn and grow. It's all a bit overwhelming when you think about it.

The thing I've learned about these events in the photography industry is to trust your gut. If you feel a pull towards one over another, trust it. That's how I found myself at a Life as An Artform workshop with Jesh De Rox three and a half years ago, and that's how I ended up at the Beloved Collective Festival two weeks ago in Palm Springs. My life has been forever changed.

I was treated to 3 days of fun in the hot California sun. I heard Jonas Peterson share his story…that you should be the best possible you, you can be. Kristen Kalp made us laugh, made marketing fun, and we collectively jumped in the pool with our clothes on. Bob Goff was there smiling and sharing some of the wonderful stories that have shaped his life (Speaking of Bob, if you haven't read his book, Love Does, you should). Jeff Goelitz from Heart Math helped shed some light on how our hearts are connected in more ways than we can possibly imagine (mind-blowing). Marianne Taylor, Jeremy Bircher, Nicole Polk, Liz Arcus, Amy Seeley, Brooke Snow, and James Moes all gave inspiring, deeply personal talks with a similar overarching theme as the other … be yourself. Follow your heart. Trust your gut. Love life.

And, the fun didn't stop at the speakers. The reason I will attend every single Beloved Festival is for the conversations that happen throughout the day and well into the night. All the wonderfully kind souls in attendance, willing to open their hearts, searching for meaning and purpose in our lives. The why's behind the way we live. For the community built on connection and honesty and delivering THAT to our clients. I will attend for the sunrise concerts, the evening concerts (both planned and unplanned). It's just a great time to kick back, relax, be yourself and celebrate our precious life together!

I was asked to share a few images from Palm Springs, but I didn't actually take any. So, enjoy a few images from my most recent Beloved session. Her name is Teresa. She's had some major changes thrown her way by life, and we spent a few hours belly-laughing, telling stories and celebrating that we get to be alive.

Beloved has forever changed my life. I hope it gets to you as well. The next one is planned for October 21-23, 2013 in Los Angeles.

Will you be there to learn, get inspired and celebrate life with us?

Today’s featured photographer and guest blogger is Appleton, Wisconsin based Brett Stoddart. He shoots abandoned buildings. He shoots people. Sometimes he combines the two. He is a husband. A father. A traveler. An art and music lover. He says he has a wicked sense of humor, albeit an odd one. Check out his blog. Follow him on Twitter and or friend him on Facebook.

Recently I wrote about my experiences exploring and shooting in abandoned buildings. These places offer a plethora of interesting and unique shooting experiences. There are ornate interior design elements of days gone by; from peeling paint to exposed lathe and plaster and even the occasional hideous wallpaper (hideous by today's standards).

As photographers we are always searching out the next best location to shoot our clients, whether that is truly on location or a backdrop that has been procured to transform our interior shooting spaces to something they are not.

For me, the locations of choice have become those buildings that I so passionately explore. The grit, the grime, the decay; they have all become interesting elements in my portraiture.

I began my journey into portraiture at the urging of a friend and fellow photographer who also happened to be a model for many local merchants. Up until that point I was aiming a camera at another person or limited to your traditional snapshots at bars and parties. Now, I had practiced a little, I had studied, I kind of knew what was going on and I had watched others soaking it all up, but I never fully intended to become a portrait photographer. People scared me: they move, they talk. My buildings, not so much.

So it was with reluctance and great trepidation that I acquiesced.

A client and I drove out to a local farmhouse that had been abandoned for over 30 years, nearly empty of all remnants of human occupation. I set up my one light and softbox and shot that first frame. Wow. I was stunned. Who knew? The textures of the walls popped and at that moment I knew that I was on to something. We continued shooting and even went to a second location to shoot more. Three years later I still have 2 of the images from that day in my portfolio. Luck? Maybe.

Shooting on location always presents us with many challenges that we don't have to worry about in-studio: the logistics of getting there, hauling everything in, powering it, set up and tear down, etc. Many location shooters have probably been told to ‘move along' at some point in their career. It usually happens just when you've gotten into that groove and things are flowing nicely.

For me that is the risk 95% of the time when I shoot on location. Everyone wants their portraits at one of the abandoned buildings I shoot. But there are inherent risks in bringing a client into a structure that is not truly ‘safe'. In addition to potential structural damage, there could be health concerns, legal issues, and a myriad of risks that most people don't have to contend with. I try to obtain permission whenever possible if I will be shooting clients in these places. I have no problem signing waivers of liability that prevent me from taking action if something were to happen while on their property. Having the necessary legal documents tends to show that I am serious and not just a random trespasser. I carry blank forms with me for just this reason and it always helps to carry a book of my work. But finding owners is not always easy and truth be told it is rare that I get a chance to obtain permission.

