Today's guest post is by Davina Fear, Familyness Adventure Seeker, wife, mom, familyness photographer and creator of Love 15. “By day, I photograph families. By night, I build forts the size of elephants with my family. I live in a yellow house and I believe real life is the best getaway ever.” Follow her on Twitter.

As a wedding photographer during the first two years I was in business the start up seemed slow but steady. In the third year the amount of work that came to me as a result of those first two years became overwhelming. I was involved in a variety of projects, not to mention speaking engagements and weddings almost every weekend. It had been one year since my fourth child had been born and the summer had flashed by me before I had even taken a breath.

That’s when I knew that my life had to change.

My business became bigger than me. My life had become my business.

It didn’t feel like I had a real life anymore.

And most of us think that’s what we want.

Until it actually happens.

We think that the rush of what we’re looking for is in the next $1000 that’s handed over to us or the next presentation in front of a room full of people.

An entire summer passed by me while I shot weddings galore. An entire summer when I didn’t see my kids. We didn’t go to the pool, camping, or the other summer stuff that we looked forward to each year when school was out and the sky was clear. Instead, they had a nanny. The entire summer. I have nothing against nannies. I just didn’t plan to have a nanny. Ever.

Life can pass that quickly when we’re not paying attention. It happened to me.

It happens daily. In the little ways.

I was in a place I had never intended to end up.

At the time I was traveling and speaking and shooting sessions and weddings like crazy. I had raised my prices three times and still had plenty of work. It seemed like I was successful. It seemed like I was arriving.

… Arriving to a place I didn’t want to be.

I have a great family so the support I needed wasn’t an issue.

I was the issue.

I meant to be a mom and then a photographer. Not the other way around.

In the past few years I’ve met 100s of women from around the globe. What we all want most … even more than a successful business … is meaning and relationships that we can lean on.

This community of people, these photographers, want more than a successful business. They want a successful life.

I hear that call! I was one of them. Six months ago I knew that Familyness was what I am meant to share with the world and with that assurance came Love 15.

As an industry we talk about balance and how much we need it. And I’ve wondered what that means?

And what I think we really want is to know that each day we’ve honestly connected with the people that mean the most to us.

We want moments every day where we’ve really looked at and seen the people we love most. That’s when we feel like we’re doing okay. That’s when we feel balanced. It means that we’ve done what we were meant to do for the day. We stopped our world and we saw what we’re blessed with.

That’s the purpose of Love 15.

A chance to really see the people we love the most.

I believe it can change the world because it changes our relationships, it makes us feel like a better mom, wife, husband, daughter, friend.

Love 15 is a little prompt each day. One small idea that takes less then 15 minutes.

Each morning an email arrives in your inbox as a little reminder with an adventure idea of how to spend 15 minutes with your spouse, child, friend, or someone you love that day.

The reason the idea arrives first thing in the morning is so that it can be there in your mind, just waiting for it’s perfect opportunity. Many people who are doing Love 15 go about their day as usual and in a pocket of time while they’re sitting and waiting for someone to come out to the car they’ll think, “This is it! This is a Love 15 moment.” And they do their adventure idea on the spot.

When I thought of the Love 15 concept I knew it would have to be easy and guilt-free. It’s not designed to be something that you add to your to do list. It’s an idea that floats around until it finds a landing place. If today got crazy. No worries. Tomorrow is a new day. And that means a new idea for a fresh day. They don’t pile on top of one another. They drift into a day and leave with the day.

Most days we know we want to do something meaningful with the people we love. We just don’t see the opportunities when they present themselves and sometimes when the opportunities do arrive we don’t know what to do in them because it’s unexpected.

Love 15 solves both of those problems.

So, starting today … spend just 15 minutes to a happier life and more familyness.

Love 15 went up to $12/month last Friday but Davina has graciously offered to bring the price back down to Tiffinbox readers until 5.30 pm EST on Tuesday, February 14 … yeah, for Valentine's Day … to $7.50/month. If having “family time” is as important to you as it is for me, I say “jump” on this special offer. I have!

Davina also offers Get To Know You (GTKY) kits – templates, essentially – for photographers. Use the code: seshu20, to receive 20% off anything you put in the cart. Buy either the WEDDING bundle or the INSIGHT bundle and save even more! (nope, I don't make a dime for promoting Davina's products)

This YouTube video made me chuckle because people have and still do say these things to me. They perhaps don't mean it or aren't thinking too much about what they are saying. Yeah, probably the latter. Ha!

Thanks to Sukhi Ghuman for the link through her Twitter feed.

