This is a guest post by SnapKnot, a website dedicated to helping engaged couples find their perfect wedding photographer.

We have been very pleased with the response from the wedding photography community and engaged couples since launching SnapKnot in February of this year. Now that we are in our 10th month of operations, we are considering the next steps to improve the site with the goal of making SnapKnot the go-to choice for brides and grooms just starting their search for a wedding photographer.

We have a few ideas of our own that we are planning to implement in the coming months, but we thought it would be fun to create a contest around the next Big Ideas for SnapKnot here on Tiffinbox.

We want to reach out to the vast community of photographers who visit this blog and ask –

How Would You Improve SnapKnot?

What would you like to see?

What would you change?

What would give photographers and/or brides a better overall experience?

Leave a comment below with a few sentences describing what you'd like to see on the site. In return for sharing your opinion with us, three photographers will win free SnapKnot Premium memberships. We will consider all the ideas and we will select the ones we like the best as winners. Also we encourage people to comment on which ideas they like – this will help us make our final decisions.

The 3 Best Ideas Will Win:

1) Grand Prize: 1 year of SnapKnot Premium membership
2) 2nd Prize: 6 months SnapKnot Premium
3) 3rd Prize: 3 months SnapKnot Premium

Contest Rules:

1) Minimum of 50 ideas needed to activate the prizes
2) Current Premium members are not eligible for these prizes. Only new members and current Free members are eligible.
3) 1 entry per photographer
4) Please include a valid name and email address so we can contact the winners
5) Contest ends at midnight December 31, 2010
6) Winners will be announced in January

So, hop to it. You have only TWO weeks left before we call out 3 winners. Keep those ideas coming. We want to hear from YOU!

This is a guest post by Washington, D.C. photographer Sunny Mathur, of Photographick Studios.

Every wedding photographer dreams of the day when all their clients will completely and honestly open up to them, let their guard down and let their emotions flow; tears and all. Every wedding photographer is looking for the magic phrase that will allow this to happen; it's a novel concept that seldom comes to fruition without some assistance and hard work (sorry no
magic phrase).

From a client's perspective it is difficult to open up to a stranger. It is even more difficult to tell this stranger intimate details about you, including how you met, proposed and details about your partner. Put yourself in their shoes, it's already awkward to pose for pictures but intimate
pictures is a completely different story. Although this cannot be a direct correlation to our job as wedding photographers it does provide some insight into some clients perceived “stiffness.” To gain this all access pass into the lives of our clients we must earn it. This all access pass well worth its cost.

One solution that we particularly enjoy due to the financial reward as well as the emotional connection we build with our clients is to meet them before the wedding during an engagement session. We ask the couple to think of a location that is particularly important in their relationship, whether the location of their first date, where the groom proposed or simply somewhere they both love going. This allows your client to associate those great memories to their engagement session and thus their feelings towards you, the photographer. We ask them to reminisce about the location and more times than not the future bride will glow and recount all her favorite memories.

The groom will chime in with a few of their own and before long they are talking, laughing, smiling and kissing. This allows us to do three items all at once; befriend our clients, show them our value by taking some amazing pictures and prove to them that they can trust you.

At each engagement session we probe about their wedding preparations, ask them if they need assistance, provide vendor recommendations, bring up current wedding trends and past wedding ideas. We try to connect with the bride and groom to show them we are truly invested in the success of their day and the images captured. We work hard to build a strong rapport with our clients. Through this not so magical formula we build their friendship, their trust and after we blog a few of their images from their engagement session we gain their love. Through this connection, this memory and their understanding of our dedications towards them, we are no longer looked at as a vendor but as a friend who can share in their emotions, their love and perfectly capture their perfect day; tears and all.

Resource Tip From Seshu: If you are ever stuck for ideas on how to pose your couples, reach for the Design Aglow's Inspire Me Cards: Modern Engagement Posing Guide. Those should fuel your imagination!

Ever wanted to custom design a wedding or portrait album but didn't know how to go about it using Photoshop?

Well, here comes Fundy's Album Builder to the rescue. It's fast, easy and intuitive. But best of all, you aren't stuck using templates that can “date” an album. Now, there isn't anything wrong at all about using the free templates or those you find online for a fee. But if you are looking to keep your album designs fresh and truly unique, you should consider Fundy's Album Builder.

In the video tutorial below, Andrew Funderburg (aka. The Fundy) shows us how he used some of my images from Veena and James' Wedding in Morristown, New Jersey, to build a few pages very quickly. Of course, with Fundy having designed and used this program multiple times, the buttons and the options all seem natural to him. That will come in good time for you as well and you'll be amazed at how instinctively you will approach your layouts.

As Fundy says at the beginning of the video, I have known him for some time. He is a dynamic, energetic and passionate entrepreneur who is very interested in helping photographers. As one himself, he and his business partner Kevin Focht have taken the industry by storm with their frequent webinars and YouTube tutorials like the one you see above. The products that Fundy has developed continues to evolve thanks to input from their users – i.e. people like you. So, don't feel shy about sending Fundy a note with your suggestions.

If you have any questions or comments, do post them below. If you have used FAB, tell us what your experience has been like or even drop a link to one of your album designs. We would love to take a look!

As regular subscribers to Tiffinbox or new visitors, I have a special offer from Fundy for you. Take 15% off the price of Fundy's Album Builder, when you use the following code: “Seshu”

Other programs you may be interested in as well are Album Proofer and Batch-o-licious, also from Fundy. If you want to save $125, you've gotta check out the Total Studio Pack, which includes a slew of other neat programs that Fundy has created for the photography community.

As a documentary wedding photographer, each November as the wedding season in the US winds down, my thoughts swing to the next season and whether I will meet my target of 25 weddings per year.

One of the best books ever written about being booked solid is by Michael Port, called Book Yourself Solid. I recall reading it cover to cover, taking notes along the way and paying attention to the steps Michael outlines to have a thriving business. In addition to being an author, Michael is a speaker and educator.

So, when Michael speaks or emails me something, I sit up and take notice. A recent note from him introduced me to his new Booked Solid University. It's his “entire lead generating, client producing, business building, book writing, product creation, book yourself solid (and beyond) systems and programs” as a business coaching program online.

I signed up as an affiliate because I feel his message, his methodology and his means are all sync with how I would like to learn about creating, sustaining and elevating my photography business in Connecticut. And I bet you will enjoy his course as well.

Please come back here and let me know what you think about the course in the comments section. Your feedback is always valuable not only to me but to others who may be reading this blog regularly as well. Thank you!