I mainly shoot models in these locations, however this year I started shooting high school seniors too. The demand was too high to ignore although I have a different set of criteria for suitable locations for each.

For seniors, I really go the ultra-safe route by going to places where I know that our being there won't cause ‘trouble,' or have de facto permission from owners. They are the ones that are structurally sound, free of the most common health risks and in general: safe. The associated risks and nature of location are always discussed in depth beforehand.

When I'm with models, we will take a few more chances. We will go to the locations that are riskier, but with that risk there is certainly reward. In my opinion, a place rarely seen greatly enhances the value of an image. Models also understand the risks associated with these shoots, and I would never put them – or anyone – into a particularly dangerous situation. But we definitely push the envelope.

I am not a natural light shooter, I use off-camera flash. I don't like shooting natural light portraits; it doesn't give me the drama I like to create and presents a whole other set of logistical nightmares. How do you ‘sneak' into a building carrying 4 strobes, stands, modifiers, etc. and not be seen? Chances are you can't.

I usually have a good idea going into the shoot of what type of images I want and that allows me to plan my gear accordingly. Very frequently it is just one light, one stand, and one modifier. Travel light, get in, shoot and get out. Also, I always like to know the location I will be using beforehand. I don't like going into a fashion shoot location blind. It's not safe for me or the models.

Whether I choose to take a model in a $5000 wedding dress to an abandoned gothic cathedral, or clothe her in heroin chic and stick her in a filthy corner of a nasty factory, there are options to compliment or even contrast the look we are going after. I am in love with the juxtaposition of classic beauty mixed in with the beauty of decay.

Sure I can take safe studio shots of models and composite them into my abundance of already shot images from locations, but that would take all the fun out of it, and I don't like to continually be cooped up inside. I feel constant studio shooting drains me of creativity, although winter is approaching the Midwest faster than I would like.

Hmmm, maybe it is time to start to practicing those compositing skills … until next time, happy shooting and stay safe.

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Today's guest post is by Don Giannatti. In 2011, PDN named him one of the best photography workshop instructors.If you didn't catch his CreativeLive programs, read on. You can find Don on Twitter, his websites: Lighting Essentials, Learn To Light, Now This Is Cool … and Project52. He is thoughtful, opinionated, controversial and funny. Check out Don's first guest post as well.

Portraits.

Photographs of people. People in spaces. People in environments. People in places where the light doesn’t cooperate.

People in studio settings where the photographer has ALL the control – and all the responsibility – to make the light the way it must be to capture the subject.

People.

One of the most interesting and fleeting of all photographic subjects, the portrait can show us a beauty unseen, a glimpse into the soul of the subject, or a simple smile that will last a lifetime.

Or more.

The good folks at UDEMY.com asked me to discuss portaiture on their education site and it became a full course in no time. That sort of thing happens to me when it comes to teaching.

I absolutely love to teach.

This course is for the beginners – the guy who wants to do more fashion like headshots or the gal who wants to make better location photographs. Intermediate photographers who are a bit uncomfortable with their strobes may also find some choice nuggets in the class.

I want to help photographers see exactly what I see when I am planning a portrait. The goal is to not only understand how the light works, but WHY the light works the way it does. Knowing why the light works is the best way to figure out where the light goes in any situation.

The class is currently at 5.5 hours and will grow to nearly 7 hours of video by the end of the year. I am planning new shoots for each month until January, 2013. I hope to incorporate some of the questions and comments of the students in the next four shoots.

We have also set up a Flickr page (currently invite only) where we will critique, offer suggestions, help deconstruct and have an open conversation with the students. In addition, UDEMY offers a way for live lectures and Q&A with the instructors. I plan on having a live show twice a month – two time slots so we can get involvement from folks who may be in way different time zones.

As I stated, the course is for beginners and early intermediate photographers. They should have a working knowledge of their cameras, and how to work the flash mechanically. There is a suggested gear list as well, but it is small and basic. No need to spend hundreds of dollars when simple gear can get the job done.

I am including the low-res version of the workbook as it currently stands. I expect it to nearly double as we answer questions, discover some new and interesting tricks, and add more shoots/demos/discussions to it. However, that workbook is for the students only.