Matt and Enna Grazier, of Grazier Photography founded Inspire Photo Seminars with a group of like-minded studios. Thank you Seshu for inviting us to share our ideas about the value of “regional conferencing” and to tell your readers just a little bit about what we are cooking up for Inspire 2012!

We love attending conferences! They give us the chance to see great products, listen to great presenters and to network with incredible colleagues! We are excited to be at the forefront of a new trend of conferencing, which is the smaller more intimate regional conference. Jim Collins, CEO of Pictage, sums up the value of the regional conference perfectly when he wrote about last year's Inspire conference: “the reason I love this conference so much is because it is so relevant to its own community.”

We all know conferences can be tricky … it's easy to leave a conference feeling like you've just glimpsed the glossy surface of the topics presented. The irony for conference presenters is that while it’s difficult to pack rich material into a lecture spot of just one hour (the ability to do this is surely one mark of a gifted teacher), it’s very easy to fill an hour perfectly with a lot of inspiring catchphrases and pretty pictures!

It’s also common for conference attendees to have the sense that the best part of the event was the “in-between” time spent sharing war stories, strategies, ideas, and commonalities with other photographers. Our favorite moments at conferences we’ve attended are the most serendipitous – a chance meeting with a comrade who we get to chat with over coffee – or, if we’re lucky enough, while sharing a fine meal. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone home feeling incredibly grateful for these relationships, yet incredibly sad that we can’t easily continue those conversations over coffee, wine, or shared photography jobs simply because we live so far away from each other. Much of our business success is due to these photographers who have shared their own ideas and expert knowledge in happenstance, in-between, serendipitous moments.

Another common disappointment at the large conferences is that the talented speakers and experts who are the biggest draw to attend large conferences are often inaccessible, either surrounded by an almost impenetrable group of fans, friends, and colleagues, or just dropping in for their portion of the schedule and not participating in the greater community for the rest of the conference. Even if they work hard to be accessible, the sheer volume of people at a large conference makes it almost impossible to interact closely with these experts.

Each of the things that frustrated us about large conferences motivated us to put together our own conference that would address these three shortcomings and fact our approach to these shortcomings forms the building blocks of our conference community. We wanted to create an event that has the diversity, breadth, and spontaneity of a conference, but the depth of information and personal connections that are more often associated with a retreat.

Depth. Our sessions are deep. Instructors are selected almost half a year prior to the conference, and we communicate with them throughout the months that they are preparing their lectures. We give them 1.5 hour time slots for their sessions, and we encourage them to focus on addressing the needs of the mid- to advanced-level studio owner. We want them to deliver meat! This approach ensures that their content will be relevant to the beginners as well as the more seasoned photographers. This shouldn’t intimidate the less experienced studio owner, it just helps us make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the larger professional community.

Community. We have built the schedule and physical layout of the conference around the concept that the peer-to-peer networking and mentoring opportunities are of equal value to the conference sessions. There is plenty of time for impromptu mentoring and networking, and we also have scheduled time for 1:1 and small round-table mentoring with our speakers and several of our sponsors (for example, Jared Bauman of ShootDotEdit will lead a small group to whip their pricing and packaging into shape during his allotted mentoring time). All meals are included in the conference fee (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and we eat together. We have built plenty of time in the schedule for attendees to gather and socialize and because of this structure wonderful things happen! Attendees get more than an idea, more than motivation, more than a plan to move forward; they build real relationships with those who want to help them succeed… relationships that continue beyond the conference and are easily sustainable because everyone is from the same region.

The image above shows one of our innovations this year: a private online community for our conference attendees, sponsors and speakers. Everyone is invited to join and interact during all of 2012, including the months before and after the conference. Conference-goers can manage their class schedule, chat with attendees, speakers, and sponsors, download class materials, and schedule private meetings with others. We are excited to see how our participants utilize this unique tool!

Connections. Our teachers are not always well-known – most of them aren’t on the lecture circuit, and they haven’t proposed their workshop sessions just to become known as “rock star” wedding photographers. They are busy, hard-working photographers who are committed to raising the standards of business and art of photography within their own region, because they recognize that by raising the barre across the region, every studio stands to benefit. We’ve chosen our instructors in part because they’ve expressed interest in learning and participating in this community, and we pay for their lodging and conference fees to enable them to participate fully in the conference community. We know that part of the reason that they are teaching is that they also wish to attend – and not just as an expert, but as a fellow studio owner who recognizes that we can all learn from each other.

Regionality. Oh yeah, did you notice this word that I’ve repeated throughout this post? Region. Inspire is a regional conference. The national conferences are definitely important, offering polished and inspiring speakers with dazzling success stories, diverse trade-shows, and incredible opportunities to mingle with photographers who we either know or admire from across long distances. However, we’ve found that within our region (and perhaps others), photographers are starved for structured networking opportunities, and for relationships with local colleagues. It’s important to cultivate relationships locally: this networking provides emergency backup and other skilled resources within easy reach, and gives opportunity to become more familiar with the local markets. And, with enough critical mass, we believe that a community can actually drive the market – in style, policy, practice, and culture.

We have heard many photographers say they don’t recognize all the names of our speakers. While that presents a small marketing challenge for us, the tradeoff is that every single person who attends inspire – paying ticket-holder, speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, and members of the planning team – will benefit greatly from genuine, deep relationship building with successful studios who are right in their neighborhood. Our speakers are true experts, and we want to facilitate their connection with other photographers within their region. These are relationships that can continue into the wedding season and beyond. We’ve seen photographers meet at Inspire and hire each other as associates, cover for each other in emergencies, and share incredibly helpful information to see each others’ studios grow. We’ve even heard from one person exclaim, “I’ve vacationed with people I met at Inspire!” This was the biggest compliment, because it shows just how well people in our conference community can connect with each other.

You may work alone, but you don’t need to build your business alone. Everyone who attends Inspire finds a welcoming community willing to help.

Be one of the first 5 to use this PROMO/DISCOUNT CODE: 2012TIFFIN and receive $50 off your registration.

In our next post, we will share our strategy for choosing your path in a conference agenda so that you may leave the conference fulfilled and ready to tackle your business!

As a wedding photographer for almost 10 years, Lara White has always loved the business side of photography. She shares her passion for business and marketing strategies with photographers through her PhotoMint blog and recently authored a free book for photographers interested in learning how to get their images published. Follow Lara on Twitter.

Want to get published? Follow these easy 4 steps and you will be on your way to creating images that wedding magazines find irresistible.

The first thing you need to know is that wedding magazines and blogs are all about details. Their readers can never get enough details. So that right there should tell you that your submission needs to be at least 75% or more details, and you need to have that on your mind when you are shooting your next wedding that you think has a shot at getting published.

1. Plan Ahead

Take the time to plan ahead for your shoot and how to get the most out of it. Speak with the planner and the florist to get an understanding for the décor and the florals. Will there be a cool escort card table, and if so, how will you capture it prior to the guests spilling into the cocktail hour? How about ceremony details-can you get to the ceremony area prior to the guests, in time to capture how the ceremony looks prior to guests putting their purses down and otherwise cluttering up the area? Ask the catering manager to keep the reception doors closed until the reception, and that you'll be coming in for a few minutes to capture the room before the doors open.

2. Allow Plenty Of Extra Time For Capturing Details

It takes time to capture details in a way that “sells” them. Allow yourself the extra time needed to spend time in the reception finding just the right angle for capturing the centerpieces. Arrive early while the bride is just starting makeup, and you'll have plenty of time to “play” with the details in the bride's room. These can include the dress, shoes, jewelry, bouquet, invitation and other items with personal meaning.

3. Don't Be Afraid To Rearrange & Declutter

Nothing ruins a great detail shot like a half empty glass or a partially eaten plate of appetizers. Think of your detail shots like a product shot. You want the image to “sell” that detail. It's OK to rearrange things a bit or remove bits of clutter from your image. Think of yourself as styling the details. It's perfectly ok to take the salt and pepper shakers (or the table number sign if it's ugly) off the table for your shots of the centerpiece. Take the bouquet out of the cardboard delivery box and find a beautiful spot with nice lighting. It only takes a moment and will vastly improve your images.

4. Consistent Photoshop Style

If you create certain looks or styles in Photoshop, be consistent. For example if you go for a desaturated vintage look on some of your images and some of them are just in a “standard” look. Most magazines and blogs prefer to have all the images in a set done as a consistent style and look. Otherwise the overall theme and feeling of the images is lost.

The more time you spend working on mastering the art of detail shots, the better you'll become. And the better you are at capturing details, the more likely you are to find your images in the next issue of your favorite wedding magazine. If you'd like to learn more tips about getting published, check out Get Published: A Guide for Wedding Photographers.

It takes time and patience to learn to create images magazines will be interested in publishing, but it's well worth the investment of time, because your brides will love those images too.

Remember – You can pick up Lara's e-book, Get Published for free. No strings attached. I've read it and it's full of great, actionable topics. Get it now!

Today's guest post is by Nikki Peters, the community support manager for MarketMeSuite, the social media marketing dashboard you can use for free.