Please feel free to download this low res workbook to see the images we are looking at in the course. If you are comfortable with the style, and would like to know how to repeat these lighting situations, this course is for you. If you are totally sure how to do these images, it is not the course for you. (I don’t want advanced shooters being disappointed. However, two pros who have reviewed it said they learned a couple of things … heh.)

Now understand that I am not a ‘video’ guy, and the small cameras are not broadcast quality. But we do have good video, and good sound, so the information is imparted … and that is the goal.

I hope you will take a look at the materials and if the course looks like something you would be interested in, check it out.

Tiffinbox readers get a discount of $20 off the regular price of $50. I have given Seshu 50 discounts for the readers of his blog. Simply follow the link or enter the code: “Tiffinbox” into the coupon code when enrolling.

I attended Don's workshop some years back in Boston. He knows his stuff and his love for teaching is very obvious. I do hope you will take advantage of the discount and sign up for his course.

Without a sale, you don't have a business. You have a hobby. Which, by itself may be where you want to be, but most readers of Tiffinbox are either professionals or aspiring professionals, so I figured I give you a head's up on this short video by Kristen Kalp introducing her new product offering called Sales Without Shame.

Some of you may recall that I reviewed Kristen's e-book, Circus Circus. If you follow Kristen's popular blog – BrandCamp Blog – you'll immediately grasp what she is trying to convey thanks to her lucid writing and her humor.

Sales Without Shame promises to be another remarkable and useful guide for those of us who are shy about in-person selling. If your online sales are off the charts, then you may not even need this guide. If, however, you are not seeing great results with that strategy and want to try selling your services and products to your clients face-to-face and don't know how, Kristen's guide is your ticket.

Personally, I do very little online sales. All of my portrait clients now expect to come in to meet with me after their session so that they can see all of the images I created for them and it gives them an opportunity to fully describe what it is they are looking to buy. Selling, to me, isn't about pushing products on unsuspecting clients. It's about having a good understanding of what my clients may need now and in the future and then suggesting a few valuable options to them.

While I have not had a chance to see the final version of Kristen's new guide, I mention it here because I find her writing and advice for photographers so very valuable. I trust that Sales Without Shame will teach me a few more ways to help my clients better appreciate the art that I create for them. And lucky for you, if you order Sales Without Shame, you get to learn from her as well.

So, here's what you should do next: Go to Sales Without Shame and enter your email address. Once you do that, you'll be sent a “sampler,” which in itself is chalk-full of great info that you can put to use in your business today. Then, at the tail end of this month (May 29th or so), you'll get an email inviting you to purchase the full version. Bingo!

UPDATE: Sales Without Shame launches on May 30th for $247, until June 8th when it goes up to $447. So jump to it!

Today's guest post is by Kate Anderson of Plumeria Album Design. Kate works with professional photographers to design clean, classic albums that wow their clients while giving the photographer some much needed free time. She lives in Minneapolis, MN. Follow her on Twitter.

Imagine a scene with me for a moment. It's 25 years or so in the future (cue the Back to the Future music now); a woman is looking through boxes in her closet. She's a bit upset, her son's new fiance is looking on. Finally, the woman finds what she's looking for. It's an old iPad, an antique from 2011. The woman looks at it with a loving smile.

“These are my wedding photos from when we were married. I haven't looked at this in so many years.”

Then the smile fades. The woman realizes there is a problem. The battery is long drained from disuse, and the charging cable is no where to be found. They've moved several times since the wedding, and as usually happens, things got misplaced and lost. Amazingly, there is a dvd, with a beautiful photo of wedding rings on it. The backup copy of the photos. But with no dvd drive in her possession for a decade, the woman can't even look at those. Her wedding photos are locked away in a digital purgatory. She can't show her future daughter in law her own wedding.

If you don't offer albums to your couples, this is a very likely scenario in the future. They probably have all the best intentions to print an album, probably at Blurb or Snapfish. But for many, it will get pushed to the back burner and neglected. So it's up to you, their trusted wedding photographer, to make sure they get an album, before it's too late. Printed books never become obselete, technology does. You don't want your brides and grooms to live on their harddrive forever.

But many photographers don't offer albums, for many of the same reasons that their clients won't get around to printing one themselves after they receive their shoot and burn disk. Albums take time if they're to be done well. They have to be put together with a storyteller's eyes. The right photos have to be selected, from hundreds. However, album design doesn't always have to be a panic inducing moment. Here's a few design tips and my process, to help you out.