Publishing photos online is the new way of marketing your business, brand and even yourself and your own interests. Everyone can read a tweet or Facebook update and think nothing more of it, but to see a photo really does help you increase online engagement. As a professional photographer, it's vital that you get your photos out to your audience and even going viral. This article examines why photo sharing via social media can really help increase your online reputation and gain you a significant following. Here are 4 tools to help facilitate interaction and sharing of your photos.

1- MarketMeSuite – Photo Sharing From A Dashboard

MarketMeSuite, is a free Social Media Dashboard which has a Photo sharing feature called Photo.Me. This is excellent for those of you who like to upload and publish photos to all your accounts as it allows you to do so all in one place. Also, whenever you publish a photo via MarketMeSuite, it is automatically added to the official Phto.Me web page so anyone and everyone can see it. Every time someone visits the website itself, they see the images, and discover new Twitter accounts, people and businesses. It's a great way to get your photos seen, not just on your own Twitter/Facebook and Linkedin walls, but shared over a collective body of images where people can sit and browse at their own leisure and explore the photos origins.

Tips And Tricks For Using MarketMeSuite

Using MarketMeSuite's “Send To All” feature means you get to send your photo to your Twitter, Facebook profile, Facebook pages and groups and Linked.in in one swift swoop. Just check off the accounts you want your photo to be sent to and a link will be sent to all of them at the same time so you save time publishing your images to your audience. You have the ability to visit that photo at any time, delete it, see how many views it's had and grab the URL all from the MarketMeSuite app itself so you have everything you could possibly need at your finger tips to make sure that image is getting seen and by how many people.

2- Instagram – Photo Sharing From Your iPhone

Everyone with an iPhone is playing with Instagram, and why not, it's free and offers some pretty amazing photo effects that are easy and quick to apply. No fiddling, no adjustment, you pick the effect and they do immediately! If you are on the go and want to edit your images, Instagram offers you the ability to pick the desired photo effect and publish it to your audience quickly and whilst on the go! If you snap a great image and want to share it with your audience, there really is no better or more simple way. You can also post it to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr meaning it reaches the widest audience.

Tips And Tricks For Using Instagram

There is a common misconception that Instagram is for phones only. There is in fact, a cheats way of getting your photos on to it from your professional camera. All you have to do is upload professional quality photos using Dropbox and you can then pull them from your iPhone directly onto Instagram, and since it's a great network for sharing photos a lot of photographs and businesses alike are doing this. This way you don't have to sacrifice quality and pixels. Also, a Flickr plugin on your website can showcase all your photographs and you can hook it up to your iPhone to automatically share from Instagram.

3- Flickr – Photo Sharing On Your Blog

Flickr is arguably one of the worlds biggest photo sharing websites, it's certainly one of the more popular ones which is why it is a must for professional photographers. What better place to meet others with the same passion as you and share ideas and thoughts about it? With millions of people with an account, you are in good company! Upload your images and they can be seen under your username. Again you can structure your photos into albums so your work is neat and well organized so your audience can easily find what they like.

Tips And Tricks For Using Flickr

Flickr allows you to add plugins to your websites and blogs so you can advertise your photos on your website making marketing and access to your images easier than ever! Having content on your website gives people an immediate knowledge of your work and style so catches their interest. It also gives you the ability to let others use your images in their “Creative Commons” section meaning people can use and interact with your work so it gets seen by even more people. It's also a good idea to use tags so your photos can be searched for easily and you get a wider result of people looking at your work.

4- Facebook – The Viral Photo Share

It's so obvious it's easy to over look it. Facebook is the worlds biggest social network and when you add pages and profiles and gain a good following, it's a great way of easily uploading and sharing your photos. Whether you add them to a particular structured photo album or to a wall or share them individually, Facebook gets your photos to the masses. All it takes is one photo to be “Liked”, “shared” or linked out and you suddenly get a in-tune and appreciative audience.

Tips And Tricks For Using Facebook

With Facebook, you have so many options as to how you want to publish your photos and who can see them. Bulk load your images into content albums or upload them one by one, you have a limitless amount you can add and upload. The biggest tip with Facebook, is to publish photos that encourage your audience to get your photo's seen by liking and sharing. That's the best and most organic way of going viral as people trust their friend's “likes” and suggestions.

So Why Should You Use Any Of These Tools?

Words can't fully explain a sight, a time, a moment like a photo can. Not only can they inspire, they can help facilitate passive following. Your photos work for you even when you're not online engaging and trying to convert customers. Whether it's a photo of the office dog, of a new product for your business, or even just a beautiful photo, you have the internet at your fingers tips which helps you make sure they are seen and gain your exposure in your profession.

Which of the above tools do you use and why? Have you found clients or people interested in licensing your images because of these social media applications? Let us know below!