Don't cram the album with photos

Less is more. Remember that. I like to have only a few photos per page for most spreads, usually around 2-3 per page. This lets each photo have it's own voice. Too many photos crammed on one page gives you a sense of confusion. Your eye darts around the page quickly, rather than calmly resting on each photo for a moment and moving on to the next. Too many photos fighting for your attention all at the same time means none get the attention they deserve, and the message that the photos tell gets lost. Look at a National Geographic magazine, or fine art book; then look at a tabloid magazine. Which feels calmer to your eye? Ignore the content of the tabloid vs the National Geographic.

But with all guidelines, there are exceptions. Some spreads work better with a bit of a denser layout. Spreads of the family groupings and wedding party, or spreads of reception dancing are examples. With family groupings, having several photos per page gives the sense of family continuity. Everyone is together, and the photos are likely to be very similar in composition. That consistency is calming to the eye even when there's many of them. Reception and dancing spreads a bit of the opposite to me. I usually want those to give a sense of energy and excitement. Using a denser layout gives that feeling.

Spreads meant to show action also may get a few more photos per page; the story of the first look can't always be told in a few photos. Spreads that focus on a scene, such as the ceremony site, sometimes need a denser layout also, to show the whole scene in one spread, as if the viewer were there and could walk around to look at different things.

Don't be afraid of the dark/white space

White space is a good thing. It focuses the eye on the photo and eliminates distractions. Think about iconic, high end brands, such as Chanel, Apple or Tiffany's. Their websites and print materials have one thing in common. White space, or negative space. Then think about lower end brands. Their websites and print materials have lots of stuff, everywhere. It's distracting and cheapens the feel.

Also, it's a lot easier to design with white space than to try and fill the page with photos. It's like putting together a puzzle. If you're not afraid of the white space, you can use only the photos that are perfect for the spread, rather than having to add or subract photos to make everything fit. In this spread, having any other photos would have been distracting and taken away from the focus.

Don't fluff up the album

Remember that “less is more” bit? That applies to how long the album is. An album is perfect when nothing can be removed without losing part of the story, and nothing can be added without feeling repetitive. Each spread should have it's own theme, or portray one event. While there may be dozens of great photos of the couple after the wedding in a field, the album doesn't necessarily need all of those photos in several spreads. Pick the best 3 or 4 and create one spread that showcases the best parts of the session. This scene had lots of awesome shots, and I could have easily used several more, it was hard to choose only a few. But adding more would have taken away from the simplicity of the moment.

Do keep it timeless

Wedding albums should be timeless. Simple and clean design is the only “trend” that stands the test of time. Think of the simple black dress, or the basic charcoal gray suit. Those work now, they worked 50 years ago, and they'll probably work 50 years from now. They are simple and clean clothing items. Your album should be the simple black dress. Extra graphics, photo layering, fading, and spot coloring may look cool now, but how are they going to look on the couple's 50th wedding anniversary to their grandkids? Don't give the kids anything more to snicker at besides the clothing and decor trends.

The 5-Step Design Process

Here's what works for me.

1) The first step for me is to download the photos and set up the folders for each album in a client's folder. Here's what my layout looks like:

2) I sort through the photos and make copies of the album selections. Each spread gets it's own folder with a theme/title, and the copied album selections are dropped in. I tag selections in red in Bridge so I don't duplicate, and the main photos of each spread get a star rating.

3) I use InDesign with the AlbumFlow script to design albums. You can also use Photoshop, and I've heard only good things about Fundy's Album Builder [aff] to speed things up. The debate of InDesign vs Photoshop is for another discussion. It's similar to Ford vs Chevy, Canon vs Nikon; they all get the job done in the end, one way or another.

4) Now I go through the finished design to eliminate any problems. I make sure the bleeds and margins are correct, that full bleed photos will be just that, and that all other photos are within the safety zone. I make sure all the photos line up and spacing is consistent. I double check that no one's head or an important detail is going to get trimmed off.

5) Last, the finished design is exported as a PDF using guidelines from AlbumFlow, to create the highest quality print. I then use Photoshop to create JPEGs from the PDF using ImageBrander from FundySOS [aff]. It's a super helpful plugin for easily watermarking and creating multiple sizes and resolutions. I can make full size JPEGs for the album company and smaller ones for the blog, all in one shot.

This isn't the first time we have addressed album design on Tiffinbox. Justine Ungaro talked about it in this post. My question for you is this – are you still stressing out about your album designs? Or, are you blissfully adding images to your pages willy-nilly and hoping that your clients don't notice. Trust me, clients are getting savvier and do know good design from bad. So, what are you going to do? You can hone your skills (if you have time) or you can farm the task out. What would you do? Tell me/us down below. It's not an easy decision. I do know that.